The infinite truth is never to be acquired. It is here all the time, undying and unborn. He, the Lord of the universe, is in every one.
There is but one temple -- the body. It is the only temple that ever existed. In this body, He resides, the Lord of souls and the King of kings. We do not see that, so we make stone images of Him and build temples over them.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Is Vedanta the Future Religion’,
Talk at San Francisco
Those who die, merely suffering the woes of life like cats and dogs, are they men? He is a man who even when agitated by the sharp interaction of pleasure and pain is discriminating, and knowing them to be of an evanescent nature, becomes passionately devoted to the Atman.
This is all the difference between men and animals.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
If there is anything in the Gita that I like, it is these two verses, coming out strong as the very gist, the very essence, of Krishna's teaching --"He who sees the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imperishable in things that perish, he sees indeed. For seeing the Lord as the same, everywhere present, he does not destroy the Self by the Self, and thus he goes to the highest goal."
- Swami Vivekananda, Address at Kumbakonam,
Lectures From Colombo to Almora
As a character Buddha was the greatest the world has ever seen; next to him Christ. But the teachings of Krishna as taught by the Gita are the grandest the world has ever known.
He who wrote that wonderful poem was one of those rare souls whose lives sent a wave of regeneration through the world. The human race will never again see such a brain as his who wrote the Gita.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
By thinking only of the spirit and keeping the mind out of matter all the time, I can catch a glimpse of that ideal.
Material thought and forms of the sense-world have no place in that ideal. Take them off and put the mind upon the spirit.
Forget your life and death, your pains and pleasures, your name and fame, and realize that you are neither body nor mind but the pure spirit.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Discipleship’, Talk at San Francisco
When Swamiji was at Ramnad, he said in the course of a conversation that Shri Rama was the Paramatman and that Sita was the Jivatman, and each man's or woman's body was the Lanka (Ceylon).
The Jivatman which was enclosed in the body, or captured in the island of Lanka, always desired to be in affinity with the Paramatman, or Shri Rama. But the Rakshasas would not allow it, and Rakshasas represented certain traits of character. For instance, Vibhishana represented Sattva Guna; Ravana, Rajas; and Kumbhakarna, Tamas. Sattva Guna means goodness; Rajas means lust and passions, and Tamas darkness, stupor, avarice, malice, and its concomitants.
These Gunas keep back Sita, or Jivatman, which is in the body, or Lanka, from joining Paramatman, or Rama. Sita, thus imprisoned and trying to unite with her Lord, receives a visit from Hanuman, the Guru or divine teacher, who shows her the Lord's ring, which is Brahma-jnana, the supreme wisdom that destroys all illusions; and thus Sita finds the way to be at one with Shri Rama, or, in other words, the Jivatman finds itself one with the Paramatman.
- Sayings and Utterances,
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol 5, P415
… we shall have to raise men by scattering broadcast only positive thoughts. First we must raise the whole Hindu race in this way and then the whole world.
That is why Shri Ramakrishna incarnated.
He never destroyed a single man's special inclinations. He gave words of hope and encouragement even to the most degraded of persons and lifted them up. We too must follow in his footsteps and lift all up, and rouse them.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Eternal, unquestioning self-surrender to Mother alone can give us peace. Love Her for Herself, without fear or favour. Love Her because you are Her child.
See Her in all, good and bad alike. Then alone will come "Sameness" and Bliss Eternal that is Mother Herself when we realise Her thus.
Until then, misery will pursue us. Only resting in Mother are we safe.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Lecture in New York, June 1900
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.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
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.
- Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks
Sita is the name in India for everything that is good, pure and holy -- everything that in woman we call womanly. If a priest has to bless a woman he says, "Be Sita!" If he blesses a child, he says "Be Sita!"
They are all children of Sita, and are struggling to be Sita, the patient, the all-suffering, the ever-faithful, the ever-pure wife.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk on Ramayana at Pasadena, California
To proclaim and make clear the fundamental unity underlying all religions was the mission of my Master.
Other teachers have taught special religions which bear their names, but this great teacher of the nineteenth century made no claim for himself. He left every religion undisturbed because he had realized that in reality, they are all part and parcel of one eternal religion.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk on ‘My Master’
Outward forms and observances are only for the manifestation of the great inner powers of man. The object of all scriptures is to awaken those inner powers and make him understand and realize his real nature.
