Swami Vivekananda - Spiritual Prophet of Modern Times
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I do not believe in humility. I believe in 'Samadarshitva' -–
same state of mind with regard to all. The duty of the ordinary man is to obey the commands of his God, society; but the children of light never do so. This is an eternal law. ...
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this
Divinity within, by controlling Mature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or
philosophy - by one or more or all of these and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or
dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details. Meditate! The greatest thing is meditation. It is the nearest
approach to spiritual life -- the mind meditating. It is the one moment in our daily life that we are not
at all material - the Soul thinking of Itself, free from all matter - this marvellous touch of the
Soul! "I have neither death nor fear, I have neither caste nor
creed, I have neither father nor mother nor brother, neither friend nor foe, for I am Existence, Knowledge
and Bliss absolute; I am the blissful one, I am the blissful one. I am not
bound either by virtue or vice, by happiness or misery. Pilgrimages and books
and ceremonials can never bind me. I have neither hunger nor thirst; the body
is not mine, nor I am subject to the superstitions and decay that come to the
body, I am Existence, Knowledge and Bliss absolute; I am the Blissful One, I am
the Blissful One." This says Vedanta is the only prayer that we should have. My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is: to preach
unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life. Duty is
good to the extent that it checks brutality. To the lowest kinds of men, who
cannot have any other ideal, it is of some good; but those who want to be
Karma-Yogis must throw this idea of duty overboard. There is no duty for you
and me. Whatever you have to give to the world, do give by all means, but not
as a duty. Do not take any thought of that. Be not compelled. Why should you be
compelled? Everything that you do under compulsion goes to build up attachment.
Much
has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now
to venture my own theory. But if anyone here hopes that this unity will come by
the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the other, to
him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the
Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist
would become Christian? God forbid. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a
Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must
assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow
according to his own law of growth. .. it
is work through the sense of duty that leads us to work without any idea of
duty; when work will become worship -- nay, something higher -- then will work
be done for its own sake. Every
mental and physical blow that is given to the soul, by which, as it were, fire
is struck from it, and by which its own power and knowledge are discovered, is
Karma, this word Even
fighting in self-defence is wrong, though it is higher than fighting in
aggression. Clinging
to books only degenerates the human mind. Was there ever a more horrible
blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this
or that book? In
every religion there are three parts: philosophy, mythology, and ritual. As a
boy I had some white mice. They were kept in a little box in which there were
little wheels, and when the mice tried to cross the wheels, the wheels turned
and turned, and the mice never got anywhere. … we see that it is not the thing done that
defines a duty. To give an objective definition of duty is thus entirely
impossible. Yet there is duty from the subjective side. ... you
should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do
slave's work. Spiritual
knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other
knowledge satisfies wants only for a time. It is only with the
knowledge of the spirit that the faculty of want is annihilated for ever; so
helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given to him. He who
gives man spiritual knowledge is the greatest benefactor of mankind and as such
we always find that those were the most powerful of men who helped man in his
spiritual needs, because spirituality is the true basis of all our activities
in life. Without
the supernatural sanction as it is called, or the perception of the
superconscious as I prefer to term it, there can be no ethics. Our
duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest
ideal, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the
truth.
... The accommodating man finds a path of roses; the non-accommodating, one of thorns. But the worshippers of
"Vox populi" go to annihilation in a moment; the children of truth live for ever.
-Swami Vivekananda
-Swami Vivekananda
-Swami Vivekananda
-Swami Vivekananda
-Swami Vivekananda
-Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
...the idea of happiness without misery, or of
life without death, is very good for school-boys and children; but the thinker
sees that it is all a contradiction in terms and gives up both. Seek no praise,
no reward, for anything you do.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles
and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realising -- not in
believing, but
in being and becoming. Thus the whole object of
their system is by constant struggle to become perfect, to become divine, to
reach God and see God, and this reaching God, seeing God, becoming perfect even
as the Father in Heaven is perfect, constitutes the religion of the Hindus.
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions,
Chicago
Divine wisdom is to be got by devotion,
meditation, and chastity.
"Truth alone triumphs, and not untruth.
Through truth alone the way is spread to Brahman" -- where alone love and
truth are.
- Swami Vivekananda
In all religions the superconscious state is
identical. Hindus, Christians,
Mohammedans, Buddhists, and even those of no creed, all have the very same
experience when they transcend the body....
- Swami Vivekananda
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions,
Chicago
To the Hindu, man is not travelling from error
to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the
religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many
attempts of the human soul grasp and realise the Infinite, each determined by
the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of
progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering
more and more strength, till it reaches the Glorious Sun.
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions,
Chicago
We shall find that the philosophy of duty,
whether it be in the form of ethics or of love, is the same as in every other
Yoga -- the object being the attenuating of the lower self, so that the real
higher Self may shine forth the lessening of the frittering away of energies on
the lower plane of existence, so that the soul may manifest itself on the
higher ones.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
Everything in the universe is struggling to
complete a circle, to return to its source, to return to its only real Source,
Atman. The search for happiness is a struggle to find the balance, to restore
the equilibrium. Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free and is
the proof that we have come from perfection. . .
- Swami Vivekananda
If the Parliament of Religions has shown
anything to the world it is this:
It has proved to the world that holiness, purity
and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and
that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In
the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of exclusive survival of his own
religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my
heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be
written, in spite of resistance:
"Help and not Fight,"
"Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not
Dissension."
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions,
Chicago
I believe I have told you that without
non-attachment there cannot be any kind of Yoga.
Non-attachment is the basis of all the Yogas....
Non-attachment does not mean anything that we
may do in relation to our external body, it is all in the mind.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
used in its widest sense.
- Swami Vivekananda, in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
All knowledge, ... secular or spiritual, is in
the human mind.
In many cases it is not discovered, but remains
covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off, we say, "We are
learning," and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance of this
process of uncovering.
The man from whom this veil is being lifted is
the more knowing man, the man upon whom it lies thick is ignorant, and the man
from whom it has entirely gone is all-knowing, omniscient.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have
not the patience to practise it. It is more paying from the point of view of
health also.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
There is no "righteous" indignation,
because indignation comes from not recognising sameness in all things.
- Swami Vivekananda
... knowledge, ..., is inherent in man. No
knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man
"knows", should, in strict psychological language, be what he
"discovers" or "unveils"; what a man "learns" is
really what he "discovers", by taking the cover off his own soul,
which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
The whole secret of existence is to have no
fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free. The
full sponge can absorb no more.
- Swami Vivekananda
Pranayama is not, as many think, something about
breath; breath indeed has very little to do with it, if anything. Breathing is
only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Pranayama.
Pranayama means the control of Prana....
... From thought down to the lowest force,
everything is but the manifestation of Prana.
The sum total of all forces in the universe,
mental or physical, when resolved back to their original state, is called
Prana. ...
... The knowledge and control of this Prana is
really what is meant by Pranayama.
- Swami Vivekananda in Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to
compress Him within the covers of a little book!
Millions of people have been killed because they
did not believe what the books said, because they would not see all the
knowledge of God within the covers of a book.
Of course this killing and murdering has gone
by, but the world is still tremendously bound up in a belief in books.
- Swami Vivekananda
All outgoing energy following a selfish motive is frittered away; it will not cause power
to return to you; but if restrained, it will result in development of power.
This self-control will tend to produce a mighty
will, a character which makes a Christ or a Buddha.
- Swami Vivekananda
Philosophy in India means that through which we
see God, the rationale of religion; so no Hindu would ever ask for a link
between religion and philosophy.
Concrete, generalised, abstract are the three
stages in the process of philosophy.
The highest abstraction in which all things
agree is the One.
In religion we have first, symbols and forms;
next, mythology; and last, philosophy. The first two are for the time being;
philosophy is the underlying basis of all, and the others are only stepping
stones in the struggle to reach the Ultimate.
-Swami Vivekananda
If you really want to judge the character of a
man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one
time or another.
Watch a man do his most common actions; those
are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man.
Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but
he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same
wherever he be.
- Swami Vivekananda Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
If what we are now has been the result of our
own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future
can be produced by our present actions;
so we have to know how to act.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
Philosophy of course is the essence of every
religion; mythology explains and illustrates it by means of the more or less
legendary lives of great men, stories and fables of wonderful things, and so
on; ritual gives to that philosophy a still more concrete form, so that
everyone may grasp it -- ritual is in fact concretised philosophy.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
If a Hindu is not spiritual I do not call him a
Hindu. In other countries a man may be political first, and then he may have a
little religion, but here in India the first and the foremost duty of our lives
is to be spiritual first, and then, if there is time, let other things come.
Bearing this in mind we shall be in a better position to understand why, for
our national welfare, we must first seek out at the present day all the
spiritual forces of the race, as was done in days of yore and will be done in
all times to come.
National union in India must be a gathering up of
its scattered spiritual forces.
A nation in India must be a union of those whose
hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.
- Swami Vivekananda
Love and charity for the whole human race, that
is the test of true religiousness. I do not mean the sentimental statement that
all men are brothers, but that one must feel the oneness of human life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Lecture at Hartford,
Connecticut
When we begin to work earnestly in the world,
nature gives us blows right and left and soon enables us to find out our
position. No man can long occupy satisfactorily a position for which he is not
fit.
There is no use in grumbling against nature's
adjustment.
He who does the lower work is not therefore a
lower man.
No man is to be judged by the mere nature of his
duties, but all should be judged by the manner and the spirit in which they
perform them.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles
of iron and nerves of steel.
We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but
stand on your feet and be men.
It is a man-making religion that we want. It is
man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we
want.
And here is the test of truth -- anything that
makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison;
there is no life in it, it cannot be true.
Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, truth
is all-knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda
"Whom the Self chooses" is true.
Election is true, but put it within. As an external and fatalistic doctrine, it
is horrible.
- Swami Vivekananda
So it is with the world and our helping it. The
only help is that we get moral exercise. This world is neither good nor evil;
each man manufactures a world for himself.
Life is good or evil according to the state of
mind in which we look at it, it is neither by itself.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
However much their systems of philosophy and
religion may differ, all mankind stand in reverence and awe before the man who
is ready to sacrifice himself for others.
Here, it is not at all any question of creed, or
doctrine - even men who are very much opposed to all religious ideas, when they
see one of these acts of complete self-sacrifice, feel that they must revere
it.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
The grandest idea in the religion of the Vedanta
is that we may reach the same goal by different paths;
and these paths I have generalised into four,
viz. those of work, love, psychology, and knowledge.
But you must, at the same time, remember that
these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. Each
blends into the other. But according to the type which prevails, we name the
divisions....
These divisions are made in accordance with the
type or the tendency that may be seen to prevail in a man. We have found that,
in the end, all these four paths converge and become one.
All religions and all methods of work and
worship lead us to one and the same goal.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Any action that makes us go Godward is a good
action, and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil, and is
not our duty.
-Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New-York
The position of the mother is the highest in the
world, as it is the one place in which to learn and exercise the greatest
unselfishness. The love of God is the only love that is higher than a mother's
love; all others are lower.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
... ninety-nine per cent of mankind work like
slaves, and the result is misery; it is all selfish work. Work through freedom!
Work through love!
The word "love" is very difficult to
understand; love never comes until there is freedom. ...
...when we ourselves work for the things of the
world as slaves, there can be no love in us, and our work is not true work.
This is true of work done for relatives and friends, and is true of work done
for our own selves. Selfish work is slave's work; and here is a test.
Every act of love brings happiness; there is no
act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction.
- Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in
New York)
It is easy to say that there is no use of
rituals and temples and all such paraphernalia; every baby says that in modern
times.
But it must be easy for all to see that those
who worship inside a temple are in many respects different from those who will
not worship there.
Therefore the association of particular temples,
rituals, and other concrete forms with particular
religions has a tendency to bring into the minds
of the followers of those religions the thoughts for which those concrete
things stand as symbols; and it is not wise to ignore rituals and symbology
altogether. The study and practice of these things form naturally a part of
Karma-Yoga.
- Swami Vivekananda Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
In one sense we cannot think but in symbols;
words themselves are symbols of thought.
In another sense everything in the universe may
be looked upon as a symbol.
The whole universe is a symbol, and God is the
essence behind.
- Swami Vivekananda Karma-Yoga, New York
A fool can do heroic deeds when the approbation
of society is upon him, but for a man to constantly do good without caring for
the approbation of his fellow men is indeed the highest sacrifice man can perform.
-Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Every man should take up his own ideal and
endeavour to accomplish it. That is a surer way of progress than taking up
other men's ideals, which he can never hope to accomplish ...
All the men and women, in any society, are not
of the same mind, capacity, or of the same power to do things; they must have
different ideals, and we have no right to sneer at any ideal.
Let everyone do the best he can for realising
his own ideal. Nor is it right that I should be judged by your standard or you
by mine.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
When you are doing any work, do not think of
anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your
whole life to it for the time being.
... the right performance of the duties of any
station in life, without attachment to results, leads us to the highest
realisation of the perfection of the soul.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest
silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the
intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert.
He has learnt the secret of restraint, he has
controlled himself.
- Swami Vivekananda Karma-Yoga, New York
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga Classes, New
York
Language is not the result of convention; it is
not that people ever agreed to represent certain ideas by certain words; there
never was an idea without a corresponding word or a word without a
corresponding idea; ideas and words are in their nature inseparable. The
symbols to represent ideas may be sound symbols or colour symbols. Deaf and
dumb people have to think with other than sound symbols. Every thought in the mind
has a form as its counterpart. This is called in Sanskrit philosophy Nama-rupa
-- name and form.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New-York
All these are but various names. There is but
one fact in the universe, and we look at it from various standpoints. The same
fact looked at from one standpoint becomes matter. The same one from another
standpoint becomes mind. There are not two things.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
We may all be perfectly sure that it [the world]
will go on beautifully well without us, and we need not bother our heads
wishing to help it. Yet we must do good; the desire to do good is the highest
motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help
others. ...
It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it
is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of
benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
No man's seeing God can help you the least bit except
that it may excite you and urge you to do the same thing. That is the whole
value of the ancients' examples. Nothing more. [Just] signposts on the way. No
man's eating can satisfy another man. No man's seeing God can save another man.
You have to see God yourself.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
Our duties are determined by our deserts to a
much larger extent than we are willing to grant. ...
To the grumbler all duties are distasteful;
nothing will ever satisfy him, and his whole life is doomed to prove a failure.
Let us work on, doing as we go whatever happens to be our duty, and being ever
ready to put our shoulders to the wheel. Then surely shall we see the Light!
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
No two persons have the same mind or the same
body. ... ...No two persons have the same religion....
If you want to be religious, enter not the gate
of any organized religions.
They do a hundred times more evil than good,
because they stop the growth of each one's individual development. Study
everything, but keep your own seat firm. ... ...Enter not the door of any
organized religion. [Religion] is only between you and your God, and no third
person must come between you. Think what these organized religions have done!
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
The great men think, and you and I [also] think.
But there is a difference. We think and our bodies do not follow. Our actions
do not harmonise with our thoughts. Our words have not the power of the words
that become Vedas.
...Whatever they think must be accomplished. If
they say, "I do this," the body does it. Perfect obedience.
-Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Just as inequality is necessary for creation
itself, so the struggle to limit it is also necessary. If there were no
struggle to become free and get back to God, there would be no creation either.
It is the difference between these two forces
that determines the nature of the motives of men. There will always be these
motives to work, some tending towards bondage and others towards freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the
mind for anything else.
Let us put forth all our energies to acquire
that which never fails -- our spiritual perfection.
-Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
If we were really unattached, we should escape
all this pain of vain expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the
world.
Never will unhappiness or misery come through
work done without attachment.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
The teachers of the science of Yoga, therefore,
declare that religion is not only based upon the experience of ancient times,
but that no man can be religious until he has the same perceptions himself. Yoga
is the science which teaches us how to get these perceptions.
It is not much use to talk about religion until
one has felt it.
- Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
Karma-Yoga is the attaining through unselfish
work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature. Every selfish action, therefore, retards our reaching
the goal, and every unselfish action takes us towards the goal; that is why the
only definition that can be given of morality is this: That which is selfish is
immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Do not fly away from the wheels of the world-machine,
but stand inside it and learn the secret of work. Through proper work done
inside, it is also possible to come out.
Through this machinery itself is the way out.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New-York
Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking.
Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there is no thought, there will be no work. Fill
the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and
night before you, and out of that will come great work. Talk not about
impurity, but say that we are pure. We have hypnotised ourselves into this
thought that we are little, that we are born, and that we are going to die, and
into a constant state of fear.
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because
to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no
faith in himself can never have faith in God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Freedom is the one goal of all nature, sentient
or insentient; and consciously or unconsciously, everything is struggling
towards that goal. The freedom which the saint seeks is very different from
that which the robber seeks; the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the
enjoyment of infinite, unspeakable bliss,while that on which the robber has set
his heart only forges other bonds for his soul.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New
York)
It is useless to say that the man who lives out
of the world is a greater man than he who lives in the world; it is much more
difficult to live in the world and worship God than to give it up and live a
free and easy life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
All the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy
have one goal in view, the liberation of the soul through perfection. The
method is by Yoga. The word Yoga covers an immense ground, but both the Sankhya
and the Vedanta Schools point to Yoga in some form or other.
- Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
One idea comes out of all this -- the
condemnation of all weakness. This is a particular idea in all our teachings
which I like, either in philosophy, or in religion, or in work.
If you read the Vedas, you will find this word
always repeated -- fearlessness fear nothing.
Fear is a sign of weakness. A man must go about
his duties without taking notice of the sneers and the ridicule of the world.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
The main effect of work done for others is to
purify ourselves. By means of the constant effort to do good to others we are
trying to forget ourselves; this forgetfulness of self is the one great lesson
we have to learn in life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
The Karma-Yogi is the man who understands that
the highest ideal is non-resistance, and who also knows that this
non-resistance is the highest manifestation of power in actual possession, and
also what is called the resisting of evil is but a step on the way towards the
manifestation of this highest power, namely, non-resistance.
Before reaching this highest ideal, man's duty
is to resist evil; let him work, let him fight, let him strike straight from
the shoulder. Then only, when he has gained the power to resist, will non-
resistance be a virtue.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
This is the one central idea in the Gita:
work incessantly, but be not attached to it.
- Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Ignorance is the mother of all the evil and all the misery we see. Let men have light, let
them be pure and spiritually strong and educated, then alone will misery cease
in the world, not before. We may convert
every house in the country into a charity asylum, we may fill the land with
hospitals, but the misery of man will still continue to exist until man's
character changes.
- Swami
Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New-York
The very reason
of nature's existence is for the education of the soul; it has no other
meaning; it is there because the soul must have knowledge, and through
knowledge free itself.
If we remember
this always, we shall never be attached to nature; we shall know that nature is
a book in which we are to read, and that when we have gained the required
knowledge, the book is of no more value to us.
- Swami
Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
If a man retires from the world to worship God, he must not think that those who live in
the world and work for the good of the world are not worshipping God: neither must
those who live in the world, for wife and children, think that those who give
up the world are low vagabonds. Each is great in his own place.
- Swami
Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Two ways are
left open to us -- the way of the ignorant, who think that there is only one
way to truth and that all the rest are wrong, and the way of
the wise, who admit that, according to our mental constitution or the different
planes of existence in which we are, duty and morality may vary. The important
thing is to know that there are gradations of duty and of morality -- that the
duty of one state of life, in one set of circumstances, will not and cannot be
that of another.
- Swami
Vivekananda in Karma Yoga (Classes in New York)
It is useless
to say that the man who lives out of the world is a greater man than he who
lives in the world; it is much more difficult to live in the world and worship
God than to give it up and live a free and easy life.
- Swami
Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Until we are ready to sacrifice
everything else to one idea and to the one alone, we never, never will see the light. - Swami Vivekananda
Birth, life and death are but old
superstitions. None was ever born, none will ever die, one changes ones position that's all.
This is first fact of consciousness - I am. - Swami Vivekananda
And tell the world --
Awake, arise, and dream no more!
This is the land of dreams, where Karma
Weaves unthreaded garlands with our thoughts
of flowers sweet or noxious, and none
Has root or stem, being born in naught, which
The softest breath of Truth drives back to Primal nothingness.
Be bold, and face The Truth!
Be one with it! Let visions cease,
Or, if you cannot, dream but truer dreams,
Which are Eternal Love and Service Free.
- Swami Vivekananda
Thy will be done' - every moment
the traitor mind rebels against it, yet it must be said, again and again, if we are to conquer the lower self.
- Swami Vivekananda
This I say,
Remember
pray,
That
God is true, all else is nothing!
The
world is a dream,
Though
true it seem.
The
only truth is He the living!
The
real me is none but He, the real me is none but He
And
never never the matter changing!
-
Swami Vivekananda
Attach yourself to the Lord and
nothing else, because everything else is unreal. Attachment to
the
unreal will bring misery. No excuse for you! So much the
worse for you that you know all the philosophies and at the same time think you
are the body! Religion is the realization of spirit as spirit.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We may represent love as a
triangle. ...The first angle of our triangle of love is that love knows no
bargaining. ... To worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other
rewards equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Love is always for love's
sake. The Bhakta loves because he cannot help loving. ... The second angle of
the triangle of love is that love knows no fear. ... Love and fear are incompatible;
God is never to be feared by those who love Him. The third angle of the
love-triangle is that love knows no rival, for in it is always embodied the lover's
highest ideal. ... The highest ideal of every man is called God. Ignorant or
wise, saint or sinner, man or woman, educated or uneducated, cultivated or
uncultivated, to every human being the highest ideal is God.
...perfected
Bhakta no more goes to see God in temples and churches; he knows no place where
he will not find Him. He finds Him in the temple as well as out of the temple,
he finds Him in the saint's saintliness as well as in the wicked man's
wickedness, because he has Him already seated in glory in his own heart as the
one Almighty inextinguishable Light of Love which is ever shining and eternally
present.
-
Swami Vivekananda (bhakti-Yoga)
To be good and to do good - that
is the whole of religion. …
…this
life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who
live for others,
the
rest are more dead than alive. Sympathy for the poor, the
downtrodden, even unto death - this is our motto. Onward brave lads!
-
Swami Vivekananda
The ultimate goal of all mankind,
the aim and end of all religions, is but one -- re-union with God,
or,
what amounts to the same, with the divinity which is every man's true nature.
But
while the aim is one, the method of attaining may vary with the different
temperaments of men.
Both
the goal and the methods employed for reaching it are called yoga, a word
derived from the same Sanskrit root as the English "yoke", meaning
"to join", to join us to our reality, God.
There
are various such Yogas, or methods of union -- but the chief ones are --
karma-yoga,
Bhakti-yoga,
Raja-yoga, and Jnana-yoga.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The old religion said that he was
an atheist who did not believe in God. The new
religion says that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself. But it is
not selfish faith, because the Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It
means faith in all, because you are all.
Love
for yourselves means love for all, love for animals, love for everything, for
you are all one.
It
is the great faith which will make the world better. I am sure of that.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We believe that it is the duty of
every soul to treat, think of, and behave to other souls as such
i.e.
as Gods and not hate or despise, or vilify, or try to injure them by any manner
or means.
This
is the duty not only of the Sannyasin but of all men and women.
-
Swami Vivekananda
I am He, whatever mind does, I am
not touched. The sun is not touched by shining on filthy
places.
I am existence.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The body is not the Real Man,
neither is the mind, for the mind waxes and wanes. It is the spirit
which
alone can live for ever....
These
are old delusions, however comfortable they are, to think that we are little
limited beings,
constantly
changing.
...
Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already, you are not
to be perfect, you
are
that already....
...
Happiness is only found in the spirit.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Talk not of impurity, but say that
we are pure, we have hypnotized ourselves into this thought
that
we are little, that we are born, that we are going to die, and into a constant
state of fear.
-
Swami Vivekananda
That is the secret: To think that
I am the spirit and not the body and that the whole of this
universe
with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil is but as a series
of paintings
scenes
on a canvas-of which I am the witness.
-
Swami Vivekananda
You are pure already, you are free
already. If you think you are free, free you are this moment,
and
if you think bound you you are bound, will be.
-
Swami Vivekananda
... hold the ideal a thousand
times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once
more.
The
ideal of man is to see God in everything.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Good and bad are never two different things, they are one and the same; the difference is not one
of kind, but of degree. ... conquest of evil comes by the change in the
subjective alone. That is how the Advaita system gets its whole force, on the subjective side of man.
To talk of evil and misery is non-sense, because they do not exist outside.
-Swami Vivekananda
Maya - it is a simple statement of
facts - what we are and what we see around us....
What
does the statement of the existence of the world mean, then? "This world
has no
existence."
What is meant by that? It means that it has no absolute existence. It exists
only in
relation
to my mind, to your mind, and to the mind of everyone else. ... ...
It
has, therefore, no real existence; it has no unchangeable, immovable, infinite
existence. Nor
can
it be called non-existence, seeing that it exists and we have to work in and
through it. It is a
mixture
of existence and non-existence.... …
...
... there is neither how nor why in fact; we only know it is and that we can
not help it. ...
People
generally get frightened when these things are told to them. But bold we must
be. Hiding
facts
is not the way to find a remedy ... … the very basis of our being is
contradiction. ... ...
Thus
the Vedanta philosophy is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It voices both
these views and
takes
things as they are.
-
Swami Vivekananda (Jnana-Yoga)
Say to your own minds, "I am
He. I am He." Let it ring day and night in your
minds like a song, and at the point of death declare, "I am He." That
is the Truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours. Drive out the
superstition that has covered your minds. Let us be brave. Know the Truth and
practice the Truth. The goal may be distant, but arise, awake and stop not till
the goal is reached.
-
Swami Vivekananda
'I pray that he may never come
back again to this dirty hole they call the Earth. Neither may he
be
born in heaven or any other horrid place. May he never again wear a body--good
or bad, thick or thin. What a humbug and illusion this world is,
Mother, what a mockery this life. I pray constantly that all mankind will come
to know the reality, i.e. God, and this "Shop" here be closed for
ever.'
-
Swami Vivekananda (writes to Mrs. Hale on demise of Diwanji Haridas Desai)
Teach yourselves, teach every one
his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will
come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to
self-conscious activity.
-
Swami Vivekananda
'This Atman is first to be heard
of.' Hear day and night that you are that soul. Repeat it to yourselves day & night till it enters into your very veins, till
it tingles in every drop of blood, till it
is
in your flesh & bone. Let the whole body be full of that one ideal, 'I am
the birth-less, the deathless, the blissful, the
omniscient, the omnipotent ever-glorious soul.'
-
Swami Vivekananda
... and the greatest of all lies
is that we are bodies, which we never were nor ever can be. It is
the
greatest of all lies that we are mere men; we are the God of the universe. In
worshipping
God
we have been always worshipping our own hidden Self. The worst lie that you
ever tell
yourself
is that you were born a sinner or a wicked man. He alone is a sinner who sees a
sinner
in
another man.
-
Swami Vivekananda
There is no 'I' nor 'you'; it is
all one. It is either all 'I' or all you'. This idea of duality, of two, is
entirely
false, and the whole universe, as we ordinarily know it, is the result of this
false
knowledge.
When discrimination comes and man finds there are not two but one, he finds
that
he
is himself this universe.
"It
is I who am this universe as it now exists, a continuous mass of change. It is
I who am
beyond
all changes, beyond all qualities, the eternally perfect, the eternally
blessed."
There
is, therefore, but one Atman, one Self, eternally pure, eternally perfect,
unchangeable,
unchanged;
it has never changed; all these various changes in the universe are but
appearances
in that one Self.
-
Swami Vivekananda
I am One, alone, through all
eternity. Whom shall I fear? It is all my self. This is continuously to
be
meditated upon. Through that comes realization.
-
Swami Vivekananda
"I am neither the body, nor
the organs, nor am I the mind; I am Existence, Knowledge and Bliss
absolute;
I am He." This is true knowledge, all reason and intellect and
everything else is ignorance. Where is knowledge for me, for I am knowledge
itself!
-
Swami Vivekananda
… This is therefore, true
knowledge: that the Soul of our souls, the Reality that is within us is
that
which is unchangeable, eternal, ever-blessed, ever-free. This is the only solid
ground for us
to
stand upon.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We have to go beyond the body, and
beyond thought too, says the Advaita.
...
according to Advaita, this freedom is not to be attained, it is already ours.
We only forget it
and
deny it. Perfection is not to be attained, it is already within us.
Immortality
and bliss are not to be acquired, we possess them already; they have been ours
all
the
time.
-
Swami Vivekananda
You are that impersonal Being;
that God for whom you have been searching all over the
universe
is all the time yourself; yourself not in the personal sense but in the
Impersonal. The
man
we know now, the manifested. is personalized, but reality of this is
Impersonal.
-Swami
Vivekananda
When you look at the unchanging
Existence from outside, you call it God; and when you look at
it
from the inside, you call it yourself. It is but One. There is no God
separate from you, no God higher than you, the real "you".
-
Swami Vivekananda
What does Vedanta teach us? In the
first place, it teaches that you need not even go out of yourself to know the truth. All the past and all the future are here
in the present. No man ever saw the past. Did any one of you see the past? When
you think you are knowing the past, you only imagine the past in the present
moment. To see the future, you would have to bring it down to the present,
which is the only reality - the rest is imagination. This present is all that
is. There is only One. All is here right now. One moment in Infinite time is
quite as complete and all inclusive as every other moment. All that is and was
and will be is here in the present. Let anybody try to imagine anything outside
of it - he will not succeed.
-
Swami Vivekananda
If you know that you are
positively other than your body, you have then none to fight with or
struggle
against; you are dead to all ideas of selfishness. So the
Bhakta declares that we have to hold ourselves as if we are altogether dead to
all the things of the world; and that is indeed self-surrender. Let things come
as they may. This is the meaning of "Thy Will be done".
-
Swami Vivekananda
"I am He, I am He" Day
and night say, "I am He". It is greatest strength; it is religion.
-
Swami Vivekananda
All these ideas that I am
imperfect, I am a man, or a woman, or a sinner, or I am the mind. I
have
thought, I will think - all are hallucinations; you never think, you never had
a body; you
never
were imperfect. …
…Let
things come and go, what is that to me, I am not the body.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The world is just a playground,
and we are here having good fun, having a game, and God is
with
us playing all the while, and we are with Him playing.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The Atman is Knowledge, the Atman
is Intelligence, the Atman is Sachchidananda. It is through
the
inscrutable power of Maya, which can not be indicated as either existent or
non-existent,
that
the relative consciousness has come upon the Jiva who is none other than
Brahman. This
is
generally known as the conscious state.
And
the state in which this duality of relative existence becomes one in the pure Brahman
is
called
in the scriptures the super-conscious state and described in such words as
'िčतͧमतसͧललराͧशĤयमाÉयाͪवǑहनम”्
(Vivekachudamani
410).
-
Swami Vivekananda
What is meant by perfect
manifestation? Perfection means infinity and manifestation means
limit,
and so it means that we shall become unlimited limiteds, which is self
contradictory. Such a
theory
may please children; but it is poisoning their minds with lies, and is very bad
for religion.
But
we know that this world is a degradation, that man is a degradation of God...
...
But we shall never be able entirely to manifest the Infinite here. We shall
struggle hard, but
there
will come a time when we shall find that it is impossible to be perfect here,
while we are
bound
by the senses. And then the march back to our original state of Infinity will
be sounded.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The fact being that the Lord is in
us, we are He, the eternal subject, the real ego, never to be
objectified,
and that all this objectifying process is mere waste of time and talent. When
the soul
becomes
aware of this, it gives up objectifying and falls back more and more upon the
subjective.
This
is the evolution, less and less in the body and more and more in the mind --
man the highest form, meaning in Sanskrit manas, thought -- the animal that
thinks and not the animal
that
"senses" only. This is what in theology is called
"renunciation".
-
Swami Vivekananda
This world is all for play; and
only amuses God; nothing in it can make God angry.
-
Swami Vivekananda
To manifest the Infinite through
the finite is impossible, and sooner or later, man learns to give
up
the attempt to express the Infinite through the finite. This giving up, this
renunciation of the
attempt,
is the background of ethics. Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics
stands.
There
never was an ethical code preached which had not renunciation for its basis.
Infinite will
never
find expression upon the material plane, nor is it possible or thinkable.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Only the path of Jnana is of quick
fruition and the rational of all other creeds; hence it is equally
esteemed
in all countries and all ages. But even in the path of discrimination there is
the chance
of
the mind getting stuck in the interminable net of vain argumentation. Therefore
along with it,
meditation
should be practiced. By means of discrimination and meditation, the goal or
Brahman
has
to be reached. One is sure to reach the goal by practicing in this way.
This,
in my opinion, is the easy path ensuring quick success.
-
Swami Vivekananda
What fear is there? Always dis
discriminate your body, your house, these Jivas and the world
are
all absolutely unreal like a dream. Always think that this body is
only an inert instrument. And the self contained Purusha within is your real
nature. The adjunct of mind is His first and subtle covering, then there is
this body which is His gross, outer covering. The indivisible, changeless,
self-effulgent Purusha is lying hidden under these delusive veils therefore
your real nature is unknown to you. The direction of the mind which always runs
after the senses has to be turned within. The mind has to be killed. The body
is but gross - it dies and dissolves into the five elements. But the bundle of
mental impressions, which is the mind, does not die soon. It remains for some time
in seed form and then sprouts and grows in the form of a tree - it takes on
another physical body and goes the round of birth and death, until
Self-knowledge arises.
Therefore
I say, by meditation and concentration and by the power of philosophical
discrimination
plunge this mind in the ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. When the
mind
dies, all limiting adjuncts vanish and you are established in Brahman.'
-
Swami Vivekananda
You must bear this in mind; it is
not that there is a soul in man, although I had to take that for
granted
in order to explain it at first; but that there is only One Existence, and that
One the
Atman,
the Self; and when this is perceived through sense-imageries, It is called
body. When It
is
perceived through thought, It is called the mind. When It is
perceived in Its own nature, It is Atman, the One Only Existence. So it is not
that there are three things in one, the body and the mind and the Self,
although that was a convenient way of putting it in the course of explanation;
but all is that Atman, and that One Being is sometimes called the body,
sometimes the world, and sometimes the Self, according to different vision.
-
Swami Vivekananda
This world is a delusion of two
days. The present life is of five minutes. Beyond is the infinite,
beyond
this world of delusion; let us seek that.
-
Swami Vivekananda
"Did Buddha teach that the
many was real and the ego unreal, while orthodox Hinduism regards
the
one as the real, and the many as unreal?" the Swami was asked.
"Yes,"
answered the Swami, "And what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and I have added to
this is,
that
the many and the One are the same Reality, perceived by the same mind at
different times
and
in different attitudes."
