Great Throughts Treasury

"Self is the one invincible foe when acting with the four cardinal passions: anger, pride, deceitfulness, and greed."

"One who is not greedy, his desires are eliminated and he who is desireless, his greed is eliminated."

"Humility is a virtue, but immodesty is a vice. A modest person is always judicious and intelligent. He always behaves humbly before a more learned person so that he can learn from him. The guru lays bare his heart before him. He believes that his disciple will remain obedient and continue to be grateful and serve him throughout his life; he will glorify his name. Against this, immodest person remains stupid. He always believes that he is worthless. Due to his inferiority complex, he loses all hopes of progress. He does not learn, even if guru wishes to teach him lovingly. He is lazy. He is like unnecessary weight for himself and others. He cannot even stand to admonishments. He is not ashamed of repeated wrongs committed by him. “I cannot do anything!” This thought only pervades his mind. That is why the learned say that if you want to progress in life, be humble."

"There is no value for the brilliantly shining diamond-like piece of glass in the eyes of a jeweller."

"Be fearless as a lion; fear not the words."

"Sense gratifications provide momentary pleasures but yield pain for long time."

"One who controls self; he only gets happiness in this world and the next."

"Detachment destroys the bondage of attachment and desire."

"Knowledge-covering karma is annihilated by self-study."

"Do not expect repeated instructions from the Guru for fulfilling your duties like an obstinate pony who requires repeated beating."

"Instruments of religion and science must meet together."

"Victory over anger is the father of forgiveness."

"At proper time, appropriate work must be done."

"If passions are fire, then scriptures, celibacy and austerity are called water."

"Happiness emerges out of forgiving."

"Wise man and man of good conduct are never afraid until death."

"Refrain from wasteful learning, learn only what is useful."

"Without right perception, knowledge is not acquired and without knowledge right conduct is not possible."

"Right conduct cannot be practiced in absence of right faith."

"All the loving and unloving must be endured with equanimity."

"He only doubts the devotion who wants to rest on the path."

"Desist from unrestraint and cultivate restraint."

"Formless realities like soul etc. cannot be apprehended by senses and those which are formless are eternal."

"Benevolent and true must be spoken."

"With the annihilation of attachment and aversion, living beings attain total happiness."

"Like birds desert the tree bereft of fruits, enjoyments abandon the man of depleted virtues."

"All desires are painful."

"With the knowledge, wise man becomes humble."

"Without being asked nothing should be spoken, and even when asked, untruth should not be spoken."

"Those souls who are too much attached with karma, enlightenment is very rare."

"Liberation is not possible without reaping the consequences of your actions."

"A greedy man always indulges in unethical means of living."

"Endowed with conduct and discipline, who practices control of self, who throws out all his bondage, he attains the eternal place"

"Only that science is a great and the best of all sciences, the study of which frees man from all kinds of miseries."

"Just as a threaded (sasutra) needle is secure from being lost, in the same way a person given to self-study (sasutra) cannot be lost."

"All unenlightened persons produce sufferings. Having become deluded, they produce and reproduce sufferings, in this endless world."

"The nights that have departed will never return. They have been wasted by those given to adharma (unrighteousness)."

"That which subdues passions, leads to beatitude and fosters friendliness is called knowledge."

"The nights that have departed will never return. They are profitable for one who is given to dharma (righteousness)."

"That with the help of which we can know the truth, control the restless mind, and purify the soul is called knowledge."

"The unenlightened takes millions of lives to extirpate the effects of karma whereas a man possessing spiritual knowledge and discipline obliterates them in a single moment."

"There's no knowledge without right faith, no conduct is possible without knowledge, without conduct, there's no liberation, and without liberation, no deliverance."

"Those who are ignorant of the supreme purpose of life will never be able to attain nirvana (liberation) in spite of their observance of the vratas (vows) and niymas (rules) of religious conduct and practice of shila (celibacy) and tapas (penance)."