Monday, May 30, 2016

Iron and Gold Chain

            (Tags: Good, Evil, Mind, Free, Freedom, Bliss, Iron, Gold, Chain, Thorn)

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Beyond Good and Evil

Good is near Truth, but is not yet Truth. 
After learning not to be disturbed by evil, we have to learn not to be made happy by good. 
We must find that we are beyond both evil and good; we must study their adjustment and see that they are both necessary.

                - Swami Vivekananda

Friday, May 27, 2016

God's Mercy

God's mercy goes to all, but is not affected by their wickedness. 
The sun is not affected by any disease of our eyes which may make us see it distorted.
                                 - Swami Vivekananda



Thursday, May 26, 2016

Sense-Pleasures

Never yet was there a great soul who had not to reject sense-pleasures and enjoyments to acquire his greatness.

             - Swami Vivekananda


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Price of Spirituality

The wicked pay the price of the great soul's holiness. Think of that when you see a wicked man. Just as the poor man's labour pays for the rich man's luxury, so is it in the spiritual world. 
The terrible degradation of the masses in India is the price nature pays for the production of great souls like Mirâ-bâi, Buddha, etc.
- Swami Vivekananda


Monday, May 23, 2016

Theory of Incarnation

The theory of incarnation is the first link in the chain of ideas leading to the recognition of the oneness of God and man.
God appearing first in one human form, then re-appearing at different times in other human forms, is at last recognized as being in every human form, or in all men. 
Monistic is the highest stage, monotheistic is a lower stage.
                   - Swami Vivekananda 

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Buddha Paurnima

The relation between Hinduism (by Hinduism, I mean the religion of the Vedas) and what is called Buddhism at the present day is nearly the same as between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Shakya Muni was a Hindu. 

The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, nay, crucified him, and the Hindus have accepted Shakya Muni as God and worship him. 
But the real difference that we Hindus want to show between modern Buddhism and what we should understand as the teachings of Lord Buddha lies principally in this: 
Shakya Muni came to preach nothing new. 

He also, like Jesus, came to fulfil and not to destroy. Only, in the case of Jesus, it was the old people, the Jews, who did not understand him, while in the case of Buddha, it was his own followers who did not realise the import of this teachings. 

As the Jew did not understand the fulfilment of the Old Testament, so the Buddhist did not understand the fulfilment of the truths of the Hindu religion. 
Again, I repeat, Shakya Muni came not to destroy, but he was the fulfilment, the logical conclusion, the logical development of the religion of the Hindus.

The religion of the Hindus is divided into two parts: the ceremonial and the spiritual. 
The spiritual portion is specially studied by the monks. In that there is no caste. A man from the highest caste and a man from the lowest may become a monk in India, and the two castes become equal. 
In religion there is no caste; caste is simply a social institution. 

Shakya Muni himself was a monk, and it was his glory that he had the large-heartedness to bring out the truths from the hidden Vedas and throw them broadcast all over the world. 
He was the first being in the world who brought missionarising into practice -- nay, he was the first to conceive the idea of proselytising.

The great glory of the Master lay in his wonderful sympathy for everybody, especially for the ignorant and the poor. 
Some of his disciples were Brahmins. When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no more the spoken language in India. 

It was then only in the books of the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahmin disciples wanted to translate his teachings into Sanskrit, but he distinctly told them, "I am for the poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people." 

And so to this day the great bulk of his teachings are in the vernacular of that day in India.

                         -Swami Vivekananda's Talk at 
                           Parliament of Religions, Chicago 
                            on 26th September, 1893, titled 
                         'Buddhism, The Fulfilment of Hinduism' (Vol I)

        Online Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda at



Friday, May 20, 2016

Power of Spirit

             (Tags: Infinite, Power, Spirit, Matter, Material, Development, Thought, Intellectuality, Man, God)

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Manifestation of Divinity

                            (Tags: Religion, Manifestation, Divinity, Man)

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Believe in Self

                      (Tags: Old, Religion, Atheist, God, New, Selfish, Vedanta, Oneness, Faith, Love, Animal)

Monday, May 16, 2016

Meditate

                                (Tags: Meditation, Greatest, Spiritual, Life, Daily, Material, Soul, Matter)

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Jnana-Yoga Essence

That is what this Jnana-Yoga teaches. 
It tells man that he is essentially divine. 
It shows to mankind the real unity of being, and that each one of us is the Lord God Himself, manifested on earth. 

All of us, from the lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the highest beings to whom we look up with 
wonder and awe -- all are manifestations of the same Lord.

            - Swami Vivekananda

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Brahman Within

 ... in whatever way he may progress on the 
path of spirituality, everyone is unconsciously awakening Brahman within him. 
But the means may be different in different cases. 

Those who have faith in the Personal God have to undergo spiritual practices holding on to that idea. 
If there is sincerity, through that will come the awakening of the lion of Brahman within. 

The knowledge of Brahman is the one goal of all beings but the various ideas are the various paths to it.

- Swami Vivekananda

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Essence of All Religions

(Tags: Spirituality, Hindu, Buddhists, Christians, Mohammedans, Practical)

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Shankaracharya Jayanti

...  Thus, in spite of the preaching of mercy to animals, in spite of the sublime ethical religion, in spite of the hair-splitting discussions about the existence or non-existence of a permanent soul, the whole building of Buddhism tumbled down piecemeal; and the ruin was simply hideous. 
I have neither the time nor the inclination to describe to you the hideousness that came in the wake of Buddhism. The most hideous ceremonies, the most horrible, the most obscene books that human hands ever wrote or the human brain ever conceived, the most bestial forms that ever passed under the name of religion, have all been the creation of degraded Buddhism.

