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True progress is slow but sure. -- Swami Vivekananda
All real progress must be slow. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Watch a man do his most common actions. -- Swami Vivekananda
The natural ambition of woman is through marriage to climb up, leaning upon a man; but those days are gone. You shall be great without the help of any man, just as you are. -- Swami Vivekananda
Change is inherent in every form. -- Swami Vivekananda
Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting, your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In India boys and girls are taught to do this. -- Swami Vivekananda
He reminds us that true renunciation is mental, not necessarily physical. We are not required to disown our husbands or wives and turn our children out of doors. We must only try to realize that they are not really ours; to love them as dwelling-places of Brahman, not as mere individuals. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. We must rouse India and the whole world. No cowardice. -- Swami Vivekananda
The following story is one which he related recently regarding the practice of fault - finding among creeds: A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time ... -- Swami Vivekananda
Infinite patience, infinite purity, and infinite perseverance are the secret of success in a good cause. -- Swami Vivekananda
Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, and fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is the nature of the brute to remain where he is (not to progress); it is the nature of man to seek good and avoid evil; it is the nature of God to seek neither, but just to be eternally blissful. Let us be God! -- Swami Vivekananda
Change is always in regard to something which does not change, or which changes relatively less. -- Swami Vivekananda
Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show. -- Swami Vivekananda
What we call powers, secrets of nature, and force, are all within. In the external world are only a series of changes. -- Swami Vivekananda
In the English character, the "give and take" policy, the business principle of the trader, is principally inherent. -- Swami Vivekananda
Woman has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite perseverance. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is not that Christ is superior to Allah, not that Allah is everything and Brahma is nothing, but it is the same one whom you call either Brahma or Allah, or Almighty, or by a hundred other names. The names are different but God is one and the same. -- Swami Vivekananda
The householder must always please his wife with money, clothes, love and faith and never do anything to disturb her. That man who has succeeded in getting the love of a chaste wife has succeeded in his religion and has all the virtues. -- Swami Vivekananda
Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable. -- Swami Vivekananda
The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization. -- Swami Vivekananda
Move onward and carry into practice. -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything that you do under compulsion goes to build up attachment. -- Swami Vivekananda
Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that. You never help one by talking about his fault; you do him an injury, and injure yourself as well. -- Swami Vivekananda
Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit. -- Swami Vivekananda
The earth is enjoyed by heroes -- Swami Vivekananda
We want the education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet. -- Swami Vivekananda
Shri Ramakrishna use to say, "As Long as I Live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death. -- Swami Vivekananda
Om is the greatest, meaning the Absolute. -- Swami Vivekananda
Meditate upon the Om that is in the heart. -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything is substance plus name and form. Name and form come and go, but substance remains ever the same. -- Swami Vivekananda
My son, there is no rest for me. That which Sri Ramakrishna called "Kali" took possession of my body and soul three or four days before his passing away. That makes me work and work and never lets me keep still or look to my personal comfort. -- Swami Vivekananda
But where the ignorant are asleep, there the sage keeps awake -- Swami Vivekananda
Each one of you has a glorious future if you dare believe me. Have a tremendous faith in yourselves, like the faith I had when I was I was young ... Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself - that eternal power is lodged in every soul - and you will revive the whole of India. -- Swami Vivekananda
Let there be as little materialism as possible, with the maximum of spirituality. -- Swami Vivekananda
If Jesus Christ was not perfect, then the religion bearing his name falls to the ground. -- Swami Vivekananda
The calm man is not the man who is dull. You must not mistake Sattva for dullness or laziness. The calm man is the one who has control over the mind waves. Activity is the manifestation of inferior strength, calmness, of the superior. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is implanted in every man, naturally, a strong desire for progress. -- Swami Vivekananda
The human will stands beyond all circumstances. Everything must go down before the will, for that comes from God Himself; a pure and a strong will is omnipotent. Before it all the powers, even of nature, must bow down, succumb, and become its servants - the strong gigantic, infinite will in man. -- Swami Vivekananda
Was there ever a sillier thing before in the world than what I saw in Malabar country? The poor Pariah is not allowed to pass through the same street as the high-caste man, but if he changes his name to a hodge-podge English name, it is all right; or to a Mohammedan name, it is all right. -- Swami Vivekananda
Be Grateful to the Man you help, think of Him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow men? -- Swami Vivekananda
Man is the best mirror, and the purer the man, the more clearly he can reflect God. -- Swami Vivekananda
The human soul has sojourned in lower and higher forms, migrating from one to another according to the samskaras or impressions, but it is only in the highest form as a human being that it attains to freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
External motion we call action; internal motion is human thought. -- Swami Vivekananda
Good works are continually being undone by the tons of hatred and anger which are being poured out on the world. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Swami Vivekananda lectured for the first time from a public platform on September 11th, 1893 and on July 4th, 1902, he passed away. -- Swami Vivekananda
No one step back, that is the idea ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! ... What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. -- Swami Vivekananda
I hate this world, this dream, this horrible nightmare, with its churches and chicaneries, its books and blackguardisms, its fair faces and false hearts, its howling righteousness on the surface and utter hollowness beneath and, above all, its sanctified shopkeeping! -- Swami Vivekananda
The Absolute is the material of both God and man. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Hindus have cultivated the power of analysis and abstraction. No nation has yet produced a grammar like that of Panini. -- Swami Vivekananda
In these days of intellectual awakening and steadily asserting public opinion, the holy places of the Hindus, their condition, and method of work have not escaped tile keen eye of criticism; and this city, being the holy of holies to all Hindus, has not failed to attract its full share of censure. -- Swami Vivekananda
When you have trained your mind and your nerves to realise this idea of the world's nondependence on you or on anybody, there will then be no reaction in the form of pain resulting from work. -- Swami Vivekananda
If I am a Pariah, I will be all the more glad, for I am the disciple of a man, who - the Brahmin of Brahmins - wanted to cleanse the house of a Pariah. (here "the man" means Ramakrishna) -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. -- Swami Vivekananda
Even now, when you get love, you see Radha. Become Radha and be saved. There is no other way, Christians do not understand Solomon's song. They call it prophecy symbolising Christ's love for the Church. They think it nonsense and father some story upon it. -- Swami Vivekananda
This is the secret of spiritual life: to think that I am the Atman and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings ... scenes on a canvas ... of which I am the witness. -- Swami Vivekananda
The disciple must have great power of endurance. Bear all evil and misery without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy, or retaliation. That is true endurance, and that you must acquire. -- Swami Vivekananda
Take any path you like; follow any prophet you like; but have only that method which suits your own nature, so that you will be sure to progress. -- Swami Vivekananda
Materialism prevails in Europe today. You may pray for the salvation of the modern sceptics, but they do not yield, they want reason. -- Swami Vivekananda
We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universal cry for freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work. -- Swami Vivekananda
Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act," and each day the identification of yourself with thoughts and feelings will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. -- Swami Vivekananda
I ask you all so earnestly to open girl's schools in every village and try to uplift them. If the Conditions of women are raised, then their children will, by their noble actions, glorify the name of the Country. -- Swami Vivekananda
If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine ... -- Swami Vivekananda
