From my Spiritual Diary-49:

* Guru Purnima or Vyasa Purnima falls this year on July 21st (written in 1986). The sacred occasion serves to remind us of the massive contribution of the myriad-minded Vyasa to our philosophy and literature. He edited and classified the Vedas, composed the Brahmasutras, wrote the Mahabharata with its crest jewel of the Gita, and gave us the innumerable Puranas crowned by Srimad Bhagavata. To Vyasa, we owe everything in our culture.

* ….today ‘varna’ is wrongly interpreted as caste. The Gita clearly defines ‘varna’ as determined by Guna and Karma.

* The excellence of a person depends on the perfection with which he does his job. It does not depend on the nature of the job as long as it is socially useful.

* That which takes us from our present state to the transcendent state is comprehensively called Dharma. The word means that which sustains, that which nourishes, that which protects, and that which gives us the beautitude. (C.S.Ramakrishnan).

From my Spiritual Diary-48:

· It is only after the practice of intense tapas that men are freed of guile and stinginess. God vision comes to them who are free from crookedness and cunning. But in the name of simplicity, man should not become a simpleton. It is good to be a devotee, but to be a dullard. Know what is right and do what is good. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa).

· Neither this person nor that person is the cause of anything; at the root of all is God. Everything has emerged from him. Never forget him, “from whom has streamed forth this eternal activity”…. Don’t pay much attention to external causes; rather, practice to see everything within. “Your lover is in yourself, and your enemy too is within you.” (A Hindi saying). “He himself is his friend, and he himself is his enemy(Gita VI.5)”. (Swami Turiyananda).

· Tapasya sharpens the mind, followed by longing. Then one can understand that this rare human body is perishable. Then one begins to long to finish it quickly. If this life is wasted, one cannot be sure when one will again be born in a human body. So one takes to it in right earnest. And giving up food and sleep, tries for it. One says to oneself with firm determination, “I shall get up only after THE GOLD HAS BEEN MELTED…. THE WATER HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO THE FIELD – only then shall I bathe and eat – such a FIRM RESOLVE one makes. Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) used to say: “I would lie down in the Panchavati night and day unconscious. Sometimes a snake would crawl over me and I would not take notice.” (“M” – Mahendra Nath Gupta).

· Don’t eat too much, and give up this craze for outer cleanliness. People with a craze do not attain Knowledge. Follow conventions only as much as necessary. Don’t go to excess. (Sri Ramakrishna).

From my Spiritual Diary-47:

… in this universe, the Divine manifests, expresses Himself as Knowledge in the mind, as Love in the Heart, as Power in our Life-impulses, and as Beauty in the Physical. And what is beauty? Beauty is a perfect condensation, a perfect coordination of everything that is involved. (M.P.Pandit)

If only you are awake, you can see the hand of God everywhere.
(M.P.Pandit).

This body has been given to us by God and we have no right to punish it by refusing to clothe it elegantly, feed it fully. We are asked to look upon the body as a temple of God. We have to treat as sacred, keep it pure, well-decorated. (M.P.Pandit)

Once you recognize that there is joy in life, suffering changes its complexion.(M.P.Pandit)

Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to leave this world; even the poorest man, even the man who suffers the most, does not want to die, because deep within him there is the joy of life. If you can total up all the suffering and all the happiness in this world, happiness will be found to be more, that is why there is a will to live. Nobody wants to end his life. This is the secret of life; there is joy hidden in life, and all our education, our culture, our religion must awaken this sense of joy, sense of happiness, sense of beauty in each one of us and to the extent we serve this ideal, we serve not only humanity, but also God. (M.P.Pandit)

What we are, what we think we are, is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind our surface mind, behind the thoughts and the emotions and helpless actions that we perform from morning till evening, there is a great belt of consciousness of which we are not aware. And still it is the impulses from these regions that influence us. (M.P.Pandit).

From My Spiritual Diary-46 :

‘God is the Head of this house. The unseen guest at every meal. The silent listener to every conversation’ (Written at the entrance of Mr PAC Ramasamy Raja).

‘Assuming a human body, the Incarnation falls a victim to disease, grief, hunger, thirst and all such things, like ordinary mortals. Rama wept for Sita. “Brahman weeps, entrapped in the snare of the five elements!”.

“It is said in the Purana that God, in His Incarnation as the Sow (Varaha Avatar), lived happily with His young ones even after the destruction of Hiranyaksha. (According to Hindu mythology, God incarnated Himself as a sow in order to save the world from the iniquities of the demon, Hiranyaksha). As the Sow, He nursed them and forgot all about His abode in heaven. At last, Siva killed the sow-body with his trident, and God, laughing aloud went to His own abode.” (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa).

“Akrura came to Vrindavan to take Krishna and Balarama to Mathura. When they mounted the chariot, the gopis clung to the wheels. They would not let the chariot move.” Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna sang, assuming the attitude of Akrura: “Hold not, hold not the chariot’s wheels! Is the wheels that make it move? The Mover of its wheels is Krishna, By whose will the worlds are moved…” Sri Ramakrishna then said: “Is it the wheels that make it move?’ ‘By whose will the worlds are moved; The driver moves the chariot at his Master’s bidding. I feel deeply touched by these lines”.

In the Bhagavatam, Sri Krishna says: “I have proclaimed three kinds of yoga for the spiritual enlightenment of human beings. These are Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge), Karma Yoga (Path of Action), and Bhakti Yoga (Path of Devotion). There is no other way besides these three. The path of knowledge is for those who are disgusted with work, and as a result, have renounced it. The path of action is for those who have desires and are therefore not yet disgusted with work and its fruits. The path of devotion is very effective for that person who by some good fortune has develop faith in my divine life and message, but has neither extreme renunciation nor excessive attachment for the world. (Swami Turiyananda).

