In this evanescent panorama of life all things and objects are subject to transmutation and dissolution. The Lord alone is real with whom we are eternally united.

Do not seek to find peace and freedom in external circumstances of life, because true freedom is of the mind only, when you are in tune with God, who dwells within you. Let the knocks and hits of life turn you more and more towards God, so that you can become impervious to all kinds of outside attacks upon you. Take the name of the Lord with all strength and faith. Repeat it breathlessly, as it were, at all times, whether you are at your bath, in the kitchen, on the road or in the office. In this lies the way of your escape. Know this fact once for all and take refuge in the Name.

God is a living Reality. He is more real than the ephemeral interests and things in which man is usually involved. Man’s cravings for the earthly achievements shut him out from the recognition of immortal Truth of his existence. He is so deeply caught in pleasures which are gained through mere sense perception and touch that he becomes blind to the exalted experience of eternal Bliss and Peace....

So, O beloved soul, unless you link your life with the divine Author of your being, your life is in vain.
Life is a short span and the pleasures you derive in it are transient and fleeting. In pursuing these shadows you are heading towards darkness and are becoming oblivious to the exalted and ever-blissful Truth which is your real being.

Man is miserable because he seeks joy and peace in external conditions and objects which are in their very nature incapable of yielding the perfect state for which the heart of man longs.

Your happiness or misery depends on your state of mind and not upon your external conditions or circumstances. When your mind impelled by desires is flitting from object to object, craving for possession and enjoyment, it lives in a state of restlessness which itself is misery. After possession of the object, come cares and anxieties, after its loss follow grief and pain. The small amount of happiness you derive here is like a tiny, flickering light in a thick, vast mass of darkness; it dies out in a moment only to envelope you in the worst enthralling gloom. Know this: the object you crave for is perishable and transient in itself. How then can lasting peace be derived from it? Hence when the mind wanders in the midst of this ever-changing, impermanent medley of forms and things, it experiences nothing but pain and sorrow. Now then, direct your vision inward and behold God within – that eternal seat of all bliss and peace.

Peace is in that heart in which no wave of desire of any kind rises, and it is to be understood, that the true aspiration of the heart is completely to quell and still down all desires that lurk in it and which cause dissatisfaction, turmoil and misery. Peace, peace, peace is the cry of the heart – a peace which wants nothing, a peace that is self-existent – a peace that is immortal. This eternal peace is your real existence – it is not a state or truth to be attained but to be realised; because you are ever That.
The transient and ephemeral things of the world are incapable of granting peace. If you would have peace, turn your mind to the immortal source of your life – the deathless and changeless Reality. By constant contemplation and meditation, tune your thought to the Reality, ultimately sublimate it into that divine existence and thereby attain to a peace which knows no change.

We may live for thousands of years and may obtain whatever we desire of the world, but we shall never be happy so long as our hunger for earthly things does not perish. Renounce all desires of the mind and intellect and enjoy the bliss of the Atman even though you may, for its sake, live in a garret, or even turn into a wandering and naked mendicant.