Great Throughts Treasury

"What is meditation? Meditation is our conscious awareness of something vast and infinite within us. Meditation grants us Peace, Light and Bliss."

"What is realization? Realization is my conscious and constant sailing with my Inner Pilot in His Golden Boat towards the uncharted land, where sooner than at once beauty, divinity and Immortality seeds grow into the richest harvest."

"What is the relationship between music and silence? Silence is the nest and music is the bird. The bird leaves the nest early in the morning and returns to the nest in the evening. Similarly, in the spiritual world, divine music comes from the inmost soul of Silence."

"What is Yoga? Yoga is self-conquest. Self-conquest is God-Realization. He who practices Yoga does two things with one stroke: he simplifies his whole life and he gets a freee access to the Divine."

"What we call our joy, God calls our perfection. Each human being has come into the world with the message of perfection. Each human being will one day realize the highest Truth. Each human being is destined to be fulfilled. It is the birthright of our soul."

"What we need is a life of balance—neither to wallow in the pleasures of wealth nor to lead a life of asceticism, but to embrace a life of simplicity and a heart of purity."

"What you do not use yourself, do not give to others. For example: advice."

"What you powerfully hold in your thought-world will make you either a street beggar or a great king."

"Whatever dies really does not die. We see it not; Therefore We feel that it has died. Death is only another shore Of the Reality-sea. Death is only another way To God-Reality's Shore."

"Whatever you do, do it happily. Do not have any regrets: Oh, I should have done this; I should have done that. No, whatever you have done, feel that that is absolutely the right thing. That will give you joy. Once you do it, feel that you have done your best. If you say, I should have done something else, it will weaken you. Then you will not be able to do your other events well. Always do everything well and say, I have done the right thing. If I have taken rest, it was absolutely necessary. If I have not taken rest, it is because it was not necessary. Always convince your mind with happiness, happiness."

"When a child is playing in the mud and then all a sudden he is called, he is not afraid that his mother will beat him because he is dirty. He will go running to his mother and his mother will immediately take his dirt, his filth, as her very own. She will wash him in order to show others that her son is also very clean. We have to approach God like that. No matter how many undivine things we do, we can run toward Him and feel that with His Compassion He will clean us immediately."

"When a negative thought comes, we have to feel that it is a thief. A negative thought comes in the form of doubt, fear, jealousy, hypocrisy or meanness. We have to feel that each negative thought has come to commit a theft, to take something away from our inner life and inner wealth."

"When I think good thoughts, I feel that man is not, after all, so bad."

"When I was an animal I evolved through selfishness. Now that I am a man my evolution can be achieved only through self-sacrifice."

"When it is your imagination, you will get a very sweet feeling for a few minutes; then immediately dark or frustrating thoughts will come into you. You will say, I studied so hard, but I did not do well in my examination, or I worked so hard in the office today, but I could not please my boss. These negative forces in the form of frustration will immediately come in. Or doubt will enter, and you may say, How can I meditate so well when yesterday I did so many wrong things? How can God be pleased with me? How can I be having a high meditation? But if it is really a high meditation, you will feel that your whole existence, like a divine bird, is soaring high, higher, highest. While you are having this feeling there will be no sad thoughts, no frustrating thoughts and no doubts. You will be flying in the sky of delight where all is joy, peace and bliss."

"When love-power conquers, the conquest is not for the expansion of influence, but for the illumination of existence."

"When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God."

"When we are propelled by the power of inner faith we can do the impossible."

"When we encourage others with no personal motives, we raise high, very high, humanity's progress-standard."

"When we have a childlike state of mind, it becomes extremely easy to find God here, there and everywhere."

"When we meditate soulfully, devotedly, we have to accept humanity as our very own. We have to know that humanity as it stands is far, far, from perfection, but we are also members of humanity. We have to take it with us. If we are in a position to inspire others, if we are one step ahead, naturally we have the opportunity to serve the divinity in the ones who are following us. We have to transform the face of the world on the strength of our dedication to the divinity in humanity. Meditation is not an escape. Meditation is the acceptance of life in its totality, with a view to transforming it for the highest manifestation of the divine Truth here on earth"

"When we meditate we expand, spreading our wings like a bird, trying to enter consciously into Infinity, Eternity and Immortality, welcoming them into our aspiring consciousness. We see, feel and grow into the entire universe of Light-Delight."

"When we meditate, what we actually do is enter into a vacant, calm, still, silent mind. We go deep within and approach our true existence, which is our soul. When we live in the soul, we feel that we are actually meditating spontaneously."

