Quotes, Thoughts & Ideas

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

· Know it for certain that without steady devotion for the Guru, and unflinching patience and perseverance, nothing is to be achieved.

·You must have strict morality. Deviate an inch from this and you are gone for ever.

· Arise, ye mighty one, and be strong! Work on and on, struggle on and on!

· Try to be pure and unselfish –that is the whole of religion.

·  My children, the secret of religion is not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good—that is the whole of religion.

·  Always remember that we are but puppets in the Lord’s hands. Remain pure always. Please take care not to become impure even in thought, as in speech and action; always try to do good to others as far as in your lies.

·   Read the Gita every day to the best of your opportunity.

·  No great things were ever done without great labour.

· The Hindu must not give up his religion, but must keep religion within its proper limit and give freedom to society to grow.

·  Love the poor, the miserable, the downtrodden, and the Lord will bless you.

· Think not that you are poor; money is not power, but goodness, holiness.

·  Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds.

·   Every soul is a sun covered over with clouds of ignorance; the difference between soul and soul is due to the difference in density of these layers of chords.

·   Do not be proud; do not insist upon anything dogmatic; do not go against anything—ours is to put the chemicals together, the Lord knows how and when the crystal will form.

·   If the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. If the poor cannot come to education, education must reach them at the plough, in the factory, everywhere.

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

·   Instead of materializing the spirit, i.e., dragging the spiritual to the material plane, convert the matter into spirit, catch a glimpse at least, every day, of that world of infinite beauty and peace and purity—the spiritual, and try to live in it day and night.

·   Do not go for glass beads leaving the mine of diamonds! This life is a great chance….. Seek for the highest, aim at the highest and you shall reach the highest.

·   Life is short! Give it ip to a great cause.

·   Work hard. Be holy and pure, and the fire will come.

·    Nothing will be able to resist truth and live and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death?—and loving? Then fear not, not even death. Onward, my lads!

·  The whole world requires Light. It is expectant! India alone has that Light, not in magic, mummeries and charlatanism, but in the teaching of the glories of the spirit of real religion—of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the Lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day.

·  Have faith that you are all, my brave lads, born to do great things! Let not the bark of puppies frighten you, no, not even the thunderbolts of heaven, but stand up and work!

·  Is there a greater strength than that of Brahmacharyam—purity, my boy?

·  Great men are those who build highways for others with their heart’s blood.

·  I do not believe in a religion or God which cannot wipe the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth.

·  Where should you go to seek for God; are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first?

·   I believe in God and I believe in man. I believe in helping the miserable, I believe in going even to hell to save others.

·    It is good to talk glibly about the Vedanta, but how hard to carry out even its least precepts!

·    I call him a traitor who, having  been educated and nursed in luxury by the heart’s blood of the downtrodden millions of the toiling poor, never even takes a thought for them.

·  The Lord’s works have been always done by the lowly, by the poor.

·  What is life but growth, i.e., expansion, i.e., love? Therefore all love is life, it is the only law of life, all selfishness is death, and this is true here or hereafter. It is life to do good, it is death not to do good to others.

·   No power in the universe can withhold from any one anything he really deserves.

·   Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden, feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad—then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord and then will  come power, help and indomitable energy.

·   Money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.

·   Work, work, for , to work only for the good of others is life.

·   Beware of everything that is untrue, stick to truth and we shall succeed, may be slowly, but surely.

·   Work as if on each of you depended the whole work. Fifty centuries are looking on you, the future of India depends on you. Work on.

·  Pay no attention whatsoever to newspaper nonsense or criticism. Be sincere and do your duty. Everything will come all right. Truth must triumph.

·  We want some disciples—fiery young men,-- do you see?—Intelligent and brave, who dare to go to the jaws of Death, and are ready to swim across the ocean. Do you follow me? We want hundreds like that, both men and women.

·  The self-seeking man who is looking after his personal comforts and leading a lazy life—there is no room for him even in hell.

·  Can a leader be made? A leader is born. And it is very difficult task to take on the role of a leader. One must be a servant of servants and must accommodate a thousand minds. There must not be a shade of jealousy or selfishness, then you are a leader.