The Trinitarian Christ is elevated above us; the Unitarian Christ is merely a moral man; neither can help us. The Christ who is the Incarnation of God, who has not forgotten His divinity, that Christ can help us, in Him there is no imperfection. -- Swami Vivekananda
The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within. If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy. -- Swami Vivekananda
The world cares little for principles. They care for persons. -- Swami Vivekananda
Father is the existence out of which everything comes; Son is that knowledge. It is in Christ that God will be manifest. God was everywhere, in all beings, before Christ; but in Christ we became conscious of Him. This is God. The third is bliss, the Holy Spirit. -- Swami Vivekananda
In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter. Make no conditions and none will be imposed on you. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us. -- Swami Vivekananda
The cheerful mind perseveres and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties. -- Swami Vivekananda
If there is no strength in body and mind, the Atman cannot be realized. First you have to build the body by good nutritious food-then only will the mind be strong. -- Swami Vivekananda
Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may be nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything else. -- Swami Vivekananda
The guiding motive of mankind should be charity towards men, charity towards all animals. -- Swami Vivekananda
Be contented with the things of the present. The cows and the dogs are, and so are all animals; and that is what makes them animals. So if man rests content with the present and gives up all search into the beyond, mankind will have to go back to the animal plane again. -- Swami Vivekananda
For a warrior, nothing is higher than a war against evil. The warrior confronted with such a war should be pleased, Arjuna, for it comes as an open gate to heaven. But if you do not participate in this battle against evil, you will incur sin, violating your dharma and your honor. -- Swami Vivekananda
You know your real nature [to be divine]. You are the king and play you are a beggar ... It is all fun. Know it and play. That is all there is to it. Then practice it. The whole universe is a vast play. -- Swami Vivekananda
Every idea has to become broad till it covers the whole of this world, every aspiration must go on increasing till it has engulfed the whole of humanity, nay, the whole of life, within its scope. -- Swami Vivekananda
I pity the Hindu who does not see the beauty in Jesus Christ's character. I pity the Christian who does not reverence the Hindu Christ. -- Swami Vivekananda
Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest. -- Swami Vivekananda
Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world. -- Swami Vivekananda
The whole point is to discipline the mind. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man may see a great deal of difference between grass and a little tree, but if you mount very high, the grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same. So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same. If -- Swami Vivekananda
The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. -- Swami Vivekananda
We must become free. We are free; the work is to know it. We must give up all slavery, all bondage of whatever kind. We must not only give up our bondage to earth and everything and everybody on earth, but also to all ideas of heaven and happiness. -- Swami Vivekananda
The chief helps in this liberation are Abhyasa and Vairagya. Vairagya is non - attachment to life, because it is the will to enjoy that brings all this bondage in its train; and Abhyasa is constant practice of any one of the Yogas. -- Swami Vivekananda
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. -- Swami Vivekananda
Christ's public life extended only over eighteen months, and for this he had silently been preparing himself for thirty - two years. -- Swami Vivekananda
The coward, afraid of the lash, with one hand wipes his eyes and gives with the other. Of what avail are such gifts? -- Swami Vivekananda
Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark. -- Swami Vivekananda
Whose meditation is real and effective? Who can really surrender to the will of God? Only the person whose mind has been purified by selfless work. -- Swami Vivekananda
I want each one of my children to be a hundred times greater than I could ever be. Everyone of you must be a giant- must, that is my word. Obedience, readiness, and love for the cause- if you have these three, nothing can hold you back. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who is the servant of all is their true master. He never becomes a leader in whose love there is a consideration of high or low. He whose love knows no end and never stops to consider high or low has the whole world lying at his feet. -- Swami Vivekananda
Space-time-causation, or name-and-form, is what is called Maya. -- Swami Vivekananda
As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to protect it, to keep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become separate. -- Swami Vivekananda
Where you find the attraction for lust and wealth considerably diminished, to whatever creed he may belong, know that his inner spirit is awakening. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and this nature is both internal and external. -- Swami Vivekananda
If a piece of burning charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of those who really understand that they are slaves of nature. -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is self-evident, impersonal, omniscient, the Knower and the Master of nature, the Lord of all. He is behind all worship and it is being done according to Him, whether we know it or not. -- Swami Vivekananda
You are strong, omnipotent, and omniscient. No matter that you have not expressed it yet, it is in you. All knowledge is in you, all power, all purity, and all freedom-why cannot you express this knowledge? Because you do not believe in it ... Believe in it, and it must and will come out. -- Swami Vivekananda
The sum total or Ishwara may be said to be All-good, Almighty, and Omniscient. These are obvious qualities, and need no argument to prove, from the very fact of totality. -- Swami Vivekananda
Think day and night, I am of the essence of that Supreme Existence, Knowledge, Bliss-what fear and anxiety have I? This body, mind, and intellect are all transient, and That which is beyond these is myself. -- Swami Vivekananda
Throw overboard all idea of jealousy and egotism, once for all. Come on to the practical field with tremendous energy; to work, in the fullness of strength! As to the rest, the Lord will point out the way. -- Swami Vivekananda
Women will work out their destinies - much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who is alone is happy. Do good to all, like everyone, but do not love anyone. It is a bondage, and bondage brings only misery. Live alone in your mind - that is happiness. To have nobody to care for and never minding who cares for one is the way to be free. -- Swami Vivekananda
All the forces that are working in this body have been produced out of food; we see that every day. -- Swami Vivekananda
In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart. -- Swami Vivekananda
Business is business, no child's play. -- Swami Vivekananda
Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted , cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky. -- Swami Vivekananda
Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and your country, and you will move the world. -- Swami Vivekananda
So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them! -- Swami Vivekananda
Whom anger chains, can ever pass thro' Maya's gates. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Heart and core of everything here is good, that whatever may be the surface waves, deep down and underlying everything, there is an infinite basis of Goodness and Love. -- Swami Vivekananda
Realize your true nature. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you are - infinite Spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is impractical, for everything else will perish. -- Swami Vivekananda
You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself. -- Swami Vivekananda
Only by practice and non-attachment can we conquer mind. -- Swami Vivekananda
See what an atmosphere of holiness is here the pure air of the Ganga what an assemblage of Sadhus will you find anywhere a place like this! -- Swami Vivekananda
"The fool, dwelling on the bank of the Ganga, digs a well for water!" Such are we! Living in the midst of God - we must go and make images. -- Swami Vivekananda
My bones are destined to make corals in the Ganga. -- Swami Vivekananda
The waters of the Ganga are roaring among his matted locks. -- Swami Vivekananda
Whether you bathe in the Ganga for a thousand years or live on vegetable food for a like period, unless it helps towards the manifestation of the Self, know that it is all of no use. -- Swami Vivekananda
I reached Ghazipur three days ago. Here I am putting up in the house of Babu Satish Chandra Mukherji, a friend of my early age. The place is very pleasant. Close by flows the Ganga, but bathing there is troublesome, for there is no regular path, and it is hard work wading through sands. -- Swami Vivekananda
Fool indeed is he, who, living on the banks of the Ganga, digs a little well for water. Fool indeed is the man who, coming to a mine of diamonds, begins to search for glass beads. -- Swami Vivekananda
See how the Ganga flows by and what a nice building! I like this place. This is the ideal kind of place for a Math. (in Belur, West Bengal). -- Swami Vivekananda
If I ask you to plunge into the Ganga or to jump from the roof of a house, meaning it all for your good, could you do even that without any hesitations Just think of it even now; otherwise don't rush forward on the spur of the moment to accept me as your Guru. -- Swami Vivekananda
