SHREYA AND PREYA

Katopanishad distinguishes between Shreya and Preya. This is the most important chapter in Katopanishad.
Preya is you seeking immediate pleasures. Shreya is to go in search of ultimate good.
You think of a girl. You want to associate with her. If you associate with her It would give immediate pleasure. But very often rather always as soon as you associate with her, you would find that the happiness you thought that you would get by association is a mirage. Preya is that which appears to give a great joy when you achieve it. But the joy would disappear when you get it or approach closer.
In so far as Shreya is concerned it is that which gives you ultimate good. Invariably the path of Shreya would show unhappiness, inconvenience, difficulties in the beginning.
Katopanishad also differentiates between vidhya and avidhya. Vidya and avidhya have a different meaning in Katopanishad. Vidhya is that knowledge which takes you to shreya while avidhya is that which takes you to preya.
There is one inner world and there is one outer world. Inner world is the one which you have to conceive, imagine which is beyond your senses but which does exists. Outer world is the one which you can see through your senses.
The knowledge of the existence of inner world is the crucial aspect to think of shreya, go towards shreya and achieve shreya as well as not to bother about preya. The difficulty arises in knowing that there is an inner world and in understanding of the inner world.
Some other day we shall know what is the inner world and its importance.