Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Verily, therefore, the Self is neither bounded nor emancipated, nor does it transmigrate; it is Nature alone, abiding in myriad forms, that is bounded, released and transmigrates.

Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

These, characteristically different from one another and variously modified by the gunas, present to the intellect (buddhi) the whole purpose of the Self (purusha), illumining it like a lamp.

Experience | Nature | Pain | Self | Suffering |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Without dispositions (bhavas) there would be no subtle body (linga), and without the subtle body there would be no cessation of dispositions. Evolution, therefore, proceeds in two ways, the elemental and the intellectual.

Absolute | Body | Nature | Purpose | Purpose | Self |

Hu Shih, or Hú Shì

Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth or absolute truth can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.

Better | Death | Immortality | Individual | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Primary matter is not apprehended on account of its extreme subtlety and not because of its non-existence, as it is perceived through its effects. Intellect (mahat) and the rest are effects which are both similar and dissimilar to primarymatter (prakriti).

Nature | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

From dispassion (vairagya) there is absorption into Nature (prakriti); transmigration results from passionate attachment (rajas); from power there is non-obstruction, and from the reverse, the contrary.

Body | Nature | Power | Purpose | Purpose | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The multiplicity of souls verily follows from the distributive allocation of birth, death and the instruments of causation, since occupations are not simultaneous, and since there are diverse modifications of the three gunas.

Nature | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Just as a painting does not stand without a support, or a shadow cannot exist without a stake and the like, so too the cognitive apparatus cannot subsist without a support, without specific particles.

Nature | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The constituents (gunas) consist in the pleasant, the painful and the delusive; they serve the purpose of illumination, activity and restraint; they are mutually dominating, dependent, productive, cooperative and coexistent.

Nature | Perception | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Therein does the conscious Self (purusha) experience pain caused by decay and death, until dissociation from the subtle body; thus suffering is in the very nature of things.

Delusion | Extreme | Gloom | Obscurity | Obscurity |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The internal instrument is threefold. The external organs, which exhibit objects to these three, are tenfold. The external organs function in the present, and the internal instrument at all times.

Nothing | Purpose | Purpose | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

The subjects treated in the seventy verses are those of the entire science of sixty themes (shashtitantra), exclusive of illustrative tales, and devoid of polemical consideration of rival doctrines.

Nature | Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

This is an intellectual creation, termed obstruction, infirmity, complacency and attainment. Through the disparity in influence of the gunas, its varieties are fifty.

Individual | Self | Intellect |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Through virtue there is ascent; through vice there is descent; through knowledge there is deliverance; there is bondage through the reverse.

Attainment | Rest | Self | Virtue | Virtue |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

Celestial evolution is of eight kinds; the groveling species is fivefold; the human is single and specific in form. This, in brief, is material evolution.

Self |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

So through study of principles (tattvas) arises the ultimate, undistracted, pure knowledge that neither I am, nor is anything mine nor am I embodied.

Nature | Self | Intellect |

Ishvarakrishna, aka Iśvarakṛṣṇa NULL

When separation from the body takes place and Nature ceases to act, its purpose having been fulfilled, the Self attains to absolute and final emancipation (kaivalya).

Nature | Self |

Murasaki Shikibu, aka Lady Murasaki

One ought not to be unkind to a woman merely on account of her plainness, any more than one had a right to take liberties with her merely because she was handsome.

Sorrow |

Egyptian Proverbs

All organs work together in the functioning of the whole.

Self |

Elif Safak

How to deal with the goodness of their loved ones? Could be fought against goodness?

Chastity | Earth | Giving | Good | Guilt | Impression | Responsibility | Self | Truth | Wrong |