"Extreme love and highest knowledge are one."
But theorising about God will not do; we must love and work.
Give up the world and all worldly things, especially while the "plant" is tender. Day and night think of God and think of nothing else as far as possible.
The daily necessary thoughts can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see Him in all.
Talk of God to others; this is most beneficial.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Get the mercy of God and of His greatest children; these are the two chief ways to God.
The company of these children of light is very hard to get; five minutes in their company will change a whole life; and if you really want it enough, one will come to you.
The presence of those who love God makes a place holy, "such is the glory of the children of the Lord". They are He; and when they speak, their words are scriptures.
The place where they have been becomes filled with their vibrations, and those going there feel them and have a tendency to become holy also.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
The movement of Shankara forced its way through its high intellectuality; but it could be of little service to the masses, because of its adherence to strict caste-laws, very small scope for ordinary emotion, and making Sanskrit the only vehicle of communication.
Ramanuja on the other hand, with a most practical philosophy, a great appeal to the emotions, an entire denial of birthrights before spiritual attainments, and appeals through the popular tongue completely succeeded in bringing the masses back to the Vedic religion.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Historical Evolution of India’
… 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. The Tartars and the Baluchis and all the hideous races of mankind came to India and became Buddhists, and assimilated with us, and brought their national customs, and the whole of our national life became a huge page of the most horrible and the most bestial customs.
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.
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras,
Lectures From Colombo to Almora
Perception is our only real knowledge or religion.
Talking about it for ages will never make us know our soul.
There is no difference between theories and atheism. In fact, the atheist is the truer man.
Every step I take in the light is mine for ever. When you go to a country and see it, then it is yours. We have each to see for ourselves; teachers can only "bring the food", we must eat it to be nourished.
Argument can never prove God save as a logical conclusion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Give up, renounce the world. Now we are like dogs strayed into a kitchen and eating a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest at any moment some one may come and drive them out.
Instead of that, be a king and know you own the world.
This never comes until you give it up and it ceases to bind.
Give up mentally, if you do not physically. Give up from the heart of your hearts. Have Vairagya (renunciation).
This is the real sacrifice, and without it, it is impossible to attain spirituality.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Only love for the Supreme Lord is true Bhakti. Love for any other being, however great, is not Bhakti.
The "Supreme Lord" here means Ishvara, the concept of which transcends what you in the West mean by the personal God.
"He from whom this universe proceeds, in whom it rests, and to whom it returns, He is Ishvara, the Eternal, the Pure, the All-merciful, the Almighty, the Ever-free, the All-knowing, the Teacher of all teachers, the Lord who of His own nature is inexpressible Love."
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
We lose sight of the Real in the covering and come to consider that as the Real, instead of as the symbol.
This is an almost universal mistake.
Every great Teacher knows this and tries to guard against it; but humanity, in general, is prone to worship the seen rather than the unseen.
This is why a succession of prophets have come to the world to point again and again to the principle behind the personality and to give it a new covering suited to the times.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Day and night think and meditate on Brahman, meditate with great one-pointedness of mind.
And during the time of awakeness to outward life, either do some work for the sake of others or repeat in your mind,
'Let good happen to Jivas and the world!'
'Let the mind of all flow in the direction of Brahman!'
Even by such continuous current of thought the world will be benefited. Nothing good in the world becomes fruitless, be it work or thought.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
We are "Existence, Knowledge, Bliss" (Sachchidananda).
Existence is the last generalization in the universe;
so we exist, we know it; and bliss is the natural result of existence without alloy. …
… we see Sachchidananda as Trinity -- father, Son, Holy Ghost.
Sat = the creating principle;
Chit = the guiding principle;
Ananda = the realizing principle, which joins us again to the One.
No one can know "existence" (Sat) except through "knowledge" (Chit), and hence the force of the saying of Jesus, No man can see the Father save through the Son.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
Determine your own nature and stick to it.
Nishtha (devotion to one ideal) is the only method for the beginner; but with devotion and sincerity it will lead to all.
Churches, doctrines, forms, are the hedges to protect the tender plant, but they must later be broken down that the plant may become a tree.
So the various religions, Bibles, Vedas, dogmas -- all are just tubs for the little plant; but it must get out of the tub.
Nishtha is, in a manner, placing the plant in the tub, shielding the struggling soul in its path. . . .
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Religion consists solely in realization. Doctrines are methods, not religion.
All the different religions are but applications of the one religion adapted to suit the requirements of different nations.
Theories only lead to fighting; thus the name of God that ought to bring peace has been the cause of half the bloodshed of the world.
Go to the direct source. Ask God what He is. Unless He answers, He is not; but every religion teaches that He does answer.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
The knowledge of Brahman is the one goal of all beings but the various ideas are the various paths to it.