Gita and Ganga constitute the essence of Hinduism; one its theory and the other its practice. -- Swami Vivekananda
See here, how fresh is the air, there is the Ganga, and the Sadhus (holy men) are practising meditation, and holding lofty talks! While the moment you will go to Calcutta, you will be thinking of nasty stuff. -- Swami Vivekananda
Paris is the fountain-head of European civilisation, as Gomukhi is of the Ganga. -- Swami Vivekananda
Throw aside your scriptures in the Ganga and teach the people first the means of procuring their food and clothing, and then you will find time to read to them the scriptures. -- Swami Vivekananda
All the superior religions had their growth between the Ganga and the Euphrates. -- Swami Vivekananda
No man is to be judged by the mere nature of his duties, but all should be judged by the manner and the spirit in which they perform them. -- Swami Vivekananda
Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is no disease nor misery for thee, but thou art like the infinite sky; clouds of various colours come over it, play for a moment, then vanish. But the sky is ever the same eternal blue. -- Swami Vivekananda
By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in society. -- Swami Vivekananda
Perfect sincerity, holiness, gigantic intellect, and all-conquering will. Let only a handful of men work with these, and the whole world will be revolutionized. -- Swami Vivekananda
Even books are nurses, medicines are nurses. But we must work to bring about the time when man shall recognise his mastery over his own body. Herbs and medicines have power over us as long as we allow them; when we become strong, these external methods are no more necessary. -- Swami Vivekananda
All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future. "Let the dead past bury its dead." The infinite future is before you. -- Swami Vivekananda
The sages are often ignorant of physical science, because they read the wrong book-the book within; and the scientists are too often ignorant of religion, because they too read the wrong book-the book outside. -- Swami Vivekananda
My son, hold fast! Do not care for anybody to help you. Is not the Lord infinitely greater than all human help? Be holy
trust in the Lord, depend on him always, and you are on the right track. Nothing can prevail against you. -- Swami Vivekananda
You have no more anger when you are all love, bliss, infinite existence ... -- Swami Vivekananda
Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not be afraid of a small beginning. great things come afterwards. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve them. The brutal mania for leading has sunk many a great ships in the waters of life. Take care especially of that, i.e. be unselfish even unto death, and work. -- Swami Vivekananda
"If you die, you get to heaven; and if you win, you enjoy the earth" (Gita). Even if you die in this attempt, well and good, many will take up the work, following your example. And if you succeed, you will live a life of great opulence. -- Swami Vivekananda
I stand for truth. Truth will never ally itself with falsehood. Even if all the world should be against me, Truth must prevail in the end. -- Swami Vivekananda
As the cause is, so the effect will be. -- Swami Vivekananda
Arjuna asks: Who is a person of established will? -- Swami Vivekananda
Forgive offences by the million. And if you love all unselfishly, all will by degrees come to love one another. -- Swami Vivekananda
No one should be judged by their defects. The great virtues a person has are his or her especially. But their errors are the common weakness of humanity and should never be counted in estimating a person's character. -- Swami Vivekananda
If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better. -- Swami Vivekananda
According to the Hindu way of thinking, marriage is rather a duty than a privilege. -- Swami Vivekananda
"Why should I become angry just because another man has made a fool of himself. Do thou resist not evil!" That is what the lovers of God say. Whatever the world does, wherever it goes, has no influence [on them]. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is the ever active providence, by whose power systems after systems are being evolved out of chaos, made to run for a time and again destroyed. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is always for greater joy that you give up the lesser. This is practical religion-the attainment of freedom, renunciation. Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher. Renounce! Renounce! Sacrifice! Give up! Not for zero. Not for nothing. But to get the higher. -- Swami Vivekananda
You must all pay attention to your health first. -- Swami Vivekananda
You have heard that Christ said, 'My words are spirit and they are life'. So are my words spirit and life; they will burn their way into your brain and you will never get away from them! -- Swami Vivekananda
Through the imparting of moral principles, good behaviour, and education we must make the Chandala come up to the level of the Brahmana. -- Swami Vivekananda
Every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good; every action that retards it is evil. -- Swami Vivekananda
We have either to progress or to degenerate. Our ancestors did great things in the past, but we have to grow into a fuller life and march beyond even their great achievements. -- Swami Vivekananda
Work unto death! I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes; wealth, fame, enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better, far better to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Advance! -- Swami Vivekananda
No negative, all positive, affirmative. I am, God is, everything is in me. I will manifest health, purity, knowledge, whatever I want. -- Swami Vivekananda
First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all distractions, shut your minds to outside influences, and devote yourselves to developing the truth within you. (I. -- Swami Vivekananda
The law of attraction which holds good for the heavenly bodies also holds good for the smallest particles. -- Swami Vivekananda
Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you really want the good of others, the whole universe may stand against you and cannot hurt you. It must crumble before your power of the Lord Himself in you if you are sincere and really unselfish. -- Swami Vivekananda
Whenever power is used for evil, it becomes diabolical; it must be used for good only. -- Swami Vivekananda
All work is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. The power is inside every man, so is knowing; the different works are like blows to bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is nature that is changing, not the soul of man. This never changes. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do good because it is good to do good. Ask no more. -- Swami Vivekananda
The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do you believe in that Infinite, good Providence working in and through you? If you believe that this Omnipresent One is present in every atom, is through and through, Ota-Prota, as the Sanskrit word goes, penetrating your body, mind and soul, how can you lose heart? -- Swami Vivekananda
Neither idealists nor materialists are right; we must take both idea and expression. -- Swami Vivekananda
TO worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray. -- Swami Vivekananda
The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy. Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. -- Swami Vivekananda
If we were really unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Never will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment. The world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity. -- Swami Vivekananda
All misery and pain come from attachment. -- Swami Vivekananda
We read many books, but that does not bring us knowledge. We may read all the Bibles in the world, but that will not give us religion. Theoretical religion is easy enough to get, any one may get that. What we want is practical religion. -- Swami Vivekananda
You are the makers of your own fortunes. You make yourselves suffer, you make good and evil, and it is you who put your hands before your eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away and see the light. -- Swami Vivekananda
If a thing happens once, it can happen again. If any human being has ever realised perfection, we too can do so. If we cannot become perfect here and now, we never can in any state or heaven or condition we may imagine. -- Swami Vivekananda
The success sometimes may come immediately, but we must be ready to wait patiently even for what may look like an infinite length of time. The student who sets out with such a spirit of perseverance will surely find success and realisation at last. -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion is realization; not talk, nor doctrine, nor theories however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing, or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming what it believes. -- Swami Vivekananda
Forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness. -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion has become to many merely a means of doing a little charity work, just to amuse them after a hard day's labour - they get five minutes religion to amuse them. This is the danger with the liberal thought. -- Swami Vivekananda
Beleive in yourself and the world will be at your feet -- Swami Vivekananda
The Jivanmukta ('the living free' or one who knows) alone is able to give real love, real charity, real truth, and it is truth alone that makes us free. -- Swami Vivekananda
Impurity is a mere superimposition under which your real nature has become hidden. But the real you is already perfect, already strong. -- Swami Vivekananda
In real meditation you forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are not the vedantists, pauranics or tantrics. we are the 'don't touchists'. our religion is 'don't touch me, i am holy'.
