Great Throughts Treasury

"Aum is the most sacred symbol that can be used to know God. The vibration of Aum contains all the concepts of Him and all His manifestations. No other mantra or symbol gives greater calmness and divine attunement of the mind to God. Chanting this sacred Name leads to perception of the Infinite."

"Before embarking on important undertakings sit quietly, calm your senses and thoughts and meditate deeply. You will then by guided by the creative power of Spirit. After that you should utilize all necessary means to achieve your goal."

"Before you act, you have freedom, but after you act, the effect of that action will follow you whether you want it to or not. That is the law of karma."

"Before you go to bed each night, sit for a short time and review the day. See what you are becoming. Do you like the trend of your life? If not, change it. By self-analysis and constant watching of all your actions and thoughts and moods, you will gradually learn your true nature and how to express if flawlessly."

"By reincarnation the soul travels through the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and human life. In different incarnations the soul is encased in bodies of the brown, white, black, yellow, and red races, that man may learn non-attachment to any particular body and race. Finally he realizes his true nature of Spirit. He knows himself as a child of God... present in everything."

"Business is nothing but serving others materially in the best possible way."

"Death is not a blotting-out of existence, a final escape from life; nor is death the door to immortality. He who has fled his Self in earthly joys will not recapture it amidst the gossamer charms of an astral world. There he merely accumulates finer perceptions and more sensitive responses to the beautiful and the good, which are one. It is on the anvil of this gross earth that struggling man must hammer out the imperishable gold of spiritual identity."

"Disease is generally considered a result of external material causes. Few people realize that it comes through the inaction of the Life Force within. Medicine, massage and electricity merely help to stimulate the cells in such a way that the Life Energy is induced to return and resume its work of maintenance and repair."

"Desire is produced by indiscriminate contact with the objects of the senses. Expressing as the likes and dislikes of the ego, desire creeps into the consciousness of one who is not watchful enough in governing the reaction of his feelings to his various experiences in the world. It is a condition the ego imposes on itself, and is therefore detrimental to man's evenmindedness. Whatever has its origin in desire is a disturbing element, for desires are like stones pelted into the calm lake of consciousness. Attachment to pleasure or aversion to pain both destroy the equilibrium of the inner nature."

"By constant self-indulgence, the ordinary person remains sense-ensnared. He finds himself limited to enjoyments connected only with the surface of the flesh. This sense pleasure yields a fleeting happiness, but shuts off the manifestation of the subtle, more pure and lasting enjoyments—the taste of silent blessedness and the innumerable blissful perceptions that appear whenever the meditating yogi's consciousness is turned from the outer sensory world to the inner cosmos of Spirit. The transient, misleading physical sense emotions are a poor substitute for heaven!"

"Cheerfulness is very important to health. It is the best antiseptic that you can have — plus the thought that you are all right."

"Divine love recognizes all good persons who enter our lives as expressions of God's love for us. Every friend — in the guise of relatives, friends, beloved, spouse — who is with us now or who has left this earth is a medium through which God Himself symbolizes His friendships. To ignore or abuse friendship, therefore, is an affront to God."

"Do not keep company with people unless you are prepared to give them your full attention."

"Don’t keep feeding your bad habits with fresh actions that strengthen them."

"Don’t take life so seriously. This world is a terrible place; there is no safety here. But what are we to do? We must stop taking life so seriously. Delusion can be overcome by holding steadfastly to one philosophy: everything here is nothing more than God’s motion picture."

"Don't try to know God first; love God first. Then He will tell you everything."

"Eat less, eat finely ground nuts, eat more raw vegetables, and eat abundantly of fruits."

"Environment is stronger than will power. If you want to be spiritual, seek good company and don’t mix with those whose bad habits may wrongly influence you. Be always with people who inspire you; surround yourself with people who lift you up."

"Each soul must find his way back alone. No one but you is responsible for your mistakes and habits. Once you have found your Self in your soul, you are free. But so long as you are not free, so long is there danger; you will have to come back and work out all the desires that remain unfinished. Your body is mortal but the soul outlasts the body."

"Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! Forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! Control the present! Live supremely well now! It will whitewash the dark past, and compel the future to be bright! This is the way of the wise."

"Even if you were to flee to the jungle, your old habits would be with you still. You can't run away from them, so you may as well strive to overcome them. Clear out the jungle of your wrong habits. Then you will be free."

"Fulfillment of a particular desire seems necessary only if one lacks conviction that he can find perfect fulfillment in God. One who is at peace in God is not tortured by unfulfilled earthly desires."

"Everyone should learn to analyze himself dispassionately. Write down your thoughts and aspirations daily. Find out what you are — not what you imagine you are! — because you want to make yourself what you ought to be. Most people don't change because they don't see their own faults."