Although the real nature of the Jiva is Brahman, still as he
has identification with the qualifying adjunct of the mind, he suffers from all sorts of doubts and difficulties, pleasure and pain.
But everyone from Brahma down to a blade of grass is advancing towards the realisation of his real nature.
And none can escape the round of births and deaths until he realises his identity with Brahman.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
God creates us, and we create God, and this is Maya.
The circle is unbroken; mind creates body, and body creates mind; the egg brings the chicken, the chicken the egg; the tree the seed, the seed the tree.
The world is neither entirely differentiated nor yet entirely homogeneous. Man is free and must rise above both sides. Both are right in their place; but to reach truth, "isness", we must transcend all that we now know of existence, will, consciousness, doing, going, knowing.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Man makes the mistake of separating himself from God and identifying himself with the body.
This mistake arises through Maya, which is not exactly delusion but might be said to be seeing the real as something else and not as it is.
This identifying of ourselves with the body leads to inequality, which inevitably leads to struggle and jealousy, and so long as we see inequality, we can never know happiness.
"Ignorance and inequality are the two sources of all misery", says Jnana.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US
In this embodied existence, you will be tossed again and again on the waves of happiness and misery, prosperity and adversity -- but know them all to be of momentary duration.
Never care for them.
"I am birthless, the deathless Atman, whose nature is Intelligence"-- implanting this idea firmly in your heart, you should pass the days of your life. "I have no birth, no death, I am the Atman untouched by anything"-- lose yourself completely in this idea.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
There is no real individuality of the Jiva (separate soul); eventually it, as a compound, will go to pieces.
Only that which is beyond further analysis is "simple", and that alone is truth, freedom, immortality, bliss.
All struggles for the preservation of this illusive individuality are really vices. All struggles to lose this individuality are virtues. Everything in the universe is trying to break down this individuality, either consciously or unconsciously.
All morality is based upon the destruction of separateness or false individuality, because that is the cause of all sin.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Always discriminate between the real and the unreal, and devote yourself heart and soul to the attempt to realize the Atman.
There is nothing higher than this knowledge of the Atman; all else is Maya, mere jugglery.
The Atman is the one unchangeable Truth. This I have come to understand, and that is why I try to bring it home to you all.
“एकमेवाद्वयं ब्रह्म”, “नेह नानास्ति किञ्चन” --"One Brahman there is without a second", "There is nothing manifold in existence" (Brihadaranyaka, IV. iv. 19).
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The great strength of Christ is not in His miracles or His healing.
Any fool could do those things. Fools can heal others, devils can heal others. I have seen horrible demoniacal men do wonderful miracles. They seem to manufacture fruits out of the earth. I have known fools and diabolical men tell the past, present, and future. I have seen fools heal at a glance, by the will, the most horrible diseases.
These are powers, truly, but often demoniacal powers.
The other is the spiritual power of Christ which will live and always has lived -- an almighty, gigantic love, and the words of truth which He preached.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga, New York
Disciple: Sir, this "I" has a most tenacious life. It is very difficult to kill it.
Swamiji: Yes, in one sense, it is very difficult, but in another sense, it is quite easy.
Can you tell me where this "I" exists? How can you speak of anything being killed, which never exists at all?
Man only remains hypnotised with the false idea of an ego. When this ghost is off from us, all dreams vanish, and then it is found that the one Self only exists from the highest Being to a blade of brass.
This will have to be known, to be realised.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
The Trinitarian Christ is elevated above us; the Unitarian Christ is merely a moral man; neither can help us.
The Christ who is the Incarnation of God, who has not forgotten His divinity, that Christ can help us, in Him there is no imperfection.
These Incarnations are always conscious of their own divinity; they know it from their birth. They are like the actors whose play is over, but who, after their work is done, return to please others.
These great Ones are untouched by aught of earth; they assume our form and our limitations for a time in order to teach us; but in reality they are never limited, they are ever free. . . .
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
Obey the scriptures until you are strong enough to do without them; then go beyond them.
Books are not an end-all. Verification is the only proof of religious truth.
Each must verify for himself; and no teacher who says,
"I have seen, but you cannot", is to be trusted, only that one who says, "You can see too".
All scriptures, all truths are Vedas in all times, in all countries; because these truths are to be seen, and any one may discover them.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Inspired Talks
For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many is the Sannyasin born. His life is all vain, indeed, who, embracing Sannyasa, forgets this ideal.
The Sannyasin, verily, is born into this world to lay down his life for others, to stop the bitter cries of men, to wipe the tears of the widow, to bring peace to the soul of the bereaved mother, to equip the ignorant masses for the struggle for existence, to accomplish the secular and spiritual well-being of all through the diffusion of spiritual teachings and to arouse the sleeping lion of Brahman in all by throwing in the light of knowledge.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