But India has to live, and the spirit of the Lord descended again. He who declared, "I will come whenever virtue subsides", came again, and this time the manifestation was in the South, and up rose that young Brahmin of whom it has been declared that at the age of sixteen he had completed all his writings; the marvellous boy Shankaracharya arose. 

The writings of this boy of sixteen are the wonders of the modern world, and so was the boy. He wanted to bring back the Indian world to its pristine purity, but think of the amount of the task before him. 
I have told you a few points about the state of things that existed in India. All these horrors that you are trying to reform are the outcome of that reign of degradation.
... ... 

That was the inheritance which that boy got from the Buddhists, and from that time to this, the whole work in India is a reconquest of this Buddhistic degradation by the Vedanta. It is still going on, it is not yet finished. Shankara came, a great philosopher, and showed that the real essence of Buddhism and that of the Vedanta are not very different, but that the disciples did not understand the Master and have degraded themselves, denied the existence of the soul and of God, and have become atheists. 
That was what Shankara showed, and all the Buddhists began to come back to the old religion.

- Swami Vivekananda 

                   (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Tat Tvam Asi

There is only One Being, One Existence, the ever-blessed, the omnipresent, the omniscient, the birthless, the deathless. 
Wherever there are two, there is fear, there is danger, there is conflict, there is strife. When it is all One, who is there to hate, who is there to struggle with? 

When it is all He, with whom can you fight? 
This explains the true nature of life; this explains the true nature of being. 
This is perfection, and this is God. 

As long as you see the many, you are under delusion. Therefore know that thou art He; thou art the God of this universe, "Tat Tvam Asi" (That thou art). All these various ideas that I am a man or a woman, or sick or healthy, or strong or weak, or that I hate or I love, or have a little power, are but hallucinations. 
Away with them!

                     - Swami Vivekananda

Monday, May 9, 2016

God as Mother

Shaktas worship the Universal Energy as Mother, the sweetest name they know; for the mother is the highest ideal of womanhood in India. When God is worshipped as "Mother", as Love, the Hindus call it the "right - handed" way, and it leads to spirituality but never to material prosperity.
When God is worshipped on His terrible side, that is, in the "left - handed" way, it leads usually to great material prosperity, but rarely to spirituality; and eventually it leads to degeneration and the obliteration of the race that practises it.

Mother is the first manifestation of power and is considered a higher idea than father. With the name of Mother comes the idea of Shakti, Divine Energy and Omnipotence, just as the baby believes its mother to be all - powerful, able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the Kundalini ("coiled up" power) sleeping in us; without worshipping Her we can never know ourselves. All - merciful, all - powerful, omnipresent are attributes of Divine Mother. She is the sum total of the energy in the universe. Every manifestation of power in the universe is "Mother". She is life, She is intelligence, She is Love.

She is in the universe yet separate from it. She is a person and can be seen and known (as Shri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her). Established in the idea of Mother, we can do anything. She quickly answers prayer.

She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment. Divine Mother can have form (Rupa) and name (Nama) or name without form; and as we worship Her in these various aspects we can rise to pure Being, having neither form nor name.

The sum total of all the cells in an organism is one person; so each soul is like one cell and the sum of them is God, and beyond that is the Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is Divine Mother. She is time, space, and causation. God is Mother and has two natures, the conditioned and the unconditioned. As the former, She is God, nature, and soul (man). As the latter, She is unknown and unknowable. Out of the Unconditioned came the trinity -- god, nature, and soul, the triangle of existence.
This is the Vishishtadvaitist idea.

A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna, another was Buddha, another was Christ. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom.


                             - Swami Vivekananda (Inspired Talks)

Mind, Matter, Spirit

(Tags: Matter, Mind, Spirit, One, World, Senses, Wicked, Hell, Good, Heaven, Perfect, God)

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Acharya and Mukta

Anyone and everyone cannot be an Acharya (teacher of mankind); but many may become Mukta (liberated). 
The whole world seems like a dream to the liberated, but the Acharya has to take up his stand between the two states. 

He must have the knowledge that the world is true, or else why should he teach? Again, if he has not realised the world as a dream, then he is no better than an ordinary man, and what could he teach? 

The Guru has to bear the disciple's burden of sin; and that is the reason why diseases and other ailments appear even in the bodies of powerful Acharyas. 
But if he be imperfect, they attack his mind also, and he falls. So it is a difficult thing to be an Acharya.

                - Swami Vivekananda

Friday, May 6, 2016

Limitless Circle

The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere (limitless), but whose center is in some body. 
Death is but a change of center. 

God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, and whose center is everywhere. 

When we can get out of the limited center of body, we shall realize God, our true Self.
       - Swami Vivekananda

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Be Still

Be still, my soul! Be alone! and the Lord is with you. 
Life is nothing! Death is a delusion! 
All this is not, God alone is! 
Fear not, my soul! Be alone.
                 - Swami Vivekananda

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

One Substance

There is a soul which is unchanging, and what we call feelings and perceptions, nay, even the body, are the very soul, seen from another point of view. 
We have got into the habit of thinking that we have bodies and souls and so forth, but really speaking, there is only one. 

When I think of myself as the body, I am only a body; 
it is meaningless to say I am something else. 
And when I think of myself as the soul, the body vanishes, and the perception of the body does not remain. 

None can get the perception of the Self without his perception of the body having vanished, none can get perception of the substance without his perception of the qualities having vanished.
                      
                - Swami Vivekananda

Monday, May 2, 2016

Get Upanishads out of your Own Self

Get rid of the fundamental superstition that we are obliged to act through the body. We are not. 
Go into your own room and get the Upanishads out of your own Self.
                - Swami Vivekananda