As a great sage of modern India, Sri Ramana Maharshi, who was very close to the Upanishads in spirit, once declared, “There is no happiness in any object of the world.” The Self is pure happiness, which we mistake as coming from outside; so the closer we come to the Self within, the more we are aware of – the more we feel already – what we were looking for outside us. This is what the Upanishads mean by joy. “Renunciation” refers simply to dropping the outside reflection for the reality which is within.
