Great Throughts Treasury

"The soul cannot be understood as an aggregate of many parts, for everywhere it is apprehended as being other than the body, being that which measures and of one form. It is that which says in the body, `I know this.’"

"High-minded believers worship God by paying homage to him … by performing the sacrifice called jnana."

"But even this hankering will go away when one sees that the essential nature of the self is superior to the sense objects and that the realization of this self gives greater happiness than the enjoyment of sense objects."

"Entities other than Brahman can be objects of such cognitions of the nature of joy only to a finite extent and for limited duration. But Brahman is such that cognizing of him is an infinite and abiding joy. It is for this reason that the shruti [scripture] says, `Brahman is bliss? (Taittitriya Upanishad II.6.) Since the form of cognition as joy is determined by its object, Brahman itself is joy."

"Men, unacquainted with Vedanta, do not see that all things and all individual selves have Brahman as their self. They think that all terms exhaust their significance by signifying the various objects by themselves, which objects are in reality a part and not the whole of the meaning of terms. Now by the study of Vedanta, they understand that all such objects are the effects of Brahman, that Brahman is the inner ruler of them all and that they are animated by Brahman as their very soul. Therefore they come to understand that all terms signify Brahman itself having as its modes the entities, to which latter alone the terms are applied in common usage."

"Relish means hankering. This means that the hankering of the sense objects does not go away by abstinence alone."

"The individual self is subject to beginningless nescience, which has brought about an accumulation of karma, of the nature of both merit and demerit. The flood of such karma causes his entry into four kinds of bodies ? heavenly, human, animal and plant beginning with that of Brahma downwards. This ingression into bodies produces the delusion of identity with those respective bodies (and the consequent attachments and aversions). This delusion inevitably brings about all the fears inherent in the state of worldly existence. The entire body of Vedanta aims at the annihilation of these fears. To accomplish their annihilation they teach the following: (1) The essential nature of the individual self as transcending the body. (2) The attributes of the individual self. (3) The essential nature of the Supreme that is the inmost controller of both the material universe and the individual selves. (4) The attributes of the Supreme. (5) The devout meditation upon the Supreme. (6) The goal to which such meditation, leads. The Vedanta aims at making known the goal attainable through such a life of meditation, the goal being the realization, of the real nature of the individual self and after and through that realization, the direct experience of Brahman, which is of the nature of bliss infinite and perfect."

"So, focusing the mind on Me (Krishna) who am the only auspicious object for mediation let him remain steadfast. When the mind is focused on Me as its object, then such a mind, purified by the burning away of all impurities and devoid of attachment to the senses, is able to control the senses. Then the mind with the senses under control will be able to experience the self."

"When there is an attempt to subdue the sense objects and realize the self there will always be a conflict in the mind."

"When the food is pure the Sattva element gets purified, the memory becomes unwavering."

"With a desire to overcome this mutual dependence between the subduing of the senses and vision of the Self, one has to conquer the senses which are difficult to subdue on account of their attachment to sense-objects."

"The sense objects are the food of the sense. The sense objects turn away from one who has withdrawn his senses from objects. But still one may hold the relish for them."

"What an individual pursues as a desirable end depends upon what he conceives himself to be."