-vivekananda -- Swami Vivekananda
A monk is not forbidden to marry, but if he takes a wife she becomes a monk with the same powers and privileges and occupies the same social position as her husband. -- Swami Vivekananda
The awakening of the soul to its bondage and its effort to stand up and assert itself - this is called life. -- Swami Vivekananda
Awake, awake, great ones! The world is burning with misery. Can you sleep? -- Swami Vivekananda
"I do not want to get material life, do not want the sense-life, but something higher." That is renunciation. Then, by the power of meditation, undo the mischief that has been done. -- Swami Vivekananda
Love conquers in the long run. It won't do to become impatient - wait, wait - patience is bound to give success ... -- Swami Vivekananda
No one is to blame for our miseries but ourselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man is the highest being in creation, because he attains to freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not say we are weak; we can do anything and everything. What can we not do? Everything can be done by us; we all have the same glorious soul, let us believe in it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Advaita is the only system that gives us complete control over ourselves, takes off all dependence and its associated superstitions, thus making us brave to suffer, brave to do, and in the long run, attain to absolute freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
The varieties of religious belief are an advantage, since all faiths are good, so far as they encourage us to lead a religious life. The more sects there are, the more opportunities there are for making a successful appeal to the divine instinct in all of us. -- Swami Vivekananda
We have lost faith in ourselves. Therefore to preach the Advaita aspect of the Vedanta is necessary to rouse up the hearts of men, to show them the glory of their souls. It is therefore that I preach this Advaita, and I do so not as a sectarian, but upon universal and widely acceptable grounds. -- Swami Vivekananda
I hear, Western people say, "The world was created for us." If tigers could write books, they would say, man was created for them and that man is a most sinful animal, because he does not allow him (the tiger) to catch him easily. The worm that crawls under your feet today is a God to be. -- Swami Vivekananda
Our words have not the power of the words that become Vedas. -- Swami Vivekananda
Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad; then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come power, help and indomitable energy. -- Swami Vivekananda
What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. -- Swami Vivekananda
Nature grinds all of us. Keep count of the ounce of pleasure you get. In the long run, nature did her work through you, and when you die your body will make other plants grow. Yet we think all the time that we are getting pleasure ourselves. Thus the wheel goes round. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is but one soul throughout the universe, all is but one existence - "Thou art in the woman, thou in the man, thou in the young man walking in the pride of youth, thou in the old man tottering on his stick - thou art All - in all, in everything, and I am thee, because I am made from thee." -- Swami Vivekananda
The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also. -- Swami Vivekananda
Perfection is always infinite. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you want the reward, you must also have the punishment; the only way to get out of the punishment is to give up the reward. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you are angry, and then happy, the next moment the anger passes away. Out of that anger you manufactured the next state. These states are always interchangeable. Eternal happiness and misery are a child's dream. -- Swami Vivekananda
The nearer we are to God, the less we will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from God, the more will long faces come. The more we know God, the more misery vanishes. -- Swami Vivekananda
I have a message for the world, which I will deliver without fear and care for the future. To the reformers I will point out that I am a greater reformer than any one of them. They want to reform only little bits. I want root-and-branch reform. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good -- Swami Vivekananda
It is not the building, but the people that make a church, and that is what we always forget. -- Swami Vivekananda
Internal and external purification, contentment, mortification, study, and worship of God are the Niyamas. -- Swami Vivekananda
Strength is Life, Weakness is Death. Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death. Love is Life, Hatred is Death. -- Swami Vivekananda
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live. -- Swami Vivekananda
The finer is always the cause, the grosser the effect. So the external world is the effect, the internal the cause. -- Swami Vivekananda
An atheist can be charitable but not religious. But the religious man must be charitable. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you are pure, if you are strong, you, one man are equal to the whole world. -- Swami Vivekananda
Proselytism is tolerated by Hinduism. Any man, whether he be a Shudra or Chandala, can expound philosophy even to a Brahmin. The truth can be learnt from the lowest individual, no matter to what caste or creed he belongs. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who conquers self conquers all. -- Swami Vivekananda
Wherever in any society there are too many laws, it is a sure sign that that society will soon die. If you study the characteristics of India, you will find that no nation possesses so many laws as the Hindus, and national death is the result. -- Swami Vivekananda
Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple. -- Swami Vivekananda
I am a socialist not because I think it is a perfect system, but half a loaf is better than no bread. The other system has been tried and found wanting -- Swami Vivekananda
You may meditate on whatever you like, but I shall meditate on the heart of a lion. That gives strength -- Swami Vivekananda
The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. That faith calls out the divinity within. You can do anything. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power. As soon as a man or a nation loses faith, death comes. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man only remains hypnotised with the false idea of an ego. When this ghost is off from us, all dreams vanish, and then it is found that the one Self only exists from the highest Being to a blade of grass. -- Swami Vivekananda
So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire. -- Swami Vivekananda
Have faith in yourself, all power is in you, be conscious and bring it out -- Swami Vivekananda
Hinduism is the mother of all religions -- Swami Vivekananda
We must plunge heart and soul and body into the work. And until we are ready to sacrifice everything else to one Idea and to one alone, we never, never will see the Light. -- Swami Vivekananda
Wait with patience and love and strength. If helpers are not ready now, they will come in time. Why should we be in a hurry? The real working force of all great work is in its almost unperceived beginnings. -- Swami Vivekananda
The fruit falls from the tree when it gets ripe. So wait for the time to come. Do not hurry. Moreover, no one has the right to make others miserable by his foolish acts. Wait, have patience, everything will come right in time. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is the subjective world that rules the objective. Change the subject, and the object is bound to change; purify youreslf, and the world is bound to be purified. -- Swami Vivekananda
What can be my highest idea of forgiveness? Nothing beyond myself. Which of you can jump out of your own bodies? Which of you can jump out of your own minds? Not one of you. -- Swami Vivekananda
Knowledge of the Absolute depends upon no book, nor upon anything; it is absolute in itself. No amount of study will give this knowledge; is not theory, it is realization. Cleanse the dust from the mirror, purify your own mind, and in a flash you know that you are Brahman. -- Swami Vivekananda
Hindu Dharma is the quintessence of our national life, hold fast to it if you want your country to survive, or else you would be wiped out in three generations. -- Swami Vivekananda
YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind. -- Swami Vivekananda
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. -- Swami Vivekananda
Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God. -- Swami Vivekananda
All progression is in the relative world. -- Swami Vivekananda
Those that only take a nibble here and a nibble there will never attain anything ... Those who really want to be yogis must give up, once and for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. -- Swami Vivekananda
The bottom of a lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. It is only possible for us to catch a glimpse of the bottom, when the ripples have subsided, and the water is calm. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is present in every Jiva; there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed. -- Swami Vivekananda
The person is only a phenomenon, the principle is behind it. Thus from both sides, simultaneously, we find the breaking down of personalities and the approach towards principles, the Personal God approaching the Impersonal, the personal man approaching the Impersonal Man. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel -- Swami Vivekananda
Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Christians believe that Jesus Christ died to save man. With you it is belief in a doctrine, and this belief constitutes your salvation. With us doctrine has nothing whatever to do with salvation. Each one may believe in whatever doctrine he likes; or in no doctrine. -- Swami Vivekananda
In this world we find that all happiness is followed by misery as its shadow. Life has its shadow, death. They must go together, because they are not contradictory, not two separate existences, but different manifestations of the same unit, life and death, sorrow and happiness, good and evil. -- Swami Vivekananda