“Life has a meaning, our birth has a meaning; that meaning is to realize in ourselves, in each one of us, something of God, to express in our daily life something that is associated with God, knowledge, kindness, benevolence, purity and happiness. (M.P.Pandit).

From My Spiritual Diary-45:

Who feels in India for the three hundred millions of men and women sunken for ever in poverty and ignorance? Where is the way out? Who feels for them? Let these people be your God – think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly – the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a Mahatma, a noble soul, whose heart bleeds for the poor; otherwise he is a ‘duratma’, a wicked soul.

So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them…

We are poor, my brothers, we are nobodies, but such have always been the instruments of the Most High. (Swami Vivekananda)

From Age to Age, God becomes man so that man may become God. (Unknown)

The worldly man must constantly live in the company of holy men. It is necessary for all… especially necessary for the householder. His disease has become chronic because he has to live constantly in the midst of ‘woman and gold’.

The highest duty of man is to realize God. To achieve it, holy company and service to the guru are needed. They will gradually fix the intellect on God. Sri Ramakrishna used to compare it with toothache. One attends to everything but the mind remains attached to the pain. Similarly, one must attend to all worldly matters but keep the intellect on Him. (‘M’)

From My Spiritual Diary-44:

Let no political significance ever be attached falsely to my writings or sayings. What nonsense!…. I will have nothing to do with political nonsense. I do not believe in politics. God and Truth are the only politics in the world. Everything else is trash.

It is a man-making religion that we want. It is a 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. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating. Give up these weakening mysticisms and be strong. The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence.

He who wants perfection in the world is a madman – for it cannot be. How can you find the infinite in the finite?

The real spiritual man – everywhere – is broad-minded. His love forces him to be so. They to whom religion is a trade are forced to become narrow-minded and mischievous by their very introduction into religion of the competitive, fighting selfish methods of the world.

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. Religion is not at fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Let each of us pray, day and night, for the downtrodden 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… (Swami Vivekananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-43:

If you look you will find that I have never quoted anything but the Upanishads. And of the Upanishads, it is only that one idea – STRENGTH. The quintessence of the Vedas and Vedanta and all, lies in that one word.

It is selfishness that we must seek to eliminate. I find that whenever I have made a mistake in my life, it has always been because SELF entered into the calculation. Where self has not been involved, my judgment has gone straight to the mark.

The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel. Do even evil like a man! Be wicked, if you must, on a grand scale!

The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. That faith calls out the inner divinity. You can do anything. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power. As soon as a man loses faith in himself, death comes. Believe first in yourself and 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…..One man contains within him the whole universe. One particle of matter has all the energy of the universe at its back. In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.

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 the fields… The true man is he who is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a woman’s heart.

Work, my children, work with your whole heart and soul! Mind not the fruit of work. What if you go to hell working for others? That is worth more than to gain heaven by seeking your own salvation…(Swami Vivekananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-42:

Helping others makes us happy. It is not what we do for ourselves that makes us happy, but when we are able to help another and make him happy; and this happiness is much more than what we can get ourselves from our selfish actions. (Swami Vireswarananda)

Truth is revealed in the mirror of the heart when it has been thoroughly cleansed. Prayer and meditation, sacraments and ceremonies, vows and austerities, cannot give us the vision of Truth, they can only help us to remove the coverings of the mind. (Swami Adiswarananda).

What good is this body? Let it go in helping others. Did not the Master preach until the very end? And shall I not do the same? I do not care a straw if the body goes. You cannot imagine how happy I am when I find earnests seekers after truth to talk to. In the work of waking up the Atman in my fellow men, I shall die again and again! (Swami Vivekananda).

He who exploits another man, near or distant, offends God and will pay for it sooner or later. All men are sons of the same God. He who wishes to serve must serve man – and in the first instance, man in the humblest, poorest, most degraded form. Only breaking down the barriers between man and man can one usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth. (Swami Vivekananda).

After so much tapasya, austerity, I have known that the highest truth is this: “He is present in all beings. These are all the manifested forms of Him. There is no other God to seek for! He alone is worshipping God, who serves all beings.” (Swami Vivekananda).

Your duty is to serve the poor and the distressed without distinction of caste and creed. What business have you to consider the fruits of your action? Your duty is to go on working, and everything will set itself right in time, and work by itself. My method of work is to construct and not to destroy that which is already existing. (Swami Vivekananda).

From My Spiritual Diary-41:

Ø True individuality lies not at the level of the finite ego, but at the level of infinite Atman. Man is truly individual only when he becomes universal. He has to transcend the false individuality of the ego to realize his true individuality in the Atman. To the question, “When shall I be free?’, Sri Ramakrishna gives the straight answer, ‘When “I” shall cease to be’. To gain true life, we have to lose our false life first, says Jesus. (Swami Ranganathananda).

Ø All attempts of language calling Him father or brother, our dearest friend, are attempts to objectify God, which cannot be done. He is the eternal SUBJECT of everything. I am the subject of the chair. I see the chair: so God is the eternal subject of my soul. How can you objectify Him, the essence of your souls, the Reality of everything? Thus, I would repeat to you once more, GOD is never knowable nor unknowable, but something infinitely higher than either. He is one with us; and that which is one with us is neither knowable nor unknowable… You cannot know your own self; you cannot move it out and make it an object to look at, because you ARE that, and cannot separate yourself from it. Neither is it unknowable, for what is better known than yourself? It is really the centre of our knowledge. In exactly the same sense, God is neither unknowable nor known, but infinitely higher than both; for He is our real Self. (Swami Vivekananda).

