Joy is not something that you can think of as something wonderful. You cannot go somewhere and say that, looking at a mountain, I experienced joy. Joy is something which is always there, obfuscated; hence, it is the absence of obfuscation. A complete absence of all rubbish is joy, and that rubbish includes both pleasure and pain.
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Questioner: What is joy?
Acharya Prashant: It is an absence. Absence of everything. It is an absence of both pleasure and pain, nothing that excites the mind. Joy is not something that you can think of as something wonderful. Joy is nothing that you can conceptualize as being pleasurable. Joy is just an absence, nothing special; very ordinary, very blank, very empty. So, joy is nothing that you can aspire to. Joy cannot be an aspiration, an achievement, something gettable. Joy cannot be gotten.
You cannot act and obtain joy. It is not something that you can bring in from somewhere. It is a cessation, a full stop, or at least a comma. Don’t abuse this word. Enjoyment must be a very sacred word, a divine word; it must be used very carefully.
You are having one of those weekend parties, and then they say, “What joy,” they are abusing the word. Joy is not sensual. You cannot look at a mountain or river and say, joyful; even that is just sensual pleasure. Alright, it is a pleasure of maybe a higher nature, it brings you closer to yourself, but it is still not joy. It is only sensual pleasure.