The body is subject to the law of growth and decay, what grows must of necessity decay. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Tapas and the other hard Yogas that were practiced in other Yugas do not work now. What is needed in this Yuga is giving, helping others. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organised religions. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is nature that is driving us towards perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. -- Swami Vivekananda
No great work can be achieved by humbug. It is through love, a passion for truth, and tremendous energy, that all undertakings are accomplished. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are all born cowards. -- Swami Vivekananda
By practice men can bring even the heart under control, until it will just beat at will, slowly, or quickly, or almost stop. Nearly every part of the body can be brought under control. -- Swami Vivekananda
May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea. -- Swami Vivekananda
Strength is Life, Weakness is Death". -- Swami Vivekananda
Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery. -- Swami Vivekananda
Know that every time you feel weak, you not only hurt yourself but also the cause. Infinite faith and strength are the only conditions of success. -- Swami Vivekananda
Two things control man's character; Strength and Pity -- Swami Vivekananda
The highest manifestation of strength is to keep ourselves calm and on our own feet. -- Swami Vivekananda
The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is not to be reached by the weak. Never be weak. You have infinite strength within you. How else will you conquer anything? How else will you come to God? -- Swami Vivekananda
Men are taught from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that they are all glorious children of immortality, even those who are the weakest in manifestation. -- Swami Vivekananda
The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words. -- Swami Vivekananda
The best guide in life is strength. In religion, as in all other matters, discard everything that weakens you, have nothing to do with it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Strength and manliness are virtue; weakness and cowardice are sin. -- Swami Vivekananda
The best guide in life is strength. -- Swami Vivekananda
We have seen that our vigour, our strength, nay, our national life is in our religion. -- Swami Vivekananda
Infinite strength is religion and God. -- Swami Vivekananda
Say to your own minds, "I am He, I am He". Let it ring day and night in your minds like a song, and at the point of death declare : "I am He". That is truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours. -- Swami Vivekananda
This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are for ever trying to make our weakness look like strength, our sentiment like love, our cowardice like courage, and so on. -- Swami Vivekananda
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 ... -- Swami Vivekananda
Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones. -- Swami Vivekananda
The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong. -- Swami Vivekananda
Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. It is through the heart that the Lord is seen, and not through the intellect. -- Swami Vivekananda
I am responsible for my fate, I am the bringer of good unto myself, I am the bringer of evil. I am the Pure and Blessed One. We must reject all thoughts that assert to the contrary. -- Swami Vivekananda
Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion. -- Swami Vivekananda
Take off the veil of hypnotism which you have cast upon the world, send not out thoughts and words of weakness unto humanity. -- Swami Vivekananda
Now is wanted intense Karma-Yoga with unbounded courage and indomitable strength in the heart. Then only will the people of the country be roused. -- Swami Vivekananda
Strength, strength for us. What we need is strength, who will give us strength? There are thousands to weaken us, and of stories we have had enough ... -- Swami Vivekananda
The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration. -- Swami Vivekananda
Brave, bold men, these are what we want. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas. -- Swami Vivekananda
The sum total of all the cells in an organism is one person; so each soul is like one cell and the sum of them is God, and beyond that is the Absolute. -- Swami Vivekananda
I am a slave of Ramakrishna, who left his work to be done by me and will not give me rest till I have finished it. And oh, how shall I speak of him? Oh, his love for me! -- Swami Vivekananda
The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. God is within us. He is the Soul of our souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Upanishads do not reveal the life of any teacher, but simply teach principles. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Gita is a commentary on the Upanishads. The Upanishads are the Bible of India. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Gita is a bouquet composed of the beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Vedas and the Upanishads. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Upanishads point out that the goal of man is neither misery nor happiness, but we have to be master of that out of which these are manufactured. We must be masters of the situation at its very root, as it were. -- Swami Vivekananda
If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word "fearlessness." -- Swami Vivekananda
Great difference between the priests and the Upanishads. The Upanishads say, renounce. -- Swami Vivekananda
You are all bound by the law of Karma, the Upanishads admit, but they declare the way out. -- Swami Vivekananda
Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart's blood! -- Swami Vivekananda
If I, as an Oriental have to worship Jesus of Nazareth, there is only one way, that is, to worship him as God and nothing else. -- Swami Vivekananda
Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us. -- Swami Vivekananda
Love for yourselves means [in the end] love for everything. -- Swami Vivekananda
A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century. -- Swami Vivekananda
That is good. It is a law of nature. That is the way with all founders of religion. Without persecution superior ideas cannot penetrate into the heart of society. -- Swami Vivekananda
Ignorance is death, knowledge is life. Life is of very little value, if it is a life in the dark, groping through ignorance and misery. -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all such fictions and monstrosities. -- Swami Vivekananda
This world is like a dog's curly tail, and people have been striving to straighten it out for hundreds of years; but when they let it go, it has curled up again. How could it be otherwise? One must first know how to work without attachment, then one will not be a fanatic. -- Swami Vivekananda
Service to man is service to god -- Swami Vivekananda
Buddha and Christ were second-rate heroes. The greatest men that ever live pass away unknown. They put forth no claims for themselves, establish no schools or systems in their name. They never create any stir but just melt down in love ... -- Swami Vivekananda
Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth-Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God. -- Swami Vivekananda
With the attraction for lust and lucre working the other way, how many long for the realisation of God? -- Swami Vivekananda
The seeker's silence is the loudest form of prayer. -- Swami Vivekananda
This intelligence itself is modified into what we call egoism, and this intelligence is the cause of all the powers in the body. It covers the whole ground, sub-consciousness, consciousness, and super-consciousness. -- Swami Vivekananda
When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rush off to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were but we shall understand the whole thing. The same phenomena will remain but with a new meaning. -- Swami Vivekananda
Faith is not belief, it is the grasp on the Ultimate, an illumination. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is very merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for spiritual realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come. -- Swami Vivekananda
"Some would call you a saint, some a chandala; some a lunatic, others a demon. Go on then straight to thy work without heeding either" - thus saith one of our great Sannyasins, an old emperor of India, King Bhartrihari, who joined the order in old times. -- Swami Vivekananda
Don't look back - forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience - then alone can great deeds be accomplished. -- Swami Vivekananda
Christians are always wanting God to give them something. They appear as beggars before the throne of the Almighty. -- Swami Vivekananda
That must have been the character of the man. -- Swami Vivekananda
In strength, the fear of enemies, In beauty, the fear of old age, In knowledge, the fear of defeat, In virtue, the fear of scandal, In the body, the fear of death. In this life all is fraught with fear: Renunciation alone is fearless. (In Search of God and -- Swami Vivekananda
Nothing else is necessary but these - love, sincerity, and patience. -- Swami Vivekananda
We must always bear in mind that we are not going to be free, but are free already. Every idea that we are bound is a delusion. -- Swami Vivekananda
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it. -- Swami Vivekananda
In China, where no man gets a title until he is dead; and that is a better way, after all, than with us. When a man does something very good there, they give a title of nobility to his father, who is dead, or to his grandfather. -- Swami Vivekananda
The mother and the father are the causes of this body; so a man must undergo a thousand troubles in order to do good to them. -- Swami Vivekananda
Bear in mind, my children, that only cowards and those who are weak commit sin and tell lies. The brave are always moral. Try to be moral, try to be brave, try to be sympathising. -- Swami Vivekananda
Our religion teaches that anger is a great sin, even if it is "righteous". -- Swami Vivekananda
Truth requires no prop to make it stand. -- Swami Vivekananda
Put God behind everything-human beings, animals, food, and work. Make this a habit. -- Swami Vivekananda
As soon as we react, we become slaves. A man blames me, and I immediately react in the form of anger. A little vibration which he created made me a slave. -- Swami Vivekananda
All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody's property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls. -- Swami Vivekananda
