The first valley is the Valley of the Quest. How true it is that every child is born with the tendency to search, to know! What we call inquisitiveness or curiosity is born in each one of them, and it represents the inner feeling of quest. And as man is born with this tendency, he cannot be satisfied until by searching he has obtained the knowledge he wishes to have. There is no doubt that what prevents man from gaining that knowledge which his soul is really searching for, is himself. It is his small self, always standing in his way, that keeps him from searching for the only thing which every soul strives to find. Therefore it would be safe to say that there is no one in this world who is a worse enemy of man than man himself.

In this search some people think that one can perhaps find out from science or from art something which is behind this manifestation; and surely, whether the quest be material or spiritual, in the end one will arrive, and one must arrive, at that goal which is the same for everyone. Scientists and engineers, people who are absorbed in research into material things and hardly ever think of spiritual matters, even they, after much research, arrive very close to the same knowledge which is the ultimate knowledge. Therefore, whatever a man may seem to us, materialist, atheist, or agnostic, we cannot really call him that, because in the end his goal is the same and his attainment is the same. If he really reaches the depths of knowledge, if he goes far enough, whatever he was searching for he will arrive at the same goal.