Swami Vivekananda
All power is within you. You can do anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak, do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand up and express the divinity within you. Truth is eternal.
By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands, we make ourselves stronger.
Where can we go to find god if we cannot see him in our own hearts and in every living being.
Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go, the sooner the better.
Shri Ramakrishna used to say, "As long as I live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death. Heart and core of everything here is good, that whatever may be the surface waves, deep down and underlying everything, there is an infinite basis of goodness and love.
Desire, ignorance, and inequality, this is the trinity of bondage.
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 miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.
If the student thinks he is the spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks he is the spirit, he will be a better lawyer, and so on.
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 a thunderbolt.
Ask nothing, want nothing in return. Give what you have to give, it will come back to you, but do not think of that now.
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 never come.
The more we grow in love, virtue and holiness, the more we see love, virtue and holiness outside.
Now is wanted intense karma-yoga with unbounded courage and indomitable strength in the heart. Then only will the people of the country be roused.
Above all, beware of compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody, but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others "fads" through the greed of getting supporters.
Strength is life, weakness is death. Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, hatred is death.
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 a physician, take good food, and rest.
Are great things ever done smoothly ? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth.
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind, the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.
Anything that makes you weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.
The tapas and the other hard yogas that were practiced in other yugas do not work now. What is needed in this yuga is giving, helping others. Believe in yourself and the world will be at your feet.
The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain - and the whole world is at your feet.
This is a great fact : strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal , weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death.
When I asked god for strength He gave me difficult situations to face When I asked god for brain & brawn He gave me puzzles in life to solve When I asked god for happiness He showed me some unhappy people When I asked god for wealth He showed me how to work hard When I asked god for favors He showed me opportunities to work hard When I asked god for peace He showed me how to help others God gave me nothing I wanted He gave me everything I needed
There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point.
This life is a hard fact, work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine, no matter, the soul is stronger. I have seen in life those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step, those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace, and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.
Watch people do their most common actions, these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.
We have to go back to philosophy to treat things as they are. We are suffering from our own karma. It is not the fault of god. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should god be blamed ?
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.
First, believe in the world - that there is meaning behind everything.
This attachment of love to god is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages.
Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and god will be in them.
Condemn none. If you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
God is present in every jiva, there is no other god besides that. Who serves jiva serves god indeed.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourself. Therefore, make your own future.
We are what our thoughts have made us, so take care about that you think.
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 comes into every detail of our life.
Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work. It is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment.
Above all, beware of compromises. Hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others fads through the greed of getting supporters. Your atman is the support of the universe - whose support do you stand in need of ?
Whatever you think that you will be. If you think yourself weak, weak you will be , if you think yourself strong, you will be.
Religion is being and becoming. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man.
After every happiness comes misery, they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor misery. Both make us forget our true nature, both are chains -- one iron, one gold , behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These are states, and states must ever change , but the nature of the atman is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have not to get it, we have it, only wash away the dross and see it.
If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin ? Nor, even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. Man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of progress, and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength till it reaches the glorious sun.
Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from god. For one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.
Stand as a rock , you are indestructible. You are the Self ( atman ) , the god of the universe.
World is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
The whole universe is only the self with variations, one tune made bearable by variations. Sometimes there are discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect. In this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even 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.
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.
We reap what we sow - we are the makers of our own fate. The wind is blowing, those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind ? We make our own destiny.
We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.
He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in god. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.
The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel.
Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of : Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, and the full fledged devotion to god. Faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers.
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 is within us.
The fire that warms us can also consume us, it is not the fault of the fire.
"I am the thread that runs through all these pearls", and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and god is the thread that runs through all of them, most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.
God is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.
The earth is enjoyed by heroes, this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, I have no fear.
All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear. Are people so afraid ? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others
Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.
The greatest sin is to think yourself weak.
Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.
We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a personal god, a savior or a prophet to do everything for us. Long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from god, fear remains with us, but when we know ourselves to be the one, fear goes, of what can we be afraid ?
It is the level-headed man, the calm man, of good judgment and cool nerves, of great sympathy and love, who does good work and so does good to himself.
Stand upon the self, only then can we truly love the world. Take a very high stand, knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.
Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
That is a lesson for all life - face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the microcosm which is in your power to do and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you.
We must be bright and cheerful, long faces do not make religion.
Be grateful to the Man you help, think of him as god. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship god by helping our fellow men ?
The gulf between god and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing god, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
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.
As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to god.
Whenever we attain a higher vision, the lower vision disappears of itself.vivekanand.com http : www.indies.co.in
They alone live, who live for others.
Be strong ! You talk of ghosts and devils. We are the living devils. The sign of life is strength and growth. The sign of death is weakness. Whatever is weak, avoid ! It is death. If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it ! There is salvation only for the brave. "None but the brave deserves the fair". None but the bravest deserves salvation.
If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value , but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
We must have friendship for all, we must be merciful toward those that are in misery, when people are happy, we ought to be happy, and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These attitudes will make the mind peaceful.
We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present actions, so we have to know how to act.
Every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good, every action that retards it is evil.
Truth is nobody's property, no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls.
Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moments you reject all help, are you free. Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, and fear is wrong life.
Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to god, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done'. We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.
My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions.
Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through 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.
First get rid of the delusion "I am the body", and then only can we want real knowledge.
Everything that is good from others, bring it in, and in your own way absorb it, do not become others.