-
Swamiji answering a question
Now I will tell you my discovery.
All of religion is contained in the Vedanta, that is, in the three
stages
of the Vedanta philosophy, the Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita and Advaita; one comes
after the
other.
These
are the three stages of spiritual growth in man. Each one is necessary. This is
the
essential
of religion: the Vedanta, applied to the various ethnic customs and creeds of
India is
Hinduism.
The first step, i.e. Dvaita applied to the ideas of ethnic groups of Europe is
Christianity;
as applied to the Semitic groups, Mohammedanism.The
Advaita, as applied in its Yoga-perception form, is Buddhism etc. Now by
religion is meant the Vedanta; the applications must vary according to the
different needs, surroundings, and other circumstances of different nations.
You will find that although the philosophy is the same, the Shaktas, Shaivas,
etc. apply it each to their own special cult and forms.
-
Swami Vivekananda
If matter is powerful, thought is
omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon
your life, fill yourself with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty
and your glory.
-
Swami Vivekananda
One day after lunch while Swamiji
was resting at Belur Math, he asked his disciple Sharat
Chakrabarty
to give him a little massage. Sharat was happy for the opportunity to serve his
guru;
but Swamiji didn't like his massage because, out of respect, Sharat massaged
him gently.
Swamiji
asked him to call Brahmananda, who had just then gone to rest. When Brahmananda
arrived,
Swamiji said: "Raja, I don't feel good today. I asked this Bangal to give
me a massage,
but
he did not do it well. So I have called you." Immediately Maharaj began to
massage Swamiji
vigorously,
like an expert, and continued for a couple of hours. When the exhausted
Brahmananda
returned to his room, Sharat went to him and said: "Maharaj, I have come
to you to resolve my confusion. I have heard that you are the spiritual son of
the Master, and I have seen how much Swamiji respects you. I don't understand
why Swamiji asked you to give him a massage." At this Brahmananda said: "What
do you say? Don't you know he is the Lord Shiva Himself!"
-(Life
of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples)
It is the same question in
connection with this world; it has no existence in the past, present, or
future.
If we have known the Atman as It is, if we have known that there is nothing
else but this
Atman,
that everything else is but a dream, with no existence in reality, then this
world with its
poverties,
its miseries, its wickedness, and its goodness will cease to disturb you.
-
Swami Vivekananda
True freedom can not exist in the
midst of this delusion, this hallucination, this nonsense of the
world,
this universe of the sense, body and mind. All these
dreams, without beginning or end, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, ill-adjusted,
broken, inharmonious form our idea of this universe.
-
Swami Vivekananda
In thine own heart day and night
is singing that Eternal Music -- sachchidananda, soham,
soham
-- existence-knowledge bliss Absolute, I am He, I am He.
-
Swami Vivekananda
While we recognise a God, it is
really only the Self which we have separated ourselves from and
worship
as outside of us; but it is our true Self all the time -- the one and only God.
-Swami
Vivekananda
The internal universe, the real,
is infinitely greater than the external, which is only a shadowy
projection
of the true one. This world is neither true nor untrue, it is the shadow of
truth.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Stand upon the Self, then only can
we truly love the world. Take a very, very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon
all the panorama of the world. It is but baby's play, and we know that, so
cannot be disturbed by it.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Know you are the Infinite, then
fear must die. Say ever, "I and my Father are one.'
-
Swami Vivekananda
We are confined nowhere; we are
not body, the universe is our body. We are now conscious
only
where the body is, we can use only one brain; but when we reach
ultra-consciousness, we
know
all, we can use all brains.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We go through the world like a man
pursued by a policeman and see the barest glimpses of the
beauty
of it. All this fear that pursues us comes from believing in matter.
Matter
gets its whole existence from the presence of mind behind it. What we see is
God percolating through nature (i.e. matter and mind).
-
Swami Vivekananda
Really good and evil are one and
are in our own mind. When the mind is self-poised, neither
good
nor bad affects it. Be perfectly free; then neither can affect it, and we enjoy
freedom and
bliss.
Evil is the iron chain, good is the gold one; both are chains. Be free, and
know once for all
that
there is no chain for you. Lay hold of the golden chain to loosen the hold of
the iron one,
then
throw both away. The thorn of evil is in our flesh; take another thorn
from the same bush and extract the first thorn; then throw away both and be
free....
-
Swami Vivekananda
This infinite power of the spirit,
brought to bear upon matter evolves material development,
made
to act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes
of man a
God.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Religion is the manifestation of
the Divinity already in man.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The old religion said that he was
an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the
atheist who does not believe in himself. But it is not selfish faith because
the Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means faith in all, because
you are all. Love for yourselves means love for all, love for animals, love for
everything, for are all one.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Meditate! The greatest thing is
meditation. It is the nearest approach to spiritual life -- the mind meditating. It is the one moment in our daily life that we are not at
all material -- the Soul thinking of Itself, free from all
matter -- this marvellous touch of the Soul!
-
Swami Vivekananda
"Avoid not and seek not --
wait for what the Lord sends", is my motto ...
-
Swami Vivekananda
We must show the spirituality of
the Hindus, the mercifulness of the Buddhists, the activity of the
Christians,
the brotherhood of the Mohammedans, by our practical lives.
-Swami
Vivekananda
There is really no difference
between matter, mind, and Spirit. They are
only different phases of experiencing the One. This very world is seen by the
five senses as matter, by the very wicked as hell, by the good as heaven, and
by the perfect as God.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Those who give themselves up to
the Lord do more for the world than all the so-called workers. One man who has purified himself thoroughly accomplishes more than a
regiment of preachers.
Out
of purity and silence comes the word of power.
-
Swami Vivekananda -
Enjoyment is the million - headed
serpent that we must tread under foot. We renounce and go
on,
then find nothing and despair; but hold on, hold on. The world is a demon. It
is a kingdom of
which
the puny ego is king. Put it away and stand firm. Give up lust and gold.
-
Swami Vivekananda
To give up the world is to forget
the ego, to know it not at all living in the body, but not - of it. This
rascal
ego must be obliterated. Bless men when they revile you. Think how much good
they are
doing
you; they can only hurt themselves. Go where people hate you, let them thrash
the ego
out
of you, and you will get nearer to the Lord.
-
Swami Vivekananda -
The adamantine wall that shuts us
in is egoism; we refer everything to ourselves, thinking. "I do
this,
that, and the other. "Get rid of this puny "I"; kill this
diabolism in us; "Not I, but Thou" say it,
feel
it, live it. Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never can we
enter the
kingdom
of heaven. None ever did, none ever will.
-
Swami Vivekananda
As soon as we say "I",
we are humbugged all the time; and we call it "knowable", but it is
only
going
round and round like a bullock tied to a tree. The Lord has hidden Himself
best, and His
work
is best; so he who hides himself best, accomplishes most. Conquer yourself, and
the
whole
universe is yours.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Our best work is done, our
greatest influence is exerted, when we are without thought of self. All
great
geniuses know this. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him
act, and do
nothing
ourselves.
"O
Arjuna! I have no duty in the whole world", says Krishna. Be perfectly
resigned, perfectly
unconcerned;
then alone can you do any true work. No eyes can see the real forces, we can
only
see the results. Put out self, lose it, forget it; just let God work, it is His
business. We have
nothing
to do but stand aside and let God work. The more we go away, the more God comes
in.
Get
rid of the little "I", and let only the great "I" live.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Neither seek nor avoid, take what
comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing; do not merely
endure,
be unattached
-
Swami Vivekananda
Make the heart like an ocean, go
beyond all the trifles of the world, be mad with joy even at evil;
see
the world as a picture and then enjoy its beauty, knowing that nothing affects
you. Children
finding
glass beads in a mud puddle, that is the good of the world. Look at it with
calm
complacency;
see good and evil as the same both are merely "God's -- play"; enjoy
all.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The world for me, not I for the
world. Good and evil are our slaves, not we theirs. It is the nature
of
the brute to remain where he is (not to progress); it is the nature of man to
seek good and
avoid
evil; it is the nature of God to seek neither, but just to be eternally
blissful. Let us be God!
-
Swami Vivekananda
There is no possibility of ever having
pleasure without pain, good es without evil; for living itself
is
just the lost equilibrium. What we want is freedom, not life, nor pleasure, nor
good. Creation is
infinite,
without beginning and without end the ever-moving ripple in an infinite lake.
There are
yet
unreached depths and others where the equilibrium has been regained; but the
ripple is
always
progressing, the struggle to regain the balance is eternal. Life and death are
only
different
names for the same fact, the two sides of the one coin.
Both
are Maya, the inexplicable state of striving at one time to live, and a moment
later to die.
Beyond
this is the true nature, the Atman.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We seems to be walking in dreams.
Dreams are all right in a dream - mind; but as soon as you
want
to grasp one of them, it is gone. Why? Not that it was false, but because it is
beyond the
power
of reason, the power of the intellect to comprehend it. Everything in this life
is so vast that
the
intellect is nothing in comparison with it. It refuses to be bound by the laws
of the intellect!
It
laughs at the bondage the intellect wants to spread around it.
And
a thousandfold more so is this the case with the human soul.
-
Swami Vivekananda
There is only one Power, whether
manifesting as evil or good. God and the devil are the same
river
with the water flowing in opposite directions.
-
Swami Vivekananda
"I bow to the Guru who is the
embodiment of the Bliss Divine, the personification of the highest
knowledge
and the giver of the greatest beatitude, who is pure, perfect, one without a
second,
eternal,
beyond pleasure and pain, beyond all thought and all qualification,
transcendental".
Such
is in reality the Guru.
No
wonder the disciple looks upon him as God Himself and trusts him, reveres him,
obeys him,
follows
him unquestioningly. This is the relation between the Guru and the disciple.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Generally speaking, human religion
begins with fear. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom."
But later comes the higher idea. "Perfect love casteth out fear."
Traces of fear will
remain
with us until we get knowledge, know what God is.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The worship of even one spark of
Mother in our earthly mother leads to greatness. Worship Her
if
you want love and wisdom.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The sum total of all the cells in
an organism is one person; so each soul is like one cell and the
sum
of them is God, and beyond that is the Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute;
the same
sea
in waves is Divine Mother. She is time, space, and causation. God is Mother and
has two
natures,
the conditioned and the unconditioned. As the former, She is God, nature, and
soul
(man).
As the latter, She is unknown and unknowable.
Out
of the Unconditioned came the trinity -- god, nature, and soul, the triangle of
existence.
This
is the Vishishtadvaitist idea.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Mother is the first manifestation
of power and is considered a higher idea than father. With the
name
of Mother comes the idea of Shakti, Divine Energy and Omnipotence, just as the
baby
believes
its mother to be all powerful, able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the
Kundalini
("coiled
up" power) sleeping in us; without worshipping Her we can never know
ourselves.
All-merciful,
all - powerful, omnipresent are attributes of Divine Mother. She is the sum
total of
the
energy in the universe.
Every
manifestation of power in the universe is "Mother". She is life, She
is intelligence, She is
Love.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Shaktas worship the Universal
Energy as Mother, the sweetest name they know; for the mother
is
the highest ideal of womanhood in India. When God is worshipped as
"Mother",
as Love, the Hindus call it the "right - handed" way, and it leads to
spirituality but never
to
material prosperity. When God is worshipped on His terrible side, that is, in
the "left -handed"
People who report about sects with
which they are not in sympathy are both conscious and
unconscious
liars. A believer in one sect can rarely see truth in others.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Tapas means literally "to
burn". It is a kind of penance to "heat" the higher nature. It
is
sometimes
in the form of a sunrise to sunset vow, such as repeating Om all day
incessantly.
These
actions will produce a certain power that you can convert into any form you
wish, spiritual
or
material. This idea of Tapas penetrates the whole of Hindu religion. The Hindus
even say that
God
made Tapas to create the world. It is a mental instrument with which to do
everything.
"Everything
in the three worlds can be caught by Tapas."...
-
Swami Vivekananda
In the Atman there is no
distinction of sex, or Varna or Ashrama, or anything of the kind, and as
mud
cannot be washed away by mud, it is likewise impossible to bring about oneness
by means
of
separative ideas.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Brahman is neuter, unknown and
unknowable, but to be objectified He covers Himself with a veil
of
Maya, becomes the Mother of the Universe, and so brings forth the creation. The
prostrate
figure
(Shiva or God) has become Shava (dead or lifeless) by being covered by Maya.
The
Jnaní
says, "I will uncover God by force" (Advaitism); but the dualist
says, "I will uncover God by
praying
to Mother, begging Her to open the door to which She alone has the key."
-
Swami Vivekananda
All theists agree that behind the
changeable there is an Unchangeable, though they vary in their
conception
of the Ultimate.
Buddha
denied this in toto. "There is no Brahman, no Atman, no soul," he
said. As a character
Buddha
was the greatest the world has ever seen; next to him Christ. But the teachings
of
Krishna
as taught by the Gita are the grandest the world has ever known. He who wrote
that
wonderful
poem was one of those rare souls whose lives sent a wave of regeneration
through
the
world. The human race will never again see such a brain as his who wrote the
Gita.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The Light Divine within is
obscured in most people. It is like a lamp in a cask of iron, no gleam of
light
can shine through. Gradually, by purity and unselfishness we can make the
obscuring
medium
less and less dense, until at last it becomes as transparent as glass.
Shri
Ramakrishna was like the iron cask transformed into a glass cask through which
can be
seen
the inner light as it is. We are all on the way to become the cask of glass and
even higher
and
higher reflections.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The great abstraction of ideas in the
world is what we call God.Each thought has two parts - the
thinking
and the word; and we must have both. Neither idealists nor materialists are
right; we
must
take both idea and expression. All knowledge is of the reflected, as we can
only see our
face
in a mirror. No one will ever know his own Self or God; but we are that own
Self, we are
God
-
Swami Vivekananda
Fool, hearest not thou? In thine
own heart day and night is singing that Eternal Music -
sachchidananda,
soham, soham -existence-knowledge-bliss Absolute, I am He, I am He.
The
fountain of all knowledge is in every one of us, in the ant as in the highest
angel. Real
religion
is one, but we quarrel with the forms, the symbols, the illustrations. The
millennium
exists
already for those who find it; we have lost ourselves and then think the world
is lost.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Evil thoughts, looked at
materially, are the disease bacilli. Each thought is a little hammer blow
on
the lump of iron which our bodies are, manufacturing out of it what we want it
to be. We are
heirs
to all the good thoughts of the universe, if we open ourselves to them.
-
Swami Vivekananda
If your freedom hurts others, you
are not free there. You must not hurt others.
"To
be weak is to be miserable", says Milton. Doing and suffering are
inseparably joined. (Often,
too,
the man who laughs most is the one who suffers most.)
"To
work you have the right, not to the fruits thereof."
-
Swami Vivekananda
Krishna, the "Lord of
souls", talks to Arjuna or Gudakesha, "lord of sleep" (he who
has
conquered
sleep). The field of virtue" (the battle - field) is this world; the five
brothers
(representing
righteousness) fight the hundred other brothers (all that we love and have to
contend
against); the most heroic brother, Arjuna (the awakened soul), is the general.
We have
to
fight all sense-delights, the things to which we are most attached, to kill
them. We have to
stand
alone; we are Brahman, all other ideas must be merged in this one.
-Swami
Vivekananda -
All we can do is put down all desires,
hates, differences; put down the lower self, commit mental
suicide,
as it were; keep the body and mind pure and healthy, but only as instruments to
help us
to
God; that is their only true use. Seek truth for truth's sake alone, look not
for bliss. It may
come,
but do not let that be your incentive. Have no motive except God.
Dare
to come to Truth even through hell.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Differentiation creates;
homogeneity or sameness is God. Get beyond differentiation; then you
conquer
life and death and reach eternal sameness and are in God, are God. Get freedom,
Knowledge is mere classification.
When we find many things of the same kind we call the sum
of
them by a certain name and are satisfied; we discover "facts", never
"why". We take a circuit
in a
wider field of darkness and think we know something! No "why" can be
answered in this
world;
for that we must go to God. The Knower can never be expressed; it is as when a
grain of
salt
drops into the ocean, it is at once merged in the ocean.
-
Swami Vivekananda
My Master taught that religion is
one; all prophets teach the same; but they can only present the
principle
in a form; so they take it out of the old form and put it before us in a new
one. When we
free
ourselves from name and form, especially from a body - when we need no body,
good or
bad-
then only do we escape from bondage.
Eternal
progression is eternal bondage; annihilation of form is to be preferred. We
must get free
from
any body, even a "god-body". God is the only real existence, there
cannot be two. There is
but
One Soul, and I am That.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The power is with the silent ones,
who only live and love and then withdraw their personality.
They
never say "me" and "mine"; they are only blessed in being
instruments. Such men are the
makers
of Christs and Buddhas, ever living fully identified with God, ideal
existences, Time
asking
nothing, and not consciously doing anything. They are the real movers, the
Jivanmuktas,
absolutely
selfless, the little personality entirely blown away, ambition non-existent.
They are all
principle,
no personality.
-
Swami Vivekananda
So long as the "skin
sky" surrounds man, that is, so long as he identifies himself with his
body,
he
cannot see God.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Brahman is omnipresent in the
universe as is butter in milk, but friction makes It manifest in one
place.
As churning brings out the butter in the milk, so Dhyana brings the realisation
of Brahman
in
the soul.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Infinite manifestation dividing
itself in portion still remains infinite, and each portion is infinite.
Brahman
is the same in two forms - changeable and unchangeable,
expressed
and unexpressed. Know that the Knower and the known are one. The Trinity -- the
Knower,
the known, and knowing -- is manifesting as this universe. That God the Yogi
sees in
meditation,
he sees through the power of his own Self. What we call nature, fate, is simply
God's
will.
-
Swami Vivekananda
To say that creation has any
beginning is to lay the axe at the root of all philosophy. Maya is the
energy
of the universe, potential and kinetic. Until Mother releases us, we cannot get
free. The
universe
is ours to enjoy. But want nothing. To want is weakness. Want makes us beggars,
and
we
are sons of the king, not beggars.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Heaven is a mere superstition
arising from desire, and desire is ever a yoke, a degeneration.
Never
approach anything except as God; for if we do, we see evil, because we throw a
veil of
delusion
over what we look at, and then we see evil. Get free from these illusions; be
blessed.
Freedom
is to lose all illusions.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Soul has no caste, and to think it
has is a delusion; so are life and death, or any motion or
quality.
The Atman never changes, never goes nor comes. It is the eternal Witness of all
Its own
manifestations,
but we take It for the manifestation; an eternal illusion, without beginning or
end,
ever
going on. The Vedas, however, have to come down to our level, for if they told
us the
highest
truth in the highest way, we could not understand it.
-
Swami Vivekananda
God exists, not birth nor death,
not pain nor misery, nor murder, nor change, nor good nor evil;
all
is Brahman. We take the "rope for the serpent", the error is ours....
We
can only do good when we love God and He reflects our love. The murderer is
God, and the
"clothing
of murderer" is only superimposed upon him. Take him by the hand and tell
him the
truth.
-
Swami Vivekananda
One part of the Vedas deals with
Karma -- form and ceremonies. The other part deals with the
knowledge
of Brahman and discusses religion. The Vedas in this part teach of the Self;
and
because
they do, their knowledge is approaching real knowledge. Knowledge of the
Absolute
depends
upon no book, nor upon anything; it is absolute in itself. No amount of study
will give
this
knowledge; it is not theory, it is realisation. Cleanse the dust from the
mirror, purify your own
mind,
and in a flash you know that you are Brahman.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Be beyond both freedom and
bondage. We are Shiva, we are immortal knowledge beyond the
senses.
Infinite power is back of everyone; pray to Mother, and it will come to you.
"O Mother,
giver
of Vak (eloquence), Thou self existent, come as the Vak upon my lips (Hindu
invocation).
"That
Mother whose voice is in the thunder, come Thou in me! Kali, Thou time eternal,
Thou
force
irresistible, Shakti, Power!"
-
Swami Vivekananda
It is easy to strike a blow but
tremendously hard to stay the hand, stand still, and say, "In Thee,
O
Lord, I take refuge, and then wait for Him to act.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Those who have attained sameness
are said to be living in God. All hatred is killing the "Self by
the
self", therefore love is the law of life. To rise to this is to be
perfect; but the more perfect we
are,
the less work (so-called) can we do. The Sattvika see and know that all is mere
child's play
and
do not trouble themselves about anything.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Blessed are those upon whom their
sins are quickly visited, their account is the sooner
balanced!
Woe
to those whose punishment is deferred, it is the greater!
-
Swami Vivekananda
The sum total of knowledge is ever
the same, only sometimes it is more manifested and
sometimes
less. The only source of it is within, and there only is it found.
-Swami
Vivekananda
Never ask that foolish question,
what good will it do to the world? Let the world go. Love and
ask
nothing; love and look for nothing further. Love and forget all the
"isms". Drink the cup of
love
and become mad. Say "Thine, O Thine for ever, O Lord!" and plunge in,
forgetting all else.
The
very idea of God is love.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We divide ourselves into two to
love God, myself loving my Self. God has created me and I have
created
God. We create God in our image; it is we who create Him to be our master, it
is not
God
who makes us His servants. When we know that we are one with God, that we and
He are
friends,
then come equality and freedom.So long as
you hold yourself separated by a hair's breadth from this Eternal One, fear
cannot go.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Every step that has been really
gained in the world has been gained by love; criticising can
never
do any good, it has been tried for thousands of years. Condemnation
accomplishes
nothing.
A real Vedantist must sympathise with all.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The more we grow in love and
virtue and holiness, the more we see love and virtue and
holiness
outside. All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the
microcosm
(which
is in your power to do) and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you. It is
like the
hydrostatic
paradox, one drop of water can balance the universe.
We
cannot see outside what we are not inside. The universe is to us what the huge
engine is to
the
miniature engine; and indication of any error in the tiny engine leads us to
imagine trouble in
the
huge one.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Brahmavidya is the highest
knowledge, knowing the Brahman; lower knowledge is science. This
is
the teaching of the Mundakopanishad or the Upanishad for Sannyasins. There are
two sorts
of
knowledge - principle and secondary. The unessential is that part of the Vedas
dealing with
worship
and ceremonies, also all secular knowledge. The
essential is that by which we reach the Absolute.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Inequality is the very basis of
creation. At the same time the forces struggling to obtain equality
are
as much a necessity of creation as those which destroy it.
-
Swami Vivekananda
The moral, ethical, and spiritual
relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits
and
the Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would remain
even if we
forgot
them.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
In this stress and hurry of our
materialistic life, our nerves lose sensibility and become
hardened.
The
older we grow, the longer we are knocked about in the world, the more callous
we become; and we are apt to neglect things that even happen persistently and
prominently around us. Human nature, however, asserts itself sometimes, and we
are led to inquire into and wonder at
some
of these common occurrences; wondering thus is the first step in the
acquisition of light.
-
Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
Science is nothing but the finding
of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it would
stop
from further progress, because it would reach the goal. ...
…
the science of religion becomes perfect when it would discover Him who is the
one life in a
universe
of death, Him who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world.
One
who is the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus
is it, through
multiplicity
and duality, that the ultimate unity is reached.
Religion
can go no farther. This is the goal of all science.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
'... by the Vedas no books are
meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws
discovered
by different persons in different times.'
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
All knowledge that the world has
ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the
universe
is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion,
which
sets
you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always your own
mind.
-
Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
Man as Atman is really free; as
man he is bound, changed by every physical condition. As man,
he is
a machine with an idea of freedom; but this human body is the best and the
human mind
the
highest mind there. When a man attains to the Atman state, he can take a body,
making it to
suit
himself; he is above law.
This
is a statement and must be proved. Each one must prove it for himself; we may
satisfy
ourselves,
but we cannot satisfy another.
-
Swami Vivekananda
We are lamps, and our burning is
what we call "life". When the supply of oxygen gives out, then
the
lamp must go out. All we can do is to keep the lamp clean. Life is a product, a
compound,
and
as such must resolve itself into its elements.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Good thought and good works create
less differentiation than bad ones; so indirectly they lead
to
freedom. Work, but give up the results to the Lord. Knowledge alone can make us
perfect.
He
who follows the God of Truth with devotion, to him the God of Truth reveals
Himself....
-
Swami Vivekananda
Religion without philosophy runs
into superstition; philosophy without religion becomes dry
atheism.
-
Swami Vivekananda
Karma-yoga teaches us that the
ordinary idea of duty is on the lower plane; nevertheless, all of
us
have to do our duty. Yet we may see that this peculiar sense of duty is very
often a great
cause
of misery. Duty becomes a disease with us; it drags us ever forward. It catches
hold of us
and
makes our whole life miserable. It is the bane of human life.... The only true
duty is to be
unattached
and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God. All our duties are
His.
-
Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
The
Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter;
perfection will be
reached
when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukti --
freedom,
freedom
from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from deathes and misery.
And
this bondage can only fall off through the mercy of God, and this mercy comes
on the pure.
So
purity is the condition of His mercy.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
... the Hindu believes that he is
a spirit. Him the sword cannot pierce -- him the fire cannot burn
--
him the water cannot melt -- him the air cannot dry. The Hindu believes that
every soul is a
circle
whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body, and
that death
means
the change of this centre from body to body. Nor is the soul bound by the
conditions of
matter.
In its very essence it is free, unbounded, holy, pure, and perfect. But somehow
or other it
finds
itself tied down to matter, and thinks of itself as matter.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
When you have trained your mind
and your nerves to realise this idea of the world's
non-dependence
on you or on anybody, there will then be no reaction in the form of pain
resulting
from work.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
... you see what Karma-Yoga means;
even at the point of death to help anyone, without asking
questions.
Be
cheated millions of times and never ask a question, and never think of what you
are doing.
Never
vaunt of your gifts to the poor or expect their gratitude, but rather be
grateful to them for
giving
you the occasion of practising charity to them.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
We often talk of right and justice,
but we find that in the world right and justice are mere baby's
talk.
There are two things which guide the conduct of men: might and mercy. The
exercise of
might
is invariably the exercise of selfishness. All men and women try to make the
most of
whatever
power or advantage they have. Mercy is heaven itself; to be good, we have all
to be
merciful.
Even justice and right should stand on mercy.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
First find out that you are not
the slave of nature, never were and never will be; that this nature,
infinite
as you may think it, is only finite, a drop in the ocean, and your Soul is the
ocean; you
are
beyond the stars, the sun, and the moon.
They
are like mere bubbles compared with your infinite being.
Know
that, and you will control both good and evil.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
In whatever you do for a
particular person, a city, or a state, assume the same attitude towards it
as
you have towards your children -- expect nothing in return. If you can
invariably take the
position
of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world,
without any
thought
of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only
where
we
expect a return.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
You must remember that freedom of
the soul is the goal of all Yogas, and each one equally
leads
to the same result. By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by
meditation
or
Christ by prayer.
Buddha
was a working Jnani,
Christ
was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them.
-
Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
The householder is the centre of
life and society. It is a worship for him to acquire and spend
wealth
nobly, for the householder who struggles to become rich by good means and for
good
purposes
is doing practically the same thing for the attainment of salvation as the
anchorite
does
in his cell when he is praying; for in them we see only the different aspects
of the same
virtue
of self-surrender and self-sacrifice prompted by the feeling of devotion to God
and to all
that
is His.
-
Swami Vivekananda in Karma-Yoga (Classes in New York)
Work, but let not the action or
the thought produce a deep impression on the mind. Let the
ripples
come and go, let huge actions proceed from the muscles and the brain, but let
them not
make
any deep impression on the soul.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
What is the watchword of all
ethical codes? "Not I, but thou", and this "I" is the outcome
of the
Infinite
behind, trying to manifest Itself on the outside world. This little
"I" is the result, and it will
have
to go back and join the Infinite, its own nature. Every time you say, "Not
I, my brother, but
thou",
you are trying to go back, and every time you say "I, and not thou",
you take the false
step
of trying to manifest the Infinite through the sense-world. That brings
struggles and evils
into
the world, but after a time renunciation must come, eternal renunciation.
That
little "I" is dead and gone. Why care so much for this little life?
All these vain desires of
living
and enjoying this life, here or in some other place, bring death.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
The ideal of the Yogi, the whole
science of Yoga, is directed to the end of teaching men how, by
intensifying
the power of assimilation, to shorten the time for reaching perfection, instead
of
slowly
advancing from point to point and waiting until the whole human race has become
perfect.
...
...
This is what is meant by concentration, intensifying the power of assimilation,
thus shortening
the
time. Raja-Yoga is the science which teaches us how to gain the
power of concentration.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
The end and aim of all science is
to find the unity, the One out of which the manifold is being
manufactured,
that One existing as many. Raja-Yoga proposes to start from the internal world,
to
study internal nature, and through that, control the whole - both internal and
external. It is a
very
old attempt. India has been its special stronghold, but it was also attempted
by other
nations.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
Only perseverance, like the man
who was willing to wait aeons, brings about highest result.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
All manipulations of the subtle
forces of the body, the different manifestations of Prana, if
trained,
give a push to the mind, help it to go up higher, and become superconscious,
from
where
it acts.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
How has all the knowledge in the
world been gained but by the concentration of the powers of
the
mind? The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock,
how to give it
the
necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration.
There is no
limit
to the power of human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is
brought to
bear
on one point; that is the secret.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New Yorkes
Man wants truth, wants to
experience truth for himself; when he has grasped it, realised it, felt it
within
his heart of hearts, then alone, declare the Vedas, would all doubts vanish,
all darkness
be
scattered, and all crookedness be made straight.
"Ye
children of immortality, even those who live in the highest sphere, the way is
found; there is
a
way out of all this darkness, and that is by perceiving Him who is beyond all
darkness; there is
no
other way."
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
He is the ever active Providence.
All power is His and within His command. Through His
command
the winds blow, the sun shines, the earth lives, and death stalks upon the
earth. He is
the
all in all; He is all and in all. We can only worship Him. Give up all fruits
of work; do good for
its
own sake; then alone will come perfect non-attachment.
The
bonds of the heart will thus break, and we shall reap perfect freedom. This
freedom is
indeed
the goal of Karma-Yoga.
-
Swami Vivekananda Karma-Yoga, New York
Day and night let us renounce our
seeming self until it becomes a habit with us to do so, until it
gets
into the blood, the nerves, and the brain, and the whole body is every moment
obedient to
this
idea of self-renunciation.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Whosoever, ... asks any one to
believe blindly, or drags people behind him by the controlling
power
of his superior will, does an injury to humanity, though he may not intend it.
Therefore use
your
own minds, control body and mind yourselves, remember that until you are a
diseased
person,
no extraneous will can work upon you; avoid everyone, however great and good he
may
be,
who asks you to believe blindly.
-
Swami Vivekananda Raja-Yoga, New-York
This whole universe is only one
speck of the infinite being; and all our laws, our bondages, our
joys
and our sorrows, our happinesses and our expectations, are only within this
small universe;
all
our progression and digression are within its small compass.
So
you see how childish it is to expect a dern Times continuation of this universe
-- the creation
of
our minds -- and to expect to go to heaven, which after all must mean only a
repetition of this
world
that we know.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Law is the method, the manner in
which our mind grasps a series of phenomena; it is all in the
mind.
Certain
phenomena, happening one after another or together, and followed by the
conviction of the regularity of their recurrence -- thus enabling
our minds to grasp the method of the whole series constitute what we call law.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
The Yogas of work, of wisdom, and
of devotion are all capable of serving as direct and
independent
means for the attainment of Moksha. "Fools alone say that work and
philosophy
are
different, not the learned." The learned know that, though apparently
different from each
other,
they at last lead to the same goal of human perfection.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
First it is feeling, then it
becomes willing, and out of that willing comes the tremendous force for
work
that will go through every veinand nerve
and muscle, until the whole mass of your body is changed into an instrument of
the unselfish Yoga of work, and the desired result of perfect self-abnegation
and utter unselfishness is duly attained.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
That this world is created for our
enjoyment is the most wicked idea that holds us down. This
world
is not for our sake. Millions pass out of it every year; the world does not
feel it; millions of
others
are supplied in their place. Just as much as the world is for us, so we also
are for the
world.
To work properly, therefore, you have first to give up the idea of attachment.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
A perfect life is a contradiction
in terms. Life itself is a state of continuous struggle between
ourselves
and everything outside. Every moment we are fighting actually with external
nature,
and
if we are defeated, our life has to go.
...
Life is not a simple and smoothly flowing thing, but it is a compound effect.
This complex
struggle
between something inside and the external world is what we call life.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
Stand as a rock; you are
indestructible. You are the Self, the God of the universe. Say --"I am
Existence
Absolute, Bliss Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, I am He," and like a lion
breaking its
cage,
break your chain and be free for ever. What frightens you, what holds you down?
Only
ignorance
and delusion; nothing else can bind you. You are the Pure One, the
ever-blessed.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, US
… human birth is the greatest
birth we can have. The lower creation, the animal, is dull, and
manufactured
mostly out of Tamas. Animals cannot have any high
thoughts; nor can the angels, or Devas, attain to direct freedom without human
birth. In human society, in the same way, too much wealth or too much poverty
is a great impediment to the higher development of the soul. It is from the
middle classes that the great ones of the world come. Here the forces are very
equally adjusted and balanced.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
We run, therefore, a twofold
danger in doing evil: first, we open ourselves to all the evil
influences
surrounding us; secondly, we create evil which affects others, may be hundreds
of
years
hence. In doing evil we injure ourselves and others also. In doing good we do
good to
ourselves
and to others as well; and, like all other forces in man, these forces of good
and evil
also
gather strength from outside.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Karma-Yoga, New York
If we are ever to gain freedom, it
must be by conquering nature, never by running away.
Cowards
never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we
expect
them
to flee before us.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
The Hindus have their faults, they
sometimes have their exceptions; but mark this, they are
always
for punishing their own bodies, and never for cutting the throats of their
neighbours. If
the
Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he never lights the fire of
Inquisition. And even this
cannot
be laid at the door of his religion any more than the burning of witches can be
laid at the
door
of Christianity.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
We find that all religions teach
the eternity of the soul, as well as that its lustre has been
dimmed,
and that its primitive purity is to be regained by the knowledge of God.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
The idea of an objective God is
not untrue -- in fact, every idea of God, and hence every
religion,
is true, as each is but a different stage in the journey, the aim of which is
the perfect
conception
of the Vedas.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Brooklyn, NY
... one is responsible for the
miseries one suffers. If I set the wheel in motion, I am responsible
for
the result. And if I can bring misery, I can also stop it. It necessarily
follows that we are free.
There
is no such thing as fate.