Ø Do you expect anything from your small son, if you do him something? In a similar manner, you will have to work for others also without expecting anything. You will have to expand and think that this whole world is your own self. … When you have tasted a bit of the Bliss of selfless service, you can never leave it. The force of service will induce you to work more with great zeal and enthusiasm. (Swami Sivananda of Divine Life Society).

From My Spiritual Diary-40:

Ø Whatever the Lord wills, happens. Whether we understand it or not, whatever the all-auspicious God does undoubtedly good for us. If we can understand this, there would no end to our joy.
Ø
Ø Whether conditions are good or bad, the man of luminous intellect always sees the good. It is only through God’s special grace that a person develops such an attitude. When he is perfected in it, all his miseries cease for ever.
Ø
Ø The more we talk about the Lord and rejoice in His glory, the better it is for us. (Swami Turiyananda)
Ø
Ø The wise man, who realizes all beings are not distinct from his own Self, and his own Self as the Self of all beings, does not, by virtue of that perception, hate anyone.
Ø
Ø What delusion, what sorrow can there be for that wise man who realizes the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own Self? (Isa Upanishad).
Ø
Ø When food becomes pure, the mind becomes pure. When the mind becomes pure, memory of one’s divine nature becomes steady. When this is achieved, all the knots of the heart become completely destroyed. (Chandogya Upanishad)
Ø
Ø The Atman is not an object among objects; it is the subject of all experience, the seer behind all acts of seeing, the knower behind all acts of knowing; and, as such, it is one and non-dual. And it is Vyapaka, it pervades all seeing, knowing and all other processes of living. Realizing Him as his own Self, man becomes truly free from all limiting conditions and consequently, becomes also immortal. (Swami Ranganathananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-39:

Ø It is victory when a country is delivered from despotism. In a contest, fair play is all in all. Victory is beside the point. Unscrupulous acquisition of a thing is not victory. It is fraudulence. Defeating the weak and the ignorant is not victory. It is plunder. Fair acquisition by fair play is victory. Gaining victory over a strong opponent is manliness. – Swami Chidbhavananda
Ø
Ø The wise consider the vanquishment of the wicket as victory. They consid4er the putting down of the base propensities as victory. – Mahabharata
Ø
Ø Youth has zest in life; much of religion as taught in society is designed to take away that zest without putting in any new focus of zest. Religion so understood has the effect of contracting a man’s personality, narrowing his interests, and making him self-centered. True religion does not destroy zest, but purifies, expands, and heightens it. The earlier zest was based on self-interest, and derived its force from physical vitality and mental ambition. This is purified and transformed by the new vision of life brought by religion with its intimations of the immo9rtal and the divine within, and its sense of oneness with all outside. The moment I realize myself as one with all, a new zest comes to me, more intense, more pervasive, and more pure. To make others happy is my happiness, to serve others and help them achieve their life’s fulfillment is my fulfillment. This is the essential teaching of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita; this is the basis, the metaphysical foundation, of all ethics and religion. – Swami Ranganathananda.
Ø
Ø Have the conviction that you are working for the Lord, and then don’t worry anymore. Why do you allow your mind to become disturbed? “Whatever work I do, O Lord, all that is your worship” (Shiva-Manasa-Puja Stotram, 4). He is in everything and He is everything – reflecting and meditating thus one attains realization. Imagination will become reality – that is how it happens. At first, one has to imagine; afterwards, it becomes real. – Swami Turiyananda

From My Spiritual Diary-38:

Ø All science is the search for unity. Vedanta discovered this unity in Atman; it followed its own conclusions with whatever positive knowledge was available at the time…. In fact, Vedanta hopes for and welcomes further advances in modern science by which its own spiritual vision of the One in the many may be corroborated by positive scientific knowledge, so that the spirituality of science and the spirituality of religion may flow as a united stream to fertilize all aspects of human life…..

Ø Vedanta is … both religion and philosophy. As religion, it discovers the truths of the inner world, and fosters the same discovery by others; and as philosophy, it synthesizes this science of the inner world with the other sciences of the outer world, to present a unified vision of total reality, and to impart to human life and character depth of faith and vision along with breadth of outlook and sympathy.

Ø Physically and socially, man is not free; he is conditioned by external and internal factors. Freedom is in our spiritual nature. That is our true nature, immortal and divine, and we must realize it in life. This alone is true progress, development; this alone is true religion. This great idea, Sri Ramakrishna lived, and, in so living, imparted such a power to it that, when other people received this idea, they received the power as well. They became convinced of the authenticity of this idea because Sri Ramakrishna had actually lived it.

