Acharya Prashant explains the fundamental difference between pleasure and joy, noting that pleasure and pain both strengthen the ego by creating a sense of being the 'pleased' or 'suffering' entity. In contrast, joy is a state of being where the ego cannot claim ownership or identify itself as 'joyful.' He describes joy as a form of intoxication or bliss that the mind often fails to recognize or accept because it lacks a past benchmark or name for it. Because the mind relies on repetitive experiences and labels to identify reality, it often fails to acknowledge joy even when it is present, leading to a tragic state where one is joyful yet the mind remains sad or insecure.
