It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.
It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one’s own good.
It is only work that is done as a free-will offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.
It is only work that is done as freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.
It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties.
It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.
Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. If we can bring ourselves down by our karma, surely it is in our power to raise ourselves by our own karma.
Meditation means the mind is turned back upon itself. The mind stops all the thought-waves and the world stops. Your consciousness expands. Every time you meditate you will keep your growth.
Nature grinds all of us. Keep count of the ounce of pleasure you get. In the long run, nature did her work through you, and when you die your body will make other plants grow. Yet we think all the time that we are getting pleasure ourselves. Thus the wheel goes round.
Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.
Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.
Religion as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that the human mind can have.
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.
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 the fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven in a moment.
The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal.
The nature of the brute is to remain where he is, of a human being to seek good and to avoid evil, and of God to neither seek nor avoid but just to be eternally blissful. Let us be Gods, let us make our hearts like an ocean, to go beyond all the trifles of the world and see it only as a picture. We can then enjoy it without being in any way affected by 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.”
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.
What is the world that is to be given up? It is here. I am carrying it all with me. My own body. It is all for this body that I put my hand voluntarily upon my fellow beings, just to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure; [all for this body] that I injure others and make mistakes.
When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rush off to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were but we shall understand the whole thing. The same phenomena will remain but with a new meaning.