Ø The Upanishads are an impressive record of the ‘reading of the book within’…. They are the only sacred books which addressed themselves exclusively to the discovery of these essential spiritual truths and leading man, irrespective of creed and race, to their realization in his own life… The theme of the Upanishads is FREEDOM OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT and their message is FEARLESSNESS and LOVE and SERVICE. (Swami Ranganathananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-37:

Ø Pranayama comes of itself to those who repeat the Lord’s holy name and think and meditate on Him with devout and intense longing. In the spiritual life, the result of this is immeasurable. In practical life also there is a growth of mental powers, purity of character, peace of mind, charity, resolute will etc. (Swami Shivananda)
Ø
Ø Whatever progress and success humanity has achieved ever since the creation of the world is all due to the concentration of the mind. The leaders of our civilization during the early stages were men who were really yogis. Every invention, every new discovery is purely the outcome of concentration. … In whatever station of life you may be, if you can concentrate your mind, you are sure to be the best in that field…. Concentration is the mother of untold wealth, both material and spiritual. (Swami Ramakrishnananda)
Ø
Ø We are the children of the Mother, and there is no fear for us. We shall rest satisfied wherever she places us. We cannot say what is good and what is evil, it is beyond our reasoning and so we have to pray, “You are beyond good and evil, therefore take us also beyond them.” (Swami Turiyananda)
Ø
Ø The importance of purity in spiritual life was highlighted by Swami Vivekananda, when he described it as the condition of God’s mercy, in a paper he presented at the Parliament of Religions. We should struggle and struggle till his ideas are realized for the good of one’s own self, of the community, of the country and of the world. (Swami Rasajnanananda)
Ø
Ø If in this hell of a world, one can bring a little joy and peace for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine. (Swami Vivekananda)
Ø
Ø Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Jesus Christ)
Ø
Ø He who delights in solitude is on the way to self-perfection. (Saint Tayumanavar)

From My Spiritual Diary-36:

· Work is truly worship if it is done for others. The highest religion is living for others. At first, people look for God in temples and mosques outside of themselves. Finally, they discover that’s all that exists is God. The difference is only in the degree of manifestation. The goal of life is to realize the unity of existence, that the same being is in you and me; the difference is artificial and false. When this sense of unity dawns, love overflows all barriers, uniting all. This is yoga (union) in full. This is the consummation that man aspires to. He is no longer a fragment. He is the whole; he is All. This is bhuma, the ultimat in man’s growth; this is his destiny. India has always regarded this development as the highest goal of life. Political power, high social standing, money, scholarship – all these are nothing compared to this kind of development. This is the highest., the best, the most prized state lf being. Real peace, happiness, the sense of fulfillment, is in this state. Nothing short of this can satisfy man. The Kingdom of Heaven, NIRVANA, IMMORTALITY – these are various inadequate names applied to this state. One has to experience it to know what it is like. (Swami Lokeswarananda)
·
· Whosoever that practices religion is endowed with more merits and less demerits. Mere formalism is not religion. Sectarianism is the negation of religion. True religion eliminates hatred, jealousy, greed, pride and selfishness. It engenders love of all beings, service to mankind and accommodativeness to the views and beliefs of the others. Self-denial, calmness and the adoration of the Almighty are its characteristics. (Swami Chidbhavananda)
·
· Practice of religion is the supreme purpose of the human birth. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

From My Spiritual Diary-35:

Religion is a mere word if it is not applied in life. When truth and righteousness become involuntary habit patterns and conduct in the life of a person, that is applied religion.

It should be clearly borne in mind that applied religion does not mean a kind of watered down religion but making the true, pure and transcendental religion flow in every detail of life or making every movement of our thought and action responsive and responsible to the principles of essential religion.

The highest teaching of the Vedas is that the law of sacrifice is the highest law in the universe. This is taught through the symbology of the Purusa-sukta of the Rg Veda. The Supreme Being sacrificed himself to bring forth this creation and through his continuing sacrifice it is sustained. Through the principle of sacrifice, the Supreme Being proliferates Himself into the beings of this visible world in which we live, move and have our being. The implication is: now if we intend to reach the Supreme Being in whom alone is all self-fulfillment, we too must follow the law of sacrifice, and thus reach from the gross to the subtle, from the visible to the invisible, from the conditioned to the unconditioned.

This journey need not be dreary. It can be wholesome, gratifying and all-compensating if we pursue this law of sacrifice through righteous living. This may be called the sacramental view of life.

This sacrificial-cum-sacramental view of life constitutes the Vedic way of life. And the whole past of this heritage, Sri Rama quintessentially embodies in a manner which can be understood and accepted without nervous strain by every man or woman of average endowments. In this sense, Rama is the saviour of all.

… benign weapon was his pleasing word prefaced by a smile. Rama would not use harsh words even when wrongly addressed.

…Last but not the least comes Rama’s devotion to truth. Rama did not speak twice; once he spoke, he carried out it out and he did not go back upon his word. Nothing in the world, no weight of authority, no lilt of language, no persuasion of sentiment, no fear of uncertainty, no prospect of insecurity could influence Rama to deviate from truth.

….

He calls them low, avaricious, cruel and criminal, who knowingly resort to untruth in any form; low, because such a person cannot find the higher path; avaricious, because he is devoid of self-control; cruel, because he inflicts great pain and suffering on himself and others; criminal, because he does the worst dacoity, dacoity on the welfare of society.

Rama said he would never forsake Truth and Dharma, for any prize here or hereafter, and the first things we are ready to drop under the slightest provocation or temptation are Truth and Dharma.

“One arrow, one woman and one word” – these three constitute the personality of Rama.

Let us be truthful in thought, word and deed, then prosperity on all levels will be around the corner.

…infinitely more we would gain – and there is the greatest need for this gain as we are called upon to live through the most demanding times of history – if we would practice the five simple principles of applied religion which Rama taught by living:

1. Purity of personal life
2. Strength and fearlessness
3. Ethical conduct through all situations of life.
4. Sacrificial and sacramental living
5. Truthfulness

Excerpts from “Sri Rama, the Supreme Exemplifier of Applied Religion”, Editorial, Prabuddha Bharata, April 1970.

