The Joy of Self-Knowledge

When Socrates, condemned by the Athenian authorities, was about to drink the poison, his disciples asked him what kind of funeral he would like. His reply was: ‘Whatever you wish—if you can catch me and I do not get away from you.’ The sage was identified with the spirit, which is our true Self. This ultimate nature of each and everyone of us is self-luminous, self-sufficient, and the source of the highest inspiration. It transcends our thirst for limited pleasures based on sense-contact—joys that are marred by their transiency and which lead, not to lasting satisfaction, but to further thirst.