The means are of the nature of ordinances and prohibitions. If you lose sight of the ideal, fight over the means only, what will it avail? In every country I have visited, I find this fighting over the means going on, and people have no eye on the ideal.
Shri Ramakrishna came to show the truth of this.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Sita -- the pure, the pure, the all-suffering!
Sita is the name in India for everything that is good, pure, and holy; everything that in woman we call woman.
Sita -- the patient, all-suffering, ever-faithful, ever-pure wife! Through all the suffering she had, there was not one harsh word against Rama.
Sita never returned injury.
"Be Sita!"
- Swami Vivekananda
… the one light that lightens the sects and creeds of the world, the Vedanta, the one principle of which all religions are only applications. And what was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa?
The practical demonstration of this ancient principle, the embodiment of India that is past, and a foreshadowing of the India that is to be, the bearer of spiritual light unto nations.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘On Profssor Max Muller’ - Article for
Brahmavadin, from London, 1896
The difference between the priests and the other castes, he [Buddha] abolished. Even the lowest were entitled to the highest attainments; he opened the door of Nirvana to one and all.
His teaching was bold even for India. No amount of preaching can ever shock the Indian soul, but it was hard for India to swallow Buddha's doctrine. How much harder it must be for you!
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Buddha’s Message to the World’,
Talk at San Francisco
"He who in the midst of the greatest activity finds the sweetest peace, and in the midst of the greatest calmness is most active, he has known the secret of life."
Krishna shows the way how to do this -- by being non-attached: do everything but do not get identified with anything. You are the soul, the pure, the free, all the time; you are the Witness.
Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk at Pasadena, California
In a narrow society there is depth and intensity of spirituality. The narrow stream is very rapid. In a catholic society, along with the breadth of vision we find a proportionate loss in depth and intensity.
But the life of Sri Ramakrishna upsets all records of history. It is a remarkable phenomenon that in Sri Ramakrishna there has been an assemblage of ideas deeper than the sea and vaster than the skies.
- Swami Vivekananda, Notes on Class Talks
The great glory of the Master [Buddha] 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 at Parliament of Religions, Chicago
This craving for health, wealth, long life, and the like -- the so-called good -- is nothing but an illusion. To devote the mind to them in order to secure them only strengthens the delusion.
We have these dreams and illusions in life, and we want to have more of them in the life to come, in heaven. More and more illusion.
Resist not evil. Face it! You are higher than evil.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Discipleship’, Talk at San Francisco
Hindus can give up everything except their God. To deny God is to cut off the very ground from under the feet of devotion. Devotion and God the Hindus must cling to. They can never relinquish these. And here, in the teaching of Buddha, are no God and no soul -- simply work.
What for? Not for the self, for the self is a delusion. We shall be ourselves when this delusion has vanished. Very few are there in the world that can rise to that height and work for work's sake.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Buddha’s Message to the World’,
Talk at San Francisco
He [Sri Ramakrishna] was the concentrated embodiment of how many previous Avataras! Even spending the whole life in religious austerity, we could not understand it. Therefore one has to speak about him with caution and restraint.
As are one's capacities, so he fills one with spiritual ideas. One spray from the full ocean of his spirituality, if realised, will make gods of men. Such a synthesis of universal ideas you will not find in the history of the world again. Understand from this who was born in the person of Shri Ramakrishna.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
All children, especially girls, worship Sita. The height of a woman's ambition is to be like Sita, the pure, the devoted, the all-suffering!
When you study these characters, you can at once find out how different is the ideal in India from that of the West. For the race, Sita stands as the ideal of suffering. The West says, 'Do! Show your power by doing." India says, "Show your power by suffering."
The West has solved the problem of how much a man can have: India has solved the problem of how little a man can have. The two extremes, you see. Sita is typical of India -- the idealised India.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Talk on Ramayana at Pasadena, California
All our mythology may vanish, even our Vedas may depart, and our Sanskrit language may vanish for ever, but so long as there will be five Hindus living here, even if only speaking the most vulgar patois, there will be the story of Sita present.
Mark my words: Sita has gone into the very vitals of our race. She is there in the blood of every Hindu man and woman; we are all children of Sita. Any attempt to modernise our women, if it tries to take our women away from that ideal of Sita, is immediately a failure, as we see every day.
The women of India must grow and develop in the footprints of Sita, and that is the only way.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Address at Madras,
Lectures From Colombo to Almora
