Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Pandurang Shastri Athavale, fully Pandurang Vaijnath Shastri Athavale

Indian Philosopher, Spiritual Leader, Social Reformer and Hinduism Reformist

"Action not backed by knowledge and knowledge not translatable into action, both can not stand the test of time."

"Devotion (Bhakti) includes Sentimental Devotion (Bhav Bhakti) and Devotion through action (Kruti Bhakti)."

"Devotion does not mean only Chanting praise and singing glory of God, nor fasting and offerings made to God. Devotion is a specific attitude towards life and existence."

"Devotion is the realization that wealth, education and power are God given gifts and not the endowments of fate."

"Even if one is not hungry and although eat is called HumanBeing Even though one is hungry and although does not eat is HumanBeing."

"Expression of Gratitude to the Lord Almighty at these occassions daily; For gift of Memory at dawn, For the gift of Energy at meal times, and for the gift of Peace at night is called Trikal Sandhya."

"Bhakti is a Social Force,"

"An enlightened society is one where all people - the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate, the black and the white, men and women - live happily as children of the same Lord. Thus experiencing the brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God."

"Keep Gita in your head and heart and be proud of yourself."

"Neither the military might nor the economic and technological development makes a nation great. It is made great by its citizens with Self Respect and Integrity ingrained in their lives."

"Only he who accepts clashes and conflicts in life, loves life."

"God does not work for you. He works with you."

"Only he who gratefully remembers the love and benevolence bestowed upon him is a real human being."

"Progress of mankind is progress of mind and intellect."

"Knowledge, Action and Devotion are complementary to each other."

"It is essential that in a society, divine thoughts and power should co-exist. Simple Faith, not backed by material forces, is weak and Strength without touch of Divinity is monstrous."

"Fearlessness is a result of faith in oneself and faith in God."

"Reverence for all creations."

"That which takes us nearer to the Almighty (Sat) is truth. Truth needs no external support to sustain or promote itself."

"The greatest attitude of all is gratitude."

"To achieve progress and development it is necessary to bring about co-ordination between liberty and security through Devotion."

"Those who see the invisible can do the impossible."

"The strength of Truth lies in Love and the strength of Love lies in Truth."

"The most Superior amongst the colors in the universe is the color of Devotion."

"To be human is to be grateful."

"A sound philosophy must be internally coherent and harmonious and must be translatable into practice. It should not remain a mere Utopian concept, although the idea of a Utopia should always remain in the back of our minds. An integral philosophy is one which satisfies the total personality"

"Culture includes - way of thinking, way of life and way of worship."

"It is my experience that awareness of nearness of God and reverence for that power creates reverence for self, reverence for the other, reverence for nature and reverence for the entire creation, and devotion as an expression of gratitude to God can turn into a social force to bring about transformative changes in all aspects of human life and at all levels of society."

"Universal brotherhood under the fatherhood of God."

"A unification of orator and listener during Swadhyay is essential. No one is superior or inferior at this time. Both of them has same thought process and goal to have integrated progress in life. Both of them seek to have contentment of achieving integral development of life."

"We should be open to accept Mohammad Saab and Jesus Christ as our 11th and 12th Avatars, who gave moral order to millions of people in the world."