"First practice the presence of God in daily life by making your meditation very deep. It is better to meditate a little bit with depth than to mediate long with the mind running here and there. If you do not make an effort to control the mind it will go on doing as it pleases, no matter how long you sit to meditate."

"God has not be earned. He has only to be sought. Meditation is the only way. Beliefs, reading books — these cannot give you realization. ... Meditation brings proof of the existence of God. ... The more you meditate the more you will feel the endless joy of God."

"Happiness depends to some extent upon external conditions, but chiefly upon mental attitudes. In order to be happy one should have good health, a well-balanced mind, a prosperous life, the right work, a thankful heart, and above all, wisdom or knowledge of God."

"God is not merely a name. God is the life that is surging within us; the Life by which we see and love one another."

"I enjoy everything, but I have no desire for anything, so there is never any pain or disappointment from unfulfillment. Whatever I do, wherever I go, I enjoy myself."

"He who is wise does his best to overcome difficulties, but he smiles, first, last, and all the time. There is no better panacea for sorrow, no better revivifying tonic than smiles. There is no greater power with which to overcome failure than a real smile. There is no more beautiful ornament one can wear than a genuine smile of peace and wisdom glowing on the face."

"How we live this life determines what we are in the next."

"I often think that the most sinful action in life is to admit failure, for in doing so you deny the supreme power of your soul, God’s image within you. Never give up."

"If you keep on trying, you will improve. 'A saint is a sinner who never gave up.'"

"I never miss three things: my meditations, morning and night; my exercises; and the service to others."

"If death were the end, then there is no God, and there are no realized masters - it is all a pack of lies. The great ones wouldn't urge you to became better, for what would be the use if, good or bad, we are all junked at the end of life? What would be the value of the scriptures? There would be no justice whatsoever if this present existence is all there is to each individual life. What of those souls who lived only a few years, or lived in blind or crippled bodies?"

"If you love God's creation more than God, you will be disillusioned. God must be first, last, and always."

"If you read one hour, then write two hours, think three hours, and meditate all the time."

"Ignorance is the supreme disease. When one banishes ignorance he has also banished the causes of all physical, mental, and spiritual diseases."

"Ignorant devotees who have visions of lesser deities in meditation do not know that all those forms are merely temporary, meager manifestations of the essentially unmanifested Spirit. They concentrate on the finite forms of the Infinite God and thus, in their minds, limit Him... He who worships God merely as a finite form will not attain the transcendental divine union with His infinite nature."

"In essence, the soul is perfect and complete, an exact reflection of God's ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss. But when incarnate, it takes on the dualistic nature of creation, outwardly expressing primarily either a masculine or feminine, positive or negative, half of its essence."

"In the name and guise of fulfilling one's needs, ego lures man to continuous seeking of self-satisfaction, resulting in suffering and vexation. What would content the soul is forgotten, and the ego goes on endlessly trying to satisfy its insatiable desires. Kama (lust) is therefore the compelling desire to indulge in sensory temptations. Coercive materialistic desire is the instigator of man's wrong thoughts and actions."

"In the spiritual path no wholehearted devotee is ever unsuccessful. His labors are never in vain."

"In this world everyone wants to use us for his own purpose. Only God—and a real master who knows God—can truly love us. The ordinary human being does not know what love is. When somebody gives you pleasure you tend to think you love that person. But in reality it is yourself you love—your ego has been pleased by the other person's attention; that is all. Would you go on 'loving' that person if he should cease to give you pleasure?"

"In the state of love, no matter what you do, it’s going to be good."

"It is not a pumping-in from outside that gives wisdom; it is the power and extent of your inner receptivity that determines how much you can attain of true knowledge, and how rapidly."

"Just as oil is present in every part of the olive, so love permeates every part of creation."

"Knowledge is light; it illuminates and reveals the nature of reality."

"It is better to die struggling than to abandon your efforts while there is still a possibility of accomplishing something more; for even when death comes, your struggles must soon be renewed in another life."

"Karma means material action, that which is instigated by egoistic desire. It sets into motion the law of cause and effect. The action produces a result that binds itself to the doer until the cause is compensated by the appropriate effect, whether forthcoming immediately or carried over from one life to another."

"Knowledge of the scriptures is beneficial only when it stimulates a desire for practical realization; otherwise, theoretical knowledge gives one false conviction of wisdom."

"Knowledge prepares the way to love. You cannot love that which you do not know. Knowledge of God must therefore precede love for Him. This knowledge comes with practice of Kriya Yoga. When you know God, you will love Him; and when you love Him, you will surrender yourself to Him."