There
is nothing to compel us. What we have done, that we can undo.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
It is only the contemplative,
witness-like study of objects that brings to
us real enjoyment and happiness. The animal has its happiness in the senses,
the man in his intellect, and the god in spiritual contemplation. It is only to
the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world really
becomes beautiful. To him who desires nothing, and does not mix himself up with
them, the manifold changes of nature are one panorama of beauty and sublimity.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New Yorks
... these three states --
instinct, reason, and itual Prop of Moget times superconsciousness, or
the
unconscious, conscious, and superconscious states -- belong to one and the same
mind.
There
are not three minds in one man, but one state of it develops into the others.
Instinct
develops
into reason, and reason into the transcendental consciousness;
therefore, not one of the states contradicts the others. Real inspiration never
contradicts reason, but fulfills it.
Whenever a prophet got into the
superconscious state by heightening his emotional nature, he
brought
away from it not only some truths, but some fanaticism also, some superstition
which
injured
the world as much as the greatness of the teaching helped.
To
get any reason out of the mass incongruity we call human life, we have to
transcend our
reason,
but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast
off all
superstition.
We
must take up the study of the superconscious state just as any other science.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
… the present signifies both past
and future, and all three are only demarcations of time, the
present
also would be unknown if it were not for something above the senses, something
independent
of time, which unifies the past and the future in the present.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Brooklyn, New York
What, thus, men ignorantly worship
under various names, through fear and tribulation, the Yogi
declares
to the world to be the real power coiled up in every being, the mother of
eternal
happiness,
if we but know how to approach her.
And
Raja-Yoga is the science of religion, the rationale of all worship, all
prayers, forms,
ceremonies,
and miracles.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
Those who really want to be Yogis
must give up, once for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one
idea.
Make that one idea your life -- think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.
Let the brain,
muscles,
nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every
other idea
alone.
This
is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.
Others are
mere
talking machines.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga (Classes in New York)
There must be perfect chastity in
thought, word, and deed; without it the practice of Raja-Yoga is
dangerous,
and may lead to insanity. If people practise Raja-Yoga and at the same time
lead an
impure
life, how can they expect to become Yogis?
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
… the rousing of the Kundalini is
the one and only way to attaining Divine Wisdom,
superconscious
perception, realisation of the spirit.
The
rousing may come in various ways, through love for God, through the mercy of
perfected
sages,
or through the power of the analytic will of the philosopher.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
Anything that is secret and
mysterious in these systems of Yoga should be at once rejected. The
best
guide in life is strength. In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything
that weakens
you,
have nothing to do with it.
Mystery-mongering
weakens the human brain. It has well-nigh destroyed Yoga – one of the
grandest
of sciences.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga, New York
As this Kundalini force travels
from centre to centre, layer after layer of the mind, as it were,
opens
up, and this universe is perceived by the Yogi in its fine, or causal form.
Then alone the
causes
of this universe, both as sensation and reaction, are known as they are, and
hence
comes
all knowledge. The causes being known, the knowledge of the effects is sure to
follow.
-
Swami Vivekananda Raja-Yoga, New York
We have to learn yet that all
religions, under whatever name they may be called, either Hindu,
Buddhist,
Mohammedan, or Christian, have the same God, and he who derides any one of
these
derides his own God.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
Several great ideas have to be
understood, in order to grasp properly the workings of the
Vedanta
philosophy.
In
the first place it is not philosophy in the sense we speak of the philosophy of
Kant and Hegel.
It
is not one book, or the work of one man. Vedanta is the name of a series of
books written at
different
times.
…one
fact is remarkable, that these ideas in the Upanishads would be always progressing.
In
that
crude old language, the working of the mind of every one of the sages has been,
as it were,
painted
just as it went; how the ideas are at first very crude, and they become finer
and finer till
they
reach the goal of the Vedanta, and this goal assumes a philosophical name.
Just
at first it was a search after the Devas, the bright ones, and then it was the
origin of the
universe,
and the very same search is getting another name, more philosophical, clearer
-- the
unity
of all things --"Knowing which everything else becomes known."
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
... satisfaction in the senses,
says our sage, is one of the causes which have spread the veil
between
truth and ourselves. Devotion to ceremonials, satisfaction in the senses, and
forming
various
theories, have drawn a veil between ourselves and truth.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
Books never make religions, but
religions make books. We must not forget that. No book ever
created
God, but God inspired all the great books. And no book ever created a soul. We
must
never
forget that.
The
end of all religions is the realising of God in the soul. That is the one
universal religion.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
A ruler of the universe does not
explain the universe, and much less an external ruler, one
outside
of it. He may be a moral guide, the greatest power in the universe, but that is
no
explanation
of the universe.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
Wherever you see the most humanitarian
ideas fall into the hands of the multitude, the first
result,
you may notice, is degradation. It is learning and intellect that keep things
sure.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
One moment I say, "Thy will
be done," and the next moment something comes to try me and I
spring
up in a rage. The goal of all religions is the same, but the language of the
teachers
differs.
The attempt is to kill the false "I", so that the real "I",
the Lord, will reign.
All the different religions which
grew among different nations under varying circumstances and
conditions
had their origin in Asia, and the Asiatics understand them well. When they came
out
from
the motherland, they got mixed up with errors.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
"Thy will be done"--
every moment the traitor mind rebels against it, yet it must be said, again
and
again, if we are to conquer the lower self. We cannot serve a traitor and yet
be saved.
There
is salvation for all except the traitor and we stand condemned as traitors,
traitors against
our
own selves, against the majesty of Mother, when we refuse to obey the voice of
our higher
Self.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
We must learn how to worship and
love Him in the thunderbolt, in shame, in sorrow, in sin. All
the
world has ever been preaching the God of virtue. I preach a God of virtue and a
God of sin
in
one. Take Him if you dare -- that is the one way to salvation; then alone will
come to us the
Truth
Ultimate which comes from the idea of oneness.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
Sharp as the blade of a razor,
long and difficult and hard to cross, is the way to freedom. The
sages
have declared this again and again. Yet do not let these weaknesses and
failures bind
you.
The
Upanishads have declared, "Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is
reached." We will
then
certainly cross the path, sharp as it is like the razor, and long and distant
and difficult
though
it be.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
… we see that the apparent
contradictions and perplexities in every religion mark but different
stages
of growth. And as such we have no right to blame anyone for his religion. There
are
stages
of growth in which forms and symbols are necessary; they are the language that
the
souls
in that stage can understand.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
… the human soul is in its very
nature perfect, and that man is to regain that original purity.
How?
By knowing God.
Just
as the Bible says, "No man can see God but through the Son."
What
is meant by it? That seeing God is the aim and goal of all human life. The
sonship must
come
before we become one with the Father. Remember that man lost his purity through
his
own
actions. When we suffer, it is because of our own acts;
God
is not to be blamed for it.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in Hartford, Connecticut
On the philosophic side the
disciples of the Great Master [Buddha] dashed themselves against
the
eternal rocks of the Vedas and could not crush them, and on the other side they
took away
from
the nation that eternal God to which every one, man or woman, clings so fondly.
And the
result
was that Buddhism had to die a natural death in India.
-
Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
The whole of nature is worship of
God. Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom
and
that freedom is the same as God.
-
Swami Vivekananda, - Lecture in New York
How can we make the distinction
between the living and the dead, then? In the living there is
freedom,
there is intelligence; in the dead all is bound and no freedom is possible,
because
there
is no intelligence. This freedom that distinguishes us from mere machines is
what we are
all
striving for. To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in
perfect freedom can there
be
perfection.
This
effort to attain freedom underlies all forms of worship, whether we know it or
not.
-Swami
Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
The universe itself can never be
the limit of our satisfaction.
That
is why the miser gathers more and more money, that is why the robber robs, the
sinner
sins,
that is why you are learning philosophy. All have one purpose. There is no
other purpose in
life,
save to reach this freedom. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving
for perfection.
Every
being must attain to it.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York
It is too often believed that a
person in his progress towards perfection passes from error to
truth;
that when he passes on from one thought to another, he must necessarily reject
the first.
But
no error can lead to truth. The soul passing through its different stages goes
from truth to
truth,
and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
It is not that a man has a fine
and also a gross body; it is the one body only, the part which
endures
longer is the fine body, and that which dissolves sooner is the gross. Just as
I can cut
this
nail any number of times, so, millions of times I can shed this gross body, but
the fine body
will
remain.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
That soul is strong that has
become one with the Lord; none else is strong. In your own Bible,
what
do you think was the cause of that strength of Jesus of Nazareth, that immense,
infinite
strength
which laughed at traitors, and blessed those that were willing to murder him?
It was
that,
Times "I and my Father are one"; it was that prayer, "Father,
just as I am one with you, so
make
them all one with me."
That
is the worship of the Impersonal God. Be one with the universe, be one with
Him.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
… good and evil are different
aspects, or manifestations of the same thing. The idea that they
were
two was a very wrong idea from the first, and it has been the cause of a good
deal of the
misery
in this world of ours -- the idea that right and wrong are two separate things,
cut and
dried,
independent of each other, that good and evil are two eternally separable and
separate
things....
…
the Impersonal God ... is not a relative God; therefore it cannot be said that
It is either good
or
bad, but that it is something beyond, because It is neither good nor evil.
Good,
however, is a nearer manifestation of It than evil.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
The Self is the essence of this
universe, the essence of all souls;
He
is the essence of your own life, nay, "Thou are That". You are one
with this universe. He who
says
he is different from others, even by a hair's breadth, immediately becomes
miserable.
Happiness
belongs to him who knows this oneness, who knows he is one with this universe.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
Vedanta
can satisfy the demands of the scientific world, by referring it to the highest
generalisation
and to the law of evolution. That the explanation of a thing comes from within
itself
is still more completely satisfied by Vedanta. The Brahman, the God of the
Vedanta, has
nothing
outside of Himself; nothing at all. All this indeed is He: He is in the
universe: He is the
universe
Himself.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
That which existed eternally,
independent of the senses and of the intellect, was the Lord
Himself.
Upon
Him the senses are painting chairs, and tables, and rooms, and houses, and
worlds, and moons, and suns, and stars, and everything else.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
The proof of religion depends on
the truth of the constitution of man, and not on any books.
These
books are the outgoings, the effects of man's constitution; man made these
books. We
are
yet to see the books that made man. Reason is equally an effect of that common
cause, the
constitution
of man, where our appeal must be. And yet, as reason alone is directly
connected
with
this constitution, it should be resorted to, as long as it follows faithfully
the same. What do I
mean
by reason? I mean what every educated man or woman is wanting to do at the
present
time,
to apply the discoveries of secular knowledge to religion.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
The sum-total of this whole
universe is God Himself. Is God then matter? No, certainly not, for
matter
is that God perceived by the five senses; that God as perceived through the
intellect is
mind;
and when the spirit sees, He is seen as spirit. He is not matter, but whatever
is real in
matter
is He.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
All the books contained in the
Upanishads have one subject, one task before them – to prove
the
following theme:
"Just
as by the knowledge of one lump of clay we have the knowledge of all the clay
in the
universe,
so what is that, knowing which we know everything in the universe?" The
idea of the
Advaitists
is to generalise the whole universe into one that something which is really the
whole
of
this universe.
-
Swami Vivekananda,Address to Graduate Philosophical Society, Harvard
University
We are all one, and the cause of
evil is the perception of duality. As soon as I begin to feel that I
am
separate from this universe, then first comes fear, and then comes misery.
"Where
one hears another, one sees another, that is small.
Where
one does not see another, where one does not hear another, that is the
greatest, that is
God.
In that greatest is perfect happiness. In small things there is no
happiness."
-
Swami Vivekananda, Address to Graduate Philosophical Society, Harvard
University
From the very outset they [Vedic
Seers] seemed to declare -- look not for the truth in any
religion;
it is here in the human soul, the miracle of all miracles -- in the human soul,
the
emporium
of all knowledge, the mine of all existence -- seek here.
What
is not here cannot be there.
And
they found out step by step that that which is external is but a dull
reflection at best of that
which
is inside.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in England
The difference between man and
man, between angels and man, between man and animals,
between
animals and plants, between plants and stones is not in kind, because everyone
from
the
highest angel to the lowest particle of matter is but an expression of that one
infinite ocean,
and
the difference is only in degree.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in England
Priestcraft is in its nature cruel
and heartless. That is why religion goes down where priestcraft
arises.
Says the Vedanta we must give up the idea of privilege, then will religion
come. Before
that
there is no religion at all.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
The difference between God and the
devil is in nothing except in unselfishness and selfishness.
The
devil knows as much as God, is as powerful as God; only he has no holiness --
that makes
him
a devil. Apply the same idea to the modern world: excess of knowledge and
power, without
holiness,
makes human beings devils.
-Swami
Vivekananda, Talk in London of Modernimes
The whole universe is a play of
unity in variety, and of variety in unity. The whole universe is a
play
of differentiation and oneness; the whole universe is a play of the finite in
the Infinite. We
cannot
take one without granting the other.
But
we cannot take them both as facts of the same perception, as facts of the same
experience;
yet
in this way it will always go on.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
All beings, great or small, are
equally manifestations of God; the difference is only in the
manifestation.
The same eternal message, which has been eternally given, comes to them little
by
little. The eternal message has been written in the heart of every
being; it is there already, and all are struggling to express it.
Some,
in suitable circumstances, express it a little better than others, but as
bearers of the message they are all one. What claim to superiority is there?
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
No life will be a failure; there
is no such thing as failure in the universe. A hundred times man
will
hurt himself, a thousand times he will tumble, but in the end he will realise
that he is God.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
All are our fellow passengers, our
fellow travelers -- all life, plants, animals; not only my brother
man,
but my brother brute, my brother plant; not only my brother the good, but my
brother the
evil,
my brother the spiritual and my brother the wicked. They are all going to the
same goal.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
Few men know that with pleasure
there is pain, and with pain, pleasure; and as pain is
disgusting,
so is pleasure, as it is the twin brother of pain. It is derogatory to the
glory of man
that
he should be going after pain, and equally derogatory, that he should be going
after
pleasure.
Both should be turned aside by men whose reason is balanced.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
The great truths about atoms, and
the finer elements, and the fine perceptions of men, were
discovered
ages ago by men who never saw a telescope, or a microscope, or a laboratory.
How
did
they know all these things? It was through the heart; they purified the heart.
It is open to us
to
do the same today; it is the culture of the heart, really, and not that of the
intellect that will
lessen
the misery of the world.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
Every day we run after pleasure,
and before we reach it, we find it is gone, it has slipped
through
our fingers. Still we do not cease from our mad pursuit, but on and on we go,
blinded
fools
that we are.
-Swami
Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
First among the qualification
required of the aspirant for Jnana, or wisdom, come Shama and
Dama
...
...
To restrain the mind from wandering outward or inward, and keep the organs in
their
respective
centres, is what is meant by the words Shama and Dama. Shama consists in not
allowing
the mind to externalize, and Dama, in checking the external instruments.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
One must have tremendous faith in
religion and God. Until one has it, one cannot aspire to be a
Jnani.
...
…
Strong faith in God and the consequent eagerness to reach Him constitute
Shraddha.
…
Religion cannot be swallowed in the form of a pill. It requires hard and
constant practice. The
mind
can be conquered only by slow and steady practice.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
It is not at all necessary to be
educated or learned to get to God.
A
sage once told me, "To kill others one must be equipped with swords and
shields, but to
commit
suicide a needle is sufficient; so to teach others, much intellect and learning
are
necessary,
but not so for your own self - illumination." Are you pure? If you are
pure, you will
reach
God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
If
you are not pure, and you know all the sciences in the world, that will not
help you at all; you
may
be buried in all the books you read, but that will not be of much use.
It
is the heart that reaches the goal. Follow the heart.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
This human form is the great chance.
It is called the Karma-body, in which we decide our fate.
We
are running in a huge circle, and this is the point in the circle which
determines the future.
So
this is considered the most important form that there is.
Man
is greater than the gods.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
There are moments when every man
feels that he is one with the universe, and he rushes forth
to
express it, whether he knows it or not. This expression of oneness is what we
call love and
sympathy,
and it is the basis of all our ethics and morality. This is summed up in the
Vedanta
philosophy
by the celebrated aphorism, Tat Tvam Asi, "Thou art That".
In dualism, the universe is
conceived as a large machine set going by God, while in qualified
monism,
it is conceived an organism, interpenetrated by the Divine Self.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
We are finding pleasure in this
little body, in this little individuality.
How
much greater the pleasure when this whole universe is my body! If there is
pleasure in one
body,
how much more when all bodies are mine! Then is freedom attained. And this is
called
Advaita,
the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy.
-Swami
Vivekananda, Class-Talk in New York
Than the Gita no better commentary
on the Vedas has been written or can be written.
The
essence of the Shrutis, or of the Upanishads, is hard to be understood, seeing
that there
are
so many commentators, each one trying to interpret in his own way.
Then
the Lord Himself comes, He who is the inspirer of the Shrutis, to show us the
meaning of them, as the preacher of the Gita, and today India wants nothing
better, the world wants nothing better than that method of interpretation.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
This is the great fact: strength
is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal,
immortal;
weakness is constant strain and misery: weakness is death.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
That man alone will be able to get
the best of nature, who, having the power of attaching himself
to a
thing with all his energy, has also the power to detach himself when he should
do so. The
difficulty
is that there must be as much power of attachment as that of detachment.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
One of the greatest lessons I have
learnt in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of
work
as to its end. He was a great man from whom I learnt it, and his own life was a
practical
demonstration
of this great principle. I have been always learning great lessons from that
one
principle,
and it appears to be that all the secret of success is there; to pay as much
attention to
the
means as to the end.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
Salvation means knowing the truth.
We do not become anything; we are what we are. Salvation
[comes]
by faith and not by work. It is a question of knowledge! You must know what you
are,
and
it is done.
The
dream vanishes.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
The whole universe is a mass of
energy, and it is present at every point. One grain is enough for
all
of us, if we know how to get what there is. ...
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
You may be the greatest
philosopher, but as long as you have the idea that you are the body,
you
are no better than the little worm crawling under your foot!
No
excuse for you! So much the worse for you that you know all the philosophies
and at the
same
time think you are the body! Body-gods, that is what you are! Is that religion?
Religion is
the
realization of spirit as spirit.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
The Personal God is only the sum
total of all, and yet it is an individual by itself, just as you are
the
individual body of which each cell is an individual part itself.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
What makes the value of anything
in life? Not enjoyment, not possessions. Analyze everything.
You
will find there is no value except in experience, to teach us something. And in
many cases it
is
our hardships that give us better experience than enjoyment. Many times blows
give us better
experience
than the caresses of nature.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
Even if you have knowledge, do not
disturb the childlike faith of the ignorant. On the other hand,
go
down to their level and gradually bring them up. That is a very powerful idea,
and it has
become
the ideal in India. That is why you can see a great philosopher going into a
temple and
worshipping
images. It is not hypocrisy.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
In every country it is the priest
who is conservative, for two reasons because it is his bread and
because
-- he can only move with the people. All priests are not strong. If the people
say,
"Preach
two thousand gods," the priests will do it. They are the servants of the
congregation
who
pay them. God does not pay them. So blame yourselves before blaming the
priests. You
can
only get the government and the religion and the priesthood you deserve, and no
better.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
If you are strong, take up the
Vedanta philosophy and be independent. If you cannot do that,
worship
God; if not, worship some image. If you lack strength even to do that, do some
good
works
without the idea of gain. Offer everything you have unto the service of the
Lord. Fight on!
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in California
Everyone says, "Woe unto you
people!!" Who says, "Woe unto me that I cannot help you?" The
people
are doing all right to the best of their ability and means and knowledge. Woe
unto me
that
I cannot lift them to where I am!
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in California
The enjoyment of advantage over
another is privilege, and throughout ages, the aim of morality
has
been its destruction. This is the work which tends towards sameness, towards
unity, without
destroying
variety.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
Die game. … This bending the knee
to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does
not
befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birthless. Because you are
infinite spirit, it
does
not befit you to be a slave.
...
Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you.
You are all the
world.
Who
can help you?
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
The one side, the Greek side,
which is represented by modern Europe, insisted upon the
knowledge
of man; the Indian side, mostly represented by the old religions of the world,
insisted
upon
the knowledge of God.
The
one sees God in nature, and the otherern Times sees nature in God. To us, at
the present
time,
perhaps, has been given the privilege of standing aside from both these
aspects, and
taking
an impartial view of the whole.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in London
Man is man so long as he is struggling
to rise above nature, and this nature is both internal
and
external. Not only does it comprise the laws that govern the particles of
matter outside us
and
in our bodies, but also the more subtle nature within, which is, in fact, the
motive power
governing
the external. It is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander
still to
conquer
our internal nature.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
This pursuit of the Infinite, this
struggle to grasp the Infinite, this effort to get beyond the
limitations
of the senses out of matter, as it were and to evolve the spiritual man - this
-- striving
day
and night to make the Infinite one with our being -- this struggle itself is
the grandest and
most
glorious that man can make.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
That society is the greatest,
where the highest truths become practical.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
You are all Sons of God, immortal
spirit. "Know", he [Jesus] declared, "the Kingdom of Heaven
is
within you." "I and my Father are one."
Dare
you stand up and say, not only that "I am the Son of God", but I
shall also find in my heart
of
hearts that "I and my Father are one"? That was what Jesus of
Nazareth said.
-
Swami Vivekananda, 'Christ, The Messenger' at Los Angles
Religion is the greatest motive
power for realizing that infinite energy which is the birthright and
nature
of every man.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
... the mainspring of the strength
of every race lies in its spirituality, and the death of that race
begins
the day that spirituality wanes and materialism gains ground.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Renunciation is the very basis
upon which ethics stands. There never was an ethical code
preached
which had not renunciation for its basis. Ethics always says, "Not I, but
thou."
Its
motto is, "Not self, but non-self." The vain ideas of individualism,
to which man clings when
he
is trying to find that Infinite Power or that Infinite Pleasure through the
senses, have to be
given
up say the laws of ethics. – You have to put yourself last, and others before
you.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
… one fact stands out from all
these different religions, that there is an Ideal Unit Abstraction,
which
is put before us, either in the form of a Person or an Impersonal Being, or a
Law, or a
Presence,
or an Essence. We are always struggling to raise ourselves up to that ideal.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Temples or churches, books or
forms, are simply the kindergarten of religion, to make the
spiritual
child strong enough to take higher steps; and these first steps are necessary
if he
wants
religion.
With
the thirst, the longing for God, comes real devotion, real Bhakti.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
Man is an infinite circle whose
circumference is nowhere, but the centre is located in one spot;
and
God is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is
everywhere.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
The reality of everything is the
same infinite. This is not idealism; it is not that the world does not
exist.
It
has a relative existence, and fulfils all its requirements. But it has no
independent existence. It
exists
because of the Absolute Reality beyond time, space, and causation.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
... the very fact that you
complain and want to lay blame upon the external world shows that you
feel
the external world -- the very fact that you feel shows that you are not what
you claim to be.
You
only make your offence greater by heaping misery upon misery, by imagining that
the
external
world is hurting you, and crying out, "Oh, this devil's world! This man
hurts me; that
man
hurts me!" and so forth. It is adding lies to misery.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
Even if our every attempt is a
failure, and we bleed and are torn asunder, yet, through all this,
we
have to preserve our heart -- we must assert our God-head in the midst of all
these
difficulties.
Nature wants us to react, to return blow for blow, cheating for cheating, lie
for lie, to
hit
back with all our might. Then it requires a superdivine power not to hit back,
to keep control,
to
be unattached.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
We get caught. How? Not by what we
give, but by what we expect. We get misery in return for
our
love; not from the fact that we love, but from the fact that we want love in
return. There is no
misery
where there is no want. Desire, want, is the father of all misery. Desires are
bound by the
laws
of success and failure. Desires must bring misery.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
...says the Gita: Work constantly;
work, but be not attached; be not caught. Reserve unto
yourself
the power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much
the
soul
might yearn for it, however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were
going to leave it;
still,
reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angeles
Many do not know what an infinite
mine of bliss is in them, around them, everywhere; they have
not
yet discovered it. mi What is a demoniacal world? The Vedanta says, ignorance.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
… do your work, says the Vedanta.
It
first advises us how to work -- by giving up the apparent, illusive world. What
is meant by that?
Seeing
God everywhere. Thus do you work.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
If we discover that there is one
unity running through all these developments, spiritual, moral,
and
social, we shall find that religion, in the fullest sense of the word, must
come into society,
and
into our everyday life. In the light of Vedanta you will understand that
all
sciences are but manifestations of religion, and so is everything that exists
in this world.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
After all, these philosophical
ideas and systems are but gymnastics of the mind, intellectual
exercises.
The one great idea that to me seems to be clear, and comes out through masses
of
superstition
in every country and in every religion, is the one luminous idea that man is
divine,
that
divinity is our nature.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
He who sees in this world of
manifoldness that One running through all, in this world of death he
who
finds that One Infinite Life, and in this world of insentience and ignorance he
who finds that
One
Light and Knowledge, unto him belongs eternal peace. Unto none else, unto none
else.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
What is meant by morality? Making
the subject strong by attuning it to the Absolute, so that finite
nature ceases to have control over us.
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Good and bad are never two
different things, they are one and the same; the difference is not
one
of kind, but of degree.
-
Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Everyone must be judged according to his own ideal, and
not by that of anyone else. In our
dealings with our
fellow-beings we constantly labour under this mistake, and I am of opinion that
the vast majority of
our quarrels with one another arise simply from this one cause that we are
always trying to
judge others' gods by our own, others' ideals by our ideals, and others'
motives
by our motives.
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga, London
Say to your own minds, "I am He. I am He." Let
it ring day and night in your minds like a song,
and at the point of
death declare, "I am He."
That is the Truth;
the infinite strength of the world is yours.
Drive out the
superstition that has covered your minds. Let us be brave. Know the Truth and
practise the Truth.
The goal may be distant, but awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is
reached.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
The Hindu thinkers were as bold, and in some cases, much
bolder than the moderns. They
made some of the
grandest generalisations that have yet been reached, and some still remain
as theories, which
modern science has yet to get even as theories.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Fanatics cannot work, they waste three-fourths of their
energy. It is the level-headed, calm,
practical man who
works. So, the power to work will increase from this idea.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or
modern. Society has to pay homage to
Truth or die.
Societies should be
moulded upon truth, and truth has not to adjust itself to society. If such a
noble truth as
unselfishness cannot be practised in society, it is better for man to give up
society
and go into the
forest.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Do not talk of the wickedness of the world and all its
sins. Weep that you are bound to see
wickedness yet. Weep
that you are bound to see sin everywhere, and if you want to help the
world, do not condemn
it.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
What is there to be taught more in religion than the oneness
of the universe and faith in one's
self?
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I, London
Silly fools tell you that you are sinners, and you sit
down in a corner and weep. It is foolishness,
wickedness, downright
rascality to say that you are sinners! You are all God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, USA
You are pure already, you are free already. If you think
you are free, free you are this moment,
and if you think you
are bound, bound you will be. This is a very bold statement, and as I told
you at the beginning
of this course, I shall have to speak to you very boldly.
It may frighten you
now, but when you think over it, and realise it in your own life, then you will
come to know that
what I say is true.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Beyond all sound, all sight, beyond form, absolute, beyond
all taste and touch, infinite, without
beginning and without
end, even beyond nature, the Unchangeable; he who realises Him, frees
himself from the jaws
of death. But it is very difficult. It is, as it were, walking on the edge of a
razor; the way is
long and perilous, but struggle on, do not despair.
Awake, arise, and
stop not till the goal is reached.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
The Hindu is just as practical as the Western only we
differ in our views of life. The one says,
build a good house,
let us have good clothes and food, intellectual culture, and so on, for this is
the whole of life;
and in that he is immensely practical. But the Hindu says, true knowledge of
the world means
knowledge of the soul, metaphysics; and he wants to enjoy that life.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
It is this duality, this play of good and evil that makes
our world of experiences. At the same time
the Vedanta says,
"Do not think that good and evil are two, are two separate essences, for
they
are one and the same
thing, appearing in different degrees and in different guises and
producing differences
of feeling in the same mind."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every
moment of goodness and real life that we
enjoy is when we do
not think of ourselves. This little separate self must die. Then we shall find
that we are in the
Real, and that Reality is God, and He is our own true nature, and He is always
in us and with us.
Let us live in Him and stand in Him. It is the only joyful state of existence.
Life
on the plane of the
Spirit is the only life, and let us all try to attain to this realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
God, though everywhere, can be known to us in and through
human character. No character
was ever so perfect
as Ramakrishna's, and that should be the centre round which we ought to
rally, at the same
time allowing everybody to regard him in his own light, either as God, saviour,
teacher, model, or
great man, just as he pleases.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Written to "Kidi" from Chicago
It is thought, which is the propelling force in us. Fill
the mind with the highest thoughts, hear
them day after day,
think them month after month. Never mind failures; they are quite natural,
they are the beauty
of life, these failures.
... Never mind the
struggles, the mistakes.
.... hold the ideal a
thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once
more. The ideal of
man is to see God in everything.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
All through evolution you find that the conquest of nature
comes by change in the subject. Apply
this to religion and
morality, and you will find that the conquest of evil comes by the change in
the subjective alone.
That is how the Advaita system gets it whole force, on the subjective side
of man. To talk of
evil and misery is nonsense, because they do not exist outside.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
The highest heaven, therefore, is in our own souls; the
greatest temple of worship is the human
soul, greater than
all heavens, says the Vedanta; for in no heaven anywhere, can we
understand the
reality as distinctly and clearly as in this life, in our own soul. Changing
places
does not help one
much.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
… the last word of eaches Upanishad is, "Thou art
That".
There is but One
Eternally Blissful Principle, and that One is manifesting Itself as all this
variety.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
We had better remember here that throughout the Vedanta
philosophy, there is no such thing as
good and bad, they
are not two different things; the same thing is good or bad, and the
difference is only in
degree.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as
God Himself, and knowing that this is all
we have to do, this
is all we should ask for.
God is in everything,
where else shall we go to find Him? He is already in every work, in every
thought, in every
feeling. Thus knowing, we must work -- this is the only way, there is no other.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
With every breath, with every pulsation of the heart, with
every one of our movements, we think
we are free, and with
very same moment we are shown that we are not. Bound slaves, nature's
bond-slaves, in body,
in mind, in all our thoughts, in all our feelings.
And this is Maya.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am
sure that the man without an ideal
makes fifty thousand.
Therefore, it is better to have an ideal. And this ideal we must hear about
as much as we can,
till it enters into our hearts, into our brains, into our very veins, until it
tingles
in every drop of our
blood and permeates every pore in our body. We must meditate upon it.
"Out of the
fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh," and out of the fullness of the
heart the
hand works too.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
A great Bhakta (Hanuman) once said when asked what day of
the month it was, "God is my
eternal date, no
other date I care for."
- Swami Vivekananda
If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this
thought to bear upon your life, fill
yourselves with the
thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory. Would to God no
superstitions had
been put into your head!
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I, London
Wherever there are two, there is fear, there is danger,
there is conflict, there is strife. When it is
all One, who is there
to hate, who is there to struggle with? When it is all He, with whom can you
fight? This explains the true
nature of life; this explains the true nature of being. This is perfection, and
this is God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
Rama, the ancient idol of the heroic ages, the embodiment
of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the
ideal husband, the
ideal father, and above all, the ideal king, this Rama has been presented
before us by the
great sage Valmiki. No language can be purer, none chaster, none more
beautiful and at the
same time simpler than the language in which the great poet has depicted
the life of Rama.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the
glory of the Self that appears as man,
the most glorious God
that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists, or ever will exist. I
am to worship,
therefore, none but myself. "I worship my Self," says the Advaitist.
To whom shall
I bow down? I salute
my Self.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
The man who gives way to anger, or hatred, or any other
passion, cannot work; he only breaks
himself to pieces,
and does nothing practical. It is the calm, forgiving, equable, well-balanced
mind that does the
greatest amount of work.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I, London
What can cause me sorrow? I am the One Existence of the
universe.
Then all jealousies
will disappear; of whom to be jealous? Of myself? Then all bad feelings
disappear.
Against whom can I
have bad feeling? Against myself?
There is none in the
universe but I. And this is the one way, says the Vedantist, to Knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga,
US
The sky never changes; it is the clouds that change. It is
a mistake to think that the sky is
changed. It is a
mistake to think that we are impure, that we are limited, that we are separate.
The real man is the
one Unit Existence.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New York
The first test of true teaching must be, that the teaching
should not contradict reason. And you
may see that such is
the basis of all these [four] Yogas.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Pasadena,
California
The theme of the Vedanta is to see the Lord in everything,
to see things in their real nature, not
as they appear to be.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
We are like little puppies, making life-and-death
struggles here and foolishly thinking that even
God Himself will take
it as seriously as we do. He knows what the puppies' play means. Our
attempts to lay the
blame on Him, making Him the punisher, and the rewarder, are only foolish.
He neither punishes,
nor rewards any. His infinite mercy is open to every one, at all times, in all
places, under all
conditions, unfailing, unswerving.
- Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga,
New-York
The difference in knowledge between es the lowest worm
that crawls under our feet and the
highest genius that
the world may produce is only of degree, and not of kind. The Vedantin
thinker boldly says
that the enjoyments in this life, even the most degraded joys, are but
manifestations of
that One Divine Bliss, the Essence of the Soul.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, London
It is the same thing which appears as the body, as the
mind, and as the thing beyond mind and
body, but it is not
at the same time all these.
- Swami Vivekananda.
Jnana-Yoga, NY
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Self, the Atman, in you,
in me, in every one, is omnipresent.
You are as much in
the sun now as in this earth, as much in England as in America. But the Self
acts through the mind
and the body, and where they are, its action is visible.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
The alpha and omega of Vedanta philosophy is to "give
up the world," giving up the unreal
Times and taking the
real.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
The Vedanta recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error.
And the greatest error, says the
Vedanta, is to say
that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you
have no power and you
cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that way, you, as it
were, rivet one more
link in the chain that binds you down, you add one more layer of hypnotism
on to your own soul.
- Swami Vivekananda
Practical Vedanta I, London
The one theme of Vedanta philosophy is the search after
unity.
The Hindu mind does
not care for the particular; it is always after the general, nay, the
universal.
"What is that,
by knowing which everything else is to be known?"
