Ashtavakra Gita 18.43 -

How strongly the Sage derides those not striving for realizing the Self, an undeniable human birth-right as well as duty! It is like seeing fire and not knowing its heat. Anyone coming to know of the Self, must get inspired and compelled to realize its glory. For, by realizing Self alone can one gain perennial joy and contentment, which no extent of prosperity, power or success can match.

Thus, to know about the great goal of life and not pursue it earnestly is a bane of human life. What else than inborn delusion can be behind this kind of abominable plight? Self is equally present in all. Every one refers to it as the ‘I’. In spite of it, why are people not turning within, though by doing so they stand to benefit greatly?

This is where mental purity and intelligential refinement become indispensable. The presence of Self is the same in every one, but to realize it, the mind needs sufficient purity and refinement.

Seekers have to inherit and inculcate purity fervently. Our scriptures exhort and enlighten whose mind is not calm, who has not left the vice, will not be able to approach and grasp the subject (Kathopanishad 1.2.24 ). For the vicious, realization will remain elusive. Dispassion and yearning for liberation will alone clinch the issue. Hear Vasishthadeva’s words to Rama: “In ordinary life, you get something only after leaving something else. What then is the case with gaining the infinite Self (Yoga-vāṣiṣṭha 5.58.45 )!