From My Spiritual Diary-34:

· Verily, liberation is within easy reach for him who is never of evil intent even to the wicked, who speaks soothing words to the harsh and who is overflowing with friendly love. The world is held together by the prowess of such persons who are established in excellent conduct, and who allow no room for lust, anger and greed. One endowed with intelligence, therefore, must speak truth – truth that is liked by others. He ought to keep mum, if truth is productive of misery for another. What is to the liking of another, if it is not for his real good, that too must not be given out. It is certainly preferable to express what is conducive to good even though it is vehemently disliked. A prudent man must have recourse to that alone by thought, word and deed which will do good to living beings both in the seen worlds and the unseen. (Vishnu Purana).
·
· Persons aspiring to be favoured by Sri, the goddess of prosperity, beauty and love, should perform their life’s duties with unshaken fortitude, joyfully setting their steps on the heavenward path. Their homes are to be immaculately clean and their servants and helpers heartily satisfied. They should be grateful to all for any good turn; be never uxorious; regularly worshipping the Deity in the holy fire; sweet and obliging in address; taking up only works fit and proper; gifted with the sense of shame; self-controlled by means of solemn vows; undergoing fast and austerities; continuously cheerful; mindful of scriptural studies; waking up before sunrise and not lounging in bed at morning hours; sleeping only half the night and never during day; happy in showing kindness to distressed, helpless, aged, weak and sick fellow-beings as well as to womankind in general; ever ready to console the alarmed, cheerless, the anxious, the terrified, the diseased, the deprived and the afflicted; averse to partake singly savory dishes; never knowing others’ women; regarding others with deep love as they would themselves; permanently disposed to charity; and skilful, upright, persevering, forgiving perfectly friendly, shorn of all arrogance, and never indulging in debauchery. (Mahabharata)

From My Spiritual Diary-33:

· The remedy for sorrow is to stop brooding over it. If the mind dwells on sorrow, it freshens and multiplies. One should eradicate mental suffering by wisdom and physical ailments with medicines. That is the power of intelligence, and no intelligent man should behave in a childish way. No one gifted with knowledge and understanding should ever have any inordinate clinging to youth, or physical charm or accumulated possessions, or unbroken company of friends or even health and life, for they are by their very nature impermanent. It does not befit one to sorrow long and loud for a natural misfortune. With an undepressed mind one should actively remedy evil if one should find a way. There is no doubt that sufferings outweigh the pleasures of life. Death is unpleasant because it cuts short the sense enjoyments witch the deluded man fondly longs for. The courageous man gives up either grief or pleasure or both and takes his stand absolutely on the Supreme. Such a wise man has no room for sadness. (Mahabharata)

· This day itself do what is good: let not any delay steal over you. While your plans are in the making, the pull of death is felt. Nobody knows to whom today will be time for death. From youth itself, therefore acquire the habit of righteousness. Life is, indeed, evanescent. This has been accomplished; this must be done; this another one is about to be completed – while indulging in such comfortable reveries, all on a sudden one is captured by Death. Death snatches away all – helpless and powerful, brave and timorous, stupid and wise – even a man who has not been able to accomplish anything desired by him. The body being closely wedded to death and senility, disease and misery, manifoldly caused, why are you standing still as if unconcerned? None could ever oppose the invading hordes of Death except Truth. What is false must be cast out. On Truth depends immortality. Both life eternal and death rest on the body. From inadvertence befalls death. Through truthfulness is reached the Deathless. He whose speech and thought are keen and controlled perfectly, and who is endowed with spiritual energy, renunciation and truthfulness – he will certainly get everything. (Mahabharata)

From My Spiritual Diary-32:

* The misfortune that befalls a man on account of his egotism can be realized if you only think of the condition of the calf. The calf says, ‘Hamma! Hamma!’, that is , ‘I, I’ ! And just look at its misfortune! At times it is yoked to the plough and made to work in the field from sunup to sundown, rain or shine. Again, it may be slaughtered by the butcher. In that case, the flesh is eaten and the skin tanned into hide. From the hide, shoes are made. People put on the shoes and walk on the rough ground. Still that is not the end of its misfortunes. Drums are made from its skin and mercilessly beaten with sticks. At last its entrails are made into strings for the bow used in carding cotton. When used by the carder, the string gives the sound, ‘Tuhu, Tuhu!’, that is ‘Thou! Thou!’ O Lord! It is Thou!’ It no longer says, ‘Hamma! Hamma!’ (‘I’, ‘I’). Only then does the calf’s troubles come to an end, and it is liberated. It does not return to the world of action. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

* Is not feeding people a kind of service to God? God exists in all beings as fire. To feed people is to offer oblations to that Indwelling Spirit. But that one should not feed the wicked, I mean people who are entangled in gross worldliness or who have committed heinous crimes like adultery. Even the ground where such people sit becomes impure to a depth of seven cubits. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

* Mother would say that it matters much more what the person who cooks, what the person who serves, thinks at that time. If he has beautiful thoughts and fine emotions, the food will be better digested, it will be more nourishing. (M.P.Pandit)

From My Spiritual Diary-31:

· It is said in the Bhagavata that the Avadhuta chose a kite as one of his twentyfour gurus. The kite had a fish in its beak; so it was surrounded by a thousand crows. Whichever way it flew with the fish, the crows pursued it crying, ‘caw! caw!’ When all of a sudden the fish dropped from its beak, the crows flew after the fish, leaving the kite alone. The ‘fish’ is the object of enjoyment. The ‘crows’ are worries and anxiety. Worries and anxiety are inevitable with enjoyment. No sooner does one give up enjoyment than one finds peace.
· Brothers may live happily, but they get into trouble when the property is divided. Dogs lick one another’s bodies, they are perfectly friendly. But when the householders throw them a little food, they get into a scrap.
· One cannot know the truth about God through science. Science gives information only about things perceived by the senses. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)
· Think not about yourself but only for others. That is renunciation, that is religion, that is all. You have died, why do you think of yourself? Have you not given everything over to Mother? Why then think of yourself again? Never care for position. Give up all such ideas. Work is worship. Everything is in the life we live, not in position. Mother knows the heart and sees the heart and arranges things accordingly. Let your light so shine that everybody can see it. Let your work be silent and in secret and your Mother who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. The fowls in the air have their nests to rest, but the Son of man had nowhere to lay his head. Jesus had no position, and millions and millions of hearts are his place, or he is the place where millions of weary souls go for rest. (Swami Turiyananda)
· Even the very causes of all the pleasant and the unpleasant incidents in our lives are in fact parts of a jigsaw puzzle, which remains incomprehensible till the last piece falls into place. And that last piece is the regaining of our spiritual nature and the realization that we are essentially identical with the Lord who is omnipotent, transcendent and also immanent and that all existence is spiritually one. (Swami Atmaramananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-30:

· Success is for one who is flexible, accommodating – without compromising on principles – not for the rigid.
· The Divine alone is our friend, true support.
· To make your life meaningful, to reach your goal, you have to organize your life around your Ideal. Proceed to draw up the priorities as best permitted by your life circumstances.
· For an earnest seeker wanting to make a success of his life, there are no small things which can be neglected and big ones which alone are to be given importance. Remember it is the small which prepare you to handle the big. Your habits, your trends are shaped by the way you feel and act in apparently insignificant matters. They are the tests of your sincerity. And without sincerity you cannot truly hope to make a success of anything.
· It is better to avoid being unpleasant, unless you are forced to be frank or obliged to be forthright.
· We will not speak falsehood; we are not obliged to tell the whole truth in every situation, either. What is wholesome is that we do not mislead others. Silence is often the best way out. Indeed, for that, one must have a moral stature.
· If you are obliged to give advice, do it in a spirit of disinterested service. Do not claim unquestioning action in terms of your direction. Even if the person who approaches you is well intentioned, he may find himself too weak to act up or the situation may change. In any case, do not bind him to your advice. Best is to abstain from giving advice, except when imperative. (M.P.Pandit)

From My Spiritual Diary-29:

Ø It is pride born of ignorance that blinds our vision. In fact, glory pervades everything, but we cannot see Him because we are reluctant to cast off the veil of nescience that covers our vision. Remove the veil and you will find Him everywhere self-manifested.
Ø
Ø The name you take or the thought you have at the time of your death will determine your destination after death.
Ø
Ø At the time of death, a man loses his wits and becomes very much depressed. If he can but utter once the name of God at that time, it will be enough… He will have nothing to worry about as God will take charge of him. Unless one has acquired the habit of thinking of God constantly by long practice, everything becomes confused in the end on account of the pangs of death, and one cannot then think of God even once. So what is necessary is to recite His name, meditate on Him, and pray to Him constantly.
Ø
Ø We very often notice that people are in the grip of a terrible fright at the time of death; this happens because their minds are not absorbed in holy thoughts and are not centred on God… The glory of God’s name not only saves us from all these fears but also delivers us for all time from the clutches of death. (Swami Vijnanananda)
Ø
Ø It is the ideal man that is the ideal of man, and there is one way to achieve it – to strive for it in the manner in which others have striven, with their example shining before us. Such an ideal carries with it all necessary hope and encouragement; for, what man has done, man can do. (Prof.M.Hiriyanna)
Ø
Ø Life is a mission. Life is sacred. Treat life with the respect and care it deserves and life will treat you with the same consideration. Life is what you make of it. (M.P.Pandit)

From My Spiritual Diary-28:

() A public worker must be honest and above board. Don’t find fault with others. Rather, look at your own faults. Men cannot see and do not want to see their own frailties. They make all sorts of useless arguments to support their misdeeds.

() Every Indian will have to qualify himself to become a leader of men which means that he is to be a man of character, selfless, high-souled and large-hearted. And he has to love his countrymen. We have to train ourselves to work for the good of the people. One has to exercise self-restraint and remember God. He will give us strength to act.

() Selfishness has got the whole nation in its grip… He who sacrifices his life for the good of the many is truly alive.

() It is the duty of everyone to donate a certain portion of his earned ijncome for public welfare. For that is the law of nature. You will get back whatever you give.

() The goal of life is Self-realization. You should be content with getting what is barely necessary for sustaining your life, and do the work of God without any eye for reward.

() Every substance has three aspects: name, form and essence. So long as we are unable to transcend the realm of name and form, we cannot reach the core of Truth or the essence. It is only when we realize the Atman (Self), the ultimate Truth behind all things, that we attain evearlasting peace.

() It is pride born of ignorance that blinds our vision. In fact, glory pervades everything, but we cannot see Him because we are reluctant to cast off the veil of nescience that covers our vision. Remove the veil and you will find Him everywhere self-manifested.