That is the one
theme. "As through the knowledge of one lump of clay all that is of clay
is
known, so, what is
that, by knowing which this whole universe itself will be known?" That is
the
one search.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana Yoga, New York
As certain religions of the world say that a man who does
not believe in a Personal God outside
of himself is an
atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an
atheist. Not
believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London
The Vedanta, ... as a religion must be intensely
practical. We must be able to carry it out in
every part of our
lives. And not only this, the fictitious differentiation between religion and
the life
of the world must
vanish, for the Vedanta teaches oneness -- one life throughout.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London
Real activity, which is the goal of Vedanta, is combined
with eternal calmness, the calmness
which cannot be
ruffled, the balance of mind which is never disturbed, whatever happens. And
we all know from our
experience in life that that is the best attitude for work.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I, London
I will ask you to understand that Vedanta, though it is
intensely practical, is always so in the
sense of the ideal.
It does not preach an impossible ideal, however high it be, and it is high
enough for an ideal.
In one word, this ideal is that you are divine, "Thou art That".
This is the essence
of Vedanta.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London
… just as we under delusion think that the sun is moving
and not the earth, in exactly the same
way we think that we
are dying, and not nature. These are all, therefore, hallucinations. Just as
it is a hallucination
when we think that the fields are moving and not the railway train, exactly in
the same manner is
the hallucination of birth and death.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New York
Omnipresent is the Self of man. Where is it to go? Where is
it not to go? It is everywhere. So all this childish dream and puerile illusion
of birth and death, of heavens and higher heavens and lower worlds, all vanish immediately
for the perfect. For the nearly perfect it vanishes after showing them the
several scenes up to Brahmaloka. It continues for the ignorant.
-Swami Vivekananda, Jnana-Yoga,
New York
You are the veritable Gods of the universe; nay, there are
not two -- there is but One. It is a
mistake to say,
"you and I"; say "I". It is I who am eating in millions of
mouths; how can I be
hungry? It is I who
am working through an infinite number of hands; how can I be inactive?
It is I who am living
the life of the whole universe; where is death for me? I am beyond all life,
beyond all death.
Where shall I seek for freedom? I am free by my nature.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
Is not the whole universe you? Where is there any one that
is not you? You are the Soul of this universe. You are the sun, moon, and
stars, it is you that are shining everywhere. The whole universe is you. Whom
are you going to hate or to fight? Know, then, that thou art He, and model your
whole life accordingly; and he who knows this and models his life accordingly
will no more grovel in darkness.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
Every ounce of fame can only be bought at the cost of
pound of peace and holiness.
- Swami Vivekananda
There is neither man nor woman; the soul is sexless,
eternally pure. It is a lie to say that I am a
man or a woman, or to
say that I belong to this country or that. All the world is my country, the
whole universe is
mine, because I have clothed myself with it as my body.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New York
Man, therefore, according to the Vedanta philosophy, is
the greatest being that is in the
universe, and this
world of work the best place in it, because only herein is the greatest and the
best chance for him
to become perfect. Angels or gods, whatever you may call them, have all to
become men, if they
want to become perfect. This is the great centre, the wonderful poise, and
the wonderful
opportunity -- this human life.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New York
According to the Advaita philosophy, there is only one
thing real in the universe, which it calls
Brahman; everything
else is unreal, manifested and manufactured out of Brahman by the power
of Maya.
To reach back to that
Brahman is our goal. We are, each one of us, that Brahman, that Reality,
plus this Maya. If we
can get rid of this Maya or ignorance, then we become what we really are.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, US
We now see that all the various forms of cosmic energy, such
as matter, thought, force,
intelligence and so
forth, are simply the manifestations of that cosmic intelligence, or, as we
shall call it
henceforth, the Supreme Lord.
Everything that you
see, feel, or hear, the whole universe, is His creation, or to be a little more
accurate, is His
projection; or to be still more accurate, is the Lord Himself.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New-York
Religion is realisation; not talk, nor doctrine, nor
theories, however beautiful they may be. It is
being and becoming,
not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into
what it believes.
That is religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Pasadena, California
When you see man as God, everything, even the tiger, will
be welcome. Whatever comes to you
is but the Lord, the
Eternal, the Blessed One, appearing to us in various forms, as our father,
and mother, and
friend, and child -- they are our own soul playing with us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
It is better that we know we are God and give up this
fool's search after Him; and knowing that
we are God we become
happy and contented. Give up all these mad pursuits, and then play
your part in the
universe, as an actor on the stage.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
Life is but a playground, however gross the play may be.
However we may receive blows, and
however knocked about
we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Los Angles, California
It is all He, and all I, at the same time. The soul has
become pure. Then,
and then alone we understand what love is. Love cannot come through fear, its
basis is freedom. When we really begin to love the world, then we understand
what is meant by brotherhood or mankind, and not before.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
Our thoughts, our words and deeds are the threads of the
net which we throw round ourselves,
for good or for evil.
Once we set in motion a certain power, Times we have to take the full
consequences of it.
This is the law of
Karma.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
Build up your character, and manifest your real nature,
the Effulgent, the Resplendent, the
Ever-pure, and call
It up in everyone that you see.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
... this is the real, practical side of Vedanta. It does
not destroy the world, but it explains it; it
does not destroy the
person, but explains him; it does not destroy the individuality, but explains
it by showing the
real individuality. It does not show that this world is vain and does not
exist, but
it says,
"Understand what
this world is, so that it may not hurt you."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
Purity, patience, and perseverance overcome all obstacles. All
great things must of necessity be slow.
- Swami Vivekananda
In one word, the ideal of Vedanta is to know man as he
really is, and this is its message,
worship your brother
man, the manifested God, that if you cannot how can you worship a God who is
unmanifested?
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
It is not ... that there are many worlds, it is not that
there are many lives. All this manifoldness is
the manifestation of
that One. That One is manifesting Himself as many, as matter, spirit, mind,
thought, and
everything else. It is that One, manifesting Himself as many. Therefore the
first
step for us to take
is to teach the truth to ourselves and to others.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London
The old religion said that he was an atheist who did not
believe in God.
The new religion says
that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself. But it is not selfish
faith, because the
Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means faith in all, because you
are all.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London mes
Wherever there is this false idea of reconciling fleshly
vanities with the highest ideals, of
dragging down God to
the level of man, there comes decay. Man should not be degraded to
worldly slavery, but
should be raised up to God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I,
London
The soul was never born and will never die, and all these
ideas that we are going to die and are
afraid to die are
mere superstitions. And all such ideas as that we can do this or can not do
that
are superstitions. We
can do everything. The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves
first.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta I. London
He is in everything. He is everything. Every man and woman
is the palpable, blissful, living God.
Who says God is
unknown? Who says He is to be searched after?
We have found God
eternally. We have been living in Him eternally; everywhere He is eternally
known, eternally
worshipped.
- Swami Vivekananda.
Practical Vedanta II, London
There is, you must remember, all the difference of pole to
pole between realisation and mere
talking. Any fool can
talk. Even parrots talk. Talking is one thing, and realising is another.
Philosophies, and
doctrines, and arguments, and books, and theories, and churches, and sects,
and all these things
are good in their own way; but when that realisation comes, these things
drops away.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Jnana-Yoga, New York
… invented symbolism may good and helpful, but already
better symbols exist than any we can
invent. You may
invent an image through which to worship God, but a better image already
exists, the living
man. You may build a temple in which to worship God, and that may be good,
but a better one, a
much higher one, already exists, the human body.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
The noumenon is not something different from the
phenomena, but it is the very noumenon
which has become the
phenomena. There is a soul which is unchanging, and what we call
feelings and
perceptions, nay, even the body, are the very soul, seen from another point of
view.
We have got into the
habit of thinking that we have bodies and souls and so forth, but really
speaking, there is
only one.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
The Impersonal God is a living God, a principle. The
difference between personal and
impersonal is this,
that the personal is only a man, and the impersonal idea is that He is the
angel, the man, the
animal, and yet something more which we cannot see, because
impersonality
includes all personalities, is the sum total of everything in the universe, and
infinitely more
besides.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta II, London
The history of the world shows that those who never
thought of their little individuality were the
greatest benefactors
of the human race, and that the more men and women think of
themselves, the less
are they able to do for others. One is unselfishness, and the other
selfishness. Clinging
on to little enjoyments, and to desire the continuation and repetition of this
state of things is
utter selfishness.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
The difference between dualism and monism is that when the
ideal is put outside [of oneself], it
is dualism. When God
is [sought] within, it is monism.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in San Francisco
My idea is to show that the highest ideal of morality and
unselfishness goes hand in hand with
the highest
metaphysical conception, and that you need not lower your conception to get
ethics
and morality, but, on
the other hand, to reach a real basis of morality and ethics you must have
the highest
philosophical and scientific conceptions.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV,
London
Be not afraid. Think not how many times you fail. Never
mind. Time is infinite. Go forward;
assert yourself again
and again, and light must come.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in Los Angles, California
With the oldest theories, the Advaita is friendly. Dualism
and all systems that had preceded it
are accepted by the
Advaita not in a patronizing way, but with the conviction that they are true
manifestations of the
same truth, and that they all lead to the same conclusions as the Advaita
has reached.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
The Vedanta also says that the cause of all this apparent
evil is in ourselves. Do not blame any
supernatural being,
neither be hopeless and despondent, nor think we are in a place from which
we can never escape
unless someone comes and lends us a helping hand. That cannot be,
says the Vedanta.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London
I wish that everyone of us had come to such a state that
even in the vilest of human beings we
could see the Real
Self within, and instead of condemning them, say, "Rise thou effulgent
one,
rise thou who art always
pure, rise thou birthless and deathless, rise almighty, and manifest thy
true nature. These
little manifestations do not befit thee." This is the highest prayer that
the
Advaita teaches.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV,
London
So if we are Advaitists, we must think from this moment
that our old self is dead and gone. The
old Mr., Mrs., and
Miss So-and-so are gone, they were mere superstitions, and what remains is
the ever-pure, the
ever-strong, the almighty, the all-knowing -- that alone remains for us, and
then all fear
vanishes from us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Practical Vedanta IV, London,
Don't look back -- forward, infinite energy, infinite
enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite
patience – then alone
can great deeds be accomplished.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Abhedananda from Reading, England (October
1895)
This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others.
- Swami Vivekananda
The Hindoo occupies a unique position towards Buddhism. Like Christ, who antagonized the
Jews, Buddha antagonized the prevailing religion of India; but while Christ was rejected by his
countrymen, Buddha was accepted as God Incarnate. He denounced the priestcraft at the very
doors of their temples, yet today he is worshipped by them.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Brooklyn
We have to go beyond the body, and beyond thought too. says the Advaita. And we have also
seen that, according to Advaita. this freedom is not to be attained, it is already ours. We only
forget it and deny it. Perfection is not to be attained, it is already within us. Immortality and bliss
are not to be acquired. we possess them already. they have been ours all the time.
- Swami Vivekananda. Practical Vedanta IV, London
Kapila does not believe in the unity of all souls. His analysis, so far as it goes, is simply
marvelous. He is the father of Indian thinkers: Buddhism and other systems are the outcome of his thought.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
Religion permeates the whole of man's life, not only the present, but the past, present, and
future. It is, therefore, the eternal relation between the eternal soul and the eternal God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
A plant grows. Do you make the plant grow? Your duty is to put a hedge round it and see that no
animal eats up the plant, and there your duty ends. The plant grows of itself. So it is in regard to
the spiritual growth of every man. None can teach you; none can make a spiritual man of you.
You have to teach yourself; your growth must come from inside.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Pasadena, California
To love because it is the nature of love to love is undeniably the highest and the most unselfish
manifestation of love that may be seen in the world. Such love, working itself out on the plane of
spirituality, necessarily leads to the attainment of Para-Bhakti.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Obedience, readiness, and love for the cause -- if you have these three, nothing can hold you back.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Swami Shuddhananda from Almora (July 1897)
You are that Impersonal Being; that God for whom you have been searching all over the
universe is all the time yourself -- yourself not in the personal sense but in the Impersonal. The
man we know now, the manifested, is personalized, but the reality of this is the Impersonal. To
understand the personal we have to refer it to the Impersonal, the particular must be referred to
the general, and that Impersonal is the Truth, the Self of man.
- Swami Vivekananda, Practical Vedanta III, London
It [Jnana-Yoga] tells man that he is essentially divine. It shows to mankind the real unity of
being, and that each one of us is the Lord God Himself, manifested on earth. All of us, from the
lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the highest beings to whom we look up with wonder
and awe all are manifestations of the same Lord.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Palena, California
Through high philosophy or low, through the most exalted mythology or through the most refined
ritualism or the grossest, arrant fetishism, every sect, every soul, every nation, every religion,
consciously or unconsciously, is struggling upward, towards God; every vision of truth that man has,
is a vision of Him and of none else.
-Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Pasadena, California
All things are interpenetrated by that infinite ocean; their reality is that infinite; and whatever
there is on the surface is but that infinite. The tree is infinite; so is everything that you see or feel
-- every grain of sand, every thought, every soul, everything that exists, is infinite. Infinite is finite
and finite infinite. This is our existence.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angles, California
Just as the Western ideal is to keep up luxury in practical life, so ours is to keep up the highest
form of spirituality, to demonstrate that religion is not merely frothy words, but can be carried
out, every bit of it, in this life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
... birth, death, misery, and the various tossings about to which we are subject in the world can
only be overcome by knowing that which is real. What is real? That which never changes, the
Self of man, the Self behind the universe. Then, again, it is said that it is very difficult to know
Him. Knowing does not mean simply intellectual assent, it means realisation
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
It is also a significant fact that spiritual giants have been produced only in those systems of
religion where there is an exuberant growth of rich mythology and ritualism.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
They are very sincere, these fanatics, the most sincere of human beings; but they are quite as
irresponsible as other lunatics in the world. This disease of fanaticism is one of the most
dangerous of all diseases. All the wickedness of human nature is roused by it. Anger is stirred
up, nerves are strung high, and human beings become like tigers.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Pasadena, California
There is only one Self in the universe, only One Existence, and that One Existence, when it
passes through the forms of time, space, and causation, is called by different names, Buddhi,
fine matter, gross matter, all mental and physical forms. Everything in the universe is that One,
appearing in various forms.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York.
In India the attempt has been made from the earliest times to reach a science of religion and
philosophy, for the Hindus do not separate these as is customary in Western countries. We
regard religion and philosophy as but two aspects of one thing which must equally be grounded
in reason and scientific truth.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
Thus sang a Vedantin, "I never had fear nor doubt. Death never came to me. I never had father
or mother: for I was never born. Where are my foes?-- for I am All. I am the Existence and
Knowledge and Bliss Absolute. I am It. I am It. Anger and lust and jealousy, evil thoughts and all
these things, never came to me; for I am the Existence, the Knowledge, the Bliss Absolute. I am
It. I am It."
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angles, California
All that is meant by dying or being born is simply changes in the plane of vision. Neither do you
move, nor does that move upon which you project your vision. You are the permanent, the
unchangeable. How can you come and go? It is impossible; you are omnipresent.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
In making money, or in worshipping God, or in doing anything, the stronger the power of
concentration, the better will that thing be done. This is the one call, the one knock, which opens
the gates of nature, and lets out floods of light. This, the power of concentration, is the only key
to the treasure-house of knowledge. The system of Raja-Yoga deals almost exclusively with
this.
-Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Pasadena, California
Our sacred motherland is a land of religion and philosophy - the birthplace of spiritual giants -
the land of renunciation, where and where alone, from the most ancient to the most modern
times, there has been the highest ideal of life open to man.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Pamban, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the
flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love, the garb of the Sannyasin; not by the
power of wealth, but by the power of the begging bowl. Say not that you are weak. The spirit is
omnipotent.
- Swami Vivekananda Reply to the Madras Address
Misery comes because we think we are finite - we are little beings. And yet, how difficult it is to
believe that we are infinite beings! In the midst of all this misery and trouble, when a little thing
may throw me off my balance, it must be my care to believe that I am infinite. And the fact is that
we are, and that consciously or unconsciously we are all searching after that something which is
infinite; we are always seeking for something that is free.
-Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angles, California
"I am It! I am It!" "I am neither a man, nor a woman, nor a god, nor a demon; no, nor any of the
animals, plants, or trees. I am neither poor nor rich, neither learned nor ignorant. All these things
are very little compared with what I am: for I am It! I am It! Behold the sun and the moon and the
stars: I am the light that is shining in them! I am the beauty of the fire! I am the power in the
universe! For, I am It! I am It!"
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in Los Angles, California
The real Being who is behind, is that one God. We are all one there. As Self, there is only one in
the universe. It is in me and you, and is only one; and that one Self has been reflected in all
these various bodies as various different selves. But we do not know this; we think we are
separate from each other and separate from Him. And so long as we think this, misery will be in
the world. This is hallucination.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
In Advaita philosophy, the whole universe is all one in the Self which is called Brahman. That
Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind
this little universe, the body, is the soul. This very soul, therefore, is the Self in man.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
There are two worlds, the microcosm, and the macrocosm, the internal and the external. We get
truth from both of these by means of experience. The truth gathered from internal experience is
psychology, metaphysics, and religion; from external experience, the physical sciences. Now a
perfect truth should be in harmony with experiences in both these worlds.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
The history of the world teaches us that wherever there have been fanatical reforms, the only
result has been that they have defeated their own ends.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Victoria Hall Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Infinite divided by infinite, added to infinite, multiplied by infinite [remains] infinite. You are
infinite; God is infinite. You are all infinite. There cannot be two existences, only one. The Infinite
can never be made finite. You are never bound. That is all.... You are free already. You have
reached the goal -- all there is to reach. Never allow the mind to think that you have not reached
the goal...
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in San Francisco
The whole universe is you; the universe is your body; you are the universe both formed and
unformed. You are the soul of the universe and its body also. You are God, you are the angels,
you are man, you are animals, you are the plants, you are the minerals, you are everything; the
manifestation of everything is you. Whatever exists is you. You are the Infinite.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
Every one of these Incarnations came as a living illustration of what they came to preach.
Krishna, the preacher of the Gita, was all his life the embodiment of the Song Celestial; he was
the great illustration of non-attachment.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
It is very well to say: Be contented with the things of the present. The cows and the dogs are,
and so are all animals; and that is what makes them animals. So if man rests content with the
present and gives up all search into the beyond, mankind will have to go back to the animal
plane again. It is religion, the inquiry into the beyond, that makes the difference between man and animal.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
The sine qua non of acquiring spiritual truth for one's self or for imparting it to others is the purity
of heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of the beyond never comes until the soul is pure.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
If you can give a beginning to time, the whole concept of time will be destroyed. Try to think of a
limit where time began, you have to think of time beyond that limit. Try to think where space
begins, you will have to think of space beyond that. Time and space are infinite, and therefore
have neither beginning nor end. This is a better idea than that God created the universe in five
minutes and then went to sleep, and since then has been sleeping.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest and most natural way to reach the
great divine end in view; its great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes
degenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or Mohammedanism, or
Christianity have always been almost exclusively recruited from these worshippers on the lower
planes of Bhakti.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which
you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world.
thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of millions and
millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. … …
The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a
vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita:
"Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, reach him; all men are struggling through
paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant,
fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence,
drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to
despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced
than it is now. But their time is come, and fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in
honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the
sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the
same goal.
- Swami Vivekananda at Parliament of Religions (11 Sept. 1893)
I teach only the Self, hidden in the heart of every individual and common to all. A handful of
strong men knowing that Self and living in Its light would revolutionize the world, even today, as
has been the case by single strong men before, each in his day.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'West Minster Gazette' Interview (23rd October 1895)
The soul is also sexless, we cannot say of the Atman that it is a man or a woman. Sex belongs
to the body alone. All such ideas, therefore, as
man or woman, are a delusion when spoken with regard to the Self, and are only proper when
spoken of the body. So are the ideas of age. It never ages; the ancient One is always the same.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
There is but One Existence, and that One-Existence seen through different constitutions
appears either as the earth, or heaven, or hell, or gods, or ghosts, or men, or demons, or world,
or all these things. But among these many, "He who sees that One in this ocean of death, he
who sees that One Life in this floating universe, who realises that One who never changes, unto
him belongs eternal peace; unto none else, unto none else." This One Existence has to be
realised.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
Now comes the question: Can religion really accomplish anything? It can. It brings to man
eternal life. It has made man what he is, and will make of this human animal a god. That is what
religion can do. Take religion from human society and what will remain? Nothing but a forest of
brutes. Sense-happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom (Jnana) is the goal of all life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New-York
It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building up of our characters in this life: yet we
know that the character is of the noblest type in which all these three -- knowledge and love and
Yoga - are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a bird to fly -- the two wings and the
tail as a rudder for steering. Jnana (knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga
is the tail that keeps up the balance.
- Swami Vivekananda Bhakti-Yoga
What is meant by Dâna? The highest of gifts is the giving of spiritual knowledge, the next is the
giving of secular knowledge, and the next is the saving of life, the last is giving food and drink.
He who gives spiritual knowledge, saves the soul from many and many a birth. He who gives
secular knowledge opens the eyes of human beings towards spiritual knowledge, and far below
these rank all other gifts, even the saving of life. Therefore it is necessary that you learn this and
note that all other kinds of work are of much less value than that of imparting spiritual knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
If you want to be a Bhakta, it is not at all necessary for you to know whether Krishna was born in
Mathura or in Vraja, what he was doing, or just the exact date on which he pronounced the
teachings of the Gita. You only require to feel the craving for the beautiful lessons of duty and
love in the Gita. All the other particulars about it and its author are for the enjoyment of the
learned. Let them have what they desire.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
One ounce of the practice of righteousness and of spiritual Self-realisation outweighs tons and
tons of frothy talk and nonsensical sentiments. Show us one, but one gigantic spiritual genius growing out
of all this dry dust of ignorance and fanaticism; and if you cannot, close your mouths, open the windows of your
hearts to the clear light of truth, and sit like children at the feet of those who know what they are talking about
the sages of India.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
In spite of the sparkle and glitter of Western civilisation, in spite of all its polish and its marvellous manifestation of power,
standing upon this platform, I tell them to their face that it is all vain. It is vanity of vanities. God alone lives. The soul alone
lives. Spirituality alone lives. Hold onto that.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
In human society, the nearer the man is to the animal, the stronger is his pleasure in the senses;
and the higher and the more cultured the man is, the greater is his pleasure in intellectual and
such other finer pursuits. So when a man gets even higher than the plane of the intellect, higher
than that of mere thought, when he gets to the plane of spirituality and of divine inspiration, he
finds there a state of bliss, compared with which all the pleasures of the senses, or even of the
intellect, are as nothing.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Man never dies, nor is he ever born; bodies die, but he never dies.
- Swami Vivekananda
The world is just a playground, and we are here having good fun, having a game; and God is
with us playing all the while, and we are with Him playing. God is our eternal playmate. How
beautifully He is playing! The play is finished when the cycle comes to an end.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
We find, as a rule, that liberal and sympathetic sects lose the intensity of religious feeling, and in
their hands, religion is apt to degenerate into a kind of politico-social club life. On the other
hand, intensely narrow sectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their own ideals,
are seen to have acquired every particle of that love by hating every one who is not of exactly
the same opinions as themselves. Would to God that this world was full of men who were as
intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies!
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
All the various movements that we see around us in society are caused by the various ideals in
various souls trying to come out and become concretised; what is inside presses on to come
outside.
This perennially dominant influence of the ideal is the one force, the one motive power,that may
be seen to be constantly working in the midst of mankind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Make your children strong from their very childhood; teach them not weakness, nor forms, but
make them strong; let them stand on their feet -- bold, all-conquering, all-suffering; and first of
all, let them learn of the glory of the soul. That you get alone in the Vedanta -- and there alone.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
To restrain the Indriyas (organs) from going towards the objects of the senses, to control them
and bring them under the guidance of the will, is the very central virtue in religious culture. Then
comes the practice of self-restraint and self-denial. All the immense possibilities of divine
realisation in the soul cannot get actualized without struggle and without such practice on the
part of the aspiring devotee.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
And all above,
Himala's daughter Uma, gentle, pure,
The Mother that resides in all as Power
And Life, who works all works and
Makes of One the world, whose mercy
Opens the gate to Truth and shows
The One in All, give thee untiring
Strength, which is Infinite Love.
- Swami Vivekananda, from "To The Awakened India' (poem)
Broadly speaking, the proper use of any of the faculties of our mind and body is termed virtue,
and its improper application or waste is called vice.
- Swami Vivekananda, Conversations and Dialogues, at Calcutta, Surendra Nath Sen Diary
Religion, which is the highest knowledge and the highest wisdom, cannot be bought, nor can it
be acquired from books. You may thrust your head into all corners of the world, you may explore
the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Caucasus, you may sound the bottom of the sea and pry into
every nook of Tibet and the desert of Gobi, you will not find it anywhere until your heart is ready
for receiving it and your teacher has come.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
The highest ideal of every man is called God. Ignorant or wise, saint or sinner, man or woman,
educated or uneducated, cultivated or uncultivated, to every human being the highest ideal is
God. The synthesis of all the highest ideals of beauty, of sublimity, and of power gives us the
completest conception of the loving and lovable God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
The greatest purifier among all such things, a purifier without which no one can enter the
regions of this higher devotion (Para-Bhakti), is renunciation. This frightens many; yet, without it,
there cannot be any spiritual growth. In all our Yogas this renunciation is necessary. This is the
stepping-stone and the real centre and the real heart of all spiritual culture - renunciation.
This is religion -- renunciation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
When the modern tremendous theories of evolution and conservation of energy and so forth are
dealing death blows to all sorts of crude theologies, what can hold any more the allegiance of
cultured humanity but the most wonderful, convincing, broadening, and ennobling ideas that can
be found only in that most marvelous product of the soul of man, the wonderful voice of God,
the Vedanta?
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Colombo, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
... religion and religion alone is the life of India, and when that goes India will die, in spite of politics, in spite of
social reforms, in spite of Kubera's wealth poured upon the head of every one of her children ... ...
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Every sect of every religion presents only one ideal of its own to mankind, but the eternal
Vedantic religion opens to mankind an infinite number of doors for ingress into the inner shrine
of divinity, and places before humanity an almost inexhaustible array of ideals, there being in
each of them a manifestation of the Eternal One.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
He [a Bhakta] must know that all the various sects of the various religions are the various
manifestations of the glory of the same Lord. "They call You by so many names; they divide
You, as it were, by different names, yet in each one of these is to be found
Your omnipotence ...
You reach the worshipper through all of these, neither is there any special time so long as the
soul has intense love for You. You are so easy of approach, it is my misfortune that I cannot love
You."
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
To worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other rewards equally degenerate. Love
knows no reward. Love is always for love's sake. The Bhakta loves because he cannot help
loving. ...
... Ask not anything in return for your love; let your position be always that of the giver; give your
love unto God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Man can think of divine things only in his own human way; to us the Absolute can be expressed
only in our relative language. The whole universe is to us a writing of the Infinite in the language
of the finite. Therefore Bhaktas make use of all the common terms associated with the common love of
humanity in relation to God and His worship through love.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
If you know that you are positively other than your body, you have then none to fight with or
struggle against; you are dead to all ideas of selfishness. So the Bhakta declares that we have
to hold ourselves as if we are altogether dead to all the things of the world; and that is indeed
self-surrender. Let things come as they may. This is the meaning of "Thy will be done"-- not going about fighting
and struggling and thinking all the while that God wills all our own weaknesses and worldly ambitions.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
The Lord is the great magnet, and we are all like iron filings; we are being constantly attracted
by Him, and all of us are struggling to reach Him. All this struggling of ours in this world is surely
not intended for selfish ends. Fools do not know what they are doing: the work of their life is,
after all, to approach the great magnet. All the tremendous struggling and fighting in life is
intended to make us go to Him ultimately and be one with Him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
India's contribution to the sum total of human knowledge has been spirituality, philosophy.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madurai, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
There are three steps, therefore, in our knowledge of things; the first is that each thing is
individual and separate from every other; and the next step is to find that there is a relation and
correlation between all things; and the third is that there is only one thing which we see as many.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Bhakti-Yoga is the science of higher love. It shows us how to direct it; it shows us how to control
it, how to manage it, how to use it, how to give it a new aim, as it were, and from it obtain the
highest and most glorious results, that is, how to make it lead us to spiritual blessedness.
Bhakti-Yoga does not say, "Give up"; it only says, "Love; love the Highest!"-- and everything low
naturally falls off from him, the object of whose love is the Highest.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Man is a compound of animality, humanity, and divinity. - Swami Vivekananda
In everyone is God, the Atman; all else is but dream, an illusion. - Swami Vivekananda
There is really but one Self in the universe, all else is but Its manifestations. - Swami Vivekananda
Giving up the senses makes a nation survive. - Swami Vivekananda
It is the same feeling of love, well or ill directed, that impels one man to do good and to give all
he has to the poor, while it makes another man cut the throats of his brethren and take away all
their possessions. The former loves others as much as the latter loves himself. The direction of
the love is bad in the case of the latter, but it is right and proper in the other case.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Whosoever seeks pleasure in objects will get it, but he must take the pain with it. - Swami Vivekananda
... it is better to have internal purity alone when minute attention to external observances is not
practicable. But woe unto the man and woe unto the nation that forgets the real, internal,
spiritual essentials of religion and mechanically clutches with death-like grasp at all external
forms and never lets them go. The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within.
If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
When the heart is purified and cleansed and filled to the brim with the divine nectar of love, all
other ideas of God become simply puerile and are rejected as being inadequate or unworthy.
Such is indeed the of Para-Bhakti or Supreme Love; and the perfected Bhakta no more goes to
see God in temples and churches; he knows no place where he will not find Him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the
land to which all souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every
soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where
humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity,
towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality -- it is India.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Colombo, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Of Ramakrishna, you may aver, my brother, that he was an Incarnation or whatever else you
may like but fie on him who has no devotion for the Mother.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Swami Shivananda from US (1894)
All things in the universe are of divine origin and deserve to be loved; it has, however, to borne
in mind that the love of the whole includes the love of the parts. This whole is the God of the
Bhaktas, and all the other Gods, Fathers in Heaven, or Rulers, or Creators, and all theories and
doctrines and books have no purpose and no meaning for them, seeing that they have through
their supreme love and devotion risen above those things altogether.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
There is no sin nor virtue: there is only ignorance. By realisation of non-duality this ignorance is dispelled. - Swami Vivekananda
Love and fear are incompatible; God is never to be feared by those who love Him. The commandment,
"Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain", the true lover of God laughs at. How can there
be any blasphemy in the religion of love? The more you take the name of the
Lord, the better for you, in whatever way you may do it. You are only repeating His name because you love Him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
He who wants to serve the father must serve the children first. He who wants to serve Shiva
must serve His children must serve all creatures in this world first. It is said in the Shastra that
those who serve the servants of God are His greatest servants. So you will bear this in mind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Rameswaram, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The Vedas, grammar, astronomy, etc., all these are secondary; that is supreme knowledge
which makes us realise the Unchangeable One. ...
Not belief in doctrines, not going to thousands of temples, nor bathing in all the rivers in the
world, but becoming Times the Rishi, the Mantra-drashta - that is freedom, that is salvation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The debt which the world owes to our Motherland is immense. Taking country with country, there
is not one race on this earth to which the world owes so much as to the patient Hindu, the mild
Hindu.
"The mild Hindu" sometimes is used as an expression of reproach; but if ever a reproach
concealed a wonderful truth, it is in the term, "the mild Hindu", who has always been the blessed
child of God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Colombo, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Let the Persian or the Greek, the Roman, mes the Arab, or the Englishman march his
battalions, conquer the world, and link the different nations together, and the philosophy and
spirituality of India is ever ready to flow along the new-made channels into the veins of the
nations of the world. The Hindu's calm brain must pour out its own quota to give to the sum total
of human progress. India's gift to the world is the light spiritual.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Colombo, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
In Bhakti-Yoga the central secret is, ... to know that the various passions and feelings and
emotions in the human heart are not wrong in themselves; only they have to be carefully
controlled and given a higher and higher direction, until they attain the very highest condition of
excellence. The highest direction is that which takes us to God; every other direction is lower.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
When the real history of India will be unearthed, it will be proved that,
as in matters of religion, so in fine arts, India is the primal Guru of the whole world.
- Swami Vivekananda
This is one of our greatest duties, and you will find that the more you work to help others, the
more you help yourselves. The one vital duty incumbent on you, if you really love your religion, if
you really love your country, is that you must struggle hard to be up and doing, with this one
great idea of bringing out the treasures from your closed books and delivering them over to their
rightful heirs.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Those that love God through fear are the lowest of human beings, quite undeveloped as men.
They worship God from fear of punishment. He is a great Being to them, with a whip in one
hand and the sceptre in the other; if they do not obey Him, they are afraid they will be whipped.
It is a degradation to worship God through fear of punishment; such worship is, if worship at all,
the crudest form of the worship of love. So long as there is any fear in the heart, how can there
be love also? Love conquers naturally all fear.
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
The mass of knowledge called the Vedanta was discovered by personages called Rishis, and
the Rishi is defined as a Mantra-drashta, a seer of thought; not that the thought was his own.
Whenever you hear that a certain passage of the Vedas came from a certain Rishi, never think
that he wrote it or created it out of his mind; he was the seer of the thought which already
existed; it existed in the universe eternally.
This sage was the discoverer; the Rishis were spiritual discoverers.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The only commentary, the authoritative commentary on the Vedas, has been made once and for
all by Him who inspired the Vedas -- by Krishna in the Gita.
-Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
He plays in every atom; He is playing when He is building up earths, and suns, and moons; He
is playing with the human heart, with animals, with plants. We are His chessmen; He puts the
chessmen on the board and shakes them up. He arranges us first in one way and then in
another, and we are consciously or unconsciously helping in His play. And, oh, bliss! we are His
playmates!
- Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti-Yoga
Wherever there is love, wherever there is a spark of joy, know that to be a spark of His presence
because He is joy, blessedness, and love itself. Without that there cannot be any love.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
Remember the words of Jesus: "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" This very moment let
every one of us make a staunch resolution: "I will become a Prophet, I will become a messenger
of Light, I will become a child of God, nay, I will become a God!"
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
What is the difference between the highest man and the lowest worm that crawls under your
feet? Ignorance. That makes all the difference.For inside that little crawling worm is lodged
infinite power, and knowledge, and purity - the infinite divinity of God Himself. It is unmanifested; it will have to be manifested.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Paramakudi, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Europe, the centre of the manifestation of material energy, will crumble into dust within fifty
years if she is not mindful to change her position, to shift her ground and make spirituality the
basis of her life. And what will save Europe is the religion of the Upanishads.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Paramakudi (February 1897), Lectures From Colombo to
Almora [words spoken before the two World Wars started in Europe]
I have been criticised, from one end of the world to the other, as one who preaches the
diabolical idea that there is no sin! Very good.
