entrance, it is also to be borne in mind that a rank (Padavi) thus gained is followed, after a limited time, by a relapse to the original state, with the result that we are again bound to undergo so many births and rebirths which bring in their train liability to pains. So this Upāya also, being non-eternal, has to be rejected.
Without entering upon Nishkāma Karma Upāya, which comprises worship of the Luminaries (Devatās), prayers, devotion and practice of occult powers (Yoga), all these being indispensable for the attainment of knowledge (Jñāna) of Self-Realisation, the Highest Bliss, let us proceed to determine the transitory and unreal nature of what appears to many as the real happiness. From happiness of such a type, I mean the enjoyment of all that comes under the category of worldly pleasures. Such enjoyment, though obtained after enduring much toil and misery, its price being sometimes paid for even by faith, honour and moral independence, is, however, transient.
But what is eternal happiness after all? An answer to this all important question is to be found in what has been described in Vedānta and other systems of Hindu Philosophy and agreed to by almost all the great thinkers of the world, viz., the realisation of the All-Pervading Self, the oneness
