=== Viveka Vaani ===

* Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, bycontrolling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, orpsychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This isthe whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, orforms, are but secondary details.

* The whole universe is one. There is only one Self in the universe, only OneExistence.

* You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

=== Pearls of Wisdom ===

* In a day when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that youare traveling in the wrong path

* Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.

* To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I willdrink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”.Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

* Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood.Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones.

* Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, thesefailures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were notfor struggles. Where would be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, themistakes. I never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow -- never a man. So nevermind these failures, these little backslidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and ifyou fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.

* Say, ‘This misery that I am suffering is of my own doing, and that very thingproves that it will have to be undone by me alone.’ That which I created, I candemolish; that which is created by someone else, I shall never be able to destroy.Therefore, stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your ownshoulders, and know that you are the creators of your own destiny. All the strengthand succour you want is within ourselves.

* We must overcome difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothingcan happen to us unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.

* Take up an idea, devote yourself to that it, and struggle on it on patience. Andthe sun will rise for you.

* Education is the manifestation of perfection present already in man

* Give me few men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake theworld

* Strength is Life, Weakness is death

* Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, foldyour hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

* This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live wholive for others. The rest are more dead than alive.

* You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

* When we really begin to live in the world, then we understand what is meant bybrotherhood or mankind, and not before.

* External nature is only internal nature writ large.

* The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

* Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be aBuddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which noamount of intellectual activity can reach God.

* The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there issomething behind the will which is free.

* The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will bepurified, and God will be in them.

* There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply somethingthrough which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.

* The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, themoment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him -- thatmoment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

* Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highestidea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

* That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.

* You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make youspiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

* The goal of mankind is knowledge. . . . Now this 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"; whatman "learns" is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, whichis a mine of infinite knowledge.

* If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it issimply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

* All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness isthe secret of everything.

* To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion.Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.

* The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

* The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-action, and everything, but itis untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat or cold, and all the dualism ofnature, although it lends its light to everything.

* It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughtmake things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in ourown minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- thatthere is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy andbeautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in theright light. throw the burden on yourselves!

* In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.

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

* If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure avery large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.

* Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and inevery living being.

* The Vedanta teaches that Nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do nothave to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and afterhaving once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded bythe mirage of personality.

* 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 miserablecreature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.

* Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy tothink so. If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others areweak.

* Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.

* "I am the thread that runs through all these pearls," and each pearl is a religionor even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runsthrough all of them; most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.

* “Comfort” is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being“comfortable.”

* “Face the brutes.” That is a lesson for all life—face the terrible, face it boldly. Likethe monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.

* A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a yearthan a mob in a century.

* A tremendous stream is flowing toward the ocean, carrying us all along with it;and though like straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about,in the long run we are sure to join the Ocean of Life and Bliss.

* All is the Self or Brahman. The saint, the sinner, the lamb, the tiger, even themurderer, as far as they have any reality, can be nothing else, because there isnothing else.

* All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinitelibrary of the universe is in our own mind.

* All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and

me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven iswithin us.

* All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody’s property; no race, no individual can lay anyexclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls.

* All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle overthe form in which the different religions are expressed. They know that the soul ofall religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because heor she does not speak in the same tongue.

* Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with thetoes of your feet.

* Anything that is secret and mysterious in these systems of yoga should be atonce 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.

* Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will mustshow.

* Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect withoutreading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

* As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness,Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.

* As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fearremains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what canwe be afraid?

* As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to protect it, tokeep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become separate.

* As soon as you know the voice and understand what it is, the whole scenechanges. The same world which was the ghastly battlefield of maya is now changedinto something good and beautiful.

* Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind;therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see aphysician, take good food, and rest.

* Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.” Tell this to everyone—“Have no fear.”

* Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone can you do any truework. No eyes can see the real forces; we can only see the results. Put out self,forget it; just let God work, it is His business.

* Blows are what awaken us and help to break the dream. They show us theinsufficiency of this world and make us long to escape, to have freedom.

* Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive for us, until weawake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies.

* Come out into the broad light of day, come out from the little narrow paths, forhow can the infinite soul rest content to live and die in small ruts?

* Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours, stretchout your arms and embrace it with love. If you every felt you wanted to do that, youhave felt God.

* Delusion will vanish as the light becomes more and more effulgent, load afterload of ignorance will vanish, and then will come a time when all else hasdisappeared and the sun alone shines.

* Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.

* Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be.

* Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly go towork, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary fretting and fuming.

* Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!

* Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, andinfinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.

* Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and thenacceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

* Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. Butthe intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits theirtaste.

* Every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good;every action that retards it is evil.

* Every individual is a center for the manifestation of a certain force. This force

has been stored up as the resultant of our previous works, and each one of us isborn with this force at our back.

* Every step I take in light is mine forever.

* Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment: universality.

* 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 the world have proceeded from thisevil spirit of fear.

* Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night beforeyou, and out of that will come great work.

* First get rid of the delusion “I am the body,” then only will we want realknowledge.

* First, believe in the world—that there is meaning behind everything.

* Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell yourbody that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith andhope in yourself.

* Go on saying, “I am free.” Never mind if the next moment delusion comes andsays, “I am bound.” Dehypnotize the whole thing.

* God is merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for realization.But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will nevercome.

* God is self-evident, impersonal, omniscient, the Knower and the Master ofnature, the Lord of all. He is behind all worship and it is being done according toHim, whether we know it or not.

* God is very merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul forspiritual realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that Hisgrace will never come.

* Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. … Character has tobe established through a thousand stumbles.

* Have you got the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions? If the wholeworld stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think isright?

* He whom the sages have been seeking in all these places is in our own hearts;the voice that you heard was right, says Vedanta, but the direction you gave to thevoice was wrong.

* Hold to the idea, “I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching mymind act,” and each day the identification of yourself with thoughts and feelings willgrow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actuallyknow it to be apart from yourself.

* However we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, theSoul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.

* I fervently wish no misery ever came near anyone; yet it is that alone that givesus an insight into the depths of our lives, does it not? In our moments of anguish,gates barred forever seem to open and let in many a flood of light.

* I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold fromanyone anything they really deserve.

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

* If superstition enters, the brain is gone.

* If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads,bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word “fearlessness.”

* If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage.If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge,knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature.

* If you want to have life, you have to die every moment for it. Life and death areonly different expressions of the same thing looked at from different standpoints;they are the falling and the rising of the same wave, and the two form one whole.

* Impurity is a mere superimposition under which your real nature has becomehidden. But the real you is already perfect, already strong.

* Is there any sex-distinction in the Atman (Self)? Out with the differentiationbetween man and woman—all is Atman! Give up the identification with the body, andstand up!

* It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount ofintellectual activity can reach God.

* It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its waythrough 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 ourselvesdown by our karma, surely it is in our power to raise ourselves by our own karma.

* Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no otherway to know.

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

* Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is theheart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the heart that theAtman, possessed of knowledge, power, and activity, has its seat.

* Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.

* Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit,the middle spirit, the culmination spirit.

* Look upon every man, woman, and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone,you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if youhave the privilege.

* Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The manVivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda isnever born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.

* Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing.Do not merely endure; be unattached.

* No authority can save us, no beliefs. If there is a God, all can find Him. No oneneeds to be told it is warm; all can discover it for themselves. So it should be withGod. He should be a fact in the consciousness of every person.

* One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.

* Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith inourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can neverhave faith in God.

* Our supreme duty is to advance toward freedom—physical, mental, andspiritual—and help others to do so.

* Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything.Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.

* Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already.You and I, and all beings,are trying to manifest that infinity.

* Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.

* Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the godsthere are ...but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.

* Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the godsthere are …[but] unless you realize the Self (atman), there is no freedom.

* Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and,above all, love.

* Religion as a science, as a study, is the greatest and healthiest exercise that thehuman mind can have.

* Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the differencebetween beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions andmonstrosities.

* So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. Aperfect, free being cannot have any desire.

* Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth. Onehas to be free, and as broad as the sky.

* Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of theuniverse.

* Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your ownshoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strengthand succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future.

* Stand upon the Self, only then can we truly love the world. Take a very highstand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon allthe panorama of the world.

* Strength is the sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health,and the sign of everything that is good. As long as the body lives, there must bestrength in the body, strength in the mind, strength in the hand.

* Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.

* Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth istoo much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner thebetter.

* Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help yourdevelopment, but never imagine you can help the world.

* The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is thatBeing in full, not a part of that Being.

* The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heavenis within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world,it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God,and we shall have God.

* The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.