The descendants of these very men will bless me as the preacher of virtue, her of and not of
sin. I am the teacher of virtue, not of sin. I glory in being the preacher of light,
and not of darkness.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The secret of a true Hindu's character lies in the subordination of his knowledge of European
sciences and learning, of his wealth, position, and name, to that one principal theme which in
inborn in every Hindu child - the spirituality and purity of the race.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
From out of many voices, consonant and dissentient, from out of the medley of sounds filling the
Indian atmosphere, rises up supreme, striking, and full, one note, and that is renunciation. Give
up! That is the watchword of the Indian religions. This world is a delusion of two days. The
present life is of five minutes. Beyond is the Infinite, beyond this world of delusion; let us seek
that.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
This is the motherland of philosophy, of spirituality, and of ethics, of sweetness, gentleness, and
love. These still exist, and my experience of the world leads me to stand on firm ground and
make the bold statement that India is still the first and foremost of all the nations of the world in
these respects.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
What makes this creation? God. What do I mean by the use of the English word God? Certainly
not the word as ordinarily used in English -- a good deal of difference.
There is no other suitable word in English. I would rather confine myself to the Sanskrit word
Brahman. He is the general Time cause of all these manifestations.
What is this Brahman? He is eternal, eternally pure, eternally awake, the almighty, the
all-knowing, the all-merciful, the omnipresent, the formless, the partless.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotise yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred
books. Teach yourselves, teach every one his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see
how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and
everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Ours is the religion Spiritual Prophet of Modern of which Buddhism with all its greatness is a
rebel child, and of which Christianity is a very patchy imitation.
- Swami Vivekananda, = Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The prayers of those that are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those that
are impure and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end.
External worship is only a symbol of internal worship; but internal worship and purity are the real
things. Without them, external worship would be of no avail.
Therefore you must all try to remember this.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Rameswaram, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions. I have formulated the idea and have given my life to it. If I do not achieve success, some better one will come after me to work it out, and I shall be content to struggle. - Swami Vivekananda
The Sannyasin, as you all know, is the ideal of the Hindu's life, and every one by our Shastras is
compelled to give up. Every Hindu who has tasted the fruits of this world must give up in the
latter part of his life, and he who does not is not a Hindu and has no more right to call himself a
Hindu. We know that this is the ideal - to give up after seeing and experiencing the vanity of
things.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Ramnad, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The agnostic does not want to go to heaven, because he has none; while the Bhakta does not
want to go to heaven, because he thinks it is child's play. What he wants is God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Who reduced the Bhangis and the Pariahs to their present degraded condition? Heartlessness
in our behavior and at the same time preaching wonderful Advaitism -- is it not adding insult to
injury?
- Swami Vivekananda, Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
Religion is realisation, and you must make the sharpest distinction between talk and realisation.
What you perceive in your soul is realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
This [Impersonal God] teaches us not to think ourselves as weak, but as strong, omnipotent,
omniscient. No matter that I have not expressed it yet, it is in me. All knowledge is in me, all power, all purity, and all freedom. Why cannot I express this knowledge? Because I do not believe in it. Let me believe in it, and it must and will come out. This is what the idea of the Impersonal teaches.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Jaffna, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
My Master's message to mankind is "Be spiritual and realise truth for yourself."
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
Religion is not going to church, or putting marks on the forehead, or dressing in a peculiar
fashion; you may paint yourselves in all the colours of the rainbow, but if the heart has not been
opened, if you have not realised God, it is all vain. If one has the colour of the heart, he does not
want any external colour. That is the true religious realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
I must again draw your attention to the fact that cursing and vilifying and abusing do not and cannot produce anything good. They have been tried for years and years, and no valuable result has been obtained. Good results can be produced only through love, through sympathy. -Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
My ideal is growth, expansion, development on national lines. As I look back upon the history of
my country, I do not find in the whole world another country which has done quite so much for
the improvement of the human mind.
Therefore I have no words of condemnation for my nation. I tell them, "You have done well; only
try to do better." Great things have been done in the past in this land, and there is both time and
room for greater things to be done yet.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
This ship of our nation, O Hindus, has been usefully plying here for ages. Today, perhaps, it has sprung a leak; today, perhaps, it has become a little worn out. And if such is the case, it behooves you and me to try our best to stop the leak and holes. Let us tell our countrymen of the danger, let them awake and help us. I will cry at the top of my voice from one part of this country to the other, to awaken the people to the situation and their duty.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The command is the same to you all, that you must make progress without stopping, and that
from the highest man to the lowest Pariah, every one in this country has to try and become the
ideal Brahmin. This Vedantic ideal is applicable not only here but over the whole world. Such is our ideal of caste as meant for raising ern Time all humanity slowly and gently towards the realisation of that great ideal of the spiritual man who is non-resisting, calm, steady, worshipful, pure, and meditative. In that ideal there is God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Brave, bold men, these are what we want. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the
nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these. Avoid all mystery. There is no mystery in religion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures from Colombo to Almora
Our ideal of high birth, therefore, is different from that of others. Our ideal is the Brahmin of
spiritual culture and renunciation. By the Brahmin ideal what do I mean? I mean the ideal
Brahmin-ness in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present.
That is the ideal of the Hindu race.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
I must frankly tell you that Spiritual Prop of Modes rimes I am neither a caste-breaker nor a
mere social reformer. I have nothing to do directly with your castes or with your social
reformation. Live in any caste you like, but that is no reason why you should hate another man
or another caste. It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great
Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
There is a great opening for the Vedanta to do beneficent work both here and elsewhere. This
wonderful idea of the sameness and omnipresence of the Supreme Soul has to be preached for
the amelioration and elevation of the human race here as elsewhere.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
We have lost faith in ourselves. Therefore to preach the Advaita aspect of the Vedanta is necessary to rouse up the hearts of men, to show them the glory of their souls. It is, therefore, that I preach this Advaita; and I do so not as a sectarian, but upon universal and widely acceptable grounds.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
I want the intensity of the fanatic plus the extensity of the materialist. Deep as the ocean, broad as the infinite skies, that is the sort of heart we want. Let us be as progressive as any nation that ever existed, and at the same time as faithful and conservative towards our traditions as Hindus alone know how to be.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madurai, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Apart from all its merits as the greatest philosophy, apart from its wonderful merit as theology, as
showing the path of salvation to mankind, the Upanishadic literature is the most wonderful
painting of sublimity that the world has. Here comes out in full force that individuality of the
human mind, that introspective, intuitive Hindu mind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
We have to understand that this consciousness is only the name of one link in the infinite chain.
Being is not identical with consciousness, but consciousness is only one part of Being. Beyond
consciousness is where the bold search lies.
Consciousness is bound by the senses. Beyond that, beyond the senses, men must go in order
to arrive at truths of the spiritual world, and there are even now persons who succeed in going
beyond the bounds of the senses. These are called Rishis, because they come face to face with
spiritual truths.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Reason, theories, documents, doctrines, books, religious ceremonies, are all helps to religion: religion itself consists in realisation. -Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
In Western language, a man gives up the ghost, but in our language a man gives up his body. The Western man is a body first, and then he has a soul; with us a man is a soul and spirit, and he has a body. Therein lies a world of difference.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Asia produces giants in spirituality just as the Occident produces giants in politics, giants in
science.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
It is not Bhakti if we worship God with the desire for a son; it is not Bhakti if we worship with the
desire to be rich; it is not Bhakti even if we have a desire for heaven; it is not Bhakti if a man
worships with the desire of being saved from the tortures of hell. Bhakti is not the outcome of
fear or greediness. He is the true Bhagavata who says, "O God, I do not want a beautiful wife, I
do not want knowledge or salvation. Let me be born and die hundreds of times. What I want is
that I should be ever engaged in Thy service." It is at this stage -- and when a man sees God in
everything, and everything in God -- that he attains perfect Bhakti.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Sialkote, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Like the gentle dew that falls unseen and unheard, and yet brings into blossom the fairest of
roses, has been the contribution of India to the thought of the world. Silent, unperceived, yet omnipotent in its effect, it has revolutionised the thought of the world, yet nobody knows when it did so.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Shri Ramakrishna never spoke a harsh word against anyone. So beautifully tolerant was he that
every sect thought that he belonged to them. He loved everyone. To him all religions were true.
He found a place for each one. He was free, but free in love, not in "thunder". The mild type
creates, the thundering type spreads.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Mystery mongering and superstition are always signs of weakness. These are always signs of
degradation and of death. Therefore beware of them; be strong, and stand on your own feet.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo To Almora
It was given to me to live with a man who was as ardent a dualist, as ardent an Advaitist, as
ardent a Bhakta, as a Jnani. And living with this man first put it into my head to understand the
Upanishads and the texts of the scriptures from an independent and better basis than by blindly
following the commentators; of Modern Time and in my opinion and in my researches, I came to
the conclusion that these texts are not at all contradictory. So we need have no fear of
text-torturing at all!
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
National union in India must be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces. A nation in India
must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Religion is not in books, nor in theories, nor in dogmas, nor in talking, not even in reasoning. It is
being and becoming. Ay, my friends, until each one of you has become a Rishi and come face
to face with spiritual facts, religious life has not begun for you. Until the superconscious opens
for you, religion is mere talk, it is nothing but preparation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Vairagya is finding out that desires are but gilded balls of poison. - Swami Vivekananda
It is foolish to attempt to prove that the whole of the Vedas is dualistic. It is equally foolish to attempt to prove that the whole of the Vedas is non-dualistic. They are dualistic and non-dualistic both.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Only by worshipping the Self can freedom be won. Even personal God is but the Self objectified.
"Intense search after my own reality is Bhakti", says Shankara.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Remain unattached. The heart's love is due to only One. To whom? To Him who never changes. Who is that One? It is God.Do not make the mistake of giving the heart to anything that is changing, because that is misery.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
Seek the science of the maker and not that of the made. - Swami Vivekananda
Why is it that organisations are so powerful? Do not say organisation is material. Why is it, to
take a case in point, that forty millions of Englishmen rule three hundred millions of people
here? What is the psychological explanation? These forty millions put their wills together and that means infinite power, and you three hundred millions have a will each separate from the other. Therefore to make a great future in India, the whole secret lies in organisation, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Wave after wave of barbarian conquest has rolled over this devoted land of ours. "Allah Ho
Akbar!" has rent the skies for hundreds of years, and no Hindu knew what moment would be his
last. This is the most suffering and the most subjugated of all the historic lands of the world. Yet
we still stand practically the same race, ready to face difficulties again and again if necessary;
and not only so, of late there have been signs that we are not only strong, but ready to go out,
for the sign of life is expansion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This sentence alone would save
mankind if all books and prophets were lost.
This purity of heart will bring the vision of God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
The duty of every aristocracy is to dig its own grave, and the sooner it does so, the better. The
more it delays, the more it will fester and the worse death it will die. It is the duty of the Brahmin,
therefore, to work for the salvation of the rest of mankind in India. If he does that, and so long as
he does that, he is a Brahmin, but he is no Brahmin when he goes about making money.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
To be unselfish, perfectly selfless, is salvation itself; for the man within dies, and God alone
remains.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
Ours is the only scripture in the world that declares, not even by the study of the scriptures can
the Atman be realised -- not talks, not lecturing, none of that, but It is to be realised. It comes
from the teacher to the disciple. When this insight comes to the disciple, everything is cleared
up and realisation follows.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Dualist, qualified-monist, monist, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, even the Buddhist and the Jain
and others -- whatever sects have arisen in India -- are all at one in this respect that infinite
power is latent in this Jivatman (individualised soul); from the ant to the perfect man there is the
same Atman in all, the difference being only in manifestation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Sarala Ghosal, Editor, 'Bharati' in Bengali
When man finds that all search for happiness in matter is nonsense, then religion begins.All human knowledge is but a part of religion. - Swami Vivekananda
Look back, therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and
after that, look forward, march forward and make India brighter, greater, much higher than she
ever was. Our ancestors were great. We must first recall that. We must learn the elements of
our being, the blood that courses in our veins; we must have faith in that blood and what it did in
the past; and out of that faith and consciousness of past greatness, we must build an India yet
greater than what she has been.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Sita -- to say that she was pure is a blasphemy. She was purity itself embodied the most
beautiful character that ever lived on earth.
- Swami Vivekananda, Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that
you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. You
can do anything and everything without even the guidance of any one. All power is there. Stand
up and express the divinity within you.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Our scriptures declare again and again that even the knowledge of the external senses is not
religion. That is religion which makes us realise the unchangeable One, and that is the religion for ever one. He who realises transcendental truth, he who realises the Atman in his own nature, he who comes face to face with God, sees God alone in everything, has become a Rishi.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
As human beings, we have to see the trinity of existence -- god, man, nature; and we cannot do otherwise. - Swami Vivekananda
We must, ... remember that our religion lays down distinctly and clearly that every one who
wants salvation must pass through the stage of Rishihood -- must become a Mantra-drashta,
must see God. That is salvation; that is the law laid down by our scriptures.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Do not talk much, but feel the spirit within you; then you are a Jnani.
This is knowledge, all else is ignorance. All that is to be known is Brahman. It is the all. . . .
- Swami Vivekananda, - Inspired Talks
Whether you are an Advaitin, whether you are a qualified monist or dualist, it does not matter
much. But let me draw your attention to one thing which unfortunately we always forget: that is
-- "O man, have faith in yourself." That is the way by which we can have faith in God.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
So long as we have a body and so long as we are deluded by the idea of our identity with the
body, so long as we have five senses and see the external world, we must have a Personal
God. For if we have all these ideas, we must take, as the great Ramanuja has proved, all the
ideas about God and nature and the individualised soul; when you take the one you have to
take the whole triangle -- we cannot avoid it. Therefore as long as you see the external world, to
avoid a Personal God and a personal soul is arrant lunacy.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
No claim is made by the doer of great deeds, only by lazy worthless fools. - Swami Vivekananda
Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there,
undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation
of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have
more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Life is short, but the soul is immortal and eternal, and one thing being certain, death, let us
therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it. Let this be our determination, and
may He, the Lord, who "comes again and again for the salvation of His own people", to quote
from our scriptures -- may the great Krishna bless us and lead us all to the fulfilment of our aims!
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. The moment you fear, you are nobody. It
is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all
superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven
even in a moment. Therefore, "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached."
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops
and the brain reels and you think you will go mad -- then pour the soul out at the feet of the
Lord, and then will come power, help, and indomitable energy.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Alasinga Perumal from New York
The Vedanta, whether we know it or not, has penetrated all the sects of India, and what we call
Hinduism, this mighty banyan with its immense, almost infinite ramifications, has been
throughout interpenetrated by the influence of the Vedanta. Whether we are conscious of it or
not, we think the Vedanta, we live in the Vedanta, we breathe the Vedanta, and we die in the
Vedanta, and every Hindu does that.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Ramanuja's important work is the conversion of Jains and Buddhists to Hinduism. He is a great
advocate of image-worship. He introduced love and faith as potent means of salvation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
The great glory of Shankaracharya was his preaching of the Gita. It is one of the greatest works
that this great man did among the many noble works of his noble life -- the preaching of the Gita
and writing the most beautiful commentary upon it. And he has been followed by all founders of
the orthodox sects in India, each of whom has written a commentary on the Gita.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Really speaking, there is naught -- neither volition, nor desire. He is all. He-She-the Mother, is
playing, and we are like dolls, Her helpers in this play. Here, She puts one now in the garb of a
beggar, another moment in the garb of a king, the next moment in the garb of a saint, and again
in the garb of a devil. We are putting on different garbs to help the Mother Spirit in Her play.
- Swami Vivekananda, Sadhanas or Preparations for Higher Life, Notes from Lectures and
Discourses
Dualism and other isms are very good as means of worship, very satisfying to the mind, and
maybe, they have helped the mind onward; but if man wants to be rational and religious at the
same time, Advaita is the one system in the world for him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Renunciation conquered India in days of yore, it has still to conquer India. Still it stands as the greatest and highest of Indian ideals -- this renunciation. The land of Buddha, the land of Ramanuja, of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the land of renunciation, the land where, from the days of yore, Karma Kanda was preached against, and even today there are hundreds who have given up everything, and become Jivanmuktas -- ay, will that land give up its ideals? Certainly not.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Take away the form and shape, and you and I are all one. But we have to guard against the
word, "I". Generally people say, "If I am the Brahman, why cannot I do this and that?" But this is
using the word in a different sense. As soon as you think you are bound, no more you are
Brahman, the Self, who wants nothing, whose light is inside. All His pleasures and bliss are
inside; perfectly satisfied with Himself, He wants nothing, expects nothing, perfectly fearless,
perfectly free. That is Brahman. In That we are all one.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
What was there in this country of before Buddha's advent? Only a number of religious principles recorded on bundles of palm leaves -- and those too known only to a few. It was Lord Buddha who brought them down to the practical field and showed how to apply them in the everyday life of the people. In a sense, he was the living embodiment of true Vedanta.
- Swami Vivekananda, Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Himalayas stand for that renunciation, and the grand lesson we shall ever teach to humanity will
be renunciation. ...
These mountains are associated with on the best memories of our race; if these Himalayas are
taken away from the history of religious India, there will be very little left behind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Almora, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Bold has been my message to the people of the West, bolder is my message to you, my beloved countrymen. - Swami Vivekananda
The mighty word that came out from the sky of spirituality in India was Anubhuti, realisation, and
ours are the only books which declare again and again: "The Lord is to be seen ". Bold, brave
words indeed, but true to their very core; every sound, every vibration is true. Religion is to be
realised, not only heard; it is not in learning some doctrine like a parrot. Neither is it mere
intellectual assent -- that is nothing; but it must come into us.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
From the lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the noblest and greatest saints, all have this
infinite power, infinite purity, and infinite everything. Only the difference is in the degree of
manifestation. The worm is only manifesting just a little bit of that energy, you have manifested
more, another god-man has manifested still more: that is all the difference. But that infinite
power is there all the same. Says Patanjali: [Sanskrit] "Like the peasant irritating his field."
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Follies there are, weakness there must be, but remember your real nature always -- that is the
only way to cure the weakness, that is the only way to cure the follies.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
When the senses, without being extremely attached, without jealousy, or without delusion, work
in the world, such work or collection of impressions is called pure food, according to
Shankaracharya. When pure food is taken, the mind is able to take in objects and think about
them without attachment, jealousy or delusion; then the mind becomes pure, and then there is constant memory of God in that mind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Every Prophet is a creation of his own times, the creation of the past of his race; he himself is
the creator of the future.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
Very few indeed are there who understand and appreciate, far less live and move, in the
grandeur of the full blaze of the light of Vedanta, because the first step for the pure Vedantist is
to be Abhih, fearless. Weakness has got to go before a man dares to become a Vedantist, and
we know how difficult that is.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
God Himself is the highest goal of man; see Him, enjoy Him. We can never conceive anything
higher, because God is perfection. We cannot conceive of any higher enjoyment than that of
love, but this word love has different meanings. It does not mean the ordinary selfish love of the
world; it is blasphemy to call that love. The love for our children and our wives is mere animal love; that love which is perfectly unselfish is the only love, and that is of God. It is a very difficult thing to attain to.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
If one says the Lord is causing everything to be done, and wilfully persists in wrong-doing, it only brings ruin on him.That is the origin of self-deception. - Swami Vivekananda
Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders.
Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all the faults you suffer from, you are the sole and
only cause.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
What makes the difference between man and man is the difference in this Shraddha and
nothing else. What makes one man great and another weak and low is this Shraddha. My
Master used to say, he who thinks himself weak will become weak, and that is true.
This Shraddha must enter into you. Whatever of material power you see manifested bynes the Western races is the outcome of this Shraddha, because they believe in their muscles, and if you believe in your spirit, how much more will it work!
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
If a man, day and night, thinks he is miserable, low, and nothing, nothing he becomes. If you
say, yea, yea, "I am, I am", so shall you be; and if you say "I am not", think that you are not, and
day and night meditate upon the fact that you are nothing, ay, nothing shall you be.
That is the great fact which you ought to remember. We are the children of the Almighty, we are
sparks of the infinite, divine fire. How can we be nothings? We are everything, ready to do everything, we can do everything, and man must do everything.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
You must see God. The spirit must be realised, and that is practical religion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
It is very good to be born in a church, but it is very bad to die there. To make it clearer, it is very
good to be born in a certain sect and have its training -- it brings out our higher qualities; but in
the vast majority of cases we die in that little sect, we never come out or grow. That is the great
danger of all these worships of Pratikas.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
One defect which lay in the Advaita was its being worked out so long on the spiritual plane only,
and nowhere else; now the time has come when you have to make it practical. It shall no more
be a Rahasya, a secret, it shall no more live with monks in cave and forests, and in the
Himalayas; it must come down to the daily, everyday life of the people; it shall be worked out in
the palace of the king, in the cave of the recluse; it shall be worked out in the cottage of the
poor, by the beggar in the street, everywhere; anywhere it can be worked out.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
"That science is the greatest which makes us know Him who never changes!" The science of nature, changeful, evanescent, the world of death, of woe, of misery, may be great, great indeed; but the science of Him who changes not, the Blissful One, where alone is peace, where alone is life eternal, where alone is perfection, where alone all misery ceases -- that, according to our ancestors, was the sublimest science of all. -Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The true man is he who is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a woman's heart. - Swami Vivekananda
Consciousness is the name of the surface only of the mental ocean, but within its depths are stored up all our experiences, both pleasant and painful.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
"Me and mine" is a superstition; we have lived in it so long that it is well-nigh impossible to shake it off. Still we must get rid of it if we would rise to the highest.
- Swami Vivekananda, Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Mark you, your Vedas are not inspired, but expired, not that they came from anywhere outside,
but they are the eternal laws living in every soul. The Vedas are in the soul of the ant, in the soul
of the god. The ant has only to evolve and get the body of a sage or a Rishi, and the Vedas will
come out, eternal laws expressing themselves. This is the one great idea to understand that our
power is already ours, our salvation is already within us.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The more and more you are the witness of anything in life, the more you enjoy it. And this is
Ananda; and, therefore, infinite bliss can only be yours when you have become the witness of
this universe; then alone you are a Mukta Purusha. It is the witness alone that can work without
any desire, without any idea of going to heaven, without any idea of blame, without any idea of
praise. The witness alone enjoys, and none else.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
In religion lies the vitality of India, and so long as the Hindu race do not forget the great
inheritance of their forefathers, there is no power on earth to destroy them.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reply to Maharaja of Khetri'
Form is the grosser and name the finer state of a single manifesting power called thought. But
these three are one; it is the Unity and the Trinity, the three degrees of existence of Modern
Times of the same thing. Finer, the more condensed, and most condensed. Wherever the one
is, the others are there also. Wherever name is, there is form and thought.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
... even if a thousand births have to be taken in order to relieve the sorrows of the world, surely I
will take them. If by my doing that, even a single soul may have a little bit of his grief relieved,
why, I will do it. Well, what avails it all to have only one's own liberation? All men should be
taken along with oneself on that way.
- Swami Vivekananda, Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Would to God that the whole world were Advaitists tomorrow, not only in theory, but in
realisation. But if that cannot be, let us do the next best thing; let us take the ignorant by the
hand, lead them always step by step just as they can go, and know that every step in all
religious growth in India has been progressive. It is not from bad to good, but from good to
better.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Religion does not consist in erecting temples, or building churches, or attending public worship.
It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in lectures, or in organizations. Religion consists in
realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He is there. He is the soul of all souls. See Him in your
own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
To think that this world is the aim and end of life is brutal and degrading. Any man who starts in
life with that idea degenerates himself. He will never rise higher, he will never catch this glimpse
from behind, he will always be a slave to the senses. He will struggle for the dollar that will get
him a few cakes to eat. Better die than live that life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
All the love of the world is hypocrisy and hollowness. A finite subject cannot love, nor a finite
object be loved. When the object of the love of a man is dying every moment, and his mind is
also constantly changing as he grows, what eternal love can you expect to find in the world?
There cannot be any real love but in God: why then all these loves? These are mere stages.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
The object of life is to learn the laws of spiritual progress. - Swami Vivekananda
This world is full of babies to whom eating and drinking, and all these little cakes are everything.
They will dream of these cakes, and their idea of future life is where these cakes will be plentiful.
... Each one of us has an ideal of heaven just as we want it to be; but in course of time, as we
grow older and see higher things, we catch higher glimpses beyond.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti Yoga, New York
We always forget that this world is a means to an end, and not an end itself. If this were the end
we should be immortal here in our physical body; we should never die. But we see people every
moment dying around us, and yet, foolishly, we think we shall never die; and from that
conviction we come to think that this life is the goal. That is the case with ninety-nine per cent of
us. This notion should be given up at once.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Many turn out to be heroes when they have got some great task to perform. Even a coward
easily gives up his life, and the most selfish man behaves disinterestedly, when there is a
multitude to cheer them on; but blessed indeed is he who manifests the same unselfishness and
devotion to duty in the smallest of acts, unnoticed by all -- and it is you who are actually doing this, ye ever-trampled labouring classes of India! I bow to you.
- Swami Vivekananda, Memoirs of European Travel
As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself,
he is a slave. If a woman is tremendously attached to a man, she becomes a slave to that man.
There is no use in being a slave. There are higher things in this world than becoming a slave to
a human being. Love and do good to everybody, but do not become a slave. In the first place,
attachment degenerates us, individually, and in the second place, makes us extremely selfish.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Wherever you are, this is the highest: "I and my Father are one." Realise it. If an image helps,
images are welcome. If worshipping a great man helps you, worship him. If worshipping
Mohammed helps you, go on. Only be sincere; and if you are sincere, says Vedantism, you are
sure to be brought to the goal. None will be left. Your heart, which contains all truth, will unfold
itself chapter after chapter, till you know the last truth, that "I and my Father are one."
- Swami Vivekananda, At Pasadena, California
The hand was made to give always. Give the last bit of bread you have even if you are starving.
You will be free in a moment if you starve yourself to death by giving to another. Immediately
you will be perfect, you will become God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
It is diabolical to say that all animals are created for men to be killed and used in any way man
likes. It is the devil's gospel, not God's. Think how diabolical it is to cut them up to see whether a
nerve quivers or not, in a certain part of the body.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Do you think that man, the Infinite Spirit was born to be a slave to his eyes, his nose, and his
ears? There is an Infinite, Omniscient Spirit behind that can do everything, break every bond;
and that Spirit we are, and we get that power through love. This is the ideal we must remember.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall enjoy the earth. - Swami Vivekananda
It is now many years since I found Hinduism to be the most perfectly satisfying religion in the
world. Hence I feel sad at heart when I see existing among my own countrymen, professing a
peerless faith, such a widespread indifference to our religion
-- though I am very well aware of the unfavourable materialistic conditions in which they pass
their lives -- owing to the diffusion of European modes of thoughts in this, our great motherland.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Dacca, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
There is no time to deliver a long discourse on "Renunciation", but I shall very briefly
characterise it as "the love of death". Worldly people love life. The Sannyasin is to love death.
Are we to commit suicide then? Far from it. ... ...
What is the love of death then? We must die, that is certain; let us die then for a good cause. Let all our actions -- eating, drinking, and everything that we do -- tend towards the sacrifice of our self.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Belur Math, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
You must bear in mind that religion does not consist in talk, or doctrine, or books, but in
realisation; it is not learning, but being ...
No amount of doctrines or philosophies or ethical books, that you may have stuffed into your
brain, will matter much, only what you are and what you have realised.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
To preach the doctrine of Shraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life. Let me repeat to
you that this faith is one of the potent factors of humanity and of all religions. First, have faith in
yourselves. Know that though one may be a little bubble and another may be a mountain-high
wave, yet behind both the bubble and the wave there is the infinite ocean.
Therefore there is hope for every one.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The secret of Advaita is: Believe in yourselves first, and then believe in anything else. In the
history of the world, you will find that only those nations that have believed in themselves have
become great and strong. In the history of each nation, you will always find that only those
individuals who have believed in themselves have become great and strong.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
I know, my son, I shall have to come and manufacture men out of you. I know that India is only
inhabited by women and eunuchs. So do not fret. I will have to get means to work there. I do not
put myself in the hands of imbeciles.
You need not worry, do what little you can. I have to work alone from top to bottom.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Alasing Perumal from US (July 1895)
Know yourself as you are - infinite spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is impractical,
for everything else will vanish. That alone will never vanish. It is eternal.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
The loom of the fabric of Aryan civilisation is a vast, warm, level country, interspersed with
broad, navigable rivers. The cotton of this cloth is composed of highly civilised, semi-civilised,
and barbarian tribes, mostly Aryan. Its warp is Varnashramachara, and its woof, the conquest of
strife and competition in nature.
- Swami Vivekananda, The East and The West
You must try to combine in your life immense idealism with immense practicality. You must be
prepared to go into deep meditation now, and the next moment you must be ready to go and
cultivate these fields (Swamiji said, pointing to the meadows of the Math).
- Swami Vivekananda, At Belur Math Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The body is the objective view of what we call mind (subjective).
We, the Self, are beyond both body and mind; we are "Atman", the eternal, unchangeable
witness. The body is crystallised thought.
- Swami Vivekananda, Six Lessons on Raja-Yoga, US
Advaita is to be worked out practically. Let us bring it down from heaven unto the earth; this is
the present dispensation. Ay, the voices of our forefathers of old are telling us to bring it down
from heaven to the earth. Let your teachings permeate the world, till they have entered into
every pore of society, till they have become the common property of everybody, till they have
become part and parcel of our lives, till they have entered into our veins and tingle with every
drop of blood there.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
... mark you this -- the most marvelous historical fact that all the nations of the world have to sit
down patiently at the feet of India to learn the eternal truths embodied in her literature. India dies
not.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Calcutta, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
The same God whom the ignorant man saw outside nature, the same whom the little-knowing
man saw as interpenetrating the universe, and the same whom the sage realises as his own
Self, as the whole universe itself -- all are One and the same Being, the same entity seen from
different standpoints, seen through different glasses of Maya, perceived by different minds, and
all the difference was caused by that. Not only so, but one view must lead to the other.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Whether you know it or not, through all hands you work, through all feet you move, you are the
king enjoying in the palace, you are the beggar leading that miserable existence in the street;
you are in the ignorant as well as in the learned, you are in the man who is weak, and you are in
the strong; know this and be sympathetic. And that is why we must not hurt others.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Mark you, let us all be honest. If we cannot follow the ideal, let us confess our weakness, but
not degrade it; let not any try to pull it down.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
What is salvation? To live with God. Where? Anywhere. Here this moment. One moment in infinite time is quite as good as any other moment.
- Swami Vivekananda, At Pasadena, California
Ay, the Buddhists say that ninety per cent of these vices that you see in every society are on
account of this idea of a Personal God; this is an awful idea of the human being that the end
and aim of this expression of life, this wonderful expression of life, is to become like a dog. Says
the Buddhist to the Vaishnava, if your ideal, your aim and goal is to go to the place called
Vaikuntha where God lives, and there stand before Him with folded hands all through eternity, it
is better to commit suicide than do that.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Lahore, Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Infinite power of the spirit brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to
act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes of man a God.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reply to the Madras Address'
Time is but the method of our thinking, but we are the eternally present tense. - Swami Vivekananda
And what your European Pundits say about the Aryan's swooping down from some foreign land,
snatching away the lands of the aborigines and settling in India by exterminating them, is all
pure nonsense, foolish talk! Strange, that our Indian scholars, too, say amen to them; and all
these monstrous lies are being taught to our boys! This is very bad indeed.
- Swami Vivekananda, The East and The West
Religion does not consist in believing any number of doctrines or dogmas, in going to churches
or temples, in reading certain books. Have you seen God? Have you seen the soul? If not, are you struggling for it? It is here and now, and you have not to wait for the future. What is the future but the present illimitable? What is the whole amount of time but one second repeated again and again? Religion is here and now, in this present life.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at New York
Unselfish and genuine zeal for real scholarship and honest earnest thought must again become
dominant in the life of our countrymen if they are ever to rise to occupy among nations a rank
worthy of their own historic past.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'On Dr Paul Deussen' - Article in Brahmavadin, 1896
Every Hindu that goes out to travel in foreign parts renders more benefit to his country than
hundreds of men who are bundles of superstitions and selfishness, and whose one aim in life
seems to be like that of the dog in the manger. The wonderful structures of national life which
the Western nations have raised, are supported by the strong pillars of character, and until we
can produce numbers of such, it is useless to fret and fume against this or that power.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written from Chicago (Sept 1894)
There may be millions of radii converging towards the same centre in the sun. The further they
are from the centre, the greater is the distance between any two.
But as they all meet at the centre, all difference vanishes. There is such a centre, which is the
absolute goal of mankind. It is God. We are the radii. The distances between the radii are the
constitutional limitations through which alone we can catch the vision of God..
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
The Indian nation cannot be killed. Deathless it stands and it will stand so long as that spirit
shall remain as the background, so long as her people do not give up their spirituality.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
The drama, in India, was a very holy thing. Drama and music are themselves held to be religion.
Any song -- whether it be a love-song or otherwise -- if one's whole soul is in that song, one
attains salvation, one has nothing else to do. They say it leads to the same goal as meditation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
All this false love of mystery should be knocked on the head the first time it comes into your
mind. No one who is the least bit impure will ever become religious. Do not try to cover festering
sores with masses of roses. Do you think you can cheat God? None can. Give me a
straightforward man or woman; but Lord save me from ghosts, flying angels, and devils. Be
common, everyday, nice people.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
All attempts to herd together human beings by means of armies, force, or arguments, to drive them
pell-mell into the same enclosure and make them worship the same God have failed, and will fail always, because it is constitutionally impossible to do so. Not only so, there is the danger of arresting their growth.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Does not God know what we are going to be? He knows we are all going to be perfect, sooner
or later. He has patience, infinite patience. We must love Him, and everyone that lives -- only in
and through Him.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
It is all right for those who have plenty of money and position to let the world roll on such, but I
call him a traitor who, having been educated, nursed in luxury by the heart's blood of the
downtrodden millions of toiling poor, never even takes a thought for them.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Sri Haridas Desai from Chicago (November 1894)
The ideal of all religions, all sects, is the same -- the attaining of liberty and cessation of misery.
