to know the world is the chiefest delight in life. I do not mean to know it cognitively. I do not mean to “have knowledge about it.” It is not that kind of knowledge that frees. Rather, it is direct knowledge of the world—penetrating underneath the appearance of things to their essence, to their soul. For when one penetrates to the soul of any object, one also penetrates one’s own soul. This is a central principle of the Bhagavad Gita, and one that