Siva, O Siva, carry my boat to the other shore! -- Swami Vivekananda
I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal
conscious or unconscious
of every religion. -- Swami Vivekananda
Give up all self, all egotisms get out of anger, lust, give all to God. "I am not, but Thou art; the old man is all gone, only Thou remainest." "I am Thou." Blame none; if evil comes, know the Lord is playing with you and be exceeding glad. -- Swami Vivekananda
All want power, but few will wait to gain it for themselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
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. -- Swami Vivekananda
Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading, be unselfish, and never listen to one friend in private accusing another. Have infinite patience, and success is yours. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is no help for you, outside yourself; You are the creator of the universe. -- Swami Vivekananda
Change is always subjective. To talk of evil and misery is nonsense, because they do not exist outside. If I am immune from all anger, I never feel angry. If am immune from all hatred, I never feel hatred. -- Swami Vivekananda
To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are like the caterpillar which takes the thread out of his own body and of that makes the cocoon, and behold, he is caught. -- Swami Vivekananda
Have charity towards all beings. Pity those who are in distress. Love all creatures. Do not be jealous of anyone. Look not to the faults of others. -- Swami Vivekananda
When I see an object there is no will; when its sensations are carried to the brain, there comes the reaction, which says "Do this", or "Do not do this", and this state of the ego-substance is what is called will -- Swami Vivekananda
Each soul is a star and all stars are set in the infinite azure, the eternal sky-the Lord. -- Swami Vivekananda
The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. -- Swami Vivekananda
Talk to yourself at least once in a Day, otherwise you may miss a meeting with an EXCELLENT person in this World. -- Swami Vivekananda
If I am unhappy, it has been of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be happy if I will. -- Swami Vivekananda
As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God. -- Swami Vivekananda
If the subject is a good one, we shall feel friendly towards it; if the subject of thought is one that is miserable, we must be merciful towards it. If it is good, we must be glad; if it is evil, we must be indifferent. -- Swami Vivekananda
Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mother of great deeds. -- Swami Vivekananda
Turn thy gaze inward, wherein resides the Supreme Self. -- Swami Vivekananda
To the person who desires nothing and does not get entangled in desires, the manifold changes of nature are one panorama of beauty and sublimity. -- Swami Vivekananda
Every attempt to solve the laws of causation, time, and space would be futile, because the very attempt would have to be made by taking for granted the existence of these three. -- Swami Vivekananda
Meditation is a sort of prayer and prayer is meditation. The highest meditation is to think of nothing. If you can remain one moment without thought, great power will come. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is no salvation for man until he sees God, realises his own soul. -- Swami Vivekananda
Practise hard; whether you live or die does not matter. You have to plunge in and work, without thinking of the result. -- Swami Vivekananda
Sincerity of conviction and purity of motive will surely gain the day; and even a small minority, armed with these, is surely destined to prevail against all odds. -- Swami Vivekananda
The essence of our Faith consists simply in this freedom of the Ishta. -- Swami Vivekananda
Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet. -- Swami Vivekananda
This, I have seen in life - those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step. Those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose. -- Swami Vivekananda
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak. -- Swami Vivekananda
We never change, we never die, and we are never born. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness - it is India. -- Swami Vivekananda
Body is an unreal dream, and we think we are all bodies. -- Swami Vivekananda
Since everything emanates from God, he is the embodied principle in every being. Each one of us is made from God. Tat twam asi - "You are That One" who is eternally blissful, that one principle manifesting itself as this variety of Creation. -- Swami Vivekananda
Excepting the infinite spirit, everything else is changing. There is the whirl of change. -- Swami Vivekananda
Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time ... Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles. -- Swami Vivekananda
The great Vaishnava religion of India has also sprung from a Tamil Pariah - Shathakopa - "who was a dealer in winnowing-fans but was a Yogin all the while". -- Swami Vivekananda
Consciously or unconsciously, health can be transmitted. A very strong man, living with a weak man, will make him a little stronger, whether he knows it or not. -- Swami Vivekananda
Work done for the Self gives no bondage. Neither desire pleasure nor fear pain from work. It is the mind and body that work, not I. Tell yourself this unceasingly and realise it. Try not to know that you work. -- Swami Vivekananda
Mind you, there is no value in learning. You are all mistaken in learning. The only value of knowledge is in the strengthening, the disciplining, of the mind. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do you have the belief in you to move on, even when the whole world is against you, with swords in their hands? -- Swami Vivekananda
The day, man will find that he never really dies; that his Soul persists beyond death; he will have no more fear of death. -- Swami Vivekananda
Even forgiveness, if weak and passive, is not true: fight is better. Forgive when you could bring legions of angels to the victory. -- Swami Vivekananda
Let the end and the means be joined into one. -- Swami Vivekananda
The great lesson is, that unity is behind all. Call it God, Love, Spirit. Allah, Jehovah - it is the same unity that animates all life from the lowest animal to the noblest man. -- Swami Vivekananda
the appearances of happiness or unhappiness of the soul are but reflections. -- Swami Vivekananda
Two attempts have been made in the world to found social life: the one was upon religion, and the other was upon social necessity. The one was founded upon spirituality, the other upon materialism; the one upon transcendentalism, the other upon realism. -- Swami Vivekananda
MIND is not a dustbin to keep anger, hatred and jealousy. But it is the treasure box to keep, love happiness and sweet memories. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you intend to study the mind, you must have systematic training; you must practice to bring the mind under your control. -- Swami Vivekananda
There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, because people never went to the fountain-head; they were content only to give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, and wanted others to do the same. -- Swami Vivekananda
Each man has a mission in life, which is the result of all his infinite past Karma. -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion lies in being and becoming, in realization. -- Swami Vivekananda
Some men, who begin by saying that the world is a hell, often end by saying that it is a heaven when they succeed in the practice of self-control. -- Swami Vivekananda
Each nation has an identity and
destiny. As far as Bharat is concerned,
Hindu is its identity and religion is its
way of working -- Swami Vivekananda
This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself. -- Swami Vivekananda
To work with undaunted energy! What fear! Who is powerful enough to thwart you. -- Swami Vivekananda
Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything. -- Swami Vivekananda
The knowing ones must have pity on the ignorant.
One who knows is willing to give up his body even for an ant,
because he knows that the body is nothing. -- Swami Vivekananda
Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you have infinite patience and perseverance, success is bound to come. No mistake in that. -- Swami Vivekananda
Marriage is the truest goal for ninety-nine per cent of the human race, and they will live the happiest life as soon as they have learnt and are ready to abide by the eternal lesson - that we are bound to bear and forbear and that life to every one must be a compromise. -- Swami Vivekananda
"Face the brutes." That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. -- Swami Vivekananda
My ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life. -- Swami Vivekananda
All the work you do, is done for your own salvation, is done for your own benefit. -- Swami Vivekananda
To be unselfish, perfectly selfless, is salvation itself; for the man within dies, and God alone remains. -- Swami Vivekananda
We have wept enough. No more weeping, but stand on feet and be men. -- Swami Vivekananda
We must have life building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. -- Swami Vivekananda
The law of Karma is the law of causation. -- Swami Vivekananda
In art, interest must be centred on the principal theme. -- Swami Vivekananda
The world is a demon. It is a kingdom of which the puny ego is king. Put it away and stand firm. -- Swami Vivekananda
give a mental assent to the customs of their forefathers, -- Swami Vivekananda
Every little bit, every atom inside the universe, is in a constant state of change and motion, but the universe as a whole is unchangeable, because motion or change is a relative thing; we can only think of something in motion in comparison with something which is not moving. -- Swami Vivekananda
Never try to follow another's path for that is his way, not yours. When that path is found, you have nothing to do but fold your arms and the tide will carry you to freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
My brother, do men grieve over the fight of cats and dogs? So the jealousy, envy, and elbowing of common men should make no impression on your mind. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that. -- Swami Vivekananda
When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you, must, in the long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you, completing the circle. -- Swami Vivekananda