Wherever you find religion, you find this ideal working in one form or other. Of course in lower
stages of religion it is not so well expressed; but still, well or ill-expressed, it is the one goal to
which every religion approaches. -- physical, mental, spiritual. All of us want to get rid of misery;
we are struggling to attain to liberty. This is the whole idea upon which the world is working.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
I believe in thinking independently. I believe in becoming entirely free from the holy teachers;
pay all reverence to them, but look at religion as an independent research. I have to find my
light, just as they found theirs. Their finding the light will not satisfy us at all. You have to
become the Bible, and not to follow it, excepting as paying reverence to it as a light on the way,
as a guide-post, a mark: that is all the value it has.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no
religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Massachusetts (August 1893)
Let each one of us pray day and night for the down-trodden millions in India who are held fast
by poverty, priestcraft, and tyranny -- pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion
to them than to the high and the rich. I am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no saint. But I
am poor, I love the poor. Him I call a Mahatman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor,
otherwise he is a Duratman (wicked soul). Let us unite our wills in continued prayer for their
good.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (1894)
The South [India] has Hinduism alive during the Mohammedan rule and even for some time
previous to it. It was in the South that Shankaracharya was born, among that caste who wear a
tuft on the front of the head and eat food prepared with coconut oil: this was the country that
produced Ramanuja: it was also the birthplace of Madhva Muni. Modern Hinduism owes its
allegiance to these alone.
- Swami Vivekananda, Memoirs of European Travel
Hate not the most abject sinner, look not to his exterior. Turn thy gaze inward, where resides the
Paramatman. Proclaim to the whole world with trumpet voice, "There is no sin in thee, there is
no misery in thee; thou art the reservoir of omnipotent power. Arise, awake, and manifest the
Divinity within!"
- Swami Vivekananda, Gita Class at Alambazar Math, Calcutta
Europe has always been the source of social, and Asia of spiritual power; and the whole history
of the world is the tale of the varying combinations of those two powers. Slowly a new leaf is
being turned in the story of humanity. The signs of this are everywhere.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to ET Sturdy from New York (1895)
Man stands in materialism; you and I are materialists. Our talking about God and Spirit is good;
but it is simply the vogue in our society to talk thus: we have learnt it parrot-like and repeat it. So
we have to take ourselves where we are as materialists, and must take the help of matter and
go on slowly until we become real spiritualists, and feel ourselves spirits, understand the spirit,
and find that this world which we call the infinite is but a gross external form of that world which
is behind.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
The extremely ignorant do not worship God, not being developed enough to feel the need for so
doing. Those that have attained the highest knowledge also do not worship God -- having
realised and become one with God. God never worships God. Between these two poles of
existence, if anyone tells you he is not going to worship God as man, take care of him. He is an
irresponsible talker, he is mistaken; his religion is for frothy thinkers, it is intellectual nonsense.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
We are prone to concretize. How could we be here if we did not concretize? We are concreted
spirits, and so we find ourselves here on this earth.Concretization has brought us here, and will
take us out. Going after things of the
senses has made us human beings, and we are bound to worship personal beings, whatever
we may say to the contrary.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
There is something much higher than life even. This life is inferior, material. Why should I live at
all? I am something higher than life. Living is always slavery. We always get mixed up. . . .
Everything is a continuous chain of slavery.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at San Francisco
[You may] pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there
are, [but] unless you realise the soul there is no freedom. Not talking, theorising, argumentation,
but realisation. That I call practical religion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
We have no business to look at the faults of others: it does no good. We must not even think of them. Our business is with the good. We are not here to deal with faults. Our business is to be good.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at San Francisco
Bhakti is divided into two portions.
One is called Vaidhi, formal or ceremonial; the other portion is called Mukhya, supreme. The
word Bhakti covers all the ground between the lowest form of worship and the highest form of
life. All the worship that you have seen in any country in the world, or in any religion, is
regulated by love.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
You are perfectly correct in saying that we will have to learn many things from Japan. The help
that Japan will give us will be with great sympathy and respect, whereas that from the West
unsympathetic and destructive. Certainly it is very desirable to establish a connection between
India and Japan.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Josephine Macleod from Belur Math (June 1901)
And then Prahlada replied,
"That intense love, O Lord, which the ignorant bear to worldly things, may I have the same love
for Thee; may I have the same intensity of love for Thee, but only for love's sake!"
- Swami Vivekananda, The Story of Prahlada, at California
If you want to love, love God. Who cares for these things of the world? This world is utterly false;
all the great teachers of the world found that out; there is no way out of it but through God. He is
the goal of our life; all ideas that the world is the goal of life are pernicious. This world and this
body have their own value, a secondary value, as a means to an end; but the world should not
be the end.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
The Vaishnavas of the Chaitanya sect form merely a recension of the Madhva sect; the religious
reformers of the North such as Kabir, Dadu, Nanak, and Ramsanehi are all an echo of
Shankaracharya; there you find the disciples of Ramanuja occupying Ayodhya and other places.
These Brahmins of the South do not recognise those of the North as true Brahmins, nor accept
them as disciples, and even to the other day would not admit them to Sannyasa.
- Swami Vivekananda, Memoirs of European Travel
Unfortunately, too often we make the world the end and God the means. We find people going
to church and saying, "God, give me such and such; God, heal my disease." They want nice
healthy bodies; and because they hear that someone will do this work for them, they go and
pray to Him. It is better to be an atheist than to have such an idea of religion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga,
As the loving wife thinks of her departed husband, with the same love we must desire the Lord,
and then we will find God and all books and the various sciences would not be able to teach us
anything. By reading books we become parrots; no one becomes learned by reading books. If a
man reads but one word of love, he indeed becomes learned. So we want first to get that desire.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Man must realise God, feel God, see God, talk to God. That is religion. The Indian atmosphere
is full of stories of saintly persons having visions of God. Such doctrines form the basis of their
religion; and all these nes ancient books and scriptures are the writings of persons who came
into direct contact with spiritual facts.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
So long as our needs are confined within the narrow limits of this physical universe, we cannot
have any need for God; it is only when we have become satiated with everything there that we
look beyond for a supply. It is only when the need is there that the demand will come. Have
done with this child's play of the world as soon as you can, and then you will feel the necessity
of something beyond the world, and the first step in religion will come.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
From highest Brahman to the yonder worm, And to the very minutest atom, Everywhere is the
same God, the All-love; Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet. These are His manifold
forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings without
distinction, He indeed is worshipping best his God.
- Swami Vivekananda, from "To A Friend' - poem in Bengali
Spiritual truth is purity. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God". In that one
sentence is the gist of all religions. If you have learnt that, all that has been said in the past and
all that it is possible to say in the future, you have known; you need not look into anything else,
for you have all that is necessary in that one sentence; it could save the world, were all the other
scriptures lost.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
All ideas and feelings coming out of the fullness of the heart are known by their fruits - practical works. - Swami Vivekananda
The individual's life is in the life of the whole, the individual's happiness is in the happiness of
the whole; apart from the whole, the individual's existence is inconceivable -- this is an eternal
truth and is the bed-rock on which the universe is built. To move slowly towards the infinite
whole, bearing a constant feeling of intense sympathy and sameness with it, being happy with
its happiness and being distressed in its affliction, is the individual's sole duty. Not only is it his
duty, but in its transgression is his death, while compliance with this great truth
leads to life immortal.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Modern India' - an article written in Bengali for Udbodhan
Your Atman is the support of the universe - whose support do you stand in need of? - Swami Vivekananda
Bear in mind, my children, that only cowards and those who are weak commit sin and tell lies.
The brave are always moral. Try to be moral, try to be brave, try to be sympathising.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter
Man has an idea that there can be only one religion, that there can be only one Prophet, and
that there can be only one Incarnation; but that idea is not true.
By studying the lives of all these great Messengers, we find that each, as it were, was destined
to play a part, and a part only; that the harmony consists in the sum total and not in one note.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
I am ashamed of my own nation when I compare their beggarly, selfish, unappreciative, ignorant
ungratefulness with the help, hospitality, sympathy, and respect which the Americans have
shown to me, a representative of a foreign religion. Therefore come out of the country, see
others, and compare.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Sri Haridas Desai from Chicago (November 1894)
What is in the word, unless it has the Power behind? What matters it what language you speak,
and how you arrange your language? What matters it whether you speak
correct grammar or with fine rhetoric? What matters it whether your language is
ornamental or not? The question is whether or not you have anything to give. It is a question of
giving and taking, and not listening.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
This world is not for cowards. Do not try to fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to
the perfectly unselfish will and work on. Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Unselfish Work is True Renunciation', Notes of Class Talks and
Lectures, Vol VI
Remember! the message of India is always "Not the soul for nature, but nature for the soul! - Swami Vivekananda
When each man stands and says "My Prophet is the only true Prophet," he is not correct -- he
knows not the alpha of religion. Religion is neither talk, nor theory, nor intellectual consent. It is realisation in the heart of our hearts; it is touching God; it is feeling, realising that I am a spirit in relation with the Universal Spirit and all Its great manifestations.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California
Better that you had no learning, better that you never read a book in your life. These are not at all necessary for salvation -- neither wealth, nor position nor power, not even learning; but what is necessary is that one thing, purity. "Blessed are the pure in heart," for the spirit in its own nature is pure.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to "Kidi" from Chicago
The life of every man is, in a manner, the life of the past. It comes to him through heredity,
through surroundings, through education, through his own reincarnation -- the past of the race.
In a manner, the past of the earth, the past of the whole world is there, upon every soul. What
are we, in the present, but a result, an effect, in the hands of that infinite past? What are we but
floating wavelets in the eternal current of events, irresistibly moved forward and onward and
incapable of rest?
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
Machines never made mankind happy, and never will make. He who is trying to make us believe
this, will claim that happiness is in the machine; but it is always in the mind. That man alone who
is the lord of his own mind can become happy, and none else.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
Who dares misery love, And hug the form of Death, Dance in Destruction's dance, To him the
Mother comes.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Kali The Mother' poem
A man may be intellectual, or devotional, or mystic, or active; the various religions represent one
or the other of these types. Yet it is possible to combine all the four in one man, and this is what
future humanity is going to do.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
The only service to be done for our lower classes is to give them education, to develop their lost
individuality. That is the great task between our people and princes.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Maharaja of Mysore from Chicago
Be strong and stand up and seek the God of Love. This is the highest strength. What power is
higher than the power of purity? Love and purity govern the world. This love of God cannot be
reached by the weak; therefore, be not weak, either physically, mentally, morally or spiritually.
The Lord alone is true. Everything else is untrue; everything else should be rejected for the sake
of the Lord. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Serve the Lord and Him alone.
- Swami Vivekananda, Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Philosophers might fret and sneer, and priests ply their trade even at the point of the sword, but
truth comes to those alone who worship at her [i.e. truth's] shrine for her sake only, without fear
and without shopkeeping.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reincarnation' - Article contributed to Metaphysical Magazine, New York
We do not only tolerate but accept every religion, and with the Lord's help I am trying to preach
it to the whole world.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Haridas V Desai from Chicago (January 1894)
If one word remains true in the saying, it is, give up everything for the sake of the Lord. This is a
hard and long task, but you can begin it here and now. Bit by bit we must go towards it.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
As regards those of you that think that you understand Truth and Divinity and God in only one
Prophet in the world, and not in any other, naturally, the conclusion which I draw is that you do
not understand Divinity in anybody; you have simply swallowed words and identified yourself with one sect, just as you would in party politics, as a matter of opinion; but that is no religion at all.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Pasadena, California Times
Systems of philosophy mean nothing to mankind, or at best only intellectual gymnastics, unless
they are joined to religion and can get a body of men struggling to bring them down to practical
life with more or less success. Even systems having not one positive hope, when taken up by groups and made somewhat practical, had always a multitude; and the most elaborate positive systems of thought withered away without it.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba'
To learn this central secret that the Truth may be one and yet many at the same time, that we
may have different visions of the same Truth from different standpoints, is exactly what must be
done. Then, instead of antagonism to anyone, we shall have infinite sympathy with all.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
I am the infinite blue sky. Over me pass these clouds of various colours, remain a moment, and
vanish. I am the same eternal blue. I am the witness, the same eternal witness of all. I see,
therefore nature exists. I do not see, therefore she does not. Not one of us could see or speak if
this infinite unity were broken for a moment.
- Swami Vivekananda, Lecture in New York June 1900
One man who manifests the ideal in his life is more powerful than legions whose words can
paint it in the most beautiful colours and spin out the finest principles.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba'
We should work in the best way we can, without dragging the ideal down. Here is the ideal.
When a man has no more self in him, no possession, nothing to call "me" or "mine",has given
himself up entirely, destroyed himself as it were -- in that man is God Himself; for in him self-will
is gone, crushed out, annihilated. That is the ideal man.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
The power of suffering is infinitely greater than the power of doing; the power of love is infinitely
of greater potency than the power of hatred.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reply to the Madras Address'
Renunciation is the background of all religious thought wherever it be, and you will always find
that as this idea of renunciation lessens, the more will the senses creep into the field of religion,
and spirituality will decrease in the same ratio.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on My Master'
If a man throws aside the vanities of the world we hear him called mad. But such men are the
salt of the earth. Out of such madness have come the powers that have moved this world of
ours, and out of such madness alone will come the powers of the future, that are going to move
the world.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
We have to sense God to be convinced that there is a God. We must sense the facts of religion
to know that they are facts. Nothing else, and no amount of reasoning, but our own perception
can make these things real to us, can make my belief firm as a rock. That is my idea, and that is
the Indian idea.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
In the long run this power of meditation separates ourselves from the body, and then the soul
knows itself as it is -- the unborn, the deathless, and birthless being.
No more is there any misery, no more births upon this earth, no more evolution.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
The mind and the body, in fact all the various phenomena of nature, are in a condition of
incessant change. But the highest aspiration of our spirit is to find out something that does not
change, that has reached a state of permanent perfection. And this is the aspiration of the
human soul after the Infinite!
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
Darkness and light, enjoyment of the world and enjoyment of God will never go together. "Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon." Let people try it if they will, and I have seen millions in every
country who have tried; but after all, it comes to nothing.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
Even luxuries are arranged according to ideas and ideals, to make them reflect as much of
thought-life as possible - and this is Art.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba'
Without dispassion for the world, without renunciation, without giving up the desire for enjoyment, absolutely nothing can be accomplished in the spiritual life. - Swami Vivekananda
Self-sacrifice, indeed, is the basis of all civilisation. - Swami Vivekananda
What is this creation for? Just fun. We forget this and begin to quarrel and endure misery. We are the playmates of the Mother. - Swami Vivekananda
Can anyone, my dear friend, have faith or resignation in the Lord, unless he himself is a hero?
Never can hatred and malice vanish from one's heart unless one becomes a hero, and unless
one is free from these, how can one become truly civilised?
- Swami Vivekananda, Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
Our salutations go to all the past Prophets whose teachings and lives we have inherited,
whatever might have been their race, clime erreg Our salutations go to all those Godlike men
and women who are working to help humanity, whatever be their birth, colour, or race. Our
salutations to those who are coming in the future -- living Gods to work unselfishly for our
descendants.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
Our mind and bodies are dependent on the external world, and this dependence varies
according to the nature of their relation to it; but the indwelling spirit is free, as God is free, and
is able to direct in a greater or lesser degree, according to the state of their development, the
movements of our minds and bodies.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
In the midst of all our weakness there is a moment of pause and the voice rings: "Give up all
that thou hast; give it to the poor and follow me." This is the one ideal he [Christ] preaches, and
this has been the ideal preached by all the great Prophets of the world: renunciation. What is
meant by renunciation? That there is only one ideal in morality: unselfishness. Be selfless. The
ideal is perfect unselfishness.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Los Angles
The spirit of the highest is related to the spirit of the lowest, and the germ of infinite perfection
exists in all. We should cultivate the optimistic temperament, and endeavor to see the good that
dwells in everything.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
Ignorance sees manifold. Knowledge realises one...
Reducing the many into one is science. The whole of the universe has been demonstrated into
one. That science is called the science of Vedanta. The whole universe is one. The one runs through
all this seeming variety....
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at San Francisco
It is true that external nature is majestic, with its mountains, and oceans, and rivers, and with its
infinite powers and varieties.
Yet there is a more majestic internal nature of man, higher than the sun, moon and stars, higher
than this earth of ours, higher than the physical universe, transcending these little lives of ours;
and it affords another field of study.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on My Master'
It [Religion] has made man what he is, and will make of this human animal a God. That is what
religion can do. Take off religion from human society, what will remain?
Nothing but a forest of brutes.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at New York
He must be made of stone whose mind does not melt at the sight of Kashi and its Lord! - Swami Vivekananda
The soul that reigns within is independent and creates the desire for freedom. If we are not free,
how can we hope to make the world better? We hold that human progress is the result of the
action of the human spirit. What the world is, and what we ourselves are, are the fruits of the
freedom of the spirit.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
Every human personality may be compared to a glass globe. There is the same pure white light
-- an emission of the divine Being -- in the centre of each, but the glass being of different colors
and thickness, the rays assume diverse aspects in the transmission.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
Impress upon your children that true religion is positive and not negative, that it does not consist
in merely refraining from evil, but in a persistent performance of noble deeds. True religion
comes not from the teaching of men or the reading of books; it is the awakening of the spirit
within us, consequent upon pure and heroic action.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Brooklyn
Great men have died. Weak men have died. Gods have died. Death -- death everywhere.
This world is a graveyard of the infinite past, yet we cling to this [body]: "I am never going to
die".
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
Truth, purity, and unselfishness -- wherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition. - Swami Vivekananda
Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love. - Swami Vivekananda
Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.
Why degrade the soul to the level of animals? You not only hurt yourselves thereby, but you
injure society, and make danger for those that come after you. Stand up and reason out, having
no blind faith. Religion is a question of being and becoming, not of believing.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at New York
Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work, ...
Keep the motto before you -- "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion".
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Madras Disciples from Chicago (January 1894)
Of the West, the goal is individual independence, the language money-making education, the
means politics; of India, the goal is Mukti, the language the Veda, the means renunciation.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Modern India' an article written in Bengali for Udbodhan
Each work has to pass through these stages -- ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance.Each
man who thinks ahead of his time is sure to be misunderstood.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Maharaja of Khetri from US (July 1895)
First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be Gods. "Be and make." Let this be our motto. Say not man is a sinner. Tell him that he is a God. Even if there were a devil, it would be our duty to remember God always, and not the devil.
- Swami Vivekananda, Reply to the Madras Address
Who commits mistakes, the path of truth is attainable by him only. Trees never make mistakes,
nor do stones fall into error; animals are hardly seen to transgress the fixed laws of nature; but
man is prone to err, and it is man who becomes God-on-earth.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Modern India' - an article written in Bengali for Udbodhan
It is more blessed, in my opinion, even to go wrong, impelled by one's free will and intelligence than to be good as an automaton. - Swami Vivekananda
My noble Prince, this life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who
live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Maharaja of Mysore from Chicago
I am the spirit -- the soul no instrument can pierce, no sword can cut asunder, no fire can burn,
no air can dry. Unborn and uncreated, without beginning and without end, deathless, birthless
and omnipresent -- that is what I am; and all misery comes just because I think this little lump of
clay is myself.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
... Try to be pure and unselfish -- that is the whole of religion...
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Govinda Sahay
The growth of man can only be gauged by his power of living in the higher atmosphere where
the senses are left behind, the amount of the pure thought-oxygen his lungs can breathe in, and
the amount of time he can spend on that height.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba'
My Master used to say: "Religion can be given and taken more tangibly, more really than
anything else in the world." Be therefore spiritual first; have something to give, and then stand
before the world and give it. Religion is not talk, or doctrines or theories; nor is it sectarianism.
Religion cannot live in sects and societies. It is the relation between the soul and God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on 'My Master'
The impulsions from the plane of unconsciousness are what we call instinct, and when the
same impulsions come from the plane of consciousness, we call it reason. But there is a still higher plane, superconsciousness in man. This is apparently the same as unconsciousness, because it is beyond the plane of consciousness, but it is above consciousness and not below it. It is not instinct, it is inspiration.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at New York
While I am on earth, Shri Ramakrishna is working through me. So long as you believe in this
there is no danger of any evil for you.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda (1895)
There is death, you know, inevitable death, in water, in air, in the palace, in the prison -- death
everywhere. What makes you fearless? When you have realised what you are -- that infinite
spirit, deathless, birthless. Him no fire can burn, no instrument kill, no poison hurt.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
What is education? Is it book-learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even that. The training
by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is
called education.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Mrinalini Bose from Deoghar in Bengali
The lower the animal, the more is its enjoyment in the senses, the more it lives in the senses. Civilisation, true civilisation, should mean the power of taking the animal-man out of his sense-life -- by giving him visions and tastes of planes much higher -- and not external comforts. - Swami Vivekananda 'Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba'
Monotheism like absolute monarchy is quick in executing orders, and a great centralisation of
force, but it grows no farther, and its worst feature is its cruelty and persecution. All nations coming within its influence perish very soon after a flaring up of a few years.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'India's Message to the World'
People in these days are apt to take up religion as a means to some social or political end.
Beware of this. Religion is its own end. That religion which is only a means to worldly well-being
is not religion, whatever else it may be; and it is sheer blasphemy against God and man to hold
that man has no other end than the free and full enjoyment of all the pleasure of his senses.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'On Profssor Max Muller' - Article for Brahmavadin, from London, 1896
Excepting the infinite spirit, everything else is changing. There is the whirl of change.
Permanence is nowhere except in yourself.
There is the infinite joy, unchanging. Meditation is the gate that opens that to us. Prayers,
ceremonials, and all the other forms of worship are simply kindergartens of meditation.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk at Alameda, California
It is the design of the Eternal that there is nothing in this world to satisfy my soul, nothing in the
heavens above, and nothing beneath. Before the desire of my soul, the stars and the worlds,
upper and lower, the whole universe, is but a hateful disease, nothing but that. That is the
meaning. …
All nature is crying through all the atoms for one thing -- its perfect freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda, - Talk at Alameda, California
My children, the secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good -- that is the whole of religion. "Not he that crieth 'Lord', 'Lord', but he that doeth the will of the Father".
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Govinda Sahay
The only way of getting our divine nature manifested is by helping others to do the same. - Swami Vivekananda
"Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die." Be of good cheer and believe that we are
selected by the Lord to do great things, and we will do them. Hold yourself in readiness, i.e. be
pure and holy, and love for love's sake. Love the poor, the miserable, the down-trodden, and the
Lord will bless you.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (November 1893)
Ignorance, inequality, and desire are the three causes of human misery, and each follows the
other in inevitable union. Why should a man think himself above any other man, or even an
animal? It is the same throughout: [Sanskrit] -- "Thou art the man, Thou the woman, Thou art the young man, Thou the young woman."
- Swami Vivekananda, Reply to Maharaja of Khetri'
Let us wipe off first that mark which nature always puts on the forehead of a slave -- the stain of
jealousy. Be jealous of none. Be ready to lend a hand to every worker of good. Send a good thought for every being in the three worlds.
- Swami Vivekananda, Reply to the Madras Address'
Say, brother; "The soil of India is my highest heaven, repeat and pray day and night, the good of
India is my good," and "O Thou Lord of Gauri, O Thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe
manliness unto me! O Thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness,
take away my unmanliness, and make me a Man!"
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Modern India' - an article written in Bengali for Udbodhan
The Hindu drank in with his mother's milk that this life is as nothing -- a dream! In this he is at
one with the Westerners; but the Westerner sees no further and his conclusion is that of the
Charvaka -- to "make hay while the sun shines". "This world being a miserable hole, let us enjoy
to the utmost what morsels of pleasure are left to us." To the Hindu, on the other hand, God and
soul are the only realities, infinitely more real than this world, and he is therefore ever ready to
let this go for the other.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'The Social Conference Address'
They know not truth who dream such vacant dreams As father, mother, children, wife, and
friend. The sexless Self! whose father He? whose child? Whose friend, whose foe is He who is but
One? The Self is all in all, none else exists; And thou art That, Sannyasin bold! Say --
"Om Tat Sat, Om!"
- Swami Vivekananda, "THE SONG OF THE SANNYASIN', Composed at the Thousand Island Park, NY, July, 1895
If one be asked to point out the system of thought towards which as a centre all the ancient and
modern Indian thoughts have converged, if one wants to see the real backbone of Hinduism in
all its various manifestations, the Sutras of Vyasa will unquestionably be pointed out as
constituting all that.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reply to the Madras Address'
Tyaga (renunciation) is never liked by the higher classes of Bengal. Their tendency is for Bhoga (enjoyment) How can they get a deep insight into spiritual things? "By renunciation alone immortality was reached." How can it be otherwise?
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Reply to the Madras Address'
Our solution is unworldliness - renunciation. This is the theme of Indian life-work, the burden of
her eternal songs, the backbone of her existence, the foundation of her being, the raison d'etre
of her very existence -- the spiritualisation of the human race. In this her life-course she has
never deviated, whether the Tartar ruled or the Turk, whether the Mogul ruled or the English.
- Swami Vivekananda, 'India's Message to the World'
Push on with the organization. Nothing else is necessary but these -- love, sincerity, and
patience. What is life but growth, i.e. expansion, i.e. love? Therefore all love is life, it is the only
law of life; all selfishness is death, and this is true here or hereafter.
- Swami Vivekananda, Written to Alasinga Perumal from New York
You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself. - Swami Vivekananda
Strength is in goodness, in purity. - Swami Vivekananda
The universe is - objectified God. - Swami Vivekananda
The dwelling-place of the Jivatman, this body, is a veritable means of work, and he who
converts this into an infernal den is guilty, and he who neglects it is also to blame.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Balaram Basu
Work hundreds of lives out, search every corner of your mind for ages - and still you will not find
one noble religious idea that is not already imbedded in that infinite mine of spirituality [Vedas]
- Swami Vivekananda, Reply to the Madras Address
It is knowledge that opens the door to regions of wonder, knowledge that makes a god of an
animal: and that knowledge which brings us to That, "knowing which everything else is known"
(the heart of all knowledge -- whose pulsation brings life to all sciences -- the science of religion)
is certainly the highest, as it alone can make man live a complete and perfect life in thought.
Blessed be the land which has styled it "supreme science"!
- Swami Vivekananda, "Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba"
Three things are necessary to make every man great, every nation great:
1. Conviction of the powers of goodness.
2. Absence of jealousy and suspicion.
3. Helping all who are trying to be and do good.
- Swami Vivekananda, in a Letter to Haridas V Desai from Chicago (January 1894)
What we call extraordinary, superconscious inspiration is
only the result of a higher development
of ordinary
consciousness, gained by long and continued effort. The difference between the
ordinary and the
extraordinary is merely one of degree in manifestation. Conscious efforts lead
the way to
superconscious illumination.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in an article written for Udbodhan
Those amongst us who are not yet fit, but who hope to be
fit, to reach to that absolutely pure
Paramahamsa state -
for them the acquirement of Rajas or intense activity is what is most
beneficial now.
Unless a man passes through Rajas, can he ever attain to that perfect Sattvika
state? How can one
expect Yoga or union with God, unless one has previously finished with his
thirst for Bhoga or
enjoyment?
- Swami Vivekananda,
Introductory article in Bengali written for Udbodhan (Jan 1899)
Generalisation is the essence of knowledge. Generalisation
is impossible without a storage of
similarities. Even
the fact of comparison is impossible without previous experience. Knowledge
thus is impossible
without previous knowledge - and knowledge necessitating the existence of
both thought and
matter, both of them are without beginning.
- Swami Vivekananda,
found in an unfinished article
One Ramachandra is born after thousands of Agnivarnas pass
away! Many kings show us the
life of Chandashoka;
Dharmashokas are rare! The number of kings like Akbar, in whom the
subjects find their
life, is far less than that of kings like Aurangzeb who live on the blood of
their
people!
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Modern India' - an Bengali article written for Udbodhan
Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries.
What the world wants is character.
The world is in need
of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every
word tell like
thunderbolt.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Miss Noble (Sister Nivedita) from London (June 1896)
Let us work without
desire for name or fame or rule over others. Let us be free from the
triple bonds of lust, greed of gain, and anger. And this truth is with us!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to ET Sturdy from New York (August 1895)
One cannot serve the God of Truth who leans upon somebody.
Be still, my soul! Be alone! and
the Lord is with you.
Life is nothing! Death is a delusion! All this is not, God alone is! Fear not,
my soul! Be alone.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from New York (February 1895)
Say, "Peace to all: From me no danger be To aught
that lives. In those that dwell on high. In
those that lowly
creep, I am the Self in all!
All life both here
and there, do I renounce, All heavens and earths and hells, all hopes and
fears." Thus cut thy bonds,
Sannyasin bold! Say -- "Om Tat Sat, Om!"
-Swami Vivekananda,
"THE SONG OF THE
SANNYASIN', Composed at the Thousand Island Park, NY, July, 1895
Coming and going is all pure delusion. The soul never
comes nor goes. Where is the place to
which it shall go
when all space is in the soul? When shall be the time for entering and
departing
when all time is in
the soul?
- Swami Vivekananda,
- in a Letter to Mrs. Ole Bull from Brooklyn (January 1895)
You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of
Mother's life -- none of you. But
gradually you will
know. Without Shakti (Power) there is no regeneration for the world. Why is it
that our country is
the weakest and the most backward of all countries?-- because Shakti is held
in dishonour there.
Mother has been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India; and making
her the nucleus, once
more will Gargis and Maitreyis be born into the world.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Shivananda from US (1894)
Look not up in that attitude of fear towards that infinite
starry vault as if it would crush you. Wait!
In a few hours more,
the whole of it will be under your feet. Wait, money does not pay, nor
name; fame does not
pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way
through adamantine
walls of difficulties.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Written to Alasinga Perumal from New York
… to realise God, the Brahman, as the Dvaitins say, or to
become Brahman, as the Advaitins
say -- is the aim and
end of the whole teaching of the Vedas; and every other teaching, therein
contained, represents
a stage in the course of our progress thereto. And the great glory of
Bhagavan Bhashyakara
Shankaracharya is that it was his genius that gave the most wonderful
expression to the
ideas of Vyasa.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Reply to the Madras Address
Know you are the Infinite, then fear must die. Say ever,
"I and my Father are one.'
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
These two gigantic rivers (Aryans and Yavanas), issuing
from far-away and different mountains
(India and Greece),
occasionally come in contact with each other, and whenever such
confluence takes
place, a tremendous intellectual or spiritual tide, rising in human societies,
greatly expands the
range of civilisation and confirms the bond of universal brotherhood among
men.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Introductory article
in Bengali written for Udbodhan (Jan 1899)
I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe
the widow's tears or bring a piece of
bread to the orphan's
mouth. However sublime be the theories, however well-spun may be the
philosophy -- i do
not call it religion so long as it is confined to books and dogmas.
-Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Washington DC (October 1894)
Worldliness and
realisation of God cannot go together.
- Swami Vivekananda
Sitting in luxurious homes, surrounded with all the
comforts of life, and doling out a little amateur
religion may be good
for other lands, but India has a truer instinct.
It intuitively
detects the mask. You must give up. Be great. No great work can be done without
sacrifice.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Reply to the Madras Address'
Where seekest thou? That freedom, friend, this world
Nor that can give. In
books and temples vain
Thy search. Thine
only is the hand that holds
The rope that drags
thee on. Then cease lament,
Let go thy hold,
Sannyasin bold! Say - --
"Om Tat Sat, Om!"
- Swami Vivekananda,
"THE SONG OF THE SANNYASIN' Composed at the Thousand Island
Park, New York, July, 1895
Let us know that all that is negative, all that is
destructive, all that is mere criticism, is bound to
pass away; it is the
positive, the affirmative, the constructive that is immortal, that will remain
for
ever. Let us say, "We
are" and "God is" and "We are God", "Shivoham,
Shivoham", and march on.
Not matter but
spirit.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Reply to the Madras Address'
The one idea the Hindu religions differ in from every
other in the world, the one idea to express
which the sages
almost exhaust the vocabulary of the Sanskrit language, is that man must
realise God even in
this life. And the Advaita texts very logically add, "To know God is to
become God."
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Reply to the Madras Address'
I am grateful to the lands of the West for the many warm
hearts that received me with all the
love that pure and
disinterested souls alone could give; but my life's allegiance is to this my
motherland; and if I
had thousand lives, every moment of the whole series would be
consecrated to your
service, my countrymen, my friends.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'India's Message to the World'
I will compare truth to a corrosive substance of infinite
power. It burns its way in wherever it falls
-- in soft substance
at once, hard granite slowly, but it must.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from New York (February 1895)
My son, hold fast! Do not care for anybody to help you. Is
not the Lord infinitely greater than all
human help? Be holy
-- trust in the Lord, depend on Him always, and you are on the right track;
nothing can prevail
against you....
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (1894)
Multitude counts for nothing. A few heart-whole, sincere,
and energetic men can do more in a
year than a mob in a
century.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to ET Sturdy from New York (August 1895)
Wisdom, knowledge, wealth, men, strength, prowess, and
whatever else nature gathers and
provides us with, are
all only for diffusion, when the moment of need is at hand. We often forget
this fact, put the
stamp of "mine only" upon the entrusted deposits, and pari passu, we
sow the
seed of our own ruin!
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Modern India' - an
article written in Bengali for Udbodhan
I am no politician or political agitator. I care only for
the Spirit -- when that is right everything will
be righted by
itself... … no political significance be ever attached falsely to any of my writings
or sayings.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from USA (September 1894)
The power of the ideal is in the practical. Its work on us
is in and through the practical. Through
the practical, the
ideal is brought down to our sense-perception, changed into a form fit for our
assimilation. of the
practical we make the steps to rise to the ideal. On that we build our hopes;
it gives us courage
to work.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Sketch of The Life of Pavhari Baba
Those that want to help mankind must take their own
pleasure and pain, name and fame, and
all sorts of
interests, and make a bundle of them and throw them into the sea, and then come
to
the Lord. This is
what all the Masters said and did.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mrs. Ole Bull from New York (March 1895)
Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested.
Every man has in him the potentiality of
attaining to perfect
saintliness, Rishihood, or to the most exalted position of an Avatara, or to
the
greatness of a hero
in material discoveries. It is only a question of time and adequate
well-guided
investigation, etc., to have this perfection manifested.
- Swami Vivekananda,
an article written for Udbodhan
My name should not be made prominent; it is my ideas that
I want to see realised. The disciples
of all the prophets
have always inextricably mixed up the ideas of the Master with the person,
and at last killed
the ideas for the person.
The disciples of Shri
Ramakrishna must guard against doing the same thing. Work for the idea,
not the person. The
Lord bless you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from US (January 1895)
Infinite patience, infinite purity, and infinite
perseverance are the secret of success in a good
cause.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from New York (May 1895)
Not a drop will be in the ocean, not a twig in the deepest
forest, not a crumb in the house of the
god of wealth, if the
Lord is not merciful. Streams will be in the desert and the beggar will have
plenty, if He wills
it. He seeth the sparrow's fall.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mrs. Ole Bull from New York (April 1895)
Love makes no distinction between man and man, between an
Aryan and a Mlechchha,
between a Brahmana
and a Pariah, nor even between a man and a woman. Love makes the
whole universe
as one's own home.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter from US (May 1895)
The more I have been opposed, the more my energy has
always found expression. I have been
driven and worshipped
by princes.