From My Spiritual Diary-27:

Ø The best time for meditation is midnight. You can achieve results very soon by practicing meditation at that time. Nature is in a quiet mood then and that makes concentration easier.
Ø
Ø Look, God is all-pervading and all-powerful. There is nothing that cannot be granted by Him. Whatever people seek from Him, He supplies like a servant, as it were. That is the reason why one should not ask Him for anything. You should remain satisfied with whatever He is pleased to give on His own.
Ø
Ø Why should you pray to Him for paltry things like worldly riches? Pray to Him that He may give you strength to become pure and unselfish, and the power to realize the Truth.
Ø
Ø It is the desire that is the root of all evil. You cannot have contentment so long as you are subject to worldly desires. When the desires are gone, you are free.
Ø
Ø After death, worldly desires continue to remain in a subtle form. Death only destroys the gross body, but the senses, mind, and intelligence all remain in a subtle form. In that subtle body, sense enjoyments are all the more acute. After the subtle state comes the causal state, even then the mind and other phenomena exist in a form of “seed”.
Ø
Ø Desire is the cause of rebirth. If you get rid of all your desires, you will not be born again.
Ø
Ø My only advice to you all is to forsake idleness. An idle brain is the devil’s workshop. You must do everything with concentration and diligence.
Ø
Ø The world is not a place where we can afford to be inactive and lazy. It is only when you devote yourself to work with no selfish end in view that you can have real comfort or rest. Go on doing your work like a brave man. The western nations make good use of their time, and therein lies the secret of their strength in this world. If you, too, make good use of your time, you would achieve great results. God is behind you. Always remember Him in everything you do. Every action has its inevitable result; we cannot afford to forget that.

From My Spiritual Diary-26:

Ø One who can detach his mind from material things will see the light of God and His presence in everything. Worldly attachments draw people away from God and scorch them in the wild fire of the world.
Ø
Ø Repeat His name, my brother, repeat it as much as you can. You will have nothing to fear.
Ø
Ø God is Truth, and to realize Him you have to be completely truthful in your words and deeds. Hold fast to the way of truth, do harm to no one, and God will draw you to His sheltering care. Truth must be adhered to strictly. There should be complete harmony between preaching and practice. What comes out of your lips has to be acted upon. You cannot realize God unless you are perfectly and transparently sincere.
Ø
Ø What would you gain by listening to numerous discourses on God? After listening to one or two discourses that may appeal to you, plunge yourself in spiritual practices. It will not be any use if you hear a lot and do not act up to anything of it. You should make every endeavour to reflect in your life whatever little you have heard.
Ø
Ø What you require is a good deal of faith, reliance and patience; and with all this, you will gradually reach the goal. You should hold fast to faith and never lose it.
Ø
Ø Faith is the foundation of spiritual life.
Ø
Ø Purity, Truthfulness and Honesty should make the corner-stone of your life. And there should be Faith. With these, a man will have contentment in life, whatever circumstances he may happen to be in. Contentment in all circumstances is the mark of religious life. (Swami Vijnanananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-25:

Ø Never give way to evil thoughts. When they creep in, repeat the name of the Master fervently and you will be rid of them.
Ø
Ø Unless one can restrain one’s passion, anger etc. it is impossible to get anywhere near God. One’s duty is to lead an honest, pious and selfless life and above all to conduct oneself as the servant of God. … You should serve the people without hoping for anything in return. If you remain steadfast in your faith, have no prejudice against other faiths and hold fast to truth, then the Divine Mother will guide you and lead you on steadily irrespective of the situation you may be in.
Ø
Ø You should pray to the Mother to make you pure in heart. She will set things right. Make your heart pure and everything will be all right in due course. When purity of heart is attained, you will have a taste of spiritual joy. That joy is incomparable. The worldly pleasures are but a speck of dust when weighed against that mountain of concentrated joy.
Ø
Ø The man who has lost his moral character is really dead… One who has lost his moral anchorage will suffer for it in many, many lives to come.
Ø
Ø When the mind is overcome with evil thoughts, it becomes dejected and inactive like a mouse in the grip of a cat. But why should you suffer it to be like that? In such situations, you should summon up within you the strength of a lion and shake off all evil thoughts. It is no excuse to say that your mind is not unde5r your control. Why should you let your mind take the upper hand?
Ø
Ø You are the master of your own mind; keep it pure.
Ø
Ø The greatest duty of man is to keep his mind centered on God. With every breath, we should think of Him.
Ø
Ø The function of the heart is to love and that of the head is to discriminate between truth and untruth, between what is and what is not. Love and discrimination have to be combined. For the realization of God, both are necessary. (Swami Vijnanananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-24:

Ø Man has these three attitudes: animal-like, man-like and divine. Demoniac attitude and animal-like attitudes are the same – that is, extremely selfish. The divine attitude is its opposite, selfless. Everything will have to go from the animal state to the divine state one day. That is why the Lord is enumerating the traits of both. When this is known, one can understand one’s own state of mind and that of the others. All these are milestones in the divine life. One should know them by heart. (Mahendranath Gupta, author of ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’, after reciting Chapter XVI of the Gita, gives the above meaning).
Ø
Ø One should exercise control over the tongue. SHAMA (Mental Restraint) and DAMA (Control of the Senses) are divine qualities.(Gita 10:4)…. Many people take a vow of silence for practicing self-control. It is a must. (Mahendranath Gupta)
Ø
Ø Be simple and truthful. Whenever you find time, you should meditate. You should make your utmost effort to practice it. Only then can you succeed. Simplicity, truth, vow of silence and sweet speech – all these must be practiced. (Mahendranath Gupta).
Ø
Ø …Since you have taken refuge in the Master, you are on the right path. He came to the world to save people. Go on repeating his name and peace will be yours. All the sins of the body and the mind are washed away if one looks at him for some time. He can see through your mind; he understands everything, confide in him. But don’t approach him with selfish desires….He will do what he thinks is good for us…. The purer a person is, the more will the Master reveal himself to him. (Swami Vijnanananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-23:

