All expansion is life, all contraction is death.
If one has got the power, one must manifest it in action.
`It is the coward and the fool who says," THIS IS FATE "'- so says the
sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says,
" I WILL MAKE MY FATE ". It is the people who are getting old who talk of
fate. Young men generally do not come to astrology
The road to the GOOD is the roughest and steepest in the Universe. It is a
wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. CHARACTER has to be
established through a thousand stumbles.
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.
Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.
Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.
The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and do good - that is the whole of religion.
Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man.
One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom.
Look at the wall. Did the wall ever tell a lie? It is always the wall. Man tells a lie and becomes a god, too.
After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth - God is present in every jiva; there is no other God besides that. 'Who serves jiva, serves God indeed.'
Cut out the word help from your mind. You cannot help; it is blasphemy! You worship. When you give a morsel of food to a dog, you worship the dog as God. He is all, and is in all.
Unselfishness is God. One may live on a throne, in a palace, and be perfectly unselfish; and then he is in God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and have nothing in the world; yet if he is selfish, he is intensely merged in the world.
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.
With five hundred men, ... the conquest of India might take fifty years: with as many women, not more than a few weeks.
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.
Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas.
We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonizing the Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran.
Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that each may choose the path that suits him best.
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.
Truth, purity, and unselfishness - whenever 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.
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.
The highest ideal is eternal and entire self-abnegation, where there is no 'I', but is Thou'.
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 law of life, just as you breathe to live.
The national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensity her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself.
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.
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on 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.
"What the world wants today is twenty men and women who can dare to stand in the street yonder, and say that they possess nothing but God. Who will go? Why should one fear? If this is true, what else could matter? If it is not true, what do our lives matter
"Plans! Plans!" Swami Vivekananda explained in indignation, when one of his disciples had offered him some piece of worldly wisdom. "That is why . . . Western people can never create a religion! If any of you ever did, it was only a few Catholic saints who had no plans. Religion was never preached by planners!"
"I am persuaded that a leader is not made in one life. He has to be born for it. For the difficulty is not in organisation and making plans; the test, the real test, of the leader, lies in holding widely different people together along the line of their common sympathies. And this can only be done unconsciously, never by trying."
"Worship the Terrible! Worship Death! All else is vain. All struggle is vain. That is the last lesson. Yet this is not the coward's love of death, not the love of the weak or the suicide. It is the welcome of the strong man who has sounded everything to its depths and knows that there is no alternative."
Have faith, in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds.
Sympathy for the poor, the downtrodden, even unto death this is our motto.
Have done with name and fame; to work, my brave men, to work!
The man who is pure, and who dares, does all things.
Who on earth has the power to snub us so long as the Lord favors us?
Work on with the intrepidity of a lion, but, at the same time, with the tenderness of a flower.
To God for help; to none else!
Freedom is the goal of the universe.
That thirst for fame is the worst of all filth.
Fear is the greatest sin my religion teaches
"Remember!" he said once to a disciple, "Remember! the message of India is always "Not the soul for nature, but nature for the soul !"
"He (Shri Ramakrishna) was contented simply to live that great life and to leave it to others to find the explanation!"
The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel."
"You may always say that the image is God. The error you have to avoid is to think God is the image."
The river is pure that flows, the monk is pure that goes!"
"The Sannyasin who thinks of gold, to desire it, commits suicide."
A true Christian is a true Hindu, and a true Hindu is a true Christian.
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.