Great Throughts Treasury

"It is only work that is done as a free-will offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment."

"It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good."

"It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world, that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!"

"It is our privilege to be allowed to be charitable, for only so can we grow. The poor man suffers that we may be helped; let the giver kneel down and give thanks, let the receiver stand up and permit. See the Lord back of every being and give to Him."

"It is said in the Shastra that those who serve the servants of God are His greatest servants. So you will bear this in mind."

"It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity."

"It is the Level-headed Man, the Calm Man, of Good Judgement and cool nerves, of Great sympathy and love, who does good work and so does good to himself."

"It is the coward and the fool who says, 'This is fate'-- so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, I will make my fate."

"It is the worker who is attached to results that grumbles about the nature of the duty which has fallen to his lot; to the unattached worker all duties are equally good, and form efficient instruments with which selfishness and sensuality may be killed, and the freedom of the soul secured."

"It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties."

"It is thought which is the propelling force in us. Fill the mind with the highest thoughts, hear them day after day, think them month after month."

"It is true that the mind very easily attains calmness when one practices meditation with anything on which one's mind is most apt to settle down. This is the reason why we have in this country so much worship of the images of gods and goddesses. And what wonderful art developed from such worship!..."

"It is very easy to point out the defects of institutions, all being more or less imperfect, but he is the real benefactor of humanity who helps the individual to overcome his imperfections under whatever institutions he may live. The individuals being raised, the nation and its institutions are bound to rise. Bad customs and laws are ignored by the virtuous, and unwritten but mightier laws of love, sympathy, and integrity take their place. Happy is the nation which can rise to the necessity of but few law books, and needs no longer to bother its head about this or that institution. Good men rise beyond all laws, and will help their fellows to rise under whatever conditions they live."

"It may be that I shall find it good to get outside of my body — to cast it off like a disused garment. But I shall not cease to work! I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is one with God."

"It is weakness, says the Vedanta, which is the cause of all misery in this world. Weakness is the one cause of suffering. We become miserable because we are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We die because we are weak. Where there is nothing to weaken us, there is no death nor sorrow. We are miserable through delusion. Give up the delusion and the whole thing vanishes."

"It takes people a long time to learn things because they can't concentrate their minds at will."

"Jnana teaches that the world should be given up, but not on that account to be abandoned. To be in the world but not of it—is the true test of the sannyasin."

"Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which also is not accompanied with the feeling of egoism. The feeling of egoism is only on the middle plane. When the mind is above or below that line there is no feeling of I, and yet the mind works. When the mind goes beyond this line of self-consciousness it is called Samadhi or superconsciousness."

"Jnâna, Bhakti, Yoga and Karma — these are the four paths which lead to salvation. One must follow the path for which one is best suited; but in this age special stress should be laid on Karma-Yoga."

"Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which also is not accompanied with the feeling of egoism. The feeling of egoism is only on the middle plane. When the mind is above or below that line there is no feeling of I, and yet the mind works. When the mind goes beyond this line of self-consciousness it is called Samadhi or superconsciousness."

"Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. If we can bring ourselves down by our karma, surely it is in our power to raise ourselves by our own karma."

"Karma-Yoga is the attainment through unselfish work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature. Every selfish action, therefore, retards our reaching the goal, and every unselfish action takes us towards the goal;"

"Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know."

"Know that all sins and all evils can be summed up in that one word, weakness. It is weakness that is the motive power in all evil doing; it is weakness that makes men injure others; it is weakness that makes them manifest what they are not in reality. Let them know what they really are....."

"Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become others."

"Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we are all one. Throw all other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your actions, good or bad, and never think of them again. What is done is done. Throw off superstition. Have no weakness even in the face of death. Be free."

"Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge, power, and activity, has its seat."

"Let a man go down as low as possible; there must come a time when out of sheer desperation he will take an upward curve and will learn to have faith in himself. But it is better for us that we should know it from the very first. Why should we have all these bitter experiences in order to gain faith in ourselves?"

"Knowledge is inherent in man; no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. … We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting or him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind."

"Let each one of us pray day and night for the downtrodden millions who are held fast by poverty, priestcraft, and tyranny. Pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion to them than to the high and the rich."

"Let everybody work out his own vision of this universe, according to his own ideas. Injure none, deny the position of none; take man where he stands and, if you can, lend him a helping hand and put him on a higher platform, but do not injure and do not destroy. All will come to the truth in the long run. When all the desires of the heart will be vanquished, then this very mortal will become immortal---then the very man will become God."

"Let me help my fellow men; that is all I seek."

"Let me die a true Sannyâsin as my Master did, heedless of money, of women, and of fame! And of these the most insidious is the love of fame!"

"Let me tell you again, that you must be pure and help anyone who comes to you as much as lies in your power. And this is good Karma. By the power of this, the heart becomes pure (Chitta Shuddhi), and then Shiva who is residing in every one, will become manifest."

"Let new India arise out of peasants cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper."

"Let people say whatever they like, stick to your own convictions, and rest assured, the world will be at your feet. They say, ‘Have faith in this fellow or that fellow’, but I say, ‘Have faith in yourself first’, that’s the way. Have faith in yourself — all power is in you — be conscious and bring it out. Say, ‘I can do everything.’ ‘Even the poison of a snake is powerless if you can firmly deny it.’"

"Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter into their brains from very childhood. Lay yourself open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralyzing ones."

"Let people praise you or blame you, let fortune smile or frown upon you, let your body fall today or after a yuga, see that you do not deviate from the path of Truth. How much of tempests and waves one has to weather, before one reaches the haven of Peace! The greater a man has become, the fiercer ordeal he has had to pass through."

"Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction."

"Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure."

"Let us all become honest. If we cannot follow the ideal, let us confess our weakness, but not degrade it; let not any try to pull it down."

"Let us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings. I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves."

"Let us put forth all our energies to acquire that which never fails—our spiritual perfection. If we have true yearning for realization, we must struggle, and through struggle growth will come. We shall make mistakes, but they may be angels unawares."

"Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit."

"Let us make our hearts as big as an ocean, to go beyond all the trifles of the world and see it only as a picture. We can then enjoy the world without being in any way affected by it."

"Liberation means entire freedom---freedom from the bondage of good, as well as from the bondage of evil. A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one."

"Life is ever expanding, contraction is death. The self-seeking man who is looking after his personal comforts and lending a lazy life — there is no room for him even in hell."

"Life is the unfoldment and development of a being under circumstances tending to press it down."

"Liberty is the first condition of growth. It is wrong, a thousand times wrong, if any of you dares to say, 'I will work out the salvation of this woman or child."

"Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else."