Great Throughts Treasury

"By happy fraternity amongst themselves, the embodied beings get the supreme peace. Then all this earth shines like one house. When the men, the embodied beings treat each other with equal respect and have good brotherly feelings amongst themselves, great peace and harmony abound. Then all this earth shines like one house. The whole world shines like the one dwelling house of the entire human family."

"By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage `Thou art all? and `Thy will be done?."

"Can one go on thinking "I am God?" Is that right practice? Why think that? In fact you are God. But who goes around saying, "I am a man," "I am a male?" Of course, if there were any contrary thought that had to be refuted, such as, "I am an animal," then you might say, "I am a man." To the extent of crushing the wrong notion that one is this or that, according to one's erroneous fancies, you may indulge in the thought, but when the practice is over, the result will be no thought at all but merely Self-realization. There is no need of or meaning in thought at that stage; it is beyond conceptual thought."

"Can the world exist without one to cognize it? Which comes first the being-consciousness or the rising-consciousness? The former is always there and eternal; the latter rises and disappears. It is transient."

"Complete surrender does require that you have no desire of your own. You must be satisfied with whatever God gives you and that means having no desires of your own."

"Complete surrender to God means giving up all thoughts and concentrating the mind on him. If we can concentrate on him, other thoughts disappear. If the actions of the mind, speech and body are merged with God, all the burdens of our life will be on him."

"Concentration of the mind is in a way common to both Knowledge and Yoga. Yoga aims at union of the individual with the universal, the Reality. This Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now, and it does exist."

"Consciousness is indeed always with us. Everyone knows 'I am!' No one can deny his own being."

"Consciousness of the Self is the normal state; our present entanglement is the abnormal state. We imagine that we have to develop towards a perfect state, when we are already in it now, but have covered it with external things and thoughts. People talk of attaining the super-consciousness, but this is wrong. This Self is our normal consciousness; we imagine we have to develop and attain it, but we are in it all the time, it is just that our attention is diverted away from it to the intellect and to objects."

"Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world."

"Creation is neither good nor bad; it is as it is. It is the human mind which puts all sorts of constructions on it, seeing things from its own angle and interpreting them to suit its own interests. A woman is just a woman, but one mind calls her mother, another sister, and still another aunt and so on. Men love women, hate snakes, and are indifferent to the grass and stones by the roadside. These value-judgments are the cause of all the misery in the world. Creation is like a peepul tree: birds come to eat its fruit, or take shelter in its branches, men cool themselves in its shade, but some may hang themselves on it. Yet the tree continues to lead its quiet life, unconcerned with and unaware of all the uses it is put to. It is the human mind that creates its own difficulties and then cries for help. Is God so partial as to give peace to one person and sorrow to another? In creation there is room for everything, but man refuses to see the good, the healthy and the beautiful. Instead, he goes on whining, like the hungry man who sits beside the tasty dish and who, instead of stretching out his hand to satisfy his hunger, goes on lamenting, Whose fault is it, God?s or man?s?"

"Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite 'I'. Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self."

"Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads one to God realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi. It is given only to those who have striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom."

"Doubts arise because of an absence of surrender."

"During that time, the embodied person does not know the attainment in the heart. It is known in the Samadhi. The difference in name is due to the difference in cause."

"Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking."

"Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself."

"Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it -- the share which is allotted to you. [Question: How can it be done? Reply:] Like an actor playing his part in a drama: free from duality."

"Even in intake, the one steadfast thought is said to be the natural state. Nirvikalpa Samadhi will result when the sensory objects are not present."

"Even the structure of the atom has been found by the mind. Therefore the mind is subtler than the atom. That which is behind the mind, namely the individual soul, is subtler than the mind."

"Even when the sensory objects to be known are in the proximity, when the difference is not taken in, the mind does not cause a break in Yoga."

"Every living being longs to be happy; untainted by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest of love for himself; which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his real nature. Hence in order to realize that inherent and untainted happiness, which indeed he daily experiences when the mind is subdued in deep sleep, it is essential that he should know himself. For obtaining such knowledge the enquiry; "Who am I?? in the quest for the Self is the best means."

"Existence of Isvara follows our conception of Isvara. Let us first know whose concept He is. The concept will be only according to the one who conceives. Find out who you are and the other problem will solve itself."

"Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it."

"Fate can be conquered. Fate is the result of past actions."

"Find the source. You must reach the source without fail. The false 'I' will disappear and the real 'I' will be realized. The former cannot exist apart from the latter. There is now wrong identification of the Self with the body, senses, etc. You proceed to discard these, and this is neti. This can be done only by holding to the one which cannot be discarded. That is iti (that which is)."

"Food affects the mind. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary since it makes the mind more pure and harmonious."

"For one stationed in the Self, Sahasrara will be of pure effulgence. There: if any mental formulation falls within its presence, it will not live."

"For those who have obtained unobstructed knowledge of Self, the world is seen merely as a bondage causing imagination."

"Generally people want to know about illusion and do not examine to whom it is. It is foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But the seeker is considered to be known and is inside."

"Good thoughts keep off bad thoughts. They must themselves disappear before the state of realization."

"Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to It."

"Greedily begging for worthless occult powers [siddhis] from God, who will readily give himself, who is everything, is like begging for worthless stale gruel from a gene rous-natured philanthropist who will readily give everything."

"Have faith in God and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil for the best and everything will come right for you in the end."

"Having set one's family in consonance with the community, he should make his family prosperous to ensure the prosperity of the community."

"Freewill and destiny are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit it. Why are you concerned about it? Why do you pay attention to it. Freewill and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Whatever happens, happens as the result of one's past actions, of divine will and of other factors."

"Forgetfulness of your real nature is true death; remembrance of it is rebirth."

"He alone who has realized the self in the heart has known the Truth. Having transcended the dualities, he is never perplexed."

"Hold the 'I'-thought and find its source."

"Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. But what is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self. See for whom it appears and from where it rises. The 'I'-thought will be found to be the root-cause. Go deeper. The 'I'-thought disappears and there is an infinitely expanded 'I'-consciousness."

"How is it possible for the mind to know the Lord who imparts His light to the mind, and shines within the mind, except by turning the mind inward and fixing it on the Lord?"

"I exist now. I am the enjoyer. I enjoy fruits of action. I was in the past and shall be in the future."

"I have not said that a Guru is not necessary. But a Guru need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that he is an inferior and that there is a superior, all-knowing, all powerful God who controls his own and the world's destiny and worships him or does Bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads him on. That Guru comes only to tell him 'That God is within yourself. Dive within and realize'. God, Guru and the Self are the same."

"Grace is within you. If it were external, it would be useless."

"Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside."

"I want you to dive consciously into the Self, i.e., into the Heart."

"Identifying yourself with the body makes you falsely identify others also with their bodies."

"If a man considers that he is born, he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body that is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find from where thoughts emerge. Then you will be able to abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death."

"I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. Cling to yourself, that is, to the 'I'-thought. When your interest keeps you to that single idea, other thoughts will automatically get rejected and they will vanish."

"I am not the perishable body, but the eternal Self."