The body must be properly taken care of. The people who torture their flesh are demoniacal. -- Swami Vivekananda
Christ said, "Resist not evil", and we do not understand it until we discover that it is not only moral but actually the best policy, for anger is loss of energy to the man who displays it. You should not allow your minds to come into those brain-combinations of anger and hatred. -- Swami Vivekananda
I am neither man nor angel. I have no sex nor limit. I am knowledge itself. I am He. I have neither anger nor hatred. I have neither pain nor pleasure. Death or birth I never had. For I am Knowledge Absolute, and Bliss Absolute. I am He, my soul, I am He! -- Swami Vivekananda
It is a retarding element creating hatred and anger, and causing people to fight each other, and making them unsympathetic. -- Swami Vivekananda
Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work- this is the only way. -- Swami Vivekananda
Every work has got to pass through hundreds of difficulties before succeeding. Those that persevere will see the light, sooner or later. -- Swami Vivekananda
Wait, my child, wait and work on. Patience, patience ... -- Swami Vivekananda
If you want to live, go back to Christ. You are not Christians. Go back to Christ. Go back to him who had nowhere to lay his head. Better be ready to live in rags with Christ than to live in palaces without him. -- Swami Vivekananda
National prosperity is another name for death and degradation to millions of other races. -- Swami Vivekananda
The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration. -- Swami Vivekananda
Who shall make me perfect? I am perfect already. -- Swami Vivekananda
Perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Therefore we must always expect to find things not up to our highest ideal. Knowing this, we are bound to make the best of everything. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man is the apex of the only world we can ever know. -- Swami Vivekananda
Bring in the light and the evil goes in a moment. Build up your character, and manifest your real nature, the Effulgent, the Resplendent, the Ever-Pure, and call It up in everyone that you see. -- Swami Vivekananda
Each nation has a main current in life; in India it is religion. Make it strong and the waters on either side must move along with it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work. -- Swami Vivekananda
Oh, if only you knew yourselves! You are souls; you are Gods. If ever I feel like blaspheming, it is when I call you man. -- Swami Vivekananda
You yourself are to blame. This weeping and wailing and knocking your heads into corners [against brick walls, as it were] will not do you the least good. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are allowed to worship him. Stand in that reverent attitude to the whole universe, and then will come perfect non attachment -- Swami Vivekananda
We must patiently practice every day. -- Swami Vivekananda
The world sympathizes only with strong and powerful. -- Swami Vivekananda
The weak have no place here, in this life or any other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death. -- Swami Vivekananda
For one thing we may be grateful: this life is not eternal. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is clear to us that, for good or for evil, our vitality is concentrated in our religion. You cannot change it. You cannot destroy it and put in its place another. -- Swami Vivekananda
We are the sons of Light and children of God. Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. -- Swami Vivekananda
You gain nothing by becoming cowards. -- Swami Vivekananda
What is the world that is to be given up? It is here. I am carrying it all with me. My own body. It is all for this body that I put my hand voluntarily upon my fellow human beings, just to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure. It is all for the body that I injure others and make mistakes. -- Swami Vivekananda
Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you. -- Swami Vivekananda
We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life. -- Swami Vivekananda
Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies. -- Swami Vivekananda
In every religion there are three parts: philosophy, mythology, and ritual. Philosophy -- Swami Vivekananda
None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish even unto death, and loving? Then fear not, not even death. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who has conquered the internal nature controls the whole universe; it becomes his servant. -- Swami Vivekananda
Never mind failures; they are quite natural,
they are the beauty of life, these failures.
What would be LIFE without them -- Swami Vivekananda
You need not worry or make yourself sleepless about the world; it will go on without you. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature. -- Swami Vivekananda
To give up the world is to forget the ego, to know it not at all - living in the body, but not of it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Men Men Men, these are wanted.
Strong believing young men,
A hundred such and the world will get revolutionized. -- Swami Vivekananda
Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction. -- Swami Vivekananda
Christ, being man, had to see impurity and denounced it; but God, infinitely higher, does not see iniquity and cannot be angry. -- Swami Vivekananda
We know there is no progress in a straight line. -- Swami Vivekananda
Let new India arise out of peasants' cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man's experience in the world is to enable him to get out of its whirlpool. -- Swami Vivekananda
God did not give me everything that i wanted. But, He gave me everything that i needed! -- Swami Vivekananda
Have faith in yourself. You people were once the Vedic Rishis. Only, you have come in different forms, that's all. I see it clear as daylight that you all have infinite power in you. Rouse that up; arise, arise - apply yourselves heart and soul, gird up your loins. -- Swami Vivekananda
If a person who lives in God becomes miserable, what is the use of living in God? What is the use of such a God? Throw such a God overboard into the Pacific Ocean. We do not want such a God! -- Swami Vivekananda
When the forces that hold it together go away, the body must fall. -- Swami Vivekananda
Freedom can never be true of name and form; it is the clay out of which we (the pots) are made; then it is limited and not free, so that freedom can never be true of the related. One pot can never say "I am free" as a pot; only as it loses all ideas of form does it become free. -- Swami Vivekananda
You are incarnations of God, all of you. You are incarnations of the Almighty, Omnipresent, Divine Principle. You may laugh at me now, but the time will come when y -- Swami Vivekananda
Man will have to go beyond intellect in the end. -- Swami Vivekananda
Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom ... Our thoughts, our words, and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
The animal man lives in the senses. If he does not get enough to eat, he is miserable; or if something happens to his body, he is miserable. In the senses both his misery and his happiness begin and end. -- Swami Vivekananda
Misery is caused by ignorance and nothing else. -- Swami Vivekananda
Real existence, real knowledge, and real love are eternally connected with one another, the three in one: where one of them is, the others also must be; they are the three aspects of the One without a second - the Existence - Knowledge - Bliss. -- Swami Vivekananda
ARISE, AWAKE AND STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED -- Swami Vivekananda
Immediately you will be perfect, you will become God. -- Swami Vivekananda
Every idea that strengthens you must be taken up and every thought that weakens you must be rejected. -- Swami Vivekananda
This caste system had grown by the practice of the son always following the business of the father. -- Swami Vivekananda
I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve. -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion and religion alone is the life of India, and when that goes India will die, in spite of politics, in spite of social reforms, in spite of Kubera's wealth poured upon the head of every one of her children. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who has infinite patience and infinite energy at his back, will alone succeed. -- Swami Vivekananda
Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth until we experience it ourselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others. -- Swami Vivekananda
struggle is the life of sucess -- Swami Vivekananda
This world is not for cowards. Do not try to fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will and work on. -- Swami Vivekananda
We have all been hearing from childhood of such things as love, peace, charity, equality, and universal brotherhood; but they have become to us mere words without meaning, words which we repeat like parrots, and it has become quite natural for us to do so. We cannot help it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Infinite power of the spirit, brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes of man a God. First, let us be Gods, and then help other to be GOds. Be and Make. Let this be our motto. -- Swami Vivekananda
When the body is still healthy and diseaseless, When old age has not yet attacked it -- Swami Vivekananda
All progress and power are already in every man; perfection is man's nature, only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper course. -- Swami Vivekananda
Science, art, learning and metaphysical research all have their proper functions in life, but if you seek to blend them, you destroy their individual characteristics until, in time, you eliminate the spiritual, for instance, from the religious altogether. -- Swami Vivekananda
The powers of the mind should be concentrated and the mind turned back upon itself; as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the penetrating rays of the sun, so will the concentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets. -- Swami Vivekananda
There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not go for glass beads leaving the mine of diamonds. This life is a great chance. What, seekest thou the pleasures of the world? He is the fountain of all bliss. See for the highest, aim at that highest, and you shall reach the highest. -- Swami Vivekananda