I have been slandered
by priests and laymen alike. But what of it? Bless them all! They are my
very Self, and have
they not helped me by acting as a spring-board from which my energy could
take higher and
higher flights?
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to E T Sturdy from New York (August 1895)
Onward! Upon ages of struggle a character is built. Be not
discouraged. One word of truth can
never be lost; for
ages it may be hidden under rubbish, but it will show itself sooner or later.
Truth is
indestructible, virtue is indestructible, purity is indestructible.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (1894)
Work on, be lions; and the Lord will bless you. I shall
work incessantly until I die, and even after
death I shall work
for the good of the world. Truth is infinitely more weighty than untruth; so is
goodness. If you
possess these, they will make their way by sheer gravity.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to G G Narasimhachariar from Chicago (January 1895)
Every action that helps a being manifest its divine nature
more and more is good, every action
that retards it is
evil.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda (1895)
Desire, ignorance,
and inequality this is the trinity of bondage. Denial of the will to live, knowledge,
and same-sightedness is the trinity of liberation. Freedom is the goal of the
universe.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from Thousand Island Park (June 1895)
Neither numbers nor powers nor wealth nor learning nor
eloquence nor anything else will
prevail, but purity,
living the life, in one word, anubhuti, realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to ET Sturdy from New York (August 1895)
"Youth and beauty vanish, life and wealth vanish,
name and fame vanish, even the mountains
crumble into dust.
Friendship and love vanish. Truth alone abides." God of Truth, be Thou alone
my guide!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from New York (February 1895)
True, that spiritual illumination shines of itself in a
pure heart, and, as such, it is not something
acquired from
without; but to attain this purity of heart means long struggle and constant
practice. ...
... hard Tapasya, or
practice of austerities in the shape of devout contemplation and constant
study of a subject is
at the root of all illumination in its respective spheres.
- Swami Vivekananda,
an article written for Udbodhan
At the Beginning, I the Omniscient One, I am! The moving
and the un-moving, All this Creation
comes into being By
the unfoldment of My power supreme. I play with My own Maya, My Power
Divine. The One, I
become the many, to behold My own Form.
- Swami Vivekananda,
from 'A Song I Sing to Thee' - poem in Bengali
Meddle not with so-called social reform, for there cannot
be any reform without spiritual reform
first. Who told you that I want
social reform? Not I. Preach the Lord -- say neither good nor bad about the
superstitions and diets.Do not lose heart, do not lose faith in your Guru, do
not lose faith in God. So long as you possess these three, nothing can harm
you, my child.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from New York (1895)
If you want any good to come, just throw your ceremonials
overboard and worship the Living
God, the Man-god --
every being that wears a human form -- god in His universal as well as
individual aspect.
The universal aspect of God means this world, and worshipping it means
serving it --
this indeed is work,
not indulging in ceremonials.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to his Brother Disciples from USA (1894)
Liberty is the first condition
of growth. Your ancestors gave every liberty to the soul, and religion
grew. They put the
body under every bondage, and society did not grow. The opposite is the
case in the West --
every liberty to society, none to religion. Now are falling off the shackles
from
the feet of Eastern
society as from those of Western religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from USA (September 1894)
All souls that ever have been, are, or shall be, are all
in the present tense and -- to use a
material simile --
are all standing at one geometrical point. Because the idea of space does
occur in the soul,
therefore all that were ours, are ours, and will be ours, are always with us,
were always with us,
and will be always with us.
We are in them. They
are in us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mrs. Ole Bull from Brooklyn (January 1895)
Believe, believe, the decree has gone forth, the fiat of
the Lord has gone forth. India must rise,
the masses and the
poor are to be made happy. Rejoice that you are the chosen instruments in
His hands. The flood
of spirituality has risen. I see it is rolling over the land
resistless, boundless,
all-absorbing.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (May 1894)
The faculty of organisation is entirely absent in our
nature [i.e. Indians], but this has to be
infused. The great
secret is - absence of jealousy. Be always ready to concede to the opinions
of your brethren, and
try always to conciliate. That is the whole secret. Fight on bravely! Life is
short! Give it up to
a great cause.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from USA (July 1894)
Do not be afraid of a small beginning, great things come
afterwards. Be courageous. Do not try
to lead your
brethren, but serve them. The brutal mania for leading has sunk many a great
ship
in the waters of
life. Take care especially of that, i.e. be unselfish even unto death, and
work.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (May 1894)
No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live; India's doom was sealed the very day they
invented the word
MLECHCHHA and stopped from communion with others. Take care how you
foster that idea. It
is good to talk glibly about the Vedanta, but how hard to carry out even its
least precepts!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Washington DC (October 1894)
Do you mean to say I am born to live and die one of those
caste-ridden, superstitious,
merciless,
hypocritical, atheistic cowards that you find only amongst the educated Hindus?
I
hate cowardice; I
will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense. I do not believe in any
politics. God and truth are the only politics in the world, everything else is
trash.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Paris (September 1895)
My whole ambition in life is to set in motion a machinery
which will bring noble ideas to the door
of everybody, and
then let men and women settle their own fate. Let them know what our
forefathers as well
as other nations have thought on the most momentous questions of life. Let
them see specially
what others are doing now, and then decide. We are to put the chemicals
together, the
crystallisation will be done by nature according to her laws.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Madras Disciples from Chicago (January 1894)
... let those belonging to the upper ten, who do not earn
their livelihood by manual labour, not
take meat; but the
forcing of vegetarianism upon those who have to earn their bread by
labouring day and night
is one of the causes of the loss of our national freedom. Japan is an
example of what good
and nourishing food can do.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Written to Sarala Ghosal, Editor, Bharati in Bengali
… on the one hand, my vision of the future of Indian
religion and that of the whole world, my
love for the millions
of beings sinking down and down for ages with nobody to help them, nay,
nobody with even a
thought for them; on the other hand, making those who are nearest and
dearest to me
miserable; I choose the former. "Lord will do the rest." He is with
me, I am sure of
that if of anything.
So long as I am sincere, nothing can resist me, because He will be my help.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Haridas V. Desai from Chicago (January 1894)
"Liberty of thought and action is the only condition
of life, of growth and well-being." Where it
does not exist, the
man, the race, the nation must go down. Caste or no caste, creed or no
creed, any man, or
class, or caste, or nation, or institution which bars the power of free thought
and action of an
individual - even so long as that power does not injure others is devilish and
must go down.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Madras Disciples from Chicago (January 1894)
Are you perfectly unselfish? If so, you are irresistible.
It is character that pays everywhere. It is
the Lord who protects
His children in the depths of the sea. Your country requires heroes; be
heroes! God bless
you!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal from Washington DC (October 1894)
One idea that I see clear as daylight is that misery is
caused by ignorance and nothing else.
Who will give the
world light? Sacrifice in the past has been the Law, it will be, alas, for ages
to
come. The earth's
bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for
the welfare of all.
Buddhas by the hundred are necessary with eternal love and pity.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Miss Noble (Sister Nivedita) from London (June 1896)
Who works? Whose work? There is no world. It is God
Himself. In delusion we call it world.
Neither I nor thou
nor you -- it is all He the Lord, all One.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mrs Ole Bull from Switzerland (August 1896)
I have experienced even in my insignificant life that good
motives, sincerity, and infinite love can
conquer the world.
One single soul possessed of these virtues can destroy the dark designs of
millions of
hypocrites and brutes.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Sarala Ghoshal of from Darjeeling (April 1897)
Come out if you can of this network of foolishness they
call this world.
Then I will call you
indeed brave and free. If you cannot, cheer those that dare dash this false
God, society, to the
ground and trample on its unmitigated hypocrisy; if you cannot cheer them,
pray, be silent, but
do not try to drag them down again into the mire with such false nonsense as
compromise and
becoming nice and sweet.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from New York (February 1895)
External nature is only internal nature writ large. - Swami Vivekananda
Material science can only give worldly prosperity, whilst
spiritual science is for eternal life. If
there be no eternal
life, still the enjoyment of spiritual thoughts as ideas is keener and makes a
man happier, whilst
the foolery of materialism leads to competition and undue ambition and
ultimate death,
individual and national.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from Darjeeling (April 1897)
What queer humility is this to say, "I know
nothing!" "I am nothing!" This is pseudo-renunciation
and mock-modesty, I
tell you. Off with such a self-debasing spirit. "If I do not know, who on
earth
does!" What have
you been doing so long if you now plead ignorance? These are the words of
an atheist -- the
humility of a vagabond wretch. We can do everything, and will do everything!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda (1895)
It is the heart, the heart that conquers, not the brain.
Books and learning, Yoga and meditation
and illumination --
all are but dust compared with love. It is love that gives you the supernatural
powers, love that
gives you Bhakti, love, again, that leads to emancipation.
love that gives
illumination, and
This indeed is
worship, worship of the Lord in the human tabernacle ...
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Akhandananda from Almora (June 1897)
... what is there to be desired in this little mud-puddle
of a world, with its ever-recurring misery,
disease, and death?
"He who has given up all desires, he alone is happy."
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to J J Goodwin from Switzerland (August 1896)
The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is
to be a conscious dreamer, that is all.
- Swami Vivekananda
There is but one basis of well-being, social, political or
spiritual – to know that I and my brother
are one. This is true
for all countries and all people. And Westerners, let me say, will realise it
more quickly than
Orientals, who have almost exhausted themselves in formulating the idea and
producing a few cases
of individual realisation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to E T Sturdy from New York (August 1895)
We may read books, hear lectures, and talk miles, but
experience is the one teacher, the one
eye-opener. It is
best as it is. We learn, through smiles and tears we learn. We don't know why,
but we see it is so;
and that is enough.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from Pasadena (February 1900)
Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so
great, so strong,
that there may be
nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything
else.
- Swami Vivekananda
All expansion is life, all contraction is death. All love
is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the
only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore
love for love's sake,
because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda (1895)
"From me all difference has fallen, all right or
wrong, all delusion and ignorance has vanished, I
am walking in the
path beyond the qualities." What law I obey, what disobey? From that
height
the universe looks
like a mud-puddle.
Hari Om Tat Sat. He
exists; nothing else does. I in Thee and Thou in me. Be Thou Lord my
eternal refuge!
Peace, Peace, Peace!
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from Thousand Island Park (June 1895)
Without renunciation religion can never stand. - Swami Vivekananda
Music is the highest art and, to those who understand, is
the highest worship.
- Swami Vivekananda
Say it day and night; Think always "Soham,
Soham"; this is almost as good as liberation.
realisation will come
as the result of this continuous cogitation. This absolute and continuous
remembrance of the
Lord is what is meant by Bhakti.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The Vedanta is the rationale of all religions. Without the
Vedanta every religion is superstition;
with it everything
becomes religion.
- Swami Vivekananda
We are Shiva, we are immortal knowledge beyond the senses.
Infinite power is back of
everyone; pray to
Mother, and it will come to you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
My master used to say that these names, as Hindu,
Christian, etc., stand as great bars to all
brotherly feelings
between man and man. We must try to break them down first. They have
lost all their good powers and now only stand as baneful influences under whose
black magic even the best of us behave like demons. Well, we will have to work
hard and must succeed.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mrs. Ole Bull from New York (March 1895)
I have clear light now, free of all hocus-pocus. I want to
give them dry,
hard reason, softened in the
sweetest syrup of
love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so
that even a baby can easily digest it.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to E T Sturdy from New York (February 1896)
What is the use of talking of one's mistakes to the world?
They cannot thereby be undone. For
what one has done one
must suffer; one must try and do better. The world sympathizes only
with the strong and
the powerful.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Karma-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Great enterprise, boundless courage, tremendous energy,
and, above all, perfect obedience –
these are the only
traits that lead to individual and national regeneration. These traits are
altogether lacking in
us [i.e. Indians].
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Akhandananda from London (November 1895)
Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter
merely, but it is the heart that is the
seat of all power. It
is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge,
power, and activity,
has Its seat.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Akhandananda from California (February 1900)
Why weepest thou, brother? There is neither death nor
disease for thee. Why weepest thou,
brother? There is
neither misery nor misfortune for thee. Why weepest thou, brother? Neither
change nor death was predicated of thee. Thou art Existence Absolute.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Jnana-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere
(limitless), but whose centre is in some
body. Death is but a
change of centre. God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, and
whose centre is
everywhere. When we can get out of the limited centre of body, we shall realise
God, our true Self.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Jnana-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Q.-- What should be our highest ideal of character?
A.-- Renunciation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Selections from the Math Diary
Through fanaticism
and bigotry a religion can be propagated very quickly, no doubt, but the
preaching of that
religion is firm-based on solid ground, which gives everyone liberty to his
opinions and thus
uplifts him to a higher path, though this process is slow.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Bhakti-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Seek the Highest, always the Highest, for in the Highest
is eternal bliss. If I am to hunt, I will
hunt the lion. If I
am to rob, I will rob the treasury of the king. Seek the Highest.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Jnana-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
All souls are playing, a some consciously, some
unconsciously. Religion is learning to play consciously. - Swami
Vivekananda
Q.- How can one have Bhakti?
A.- There is Bhakti
within you, only a veil of lust-and-wealth covers it, and as soon as that is
removed Bhakti will
manifest by itself.
- Swami
Vivekananda," Selections from the Math Diary
We have a place for struggle in the Vedanta, but not for
fear. All fears will vanish when you
begin to assert your
own nature. If you think that you are bound, bound you will remain. If you
think you are free,
free you will be.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Law and Freedom, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Q. -- How is harmonious development of character to be
best effected?
A.-- By association
with persons whose character has been so developed.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Selections from the Math Diary
Of Jnana and Bhakti he who advocates one and denounces the
other cannot be either a Jnani
or a Bhakta, but he
is a thief and a cheat.
- Swami Vivekananda
In criticizing another, we always foolishly take one
especially brilliant point as the whole of our
life and compare that
with the dark ones in the life of another. Thus we make mistakes in
judging individuals.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Bhakti-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Only the fools rush after sense-enjoyments. … ... Death
lies in the senses. Life on the plane of
the Spirit is the only
life, life on any other plane is mere death; the whole of this life can be only
described as a
gymnasium. We must go beyond it to enjoy real life.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Bhakti-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
I have a message to the West as Buddha had a message to
the East. - Swami Vivekananda
The Vedanta teaches
that Nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for
death to reach it.
Nirvana is the realisation of the Self; and after having once known that, if
only
for an instant, never
again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On the Vedanta Philosophy, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
This is to let you know "I am very happy". Not
that I am getting into a shadowy optimism, but my
power of suffering is
increasing. I am being lifted up above the pestilential miasma of this world's
joys and sorrows;
they are losing their meaning. It is a land of dreams; it does not matter
whether one enjoys or
weeps; they are but dreams, and as such, must break sooner or later.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from San Francisco (March 1900)
We put all our energies to concentrate and get attached to
one thing; but the other part, though
equally difficult, we
seldom pay any attention to the faculty of detaching ourselves at a moment's
notice from anything.
Both attachment and detachment perfectly developed make a man great
and happy.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Sister Nivedita from San Francisco (March 1900)
Religion is that which does not depend upon books or
teachers or prophets or saviours, and that
which does not make
us dependent in this or in any other lives upon others. In this sense
Advaitism of the
Upanishads is the only religion.
But saviours, books,
prophets, ceremonials, etc. have their places.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Mary Hale from Los Angles (June 1900)
Men run after a few dollars and do not think anything of
cheating a fellow-being to get those
dollars; but if they
would restrain themselves, in a few years they would develop such
characters as would
bring them millions of dollars -- if they wanted them. Then their will would
govern the universe.
But we are all such
fools!
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Karma-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty
which is in our hands now, we make
ourselves stronger;
and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may even reach
a state in which it
shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in
society.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Karma-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
As long as touch-me-not-ism is your creed and the
kitchen-pot your deity, you cannot rise
spiritually.
All the petty
differences between religion and religion are mere word-struggles, nonsense. Everyone
thinks, "This is my original idea", and wants to have things his own
way. That is how struggles come.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Bhakti-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
There is really no difference between matter, mind, and
Spirit. They are only different phases of experiencing the One. This very world
is seen by the five senses as matter, by the very wicked as hell, by
the good as heaven, and by the perfect as God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Jnana-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
The real Vedantist alone will give up his life for a
fellow-man without any compunction, because
he knows he will not
die. As long as there is one insect left in the world, he is living; as long as
one mouth eats, he
eats. So he goes on doing good to others; and is never hindered by the
modern ideas of
caring for the body.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On the Vedanta Philosophy, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
The ultimate goal of all mankind, the aim and end of all
religions, is but one -- re-union with God,
or, what amounts to
the same, with the divinity which is every man's true nature. But while the
aim is one, the
method of attaining may vary with the different temperaments of men.
- Swami Vivekananda,
The Goal and Methods of Realisation, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
The Vedanta says that you are pure and perfect, and that
there is a state beyond good and evil,
and that is your own
nature. It is higher even than good. Canang Special Opnet of Modern Time
Good is only a lesser
differentiation than evil. We have no theory of evil. We call it ignorance.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On the Vedanta Philosophy, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
We want that education by which character is formed,
strength of mind is increased, the intellect
is expanded, and by
which one can stand on one's own feet.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, at Calcutta, Surendra Nath Sen Diary
What we want are Western science coupled with Vedanta,
Brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and also Shraddha and faith in one's own
self.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
Q.-- What is Tapasya?
A.-- Tapasya is
threefold -- of the body, of speech, and of mind.
The first is service
of others; the second, truthfulness; and third, control and concentration.
- Swami Vivekananda
There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion --
I am God -- cannot be made with
regard to the
sense-world. If you say in the sense-world that you are God, what is to prevent
your doing wrong? So
the affirmation of your divinity applies only to the noumenal.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On the Vedanta Philosophy, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Spirituality can never be attained until materiality is
gone. - Swami Vivekananda
Man is born to conquer nature and not to follow it. - Swami Vivekananda
One party says thought is caused by matter, and the other
says matter is caused by thought.
Both statements are
wrong; matter and thought are coexistent. There is a third something of
which both matter and
thought are products.
- Swami Vivekananda
The root of evil is in the illusion that we are bodies.
This, if any, is the original sin.
- Swami Vivekananda
The motive is the measure of your work. What motive can be
higher than that you are God, and
that the
lowest man is also
God? -
Swami Vivekananda
Any sect that may help you to realise God is welcome.
Religion is the realising of God.
- Swami Vivekananda
Jnana, Bhakti, Yoga and Karma -- these are the four paths
which lead to salvation. One must
follow the path for
which one is best suited; but in this age special stress should be laid on
Karma-yoga.
- Swami Vivekananda
Shankaracharya had caught the rhythm of the Vedas, the
national cadence. … his whole life's
work is nothing but
that, the throbbing of the beauty of the Vedas and the Upanishads.
- Swami Vivekananda
Of all the scriptures of the world it is the Vedas alone
that declare that even the study of the
Vedas is secondary.
The real study is "that by which we realise the Unchangeable. And that is
neither reading, nor
believing, nor reasoning, but superconscious perception, or Samadhi.
- Swami Vivekananda
It is child's talk that a man dies and goes to heaven. We
never come nor
go. We are where we are. All the souls that have been, are, and will be, are on
one geometrical point.
- Swami Vivekananda
That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by
nothing material. - Swami Vivekananda
In the efflux of time the light of Vedanta now and then
seems as if about to be extinguished, and
when that happens,
the Lord has to incarnate Himself in the human body; He then infuses such
life and strength
into religion that it goes on again for some time with irresistible vigour.
That life
and strength has come
into it again.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
A true Christian is a true Hindu, and a true Hindu is a
true Christian. - Swami Vivekananda
… no one can teach anybody. The teacher spoils everything
by thinking that he is teaching.
Thus Vedanta says
that within man is all knowledge -- even in a boy it is so -- and it requires
only an awakening,
and that much is the work of a teacher.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man,
and man unto God. - Swami Vivekananda
Jesus came to publicans and sinners and lived with them.
He never set himself on a pedestal.
Only sinners see sin.
See not man, see only the Lord.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
… mind can never turn to God until the desire for lust and
wealth has gone from it, be the man a
householder or a
Sannyasin. Know this for a fact, that as long as the mind is caught in these,
so
long true devotion,
firmness, and Shraddha (faith) can never come.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The trouble with the nations of the West is that they are
young, foolish, fickle, and wealthy. What
mischief can come of
one of these qualities; but when all three, all four, are combined,
beware!"
- Swami Vivekananda
To satisfy our smaller desires and have done with them for
ever, to relinquish the greater ones
and by discrimination
-- that is the way. Without renunciation God can never be realised – [Sanskrit]-
even if Brahma himself enjoined otherwise!
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Think always, "I am ever-pure, ever-knowing, and
ever-free; how can I do anything evil? Can I
ever be befooled like
ordinary men with the insignificant charms of lust and wealth?" Strengthen
the mind with such
thoughts. This will surely bring real good.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
You cannot teach a child any more than you can grow a
plant. All you can do is on the negative
side you can only
help. It is a manifestation from within; it develops its own nature -- you can
only take away
obstructions.
- Swami Vivekananda
Look here -- we shall all die! Bear this in mind always,
and then the spirit within will wake up.
Then only, meanness
will vanish from you, practicality in work will come, you will get new vigour
in mind and body, and
those who come in contact with you will also feel that they have really got
something uplifting
from you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and
Dialogues, at Belur Math, recorded by Surendra Nath Das Gupta
You have to grow from inside out. None can teach none can
make you spiritual. There is no
other teacher but
your own soul.
- Swami Vivekananda
Religion is not a thing of imagination but of direct
perception. He who has seen even a single
spirit is greater
than many a book-learned Pandit.
- Swami Vivekananda
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
- Swami Vivekananda
Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each
one can be true. - Swami Vivekananda
This world is the great gymnasium where we come make
ourselves strong. - Swami Vivekananda
Study the history of the whole world, and you will see
that every high ideal you meet with
anywhere
had its origin in
India. From time immemorial India has been the mine of precious ideas to human
society; giving birth to high ideas herself, she has freely distributed them
broadcast over
the whole world.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and
Dialogues, at Calcutta, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
When you think you are a body, you are apart from the
universe; when you think you are a soul,
you are a spark from
the great Eternal Fire; when you think you are the Atman (Self), you are
All.
- Swami Vivekananda
Whenever you do anything, do it with your whole heart
concentrated on it. Think day and night,
"I am of the
essence of that Supreme Existence-knowledge-bliss what fear and anxiety have I?
This body, mind, and
intellect are all transient, and That which is beyond these is myself."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
It is a most glorious dispensation of the Lord that there
are so many religions in the world; and
would to God that
these would increase every day, until every man had a religion unto himself!
- Swami Vivekananda, 'Methods
and Purpose of Religion' - Talk in England
As men, we must have a God; as God, we need none. This is
why Shri Ramakrishna constantly
saw the Divine Mother
ever present with him, more real than any other thing around him; but in
Samadhi all went but
the Self.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The householder must earn money with great effort and
enthusiasm, and by that must support
and bring comforts to
his own family and to others, and perform good works as far as possible.
If you cannot do
that, how do you profess to be a man? You are not a householder even -- what
to talk of Moksha for
you!!
- Swami Vivekananda,
The East and The West
The Vedas were the first to find and proclaim the way to
Moksha, and from that one source, the
Vedas, was taken
whatever any great Teacher, say, Buddha or Christ, afterwards taught.
- Swami Vivekananda,
The East and The West
We read many books, but that does not bring us knowledge.
We may read all the Bibles in the
world, but that will
not give us religion. Theoretical religion is easy enough to get, any one may
get that. What we
want is practical religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'The Practice of Religion' - Talk at Almeda, California
With every man, there is an idea; the external man is only
the outward manifestation, the mere
language of this idea
within. Likewise, every nation has a corresponding national idea. This idea
is working for the
world and is necessary for its preservation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
The East and The West
All that I am, all that the world itself will some day be,
is owing to my Master, Shri Ramakrishna,
who incarnated and
experienced and taught this wonderful unity which underlies everything,
having discovered it
alike in Hinduism, in Islam, and in Christianity.
- Swami Vivekananda
The ideal woman in India is the mother, the mother first,
and the mother last. The word woman
calls up to the mind
of the Hindu, motherhood; and God is called Mother.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Six Lessons on Raja-Yoga, US
Enjoyment lies not in physical development, but in the
culture of the mind and the intellect.
- Swami Vivekananda
The fear of God is the beginning of religion, but the love
of God is the end of religion.
- Swami Vivekananda
Hearing, seeing, or tasting etc. is the mind in different
states of action. - Swami Vivekananda
First, we have to understand that there are not any good
qualities which are the privileged
monopoly of one
nation only. Of course, as with individuals, so with nations, there may be a
prevalence of certain
good qualities, more or less in one nation than in another.
- Swami Vivekananda,
The East and The West
… until a man becomes a prophet, religion is mockery and a
byword unto him. We must see
religion, feel it,
realise it in a thousand times more intense a sense than that in which we see
the
wall.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Methods and Purpose of Religion' - Talk in England
The will can never be free, because it is the slave of
cause and effect. But the "I" behind the will
is free; and this is
the Self.
"I am
free"-- that is the basis on which to build and live. And freedom means
immortality.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Freedom of The Self, Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
The Upanisads declare: "He the Lord has
interpenetrated the universe. It is all His." "He the
Omnipresent, the One
without a second, the One without a body, pure, the great poet of the
universe, whose metre
is the suns and stars, is giving to each what he deserves" (Isha
Upanishad, 8,
adapted).
- Swami Vivekananda,
"Thoughts on the Vedas and Upanishads", Notes of Class Talks and
Lectures
Yoga means the method of joining man and God. When you
understand this, you can go on with
your own definitions of
man and God, and you will find the term Yoga fits in with every definition.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Introduction to Jnana-Yoga' - Talk in New York
Religion is fundamental in the very soul of humanity; and
as all life is the evolution of that which
is within, it, of
necessity, expresses itself through various peoples and nations.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'The Vedanta Philosophy and Christianity' - Talk in California
We must get beyond emotionalism if we want the power to
renounce. Emotion
belongs to the animals. They are creatures of emotion entirely.
- Swami Vivekananda
All the misery of the world is caused by this slavery to
the senses. Our inability to rise above the
sense-life -- the
striving for physical pleasures, is the cause of all the horrors and miseries
in the
world.
- Swami Vivekananda,
"The Importance of Psychology' Talk in California
Does man make laws, or do laws make man? Does man make
money, or does money make
man? Does man make
name and fame, or name and fame make man?
Be a man first, my
friend, and you will see how all those things and the rest will follow of
themselves after you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
The East and The West
We are for ever trying to make our weakness look like
strength, our sentiment like love, our
cowardice like
courage, and so on.
- Swami Vivekananda
The term "social progress" has as much meaning
as "hot ice" or "dark light". There is no such
thing, ultimately, as
"social progress"!
Things are not
bettered, but we are bettered, by making changes in them.
- Swami Vivekananda
The law is never separate from the phenomena, the
principle from the person. The law is the
method of action or
poise of every single phenomenon within its scope.
- Swami Vivekananda
Really speaking, the institution of Sannyasa originated with
Buddha; it was he who breathed life into the dead bones of this institution.
- Swami Vivekananda
It is very easy to point out the defects of institutions,
all being more or less imperfect, but he is
the real benefactor
of humanity who helps the individual to overcome his imperfections under
whatever institutions
he may live.
The individuals being
raised, the nation and its institutions are bound to rise.
- Swami Vivekananda
Happiness presents itself before man, wearing the crown of
sorrow on its head. He who
welcomes it must also
welcome sorrow.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Sayings and Utterances
It may be that I shall find it good to get outside of my
body - to cast it off like a disused garment.
But I shall not cease
to work! I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is
one with God.
- Swami Vivekananda
The love the father or mother has for the child, [the
love] the wife [has] for the husband, the
husband for the wife,
the friend for the friend, all these loves concentrated into one must be
given to God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Divine Love', Talk in California
Bhakti-Yoga is the path of systematised devotion for the
attainment of union with the Absolute. It
is the easiest and
surest path to or realisation. Love to God is the one essential to be perfect
in
this path.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'On Bhakti-Yoga', Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
Everything in time, space, and causation is bound. The
soul is beyond all time, all space, all
causation. That which
is bound is nature, not the soul. Therefore proclaim your freedom and be
what you are -- ever
free, ever blessed.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'How to Become Free', Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
Unless there is love, philosophy becomes dry bones,
psychology becomes a sort of [theory],
and work becomes mere
labor. [If
there is love], philosophy becomes poetry, psychology becomes [mysticism], and
work the most delicious thing in creation.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Divine Love' - Talk in California
There is no new religious idea preached anywhere which is
not found
in the Vedas.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
To me the very essence of education is concentration of
mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had
to do my education
over again and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I
would develop the
power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I
could collect facts
at will.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Concentration and
Breathing' - Talk in California
To all external appearances, unconsciousness and
superconsciousness are the same; but they
differ as a lump of
clay from a lump of gold.
- Swami Vivekananda
What is material, and what is not? When the world is the
end and God the means to attain that
end, that is
material. When God is the end andes the world is only the means to attain that
end,
spirituality has
begun.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Formal Worship' - Talk in California
Chemistry ceases to improve when one element is found from
which all others are deductible.
Physics ceases to
progress when one force is found of which all others are manifestations. So
religion ceases to
progress when unity is reached, which is the case with Hinduism.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
When I use the words "man-making religion", I do
not mean books, nor dogmas, nor theories. I
mean the man who has
realised, has fully perceived, something of that infinite presence in his
own heart.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Formal Worship' - Talk in California
In Vedanta the chief advantage is that it was not the work
of one single man; and therefore,
naturally, unlike
Buddhism, or Christianity, or Mohammedanism, the prophet or teacher did not
entirely swallow up
or overshadow the principles. The principles live, and the prophets, as it
were, form a
secondary group, unknown to Vedanta.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Methods and Purpose
of Religion' - Talk in England
The fault with all religions like Christianity is that
they have one set of for all. But Hindu religion
is suited to all
grades of religious aspiration and progress. It contains all the ideals in
their
perfect form.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
Vedanta declares that religion is here and now, because
the question of this life and that life, of
life and death, this
world and that world, is merely one of superstition and prejudice.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Methods and Purpose of Religion' - Talk in England
We must be as broad as the skies, as deep as the ocean; we
must have the zeal of the fanatic,
the depth of the
mystic, and the width of the agnostic.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lessons on Bhakti-Yoga', Class Notes in England
Raja-yoga is the only science of religion that can be
demonstrated; and only what I myself have
proved by experience,
do I teach.
- Swami Vivekananda
A man desiring to be perfect takes a thorn of virtue and
with it takes off the thorn of vice. He still
lives, and virtue
alone being left, the momentum of action left to him must be of virtue. A bit
of
holiness is left to
the Jivanmukta, and he lives, but everything he does must be holy.
- Swami Vivekananda,
- Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
Each is an infinite circle whose centre is everywhere and
circumference nowhere.
- Swami Vivekananda
The Hindus have cultivated the power of analysis and
abstraction. No
nation has yet produced a grammar like that of Panini.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes taken at Madras (1892-93)
Everybody is hypnotized already. The work of attaining
freedom, of realising one's real nature,
consists in
de-hypnotization.
- Swami Vivekananda
Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad
they may be. Nothing is ever gained by
that. You never help
one by talking about his fault; you do him an injury, and injure yourself as
well.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Concentration',
Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
The word "repent" is in Greek "metanoeite"
("meta"
means behind, after, beyond) and means literally "go beyond
knowledge"-- the
knowledge of the
(five) senses -- "and look within where you will find the kingdom of
heaven".
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Lessons on Raja-Yoga', Class Notes in England
In the world take always the position of the giver. Give
everything and look for no return.
Give love, give help,
give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter. Make no
conditions, and none
will be imposed. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
We are in the sun and in the stars as much as here. Spirit
is beyond space and time and is
everywhere.
Every mouth praising
the Lord is my mouth, every eye seeing is my eye. We are confined nowhere; we
are not body, the universe is our body.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Really good and evil are one and are in our own mind. When
the mind is self-poised, neither
good nor bad affects
it. Be perfectly free; then neither can affect it, and we enjoy freedom and
bliss. Evil is the
iron chain, good is the gold one; both are chains. Be free, and know once for
all
that there is no
chain for you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
"When the bee sucks honey, honey, the Lord is
eating." Knowing that the Lord is everywhere,
the sages give up
praising and blaming. Know that nothing can hurt you. How? Are you not
free? Are you not
Atman? He is the Life of our lives, the hearing of our ears, the sight of our
eyes.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Every force completes a circuit. The force we call man
starts from the Infinite God and must
return to Him.
- Swami Vivekananda
We are striving "to be" and nothing more, no "I"
even just pure crystal, reflecting all, but ever the
same. When that state
is reached, there is no more doing; the body becomes a mere
mechanism, pure
without care for it; it cannot become impure.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
We go through the world like a man pursued by a policeman
and see the barest glimpses of the
beauty of it. All
this fear that pursues us comes from believing in matter. Matter gets its whole
existence from the
presence of mind behind it. What we see is God percolating through nature.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The whole body of supersensuous truths, having no
beginning or end, and called by the name
of the Vedas, is
ever-existent. The Creator Himself is creating, preserving, and destroying the
universe with the help
of these truths.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna'
Three things are the special gifts of God to man -- the
human body, the desire to be free, and
the blessing of help
from one who is already free.
- Swami Vivekananda
Our life is "[Sanskrit] --
for the sake of our self-liberation as well as for the good of the world". So
what are you sitting idle for? Arise, awake; wake up yourselves, and awaken
others. Achieve the consummation of human life before you pass off
--"Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached."
-Swami Vivekananda to
his brother disciples, Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat
Chandra Chakravarty
Give up all self, all egotism; get out of anger, lust,
give all to God. "I am not, but Thou art; the old
man is all gone, only
Thou remainest." "I am Thou." Blame none; if evil comes, know
the Lord is
playing with you and
be exceeding glad.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Life and death are only different names for the same fact,
the two sides of the one coin. Both
are Maya, the
inexplicable state striving at one time to live, and a moment later to die.
Beyond
this is the true
nature, the Atman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Sin may be said to be the feeling of every kind of
weakness. From this weakness spring jealousy, malice, and so
forth. Hence weakness is sin. The Self within is always shining forth resplendent.
Turning away from that people say "I", "I", "I",
with their attention held up by this material body, this queer cage of flesh
and bones. This is the root of all weakness.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
God is the only real existence, there cannot be two. There
is but One Soul, and I am That.
- Swami Vivekananda
The three missionary religions are the Buddhist,
Mohammedan, and Christian. The three older
ones, Hinduism,
Judaism and Zoroastrianism, never sought to make converts. Buddhists never
killed, but converted
three-quarters of the world at one time by pure gentleness.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The whole sky is the censer of God, and sun and moon are
the lamps. What temple is needed?
All eyes are Thine,
yet Thou has not an eye; all hands are Thine; yet Thou hast not a hand.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The Perfect never becomes imperfect. It is in the
darkness, but is not affected by the darkness.
God's mercy goes to
all, but is not affected by their wickedness. The sun is not affected by any
disease of our eyes
which may make us see it distorted.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Good is near Truth, but is not yet Truth. After learning
not to be disturbed by evil, we have to
learn not to be made
happy by good. We must find that we are beyond both evil and good; we
must study their
adjustment and see that they are both necessary.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Let nothing stand between God and your love for Him. Love
Him, love Him, love Him; and let
the world say what it
will. Love is of three sorts one demands, but gives nothing; the second is
exchange; and the
third is love without thought of return – love like that of the moth for the
light.
- Swami Vivekananda,
- Inspired Talks
Behind every creature is the "Mother", pure,
lovely, never changing. "Mother, manifested as light
in all beings, we bow
down to Thee!" She is equally in suffering, hunger, pleasure, sublimity.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Religion, the great milch cow, has given many kicks, but
never mind, it gives a great deal of
milk. The milkman
does not mind the kick of the cow which hives much milk.
Religion is the
greatest child to be born, the great "moon of realisation"; let us
feed it and help it
grow, and it will
become a giant.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The authority of the Vedas extends to all ages, climes and
persons; that is to say, their
application is not
confined to any particular place, time, and persons. The Vedas are the only
exponent of the
universal religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna'
Never quarrel about religion. All quarrels and disputation
religion simply show that spirituality is
not present.
Religious quarrels are always over the husks. When purity, when spirituality
goes,
leaving the soul dry,
quarrels begin, and not before.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Concentration', Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
… there comes a time for everyone to realise the Self. For
everyone is Brahman. The distinction
of higher and lower
is only in the degree of manifestation of that Brahman. In time, everyone will
have perfect
manifestation. Hence the Shastras say, "[Sanskrit] -- in time, That is
realised in
one's self."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and
Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The Guru is your own higher Self. - Swami Vivekananda
... the Infinite Itself is self-existent, eternal, and
unchangeable. The passage of time makes no
mark whatever on the
dial of eternity. In its supersensuous region, which cannot be comprehended at all by
the human understanding, there is no past and there is no future.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Notes on Vedanta', Notes of Class Talks and Lectures
Prophets preach, but the Incarnations like Jesus, Buddha,
Ramakrishna, can give religion;
one glance, one touch
is enough. That
is the power of the Holy Ghost, the "laying on of hands"; the power
was actually transmitted to the disciples by the Master -- the "chain of
Guru-power". That, the real baptism, has been handed down for untold ages.
lord the thing
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
While we recognise a God, it is really only the Self which
we have separated ourselves from and
worship as outside of
us; but it is our true Self all the time -- the one and only God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Renunciation is the very soul of the Upanishads.
Illumination born of discriminative reflection is
the ultimate aim of
Upanishadic knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda
Everyone can go on abiding by some observances and
formalities. Everyone can fulfill certain
injunctions and
prohibitions, but how few have this longing for realisation! This intense
longing --
becoming mad after
realising God or getting the knowledge of the Self – is real spirituality.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Veda means the sum total of eternal truths; the Vedic
Rishis experienced those truths; they can
be experienced only
by seers of the supersensuous and not by common men like us. That is
why in the Vedas the
term Rishi means "the seer of the truth of the Mantras", and not any
Brahmin with the holy
thread hanging down the neck.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Liberation or Samadhi -- all this consists in simply doing
away with the obstacles to the
manifestation of
Brahman. Otherwise the Self is always shining forth like the sun. The cloud of
ignorance has only
veiled it. Remove the cloud and the sun will manifest. Then you get into the
state of “[Sanskrit]
" ("the knot of the heart is broken") etc.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, Recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
"What if you have controlled the mind, what if you
have not? What if you have money, what if
you have not? You are
the Atman ever pure. Say, 'I am the Atman. No bondage ever came near
me. I am the
changeless sky; clouds of belief may pass over me, but they do not touch me.'
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks, From "Avadhuta Gita"
Kant's great achievement was the discovery that
"time, space, and causation are modes of
thought," but
Vedanta taught this ages ago and called it "Maya."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
All religion is going beyond reason, but reason is the
only guide to get there. Instinct is like ice,
reason is the water,
and inspiration is the subtlest form or vapour; one follows the other.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
No law can make you free, you are free. Nothing can give
you freedom, if you have it not
already.
The Atman is
self-illumined. Cause and effect do not reach there, and this disembodiedness
is freedom.
Beyond what was, or
is, or is to be, is Brahman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own
souls contribute all the divinity that is
outside of us. We are
the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we
see within ourselves.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
No action can give you freedom; only knowledge can make
you free, Knowledge is irresistible;
the mind cannot take
it or reject it. When it comes, the mind has to accept it; so it is not a work
of the mind; only,
its expression comes in the mind.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
But this is my summing up:
Asia laid the germs
of civilisation, Europe developed man, and America is developing the
woman and the masses.
It is the paradise of the woman and the labourer.
Now contrast the
American masses and women with ours, and you get the idea at once.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to
Alasinga Perumal from Chicago (November 1893)
Religion includes concrete, the more generalised and the
ultimate unity. Do not stick to
particularisations.
Get to the principle, to the One....
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Work or worship is to bring you back to your own nature.
It is an entire illusion that the Self is the
body; so even while
living here in the body, we can be free.
The body has nothing
in common with the Self. Illusion is taking the real for the unreal -- not
"nothing at
all".
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Dis-identify yourself with the body, and all pain will
cease. This is the secret of healing. The
universe is a case of
hypnotisation; de-hypnotise yourself and cease to suffer.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
See only God in every man, woman and child; see it by the
antarjyotis, "inner light", and seeing
that, we can see
naught else.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
He [Krishna] is the first man, way before Buddha, to open
the door of religion to every caste.
That wonderful mind!
That tremendously active life! Buddha's activity was on one plane, the
plane of teaching. He
could not keep his wife and child and become a teacher at the same time.
Krishna preached in
the midst of the battlefield.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk in San Francisco
See Christ, then you you will be a Christian. All else is
talk; the less talking the better.
- Swami Vivekananda
We cannot conscientiously and with peace, joy, and
happiness, take up any duty of our lives
without listening to
the message of Krishna: "Be not afraid even if there is evil in your work,
for
there is no work
which has no evil." "Leave it unto the Lord, and do not look for the
results."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk at Pasadena, California
Do not spend your energy in talking, but meditate in
silence; and do not let the rush of the
outside world disturb
you. When your mind is in the highest state, you are unconscious of it.
Accumulate power in
silence and become a dynamo of spirituality.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The idea of the world is an obstruction covering the idea
of God and is to be removed, but it
does have an
existence.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Feel the wonderful atmosphere of freedom. You are free,
free, free! Oh, blessed am I! Freedom
am I! I am the
Infinite! In my soul I can find no beginning and no end. All is my Self. Say
this
unceasingly.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Shri Krishna spoke the Gita, establishing Himself in the
Atman.
Those passages of the
Gita where He speaks with the word "I", invariably indicate the
Atman:
"Take refuge in
Me alone" means, "Be established in the Atman".
- Swami Vivekananda
The chief cause of India's ruin has been the monopolising
of the whole education and
intelligence of the
land, by dint of pride and royal authority, among a handful of men.
If we are to rise
again, we shall have to do it in the same way, i.e. by spreading education
among the masses.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Written to Sarala Ghosal, Editor, Bharati in Bengali
This idea of wonderful liberality joined with eternal
energy and progress must spread over India.
It must electrify the
whole nation and must enter the very pores of society in spite of the horrible
ignorance, spite,
caste-feeling, old boobyism, and jealousy which are the heritage of this nation
of slaves.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Haridas V Desai from Chicago (January 1894)
You, Rajputs, have been the glories of ancient India. With
your degradation came national
decay, and India can
only be raised if the descendants of the Kshatriyas co-operate with the
descendants of the
Brahmins, not to share the spoils of pelf and power, but to help the weak, to
enlighten the
ignorant, and to restore the lost glory of the holy land of their forefathers.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Reply to Maharaja of Khetri'
In us are two -- the God-soul and the man-soul. The sages
know that the latter is but the
shadow, that the
former is the only real Sun.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
"No thought, no word, no deed, creates a bondage for
me. I am beyond the senses, I am
knowledge and
bliss"
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks, From "Avadhuta Gita"
No man should be judged by his defects. The great virtues
a man has are his especially, his
errors are the common
weaknesses of humanity and should never be counted in estimating his
character.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
"No one was ever bound, none was ever free. There is
none but me. I am the Infinite, the
Ever-free. Talk not
to me! What can change me, the essence of knowledge! Who can teach,
who can be
taught?"
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks, From "Avadhuta Gita"
The universe is this Holy One and He alone. Talk not of
Yoga to make you pure; you are pure by
your very nature.
None can teach you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks, From “Avadhuta Gita"
Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free and
is the proof that we have come from
perfection...
- Swami Vivekananda
That which seems to be the will is the Atman behind, it is
really free. -
Swami Vivekananda
All purifying action deals conscious or unconscious blows
on delusion. To call another a sinner
is the worst thing
you can do... Good action done ignorantly produces the same result and helps
to break the bondage.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never
fear what will become of you, depend on
no one. Only the
moment you reject all help are you free. The full sponge can absorb no more.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Philosophy in India means that through which we see God,
the rationale of religion; so no Hindu
would ever ask for a
link between religion and philosophy.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Without the attainment of the fullness of Knowledge or
Divine Love, such a state of absolute
reliance on the Lord
does not come. He who is truly and sincerely reliant on the Lord goes
beyond all idea of
the duality of good and bad.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The dead body resents nothing; let us make our bodies dead
and cease to identify ourselves
with them.
- Swami Vivekananda
Jnana teaches that the world should be given up, but not
on that account to be abandoned. To
be in the world, but
not of it, is the true test of the Sannyasin.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we
are all one. Throw all other nonsense to
the winds.
- Swami Vivekananda
Your own will is all that answers prayer, only it appears
under the guise of different religious
conceptions to each
mind. We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Jehovah, Allah, Agni, but it is
only the Self, the
"I". . .
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
We are the greatest God that ever was or ever will be.
Christs and Buddhas are but waves on
the boundless ocean
which I am. Bow down to nothing but your own higher Self. Until you know
that you are that
very God of gods, there will never be any freedom for you.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
It is blasphemy to think that if Jesus had never been
born, humanity would not have been
saved. It is horrible
to forget thus the divinity in human nature, a divinity that must come out.
Never forget the glory
of human nature.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The great prophets who do the fighting have to be less
perfect than those who live silent lives of
holiness, thinking
great thoughts and so helping the world. These men, passing out one after
another, produce as
final outcome the man of power who preaches.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
He who gets the whole must have the parts too. Dualism is
included in Advaitism (monism).
- Swami Vivekananda
Give as the rose gives perfume, because it is its own
nature, utterly unconscious of giving.
- Swami Vivekananda
Be perfectly hopeless, that is the highest state. What is
there to hope for? Burst asunder the
bonds of hope, stand
on your Self, be at rest, never mind what you do, give up all to God, but
have no hypocrisy
about it.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
It is bad to stay in the church after you are grown up
spiritually. Come out and die in the open air
of freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The higher the moral nature, the higher the perception and
the stronger the will.
- Swami Vivekananda
Even to look on one who has given up has a purifying
effect. Stand up for God; let the world go.
Have no compromise.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
"Drinking the cup of desire, the world becomes
mad." Day and night never come together, so
desire and the Lord
can never come together. Give up desire.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Can a leader be made my brother? A leader is born. Do you
understand? And it is a very difficult
task to take on the
role of a leader. ...
There must not be a
shade of jealousy or selfishness, then you are a leader. First, by birth, and
secondly, unselfish
-- that's a leader.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda from Chicago
True philosophy is the systematising of certain
perceptions. Intellect ends where religion begins.
Inspiration is much
higher than reason, but it must not contradict it. Reason is the rough tool to
do the hard work;
inspiration is the bright light which shows us all truth.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Through practice comes Yoga, through Yoga comes knowledge,
through knowledge love, and
through love, bliss.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
What you only grasp intellectually may be overthrown by a new
argument; but what you realise
is yours for ever.
Talking, talking religion is but little good. Put God behind everything -- man,
animal, food, work;
make this a habit.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The Christian idea of heaven is a place of intensified
enjoyment. How can that be God? All this
desire to go to
heaven is a desire for enjoyment. This has to be given up. The love of the
Bhakta
must be absolutely
pure and unselfish, seeking nothing for itself either here or hereafter.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Remember always that only the free have free will; all the
rest are in bondage and are not
responsible for what
they do. Will as will is bound.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander
to weakness. If
truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the
sooner the better. Childish ideas are for babies and savages; and
these are not all in the nursery and the forests, some of them have fallen into
the pulpits.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Take every one where he stands and push him forward.
Religious teaching must always be
constructive, not
destructive.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Of all the great religious teachers the world has known, only
Lao-tze, Buddha, and Jesus
transcended the
golden rule and said, "Do good to your enemies", "Love them that
hate you."
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The martial spirit is not self-assertion but
self-sacrifice. One must be ready to advance and lay
down one's life at
the word of command, before he can command the hearts and lives of others.
One must sacrifice
himself first.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
Spit out your actions, good or bad, and never think of
them again. What is done is done. Throw
off superstition.
Have no weakness even in the face of death. Do not repent, do not brood over
past deeds, and do
not remember your good deeds; be azad (free).
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
The reality of everything depends upon Brahman, and only
as we really grasp this truth, have
we any reality. When
we cease to see any differences, then we know that
"I and the
Father are One".
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
In the human body the balance between good and evil is so
even that there is a chance for man
to wish to free
himself from both.
- Swami Vivekananda
Give up the world, then alone you are loosened from the
body. When it dies, you are azad, free.
Be free.
Death alone can never
free us. Freedom must be attained by our own efforts during life, then, when
the body falls, there will be no rebirth for the free.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
All our past actions are really good, because they lead us
to what we ultimately become. Of
whom to beg? I am the
real existence, and all else is a dream save as it is I. I am the whole
ocean; do not call
the little wave you have made "I"; know it for nothing but a wave.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Science and religion are both to help us out of the
bondage; only religion is the more ancient,
and we have the
superstition that it is the more holy. In a way it is, because it makes
morality a
vital point, and
science does not.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
"Brahman alone is true, all else is false and I am
Brahman." Only by telling ourselves this until
we make it a part of
our very being, can we rise beyond all duality, beyond both good and evil,
pleasure and pain,
joy and sorrow, and know ourselves as the One, eternal, unchanging, infinite
-- the "One without a
second".
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
How shall we know the knower? The Vedanta says, "We
are It, but can never know It, because
It can never become
the object of knowledge."... …
That man and God are
one is the constant teaching of the Vedas, but only few are able to
penetrate behind the
veil and reach the realisation of this truth.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Jnana is "creedlessness", but that does not mean
that it despises creeds. It only means that a
stage above and
beyond creeds has been gained. The Jnani seeks not to destroy, but to help
all. As all rivers
roll their waters into the sea and become one, so all creeds should lead to
Jnana and become one.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Renunciation means that none can serve both God and
Mammon. - Swami
Vivekananda
We should feel the Eternal Unity so much, that we should
weep for all sinners, knowing that it is
we who are sinning.
The eternal law is self-sacrifice, not self-assertion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Things are dead in themselves, only we give them life, and
then, like fools, we turn round and
are afraid of them or
enjoy them! The world is neither true nor untrue, it is the shadow of truth.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
All pleasures of the senses or even of the mind are
evanescent, but within ourselves is the one
true unrelated
pleasure, dependent on nothing outside. "The pleasure of the Self is what
the
world calls
religion." The more our bliss is withm, the more spiritual we are. Let us
not depend
upon the world for
pleasure.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Religion is the science which learns the transcendental in
nature through the transcendental in
man. - Swami Vivekananda
Religion, the most precious of all sciences, long ago
discovered that final unity, to reach which is
the object of
Jnana-yoga. There is but one Self in the the universe, of which all lower
selves are
but manifestations.
The Self, however, is infinitely more than all of its manifestations. All is
the
Self or Brahman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
We are to be saved from sin by being saved from ignorance.
Ignorance is the cause of which sin
is the result.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes of Class Talks
Error must accompany reason, but the very struggle to
conquer error makes us gods. Disease is
the struggle of
nature to cast out something wrong; so sin is the struggle of the divine in us
to
throw off the animal.
We must "sin" (that is, make mistakes) in order to rise to Godhood.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Be not deluded by your religion teaching original sin, for
the same religion teaches original
purity. When Adam
fell, he fell from purity. (Applause) Purity is our real nature, and to regain
that
is the object of all
religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes on Lectures, Reported in Appeal-Avalanche, Memphis, Jan 17,
1894
"The earth is enjoyed by heroes"-- this is the
unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no
fear." Tell this
to everybody – "Have no fear".
Fear is death, fear
is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the
negative
thoughts and ideas
that are in this world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
... the disciple must have great power of endurance. Bear
all evil and misery without one
murmur of hurt,
without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy, or retaliation. That is
true endurance; and
that you must acquire.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Discipleship', Talk at San Francisco
As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least
different from God, fear remains with us;
but when we know ourselves
to be the One, fear goes: of what can we be afraid? By sheer force
of will the Jnani
rises beyond body, beyond mind, making this universe zero. Thus he destroys
Avidya and knows his
true Self, the Atman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Patanjali is the father of the theory of evolution,
spiritual and physical. - Swami Vivekananda
Why look for good in the dern Times world, what can we
find there? The best it has to offer is
only as if children
playing in a mud puddle found a few glass beads. They lose them again and
have to begin the
search anew.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Know that the attainment of the knowledge of the Atman is
the highest object of life. If you have
devotion for the
Avataras who are the world-teachers, that knowledge will manifest of itself in
time.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Machinery in a small proportion is good, but too much of
it kills man's initiative and makes a
lifeless machine of
him. ... ...
Doing routine work
like a machine, one becomes a lifeless machine.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Memoirs of European Travel
Religion is not the outcome of the weakness of human
nature; religion is not here because we
fear a tyrant;
religion is love, unfolding, expanding, growing.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Notes on Lectures, Reported in Appeal-Avalanche, Memphis, Jan 17,
1894
Q: How can one look with reverence on women?
Swamiji: Well, they
are the representatives of the Divine Mother. And real well-being of India will
commence from the day
that the worship of the Divine Mother will truly begin, and every man
will sacrifice
himself at the altar of the Mother...
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
The Jnani has to come out of all forms, to get beyond all
rules and books, and be his own book.
Bound by forms, we
crystallise and die. Still the Jnani must never condemn those who cannot
yet rise above forms.
He must never even think of another, "I am holier than thou".
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Always remember that renunciation is the root idea. Unless
one is initiated into this idea, not
even Brahma and the World-gods
have the power to attain Mukti.
- Swami Vivekananda
External happiness is material and the supply is fixed; so
that not one grain can be had by one
person without taking
from another. Only bliss beyond the material world can be had without
loss to any. Material
happiness is but a transformation of material sorrow.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Our bodies are symbols of thought behind, and the thoughts
themselves are in their turn
symbols of something
behind them, that is, the one Real Existence, the Soul of our soul, the
Self of the universe,
the Life of our life, our true Self.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Life and death are but different names for the same fact,
they are the two sides of one coin.
Both are Maya, the
inexplicable state of striving at one point to live and a moment later to die.
Beyond all this is
the true nature, the Atman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
By degrees the heart has to be strengthened. If one man is
made, it equals the result of a
hundred thousand
lectures. Making the mind and lips at one, the ideas have to be practised in
life. This is what
Shri Ramakrishna meant by "allowing no theft in the chamber of
thought". You
have to be practical
in all spheres of work.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and
Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
There are three grades of manifestation in living beings:
(1) sub-conscious --
mechanical, unerring;
(2) conscious --
knowing, erring;
(3) superconscious --
intuitional, unerring;
and these are
illustrated in an animal, man, and God.
- Swami Vivekananda, Discourses
on Jnana-Yoga, US
In purity is no bondage. Remove the veils of ignorance by
purity, then we manifest ourselves as
we really are and
know that we were never in bondage. The seeing of many is the great sin of
all the world. See
all as Self and love all; let all idea of separateness go...
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
This indecent clinging to life as we know it here, is the
source of all evil. It causes all this
cheating and
stealing. It makes money god and all vices and fears ensue. Value nothing
material and do not
cling to it. If you cling to nothing, not even life, then there is no fear.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Develop every faculty as if it were the only one
possessed, this is the true secret of so-called
harmonious development.
That is, get extensity with intensity, but not at its expense. We are
infinite. There is no
limitation in us, we can be as intense as the most devoted Mohammedan
and as broad as the
most roaring atheist.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
All nations have attained greatness by paying proper
respect to women. That country and that
nation which do not
respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future.
- Swami Vivekananda
Ignorance, fickleness, jealousy, laziness, and excessive
attachment are the great enemies to
success in Yoga
practice. -
Swami Vivekananda
Spiritual life begins when you have loosened yourself from
the control of the senses. He whose
senses rule him is
worldly -- is a slave.
- Swami Vivekananda
The highest ideal we have is God. Meditate on Him. We
cannot know the Knower, but we are
He. - Swami Vivekananda
We are all one. It is the delusion of separateness that is
the root of misery. Nothing exists but
the Self; there is
nothing else. - Swami Vivekananda
Think constantly of your real nature. Get rid of
superstition. Do not hypnotise yourself into a
belief in your own
inferiority. Day and night tell yourself what you really are, until you realise
(actually realise)
your oneness with God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The Jnana-yogi must be as intense as the narrowest
sectarian, yet as broad as the heavens. He
must absolutely
control his mind, be able to be a Buddhist or a Christian, to have the power to
consciously divide
himself into all these different ideas and yet hold fast to the eternal
harmony.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Why should a man be moral and pure? Because this
strengthens his will. Everything that
strengthens the will
by revealing the real nature is moral. Everything that does the reverse is
immoral.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Jnana and Karma', Lecture in London
The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and
that every soul is that Being in full,
not a part of that
Being. All the sun is reflected in each dew-drop. Appearing in time, space and
causality, this Being
is man, as we know him, but behind all appearance is the one Reality.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Do not pity anyone. Look upon all as your equal, cleanse
yourself of the primal sin of inequality.
We are all equal and
must not think, "I am good and you are bad, and I am trying to reclaim
you". Equality
is the sign of the free.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The present is only a line of demarcation between the past
and the future; so we cannot
rationally say that
we care only for the present, as it has no existence apart from the past and
the future. It is all one complete
whole, the idea of time being merely a condition imposed upon us by the form of
our understanding.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
In the highest love, union is only of the spirit. All love
of any other kind is quickly evanescent.
Only the spiritual
lasts, and this grows.
- Swami Vivekananda
Believe first in yourself, then in God. A handful of
strong men will move the world. We need a
heart to feel, a
brain to conceive, and a strong arm to do the work.
-Swami Vivekananda
This little body is a little mirror we have created, but
the whole universe is our body. We must
think this all the
time; then we shall know that we cannot die or hurt another, because he is our
own. We are birthless
and deathless and we ought only to love.
- Swami Vivekananda,
- Six Lessons on Raja-Yoga, US
… we need to free ourselves from the superstition of
believing because "it is in the books". To
try to make
everything -- science, religion, philosophy, and all -- conform to what any
book says,
is a most horrible
tyranny. Book-worship is the worst form of idolatry.
- Swami Vivekananda,
- Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The Karma-yogi wants everyone to be saved before himself.
His only salvation is to help others
to salvation.
"To serve Krishna's servants is the highest worship." One great saint
prayed, "Let
me go to hell with
the sins of the whole world, but let the world be saved." This true
worship
leads to intense
self-sacrifice.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The heart must be pure and the pure heart sees only good,
never evil. We should never try to
be guardians of
mankind, or to stand on a pedestal as saints reforming sinners. Let us rather
purify ourselves, and
the result must be that in so doing we shall help others.
-Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Yoga teaches us to make matter our slave, as it ought to
be. Yoga means "yoke", "to join", that
is, to join the soul
of man with the supreme Soul or God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
We must be bright and cheerful, long faces do not make
religion. Religion
should be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best.
Asceticism cannot make us holy. Why should a man who loves God and who is pure
be sorrowful? He should be like a happy child, be truly a child of God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
We must learn to feel ourselves as much in the sun, in the
stars, as here. Spirit is beyond all
time and space; every
eye seeing is my eye; every mouth praising the Lord is my mouth; every
sinner is I. We are
confined nowhere, we are not body.
The universe is our
body.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The nature of the soul is bliss and peace unchanging. We
have not to get it; we have it; let us
wash away the dross
from our eyes and see it.
We must stand ever on
the Self and look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the
world. It is but baby's play and
ought never to disturb us.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The Self, the only subject, is in manifestation seeking
only to know Itself. The better the mirror,
the better reflection
it can give; so man is the best mirror, and the purer the man, the more
clearly he can
reflect God.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Infinite strength is religion and God. We are only souls
if we are free, there is immortality only if
we are free, there is
God only if He is free.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
This "I" of ours covers just a little
consciousness and a vast amount of unconsciousness, while
over it, and mostly
unknown to it, is the superconscious plane.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
We have first of all to give up this superstition of body;
we are not the body. Next must go the
further superstition
that we are mind. We are not mind; it is but the "silken body", not
any part of
the soul. The mere
word "body", applied to nearly all things, includes something common
among all bodies.
This is existence.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
The ideal of the Indian race is freedom of the soul. This
world is nothing. It is a vision, a dream.
This life is one of
many millions like it. The whole of this nature is Maya, is phantasm, a pest
house of phantasms.
That is the philosophy.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Women of India', Talk at Shakespeare Club House, Pasadena, California
There is no possibility of ever having pleasure without
pain, or good without evil, for living itself
is just the lost
equilibrium. What we want is freedom, not life, nor pleasure, nor good.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on
Jnana-Yoga, US
Man has infinite power within himself, and he can realise
it he can realise himself as the one
infinite Self. -
Swami Vivekananda
Everything that makes for unity is moral, everything that
makes for diversity is immoral. Know
the One without a
second, that is perfection. The One who manifests in all is the basis of the
universe; and all religion, all knowledge, must come to this point.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Class Notes taken at Greenacre (Maine), Summer 1894
All law is finding unity in variety. The only method of
knowledge is concentration on the physical,
mental, and spiritual
planes; and concentrating the powers of the mind to discover one in many,
is what is called
knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Class Notes taken at Greenacre (Maine), Summer 1894
Western languages declare that man is a body and has a
soul; Eastern languages declare that
he is a soul and has
a body. -
Swami Vivekananda
All Gurus are one and are fragments and radiations of God,
the Universal Guru. - Swami Vivekananda
I do not believe in occult societies. They do no good, and
can never do good. - Swami Vivekananda
Buddha was one of the Sannyasins of the Vedanta. He
started a new sect, just as others are
started even today.
The ideas which now are called Buddhism were not his.
They were much more
ancient. He was a great man who gave the ideas power. The unique
element in Buddhism
was its social element.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Q & A at Graduate Philosophical Society of Harvard University on March
25, 1896
MR. ALLAN: Well, Swami, I see you are in Alameda!
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA:
No, Mr. Allan, I am not in Alameda; Alameda is in me.
- From Mr. Thomas
Allan's reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda's visit to Alameda, California,
1900
Consciousness is a mere film between two oceans, the
subconscious and the superconscious.
- Swami Vivekananda
Q: Whom can we call a Guru?
A: He who can tell
your past and future is your Guru.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Selections from the Math Diary
All souls are playing, some consciously, some
unconsciously. Religion is learning to play consciously. - Swami
Vivekananda
The word Yoga is the root of which our word yoke is a
derivation --meaning "to join"-- and Yoga
means "joining
ourselves with God" - joining me with my real Self.
- Swami Vivekananda
The awakening of the soul to its bondage and its effort to
stand up and assert itself – this is
called life. Success
in this struggle is called evolution. The eventual triumph, when all the
slavery is blown
away, is called salvation, Nirvana, freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in San Francisco, March 20, 1900
The lion, when stricken to the heart, gives out his
mightiest roar. When smitten on the head, the
cobra lifts its hood.
And the majesty of the soul comes forth, only when a man is wounded to his
depths.
- Swami Vivekananda
Let us be true. Nine tenths of our life's energy is spent
in trying to make people think us that
which we are not.
That energy would be more rightly spent in becoming that which we would
like to be.
- Swami Vivekananda
Fear and desire are the two causes of all this, and who
creates them? We
ourselves. Our lives are but a passing from dream to dream. Man the infinite
dreamer, dreaming finite dreams!
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in New York, June 1900
Where is the solution of this world? Those who look outside will
never find it; they must turn their eyes inward and find truth. Religion lives
inside.
- Swami Vivekananda
You may always say that the image is God. The error you
have to avoid is to think God is the
image. - Swami Vivekananda
Seek the highest, always the highest, for in the highest
is eternal bliss. If I am to hunt, I will hunt
the If I am to rob, I
will rob the treasury of the king. Seek the highest.
- Swami Vivekananda
Confucius, Moses, and Pythagoras; Buddha, Christ,
Mohammed; Luther, Calvin, and the Sikhs;
Theosophy,
Spiritualism, and the like; all these mean only the preaching of the
Divine-in-man.
- Swami Vivekananda
What then can satisfy man? Not gold. Not enjoyment. Not
beauty. One Infinite alone can satisfy
him, and that
Infinite is Himself. When he realises this, then alone comes freedom.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in New York, June 19 1900
The lower forms of worship, which embody the idea of God
as a judge or punisher or someone
to be obeyed through
fear, do not deserve to be called love, although they are forms of worship
gradually expanding
into higher forms.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Answer to a Question in US
We have to get the power to become moral; until we do
that, we cannot control our actions.
Yoga alone enables us
to carry into practice the teachings of morality.
To become moral is
the object of Yoga. All great teachers were Yogis and controlled every
current.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Six Lessons on Raja-Yoga, US
Life in this world is an attempt to see God. Make your
life a manifestation of will strengthened by
renunciation.
- Swami Vivekananda
The soul in essence is the same in all forms of being. Its
expression is modified by the body.
This unity of soul,
this common substance of humanity, is the basis of ethics and morality. In this
sense all are one, and
to hurt one's brother is to hurt one's Self.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in Oakland, March 8, 1900
In India we say a man has given up his body, while you
say, a man gives up his ghost. The
Hindus believe that a
man is a soul and has a body, while Western people believe he is a body
and possesses a soul.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in Oakland, March 7, 1900
If there has ever been a word of truth, a word of
spirituality that I have spoken anywhere in the
world, I owe it to my
Master; only the mistakes are mine.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk on 'My Master'
Ever since the advent of Shri Ramakrishna the eastern
horizon has been aglow with the
dawning rays of the
sun which in course of time will illumine the country with the splendour of
the midday sun.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The reconciliation of the different paths of Dharma, and
work without desire or attachment --
these are the two
special characteristics of the Gita.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Gita Class at Alambazar Math, Calcutta
...Shri Bhagavan Ramakrishna, is the reformed and
remodelled manifestation of all the past
great epoch-makers in
religion. O man, have faith in this, and lay it to heart.
- Swami Vivekananda,
'Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna'
The more a man throws himself away, the more God comes in,
hence self abnegation, which is
the secret of all
religion and morality. Too many people bring down their ideals. They want
a comfortable religion but there is none such. It is all self surrender and
upward striving.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Report in 'Boston Daily Globe' (March 24, 1896) of Talk at Allen
Gymnasium
Shri Ramakrishna is a force. You should not think that his
doctrine is this or that. But he is a
power, living even
now in his disciples and working in the world. I saw him growing in his ideas.
He is still
growing.Shri Ramakrishna was both a Jivanmukta and an Acharya.
- Swami Vivekananda,
On Bhakti-Yoga, Notes from Lectures and Discourses
Mother is the incarnation of Bagala* in the guise of
Saraswati. Outwardly she is all peace, but
inwardly she is the
destroyer of evil.
- Swami Vivekananda
[*Bagala represents
one of the terrible aspects of the Divine Power, as the slayer of a fierce
demon, and Saraswati
represents wisdom.]
Shri Krishna ought to be painted as He really was, the
Gita personified; and the central idea of
the Gita should
radiate from His whole form as He was teaching the path of Dharma to Arjuna,
who had been overcome
by infatuation and cowardice.
- Swami Vivekananda
The Bhagavad Gita is the best authority on Vedanta. - Swami Vivekananda
Intense action in the whole body, and withal a face
expressing the profound calmness and
serenity of the blue
sky. This
is the central idea of the Gita -- to be calm and steadfast in all circumstances,
with one's body, mind, and soul centred at His hallowed Feet!
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, recorded by Priya Nath Sinha
He [Sri Ramakrishna] was the Saviour of women, Saviour of
the masses, Saviour of all, high
and low… ...
-- brahmin or
Chandala, man or woman everyone has the right to worship him. Whoever will
worship him only with
devotion shall be blessed for ever.
- Swami Vivekananda,
in a Letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda (1895)
The real Guru is he who leads you beyond this Maya of
endless birth and death - who
graciously destroys
all the griefs and maladies of the soul.
- Swami Vivekananda
The whole country has been ruined by masses of theories.
He who is the true son of Shri
Ramakrishna will
manifest the practical side of religious ideas and will set to work with
one-pointed devotion
without paying heed to the prattling of men or of society.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues, Recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The Upanishads deal elaborately with Shraddha in many
places, but hardly mention Bhakti. In
the Gita, on the
other hand, the subject of Bhakti is not only again and again dealt with, but
in it, the innate spirit of Bhakti has attained its culmination.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Gita Class at Alambazar Math, Calcutta
Records of great spiritual men of the past do us no good
whatever except that they urge us
onward to do the
same, to experience religion ourselves. Whatever Christ or Moses or anybody
else did does not
help us in the least except to urge us on.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Class Notes taken in San Francisco, May 29, 1900
----------- Om Tat Sat -----------