* The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

* The human soul has sojourned in lower and higher forms, migrating from one toanother according to the samskaras or impressions, but it is only in the highestform as a human being that it attains to freedom.

* The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.

* The important thing is: how much less you think of the body, of yourself asmatter—as dead, dull, insentient matter; how much more you think of yourself asshining immortal being.

* The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are, the better for usand the more the amount of work we can do. When we let loose our feelings, wewaste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds, and accomplish verylittle work.

* The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength inyour mind and words.

* The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is reallyimmortal.

* The more you think of yourself as shining immortal spirit, the more eager youwill be to be absolutely free of matter, body, and senses. This is the intense desireto be free.

* The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe that the future will be moreglorious still.

* The power is with the silent ones, who only live and love and then withdraw theirpersonality. They never say “me” and “mine”; they are only blessed in beinginstruments.

* The power of purity—it is a definite power.

* The powers of the mind should be concentrated and the mind turned back uponitself; as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the penetrating rays of thesun, so will the concentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets.

* The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self whenit appears behind this little universe—the body—is the soul.

* The Soul is not composed of any materials. It is unity indivisible. Therefore itmust be indestructible.

* The varieties of religious belief are an advantage, since all faiths are good, so faras they encourage us to lead a religious life. The more sects there are, the moreopportunities there are for making a successful appeal to the divine instinct in all ofus.

* The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become ofyou, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free.

* The whole universe is one. There is only one Self in the universe, only OneExistence.

* The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how togive it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come throughconcentration.

* There cannot be friendship without equality.

* There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe.Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself…. Burst your own cocoonand come out as the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will seeTruth.

* There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion—I am God—cannot bemade with regard to the sense-world.

* There is only one sin. That is weakness.... The only saint is that soul that neverweakens, faces everything, and determines to die game.

* There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of the struggle towardfreedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means gettingrid of the idea that human beings are the same as this little body.

* This earth is higher than all the heavens; this is the greatest school in theuniverse.

* This I have seen in life—those who are overcautious about themselves fall intodangers at every step; those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get onlydisgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.

* This is no world. It is God Himself. In delusion we call it world.

* This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, notto lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. Youwill find that is always true. Get hold of yourself.

* This is the great lesson that we are here to learn through myriads of births andheavens and hells—that there is nothing to be asked for, desired for, beyond one’sspiritual Self (atman).

* This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may beadamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.

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

* Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it butthrough their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those

who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God.

* To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul. Be an atheist if you want, butdo not believe in anything unquestioningly.

* Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has topay homage to Truth or die.

* Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing itcan we know God. It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highestknowledge, and only by knowing God can we understand human nature.

* Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things thatwill tell you the real character of a great person.

* We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are thesoul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will befree in a minute.

* We believe that every being is divine, is God. Every soul is a sun covered overwith clouds of ignorance; the difference between soul and soul is owing to thedifference in density of these layers of clouds.

* We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled.We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comesinto every detail of our life.

* We have to go back to philosophy to treat things as they are. We are sufferingfrom our own karma. It is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothingelse. Why should God be blamed?

* We must approach religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will standup and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.

* We must be bright and cheerful. Long faces do not make religion. Religionshould be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best.

* We must have friendship for all; we must be merciful toward those that are inmisery; when people are happy, we ought to be happy; and to the wicked we mustbe indifferent. These attitudes will make the mind peaceful.

* We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has theblame, none has the praise.

* We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universalcry for freedom.

* What do you gain in heaven? You become gods, drink nectar, and getrheumatism. There is less misery there than on earth, but also less truth.

* What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life isone burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt.

* When we come to nonattachment, then we can understand the marvelousmystery of the universe: how it is intense activity and at the same time intensepeace, how it is work every moment and rest every moment.

* When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rushoff to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were but we shallunderstand the whole thing. The same phenomena will remain but with a newmeaning.

* When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rushoff to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were, only we shallunderstand the whole thing.

* Whenever we attain a higher vision, the lower vision disappears of itself.

* Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes andweep that it is dark.

* Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselveshelpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anythingourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us.

* Woman has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience andinfinite perseverance.

* Women will work out their destinies—much better, too, than men can ever do forthem. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape thedestiny of women.

* Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage andillusion.

* Work on with the intrepidity of a lion but at the same time with the tenderness ofa flower.

* Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry. The soul has no sex, nocountry, no place, no time.