This is the subject of a beautiful passage in Browning’s poem Paracelus: Truth is within ourselves, it takes no rise / From outward things, whate’er you may believe. / There is an inmost centre in us all / Where truth abides in fullness; and around / Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in / This perfect, clear perception — which is Truth. / A baffling and perverting carnal mesh / Binds it, and makes all error: and to know / Rather consists in opening out a way / Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape/ Than in effecting entry for a light / Supposed to be without.

Today it is impossible to believe that the source of joy could lie within us. But no human being can be satisfied by going through life mechanically, picking up a little pleasure here, while being insensitive to the needs of those around.

We are so conditioned to believe that happiness can be gained by accumulating money and manipulating others that we can’t see how ridiculous a belief this is. If gourmet living were the source of joy, then it would follow that the more we eat, the happier we would be. If money were the source of security, then the more we had, the more secure we would be. I don’t know of anyone for whom this is true. Yet we go on believing that somehow, someday, we will break the pattern and find what we are looking for outside. In the Vedas appears the saying: “There is no one in the world except the Lord.” If we take it seriously, this is a sobering thought. — Thousand Names of Vishnu