Ø Weakness is an innate tendency in human beings. If you say, “I am weak, I am weak,” the weakness will not go away. Rather, a person can become strong by wholeheartedly cultivating positive thoughts: “Why should I be weak? I must be strong.”…. Shun that thing immediately which you think makes you weak. Accept the thing with earnestness which you think will make you strong. (Swami Turiyananda)
Ø
Ø Everything happens by the will of God. This may lead one to think that the individual has no scope for moral effort. This is not correct. The individual is given a limited freedom to function within certain limits. Suppose a person has a calf. He ties it to a peg with a long rope to grace round about. It is given the freedom to go up to a certain extent but not further. If it exhausts the grass, then the owner either lengthens the tether or removes the peg to another place. So also, we are given a certain amount of freedom which we all feel within and which our moral nature helps us to intuit. If we use it properly, we evolve into higher and higher stages and if we do not, we stagnate and degenerate. Our higher evolution depends on our proper use of this limited freedom.
Ø
Ø How are we to know God’s will? Let us take that He has kept it away from us in His wisdom and let us not pry into it. To know God’s will beforehand is to paralyse moral effort through which alone man evolves. God has given us the power to strive for what is right and He has given us the scriptures to enlighten us as to what is right and good. With the aid of the scriptures, we must strive to our utmost, and we shall know God’s will, at the end, when success or failure attends the effort. Whether it be success or failure, we have to take it with resignation, that is without elation or depression, accepting the ultimate results of our efforts as God’s will. So we can know God’s will only at the end and not beforehand, and it is good that this is so, we were to know for certain beforehand that we would die at the end of a year, it will paralyse all our actions and even make life a bundle of fears. But if we accept in a general way that we shall die only when God wills, without however knowing when His will is going to be operative, we shall face even dangers without fear, and when death actually comes we shall be well prepared for it. (Swami Tapasyananda)

From My Spiritual Diary-22:

· Keep your heart free and clean and humble, then God will enter.

· Service, humility and purity are the foundation of character. Without them, no spiritual growth is possible. So one must practice these qualities with earnestness and sincerity, and God will come. When we know that great Spirit, whom we call Father or Mother, as our own, all pride, fear and turbulence vanish and we find peace. As our heart becomes free from blemish, we feel the presence of the Divine within us and we are able to reflect it in our outer life; but we do not keep it to enjoy selfishly, we give it to others in every word, act and thought. (Swami Paramananda)

· Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

· The miseries of life actually help us. Evil is sometimes a blessing in disguise. Rise above your troubles. Troubles are good if they make us think of the Lord. Face the troubles and rise above them. Do not brood over troubles. That only makes matters worse. Try to get over the trouble calmly, in a balanced way. (Swami Yatiswarananda)

· Go to sleep in a prayerful mood. Meditate with a clear mind. Six hours sleep is sufficient. Read and study daily two hours at the minimum. (Swami Yatiswarananda)

· Everyone in this world is mad! Some are mad for money, some for creature comforts, some for name and fame and you are mad for God. (Bhairavi Brahmani to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

· From our very birth, we have eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste and grief. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)

From My Spiritual Diary-21:

^ Moksha or liberation has no particular dwelling house; it is neither like going to another village; Moksha means only the destruction of the knots of the heart, consisting of ignorance and spiritual blindness. (Siva Gita)

^ He who does work for Me, who looks on Me as the Supreme, who is devoted to Me, who is free from attachment; who is without hatred for any being; he comes to Me. (Bhagavad Gita, XI.55)

^ When God is with us, who is against us? When God is not with us, who is for us? – This maxim is worth pondering over and to be pursued in life. (Swami Chidbhavananda)

^ Give with earnestness. Give liberally. Give with concern that your gift may not become useless. Give with all modesty. Give studying the merit of the case. (Vedanta)

^ Our body, mind and heart, instead of working in unison go in opposite directions that is why we accomplish little. When we write we write with all our faculties, we gain the power of penetration. (Swami Paramananda)

^ Not a particle of Truth can ever be lost not a single effort to realize the Truth can be unfruitful. Only thing required of us is to have patience and perseverance and unshaken trust in the Divine Worship of Truth brings great strength of conviction and absolute fearlessness. (Swami Paramananda)

^ Humility, unostentatiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, simplicity, purity, steadfastness, self-control; this is declared to be wisdom; what is opposed to this is ignorance. (Bhagavad Gita)

From My Spiritual Diary-20:

Ø One must have regular physical exercise every day. Our scriptures say: “A good physique is the first requisite of spirituality.” For spiritual advancement, one must first make the body strong: “Mens sana in corpore sano” – a Sound Mind in Sound Body”. (Swami Shivananda, Divine Life Society)

Ø One can escape from the clutches of misery only if one always thinks of the ultimate results that his acts may bring. Who can remove the misery of one who fails to learn even by repeated experience? (Swami Vrajananda)

Ø Whatever you do is karma. Not only what you do is karma, but also what you say or think is karma; even breathing is karma. If you say to yourself that you will murder somebody, that is almost as bad as if you have already murdered him. First thought, then action. What you think is important, for it is out of your thinking springs what you do later. So you have to watch every thought in your mind. Thinking makes you,. What you are. If you go on thinking bad thoughts, you will soon end up doing bad deeds also. Thinking and doing are not far apart. (Swami Lokeswarananda)

Ø Excessive routine activities stifle mental activity and creativity. (Silvano Arietti)

Ø The soul is neither young nor old. If only know how to draw energy from the soul, the body would also be rejuvenated. After intense meditation, there comes a rush of energy. (Swami Yatiswarananda)