When the true Self is known the jigsaw puzzle of the world gets solved, doubts end, and all misery vanishes. In Atmabodha, a lyric of sixty-eight mellifluous verses, Shankara gives us a lucid analysis of the nature of the Self and explains step by step how it can be realized. Swami Nikhilananda prefaces his delightful English translation with a masterly survey of the Upanishadic view of life.
I have been asked many times, Why do you laugh so much and make so many jokes? I become serious sometimes--when I have a stomachache! The Lord is all blissfulness. He is the reality behind all that exists. He is the goodness, the truth in everything. You are His incarnations. That is what is glorious. The nearer you are to Him, the less you will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from Him, the more will long faces come. The more we know of Him, the more misery vanishes.
-Swami Vivekananda