You know it already that each one of us is the effect of the infinite past; the child is ushered into the world not as something flashing from the hands of nature, as poets delight so much to depict, but he has the burden of an infinite past; for good or evil he comes to work out his own past deeds -- Swami Vivekananda
Always keep the mind cheerful. Everyone will die once. Cowards suffer the pangs of death again and again, solely due to the fear in their own minds. -- Swami Vivekananda
What is salvation? To live with God. Where? Anywhere. Here this moment. One moment in infinite time is quite as good as any other moment. -- Swami Vivekananda
Have faith in your destiny -- Swami Vivekananda
These births and deaths are changes in nature which we are mistaking for changes in us. -- Swami Vivekananda
Blows are what awaken us & help to break the dream. They show us the insufficiency of this world & make us long to escape, to have freedom. -- Swami Vivekananda
First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be Gods. "Be and make." Let this be our motto. Say not man is a sinner. Tell him that he is a God. Even if there were a devil, it would be our duty to remember God always, and not the devil. -- Swami Vivekananda
Holy meditation helps to burn out all mental impurities. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is the hero alone, not the coward, who has liberation within his easy reach. -- Swami Vivekananda
The uplift of the women, the awakening of the masses must come first, and then only can any real good come about for the country, for India. -- Swami Vivekananda
Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way. -- Swami Vivekananda
Oneness is the secret to everything. -- Swami Vivekananda
The moment you think creed and form and ceremony the "be-all" and "end-all", then you are in bondage. Take part in them to help others, but take care they do not become a bondage. -- Swami Vivekananda
Anything that is in space has form. Space itself has form. Either you are in space, or space is in you. The soul is beyond all space. Space is in the soul, not the soul in space. -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end. -- Swami Vivekananda
Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego. -- Swami Vivekananda
Suppose cats became philosophers, they would see a cat universe and have a cat solution of the problem of the universe, and a cat ruling it. So we see from this that our explanation of the universe is not the whole of the solution. -- Swami Vivekananda
The Buddhist tenet, "Non-killing is supreme virtue", is very good, but in trying to enforce it upon all by legislation without paying any heed to the capacities of the people at large, Buddhism has brought ruin upon India. -- Swami Vivekananda
Whenever two particles come together, they are held by a certain attraction; and there will come a time when those particles will separate. This is the eternal law. So, wherever there is a body - either grosser or finer, either in heaven or on earth - death will overcome it. -- Swami Vivekananda
Business is business, that is, you must do everything promptly; delay and shuffling won't do. -- Swami Vivekananda
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. -- Swami Vivekananda
The attempt is to kill the false "I", so that the real "I", the Lord, will reign. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me," say the Hebrew scriptures. -- Swami Vivekananda
If you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow. -- Swami Vivekananda
Everything is present in its cause, in its fine form. -- Swami Vivekananda
This body is a combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body, you another, and the sun another. -- Swami Vivekananda
Meditation, you know, comes by a process imagination. You go through all these processes purification of the elements - making the one melt the other, that into the next higher, that into mind, that into spirit, and then you are spirit. -- Swami Vivekananda
The one who actually succeeds in making himself believe that he is having a good time is the man of splendid physical health. -- Swami Vivekananda
I love my nation, I cannot see you degraded, weakened any more than you are now. Therefore I am bound for your sake and for truth's to cry, "Hold!" and to raise my voice against this degradation of my race. Give up these weakening mysticism and be strong ... -- Swami Vivekananda
Language is the chief means and index of a nation's progress. -- Swami Vivekananda
Free thyself from the mighty attraction-
The maddening wine of love, the charm of sex.
Break the harp! Forward, with the ocean's cry! ... -- Swami Vivekananda
The older I grow, the more I see behind the idea of the Hindus that man is the greatest of all beings. -- Swami Vivekananda
Imagination is the door to inspiration and the basis of all thought. -- Swami Vivekananda
All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same tongue. -- Swami Vivekananda
The principles of the Vedanta not only should be preached everywhere in India, but also outside. Our thought must enter into the make-up of the minds of every nation, not through writings, but through persons. -- Swami Vivekananda
Take Risks in Your Life If u Win, U Can Lead! If u Lose, U Can Guide! -- Swami Vivekananda
This world is nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the Real. We must go to the Real. Renunciation will take us to It. Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of ourselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
The happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves. -- Swami Vivekananda
I do not believe in eternal progress, that we are growing on ever and ever in a straight line. It is too nonsensical to believe. There is no motion in a straight line. A straight line infinitely projected becomes a circle. The force sent out will complete the circle and return to its starting place. -- Swami Vivekananda
You cannot take away one atom of matter or one foot-pound of force. You cannot add to the universe one atom of matter or one foot-pound of force. As such, evolution does not come out of zero; then, where does it come from? From previous involution. -- Swami Vivekananda
It is the free alone which never changes, and the unchangeable alone which is free; for change is produced by something exterior to a thing, or within itself, which is more powerful than the surroundings. -- Swami Vivekananda
I have seen some astrologers who predicted wonderful things; but I have no reason to believe they predicted them only from the stars, or anything of the sort. In many cases it is simply mind-reading. Sometimes wonderful predictions are made, but in many cases it is arrant trash. -- Swami Vivekananda
Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863, in Calcutta. From the beginning he was a precocious boy of exceptional energy. Yet his innate tendency toward meditation showed itself even in his early life. For along with the ordinary childhood games, he would play at meditation. -- Swami Vivekananda
Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book! -- Swami Vivekananda
As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe. -- Swami Vivekananda
Even the minds of animals, such as dogs, lions, cats, and serpents, become charmed with music. -- Swami Vivekananda
One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory. -- Swami Vivekananda
The happiest is the man who is not at all selfish. -- Swami Vivekananda
Motion is the sign of life. -- Swami Vivekananda
stick to truth and we shall succeed, may be slowly, but surely. -- Swami Vivekananda
When once you consider an action, do not let anything dissuade you. Consult your heart, not others, and then follow its dictates. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is pure, and the same to all. -- Swami Vivekananda
As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave. -- Swami Vivekananda
May blessings and happiness attend every step of your progress in this world. -- Swami Vivekananda
You never hear of a mother cursing the child; she is forgiving, always forgiving. -- Swami Vivekananda
God is one the paths to reach him (religions) are many - just as different rivers, originating in different mountains, traverse different paths, flowing straight or crooked, and at last join the ocean. He is the one Lord of all, the one Soul of all souls. -- Swami Vivekananda
Never forget the glory of human nature! We are the greatest god.. Christs and Buddhas are but waves in the boundless ocean which I AM. -- Swami Vivekananda
The one theme of the Vedanta philosophy is the search after unity. The Hindu mind does not care for the particular; it is always after the general, nay, the universal. "what is it that by knowing which everything else is to be known." That is the one search. -- Swami Vivekananda
all misery comes from fear, from unsatisfied desire. -- Swami Vivekananda
Do not desire, for what you desire you get, and with it comes terrible bondage. It is nothing but bringing "noses on us," as in the case of the man who had three boons to ask. We never get freedom until we are self-contained. "Self is the Saviour of self, none else." -- Swami Vivekananda
Marriage or non-marriage, good or evil, learning or ignorance, any of these is justified, if it leads to the goal. -- Swami Vivekananda
BY the study of different RELIGIONS we find that in essence they are one. -- Swami Vivekananda
Real freedom is not merely doing what you like, but also NOT doing what you like. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man in his true nature is substance, soul, spirit. -- Swami Vivekananda
If one religion true, then all the others also must be true. Thus the Hindu faith is yours as much as mine. -- Swami Vivekananda
I have long given up the idea of a little house on the Ganges, as I have not the money. -- Swami Vivekananda
[Krishna answers:] The man who has given up all desires, who desires nothing, not even this life, nor freedom, nor gods, nor work, nor anything. -- Swami Vivekananda
The cause of today is the effect of the past and the cause for the future. -- Swami Vivekananda
He who stops his activities and at the same time is still thinking about them attains to nothing; he only becomes a hypocrite. But he who by the power of his mind gradually brings his sense-organs under control, employing them in work, that man is better. Therefore do thou work -- Swami Vivekananda
Religion, in India, means realisation and nothing short of that. -- Swami Vivekananda
The selfless and unattached man may live in the very heart of a crowded and sinful city; he will not be touched by sin. -- Swami Vivekananda
Man is the nearest approach to Brahman. -- Swami Vivekananda