Let him learn by experience that the worship of human idols, or the segregated life of an ashram, with its sanctified selfishness, or the mere wandering around India, whose outward degeneration is an apt symbol of its inward ignorance, can lead only to temporary titillations of the emotions, whether ecstatic or otherwise, but never to that sublime knowledge which releases man forever from all quests and all hankering and alone confers the realization of what we are here for and alone bestows immortal benefit to himself and all creatures. If I were to put on a yellow robe and assume the outward forms of sanctity, found an ashram on top of a mountain in India and stay there for the rest of my days, I would get much more respect for my words than I do now from those who have to penetrate the veil of appearance and have to understand why I deliberately chose to assume the form of a man of the world, a scribbler and traveller.
-- Notebooks Category 12: Reflections > Chapter 4 : Reflections On Truth > # 175