·  You have read: Look upon your mother as God, look upon your father as God:-- but I say: The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted—let these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.

· Stand firm like a rock. Truth always triumphs.

·  One word of truth can never be lost, for ages it may be hidden under rubbish, but it will show itself sooner or later.

·  Give me a genuine man; I do not want masses of converts.

·  Him I call a Mahatman whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratman.

·  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.

·  Do not try to be a ruler. He is the best ruler, who can serve well.

·  My children must be ready to jump into fire, if needed, to accomplish their work.

·  Be positive, do not criticize others. Give your message: teach what you have to teach and there stop. The Lord knows the rest.

·   All great undertakings are achieved through mighty obstacles.

· Use agreeable and wholesome language towards even the greatest enemy.

· Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is character that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.

· That you may catch my fire, that you may be intensely sincere, that you may die the hero’s death on the field of battle—is the constant prayer of—Vivekananda.

·   I must keep my movement pure or I will have none of it.

·  Do not lose heart, do not lose faith in your Guru, do not lose faith in God. So long as you possess these three, nothing can harm you.

·  Was it ever in the history of the world that any great work was done by the rich? It is the heart and the brain that do it ever and ever and not the purse.

·  Those who think that a little sugar- coating of untruth helps the spread of truth are mistaken, and will find in the long run that a single drop of poison poisons the whole mass.

·   Kill self first, if you want to succeed.

·  Men are more valuable than all the wealth of the world.

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

· The less help from men, the more from the Lord.

· Work on, my boy. Rome was not built in a day.

·  A few heart- whole, sincere, and energetic men can do more in a year than a mob in a century.

·  Man alone becomes God, and they( the Devas, the angels, the so- called higher beings) all have to become men again in order to become God.

·   Truth is my God, the universe my country.

·  Go to hell yourself to buy salvation for others.

·  There is no distinction of sex in the soul.

·  The poor, the down-trodden, the ignorant, let these be your God.

·  Infinite power will come unto you—never fear. Be pure, have faith, be obedient.

· Guru- Bhakti is the foundation of all spiritual development.

·The kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it; perfection is already in man if he will see it.

·  It is criticizing each other that is at the root of all mischief. That is the chief factor in breaking down organizations.

· Only that kind of work which develops our spirituality is work. Whatever fosters materiality is no- work.

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

·  I am a Sannyasin, as such I consider myself as a servant, not as a master in the world.

· Want of sympathy and lack of energy are at the root of all misery, and you must therefore give these two up.

· It is indeed very difficult to have an equal love for all, but without it there is no Mukti.

·  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.

·  What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like thunderbolt. Awake, awake great one! The world is burning with misery. Can you sleep?

·   We want great spirit, tremendous energy and boundless enthusiasm, no womanishness will do.

·   The road to Good is the roughest and steepest in the universe.

·   Work on unto death—I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you.

·  What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made. Strength manhood, Kshatra- Virya and Brahma- Teja.

·  No need of looking behind, FORWARD! We want infinite courage and infinite patience, then only will great things be achieved.

·   You know my settled doctrine. I do not trust any one who has not conquered lust and gold.

·   It is the hero alone, not the coward who has liberation within his easy reach.

·  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.

·   Material science can only give worldly prosperity, whilst spiritual science is for eternal life.

·   May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls; and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.

· This hideous world is Maya. Renounce and be happy. Give up the idea of sex and possessions. There is no other bond.

·  Kindness and love can buy you the whole world; lectures and books and philosophy—all stand lower than these.

·  Even the  greatest fool can accomplish a task, if it be after his heart. But the intelligent man is he who can convert every work into one that suits his taste. No work is petty.

· This life comes and goes—wealth, fame, enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better, far better to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Advance!

·  Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest. Be steady.   Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and your country and you will move the world.

·  Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge.

·  If the fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks he is the Spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better lawyer.

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

·  Man thinks foolishly that he can make himself happy, and after years of struggle finds out at last that true happiness consists in killing selfishness and that no one can make him happy except himself.

SOURCE: Book entitled 'Vivekananda writes to you', Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai