Hindu Monk Quotes

We must travel; we must go to foreign parts. We must see how the engine of society works in other countries, and keep free and open communication with what is going on in the minds of other nations, if we really want to be a nation again.

Whatsoever has form must be the result of combinations of particles and requires something else behind it to move it.

Body is the name of a series of changes.

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.

You gain nothing by becoming cowards.

If a piece of burning charcoal be placed on a man’s head, see how he struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of those who really understand that they are slaves of nature.

You are strong, omnipotent, and omniscient. No matter that you have not expressed it yet, it is in you. All knowledge is in you, all power, all purity, and all freedom-why cannot you express this knowledge? Because you do not believe in it... Believe in it, and it must and will come out.

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.

Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.

I have a message for the world, which I will deliver without fear and care for the future. To the reformers I will point out that I am a greater reformer than any one of them. They want to reform only little bits. I want root-and-branch reform.

Whenever there is a conflict between the pure heart and the intellect, always side with the pure heart.

Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all.

The only test of goods things is that they make us strong.

What is this universe but name and form?

Business is business, no child's play.

Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.

One atom in this universe cannot move without dragging the whole world along with it. There cannot be any progress without the whole world following in the wake, and it is becoming every day dearer that the solution of any problem can never be attained on racial, or national, or narrow grounds.

YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.

When the last moment arrives, praise and blame will be the same to you, to me, and to others. We are here to work, and will have to leave all when the call comes.

Man can become like God and acquire control over the whole universe if he multiplies infinitely his centre of self-consciousness.

Where no bondage is, there is no cause and effect.

Change is the nature of all objective things.

Everything is present in its cause, in its fine form.

My name should not be made prominent. It is my ideas that I want to see realized. The disciples of all the prophets have always inextricably mixed up the ideas of the Master with person, and at last killed the ideas for the person. The disciples of Sri Ramakrishna must guard against doing the same thing. Work for the idea, not the person.

How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

Everything is ended if you forgive and forget.

I am really not "cyclonic" at all. Far from it. What I want is not here, nor can I longer bear this "cyclonic" atmosphere. This is the way to perfection, to strive to be perfect, and to strive to make perfect a few men and women. My idea of doing good is this: to evolve out a few giants, and not to strew pearls before swine, and so lose time, health, and energy.

Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego. Hold fast to the real Self. Think only pure thoughts, and you will accomplish more than a regiment of mere preachers. Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.

Every attempt to solve the laws of causation, time, and space would be futile, because the very attempt would have to be made by taking for granted the existence of these three.

Help and not fight. Assimilation and not destruction. Harmony and Peace and not dissension.

Every atom is working and resisting every thought in the mind. Everything we see and know is but the resultant of these two forces.

Those that only take a nibble here and a nibble there will never attain anything ... Those who really want to be yogis must give up, once and 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.

From attachment comes longing, and longing breeds anger. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion, confused memory. From confused memory comes the ruin of discrimination; and from the ruin of discrimination, a man perishes.

Our best work is done, our greatest influence is exerted, when we are without thought of self.

Eka-Nishtha or devotion to one ideal is absolutely necessary for the beginner in the practice of religious devotion.

Beware of compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody, but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others' "fads" through the greed of getting supporters. Your Âtman is the support of the universe - whose support do you stand in need of? Wait with patience and love and strength; if helpers are not ready now, they will come in time. Why should we be in a hurry? The real working force of all great work is in its almost unperceived beginnings.

Change is always in regard to something which does not change, or which changes relatively less.

Everything, both mental and physical, is rigidly bound by the law of causation.

I hear, Western people say, "The world was created for us." If tigers could write books, they would say, man was created for them and that man is a most sinful animal, because he does not allow him (the tiger) to catch him easily. The worm that crawls under your feet today is a God to be.

No matter what that makes elastic - sharply, intellectually and sincerely, keep at bay it as noxious waste.

The moment you fear, you are nobody.

Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

The body is mortal and the mind is mortal; both, being compounds, must die.

Have charity towards all beings. Pity those who are in distress. Love all creatures. Do not be jealous of anyone. Look not to the faults of others.

You are the makers of your own fortunes. You make yourselves suffer, you make good and evil, and it is you who put your hands before your eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away and see the light.

Bold words and bolder deeds are what we want. Awake, awake, great ones! The world is burning with misery. Can you sleep?

You see, 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.

Man is the highest being that exists, and this is the greatest world.

In the world take always the position of the giver.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

This world, this universe which our senses feel, or our mind thinks, is but one atom, so to say, of the Infinite, projected on to the plane of consciousness; and within that narrow limit, defined by the network of consciousness, works our reason, and not beyond. Therefore, there must be some other instrument to take us beyond, and that instrument is called inspiration.

It is the want that creates the body.

Something cannot be made out of nothing. Nor can something be made to go back to nothing.

Pay particular attention to your health, but too much coddling of the body will, on the contrary, also spoil the health.

Thought ceases in meditation; even the mind's elements are quite quiet. Blood circulation stops. His breath stops, but he is not dead.

Those who grumble at the little thing that has fallen to their lot to do will grumble at everything. Always grumbling, they will lead a miserable life, and everything will be a failure. But those who do their duties as they go, putting their shoulders to the wheel, will see the light, and higher duties will fall to their share.

Change is always subjective.

All objective pleasure in the long run must bring pain, because of the fact of change or death.

Praise and blame, good and bad, even heat and cold, must be equally acceptable to us.

Infinite patience, infinite purity, and infinite perseverance are the secret of success in a good cause.