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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES and ennui on its subsiding. What is so changeable, surely, cannot be real in any sense of the term.
The joy of Life really consists in the feeling of the emotion of freedom from the inner nature - from within. This has been explained already elsewhere.*
The psychology of real joy may be expressed in scientific terminology : the soul is a substance, which is pure intelligence; it is by nature, blissful,* and is liable to be affected, or moved by its beliefs, which affecting or moving takes the form of the lowering or raising of its "pulsation,” i.e., rhythm. The sense of freedom causes a raising, that is to say, an exaltation, of its "life-pulsation," and is joyous for that reason. This is why it is necessary for the experience of happiness which is enjoyed on the receipt of a message of success in an examination that the school-boy should believe it to be true. For if he does not believe it to be authentic, the proper feeling of delight will not be experienced, notwithstanding the highly agreeable nature of the news itself.
It follows that only a being in whom the process of unfoldment has advanced in an adequate measure is capable of experiencing spiritual joy. Where this has not taken place, where the benumbing influence of matter has not been sufficiently dissipated, there is no room there for the experiencing of the sensation of freedom or for the formation of a belief in the actuality of the experience. . Belief, it will be noticed, is strengthened by confirmatory facts, and is scotched by doubt, and destroyed by adverse indications. He, therefore, who finds nothing in or about himself to contradict a wellformed belief must perpetually enjoy the benefits that appertain to an unchanging and ever-strengthening faith. Those, therefore, who are perfect in renunciation, who have nothing left to be worried over, who have eradicated the fever of desire from their spiritual nature, are alone eternally happy. The rhythm of life, that is to say the pulsation of the soul substance, in their case is of the most exalted kind, and They are really, even literally, overwhelmed with joy. Such are the Souls of Those who have attained to the purity of
* See the treatment of the subject in an earlier address entitled “A Peep Behind the Veil of Karma."
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