"When we seek appreciation from others, we get not appreciation, but flattery."

"When we sing, we embody and become the power of music. This power has a free access to the Universal Heart."

"When you are right, everything around you is right, for the beautiful flow that is inside your heart has the capacity to spread its fragrance of oneness-light all around you."

"When you meditate you have to try to quiet and calm the mind. There should be no thought within the mind. Right now you feel that if you can cherish twenty ideas at a time, then you are the wisest man on earth. The more thoughts that enter into our minds, the more clever we feel we are. But in the spiritual life it is not like that. If consciously we can make the mind calm and quiet, we feel that a new creation dawns inside us."

"When you really have something to offer to the world, then you can become truly humble. A tree when it has no fruit to offer remains erect. But when the tree is laden with fruit, it bends down. If you are all pride and ego, then nobody will be able to get anything worthwhile from you. When you have genuine humility, it is a sign that you have something to offer to mankind."

"When you see that a person's defects and bad qualities are so obvious, try to feel immediately that his defects and bad qualities do not represent him totally. His real self is infinitely better than what you see now. On the other hand, if you really want to love humanity, then you have to love humanity as it stands now and not expect it to come to a specific standard. If humanity has to become perfect before it can be accepted by you, then it would not need your love affection and concern. Right now, in its imperfect state of consciousness, humanity needs your help. Give humanity unreservedly even the most insignificant and limited help that you have at your disposal. This is the golden opportunity."

"When your love is pure or spiritual, there is no demand, no expectation. There is only the sweetest feeling of spontaneous oneness with the human being or beings concerned."

"Wherever you go, go with inspiration and aspiration. Whatever you do, do with love and concern."

"Whether you accept or reject it, God's Love for you is permanent."

"While playing a musical instrument, you have to feel that music is the universal language, that music has and also is the key to unlock the Heart-Door of the Supreme."

"Who is the winner? Not he who wins but he who has established his cheerful oneness with the result, which is an experience in the form of failure or success, a journey forward or a journey backward."

"Why do we fail? Is it because we are unlucky? Is it because we have not worked very hard? Is it because we have not invoked God's Compassion and Blessings? Is it because God has accepted this failure as an experience He wanted to have in our life? Is it because God has granted this failure to us? Is it because God has willed that we should lose? No! not it is for a different reason that we experience failure. It is for the strengthening of our consciousness that, at times, God grants us defeat."

"Why is it easier to disbelieve than to believe? It is easier to disbelieve than to believe because disbelief is an act of descent, whereas belief is an act of ascent. Descending is easier than ascending. It is easier to disbelieve than to believe because disbelief is an act of breaking, and belief is an act of building. Building is more difficult than breaking. It is easier to disbelieve than to believe because disbelief is an act of our self-centred mind, whereas belief is an act of our self-giving heart."

"World peace can be achieved when, in each person, the power of love replaces the love of power."

"World peace can blossom throughout the length and breadth of the world only when the world-peace-dreamers, world-peace-lovers and world-peace-servers desperately, sleeplessly and breathlessly long for the full manifestation of peace here on earth."

"World-harmony should be taken as a world-prayer on a daily basis."

"World-peace can be achieved when the power of love replaces the love of power."

"Yesterday I was clever, that is why I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, that is why I am changing myself."

"Yes, I can! I certainly can! I can have a gratitude-flower-heart that shall remain open at all hours."

"You and I create the world by the vibrations that we offer to the world."

"You are now more than ready because your aspiration-bird is flying high above your mind’s binding and blinding confusion-clouds."

"You can also know whether you had a good meditation by the way you feel afterwards. If peace, light, love and joy have come to the fore from within as a result of your meditation, then you will know that you have meditated well. If you have a good feeling for the world, if you see the world in a loving way in spite of its teeming imperfections, then you will know that your meditation was good. And if you have a dynamic feeling right after meditation, if you feel that you have come into the world to do something and become something-to grow into God's very image and become His dedicated instrument-this indicates that you have had a good meditation. But the easiest way to know if you have had a good meditation is to feel whether peace, light, love and delight have come to the fore from within."

"You can only hate someone whom you have the capacity to love, because if you are really indifferent, you cannot even get up the enough energy to hate him."

"You can purify your existence by feeling deep within yourself a beautiful rose or lotus, or any other flower that you like. A flower is all purity. Try to identify yourself with the consciousness of the flower or with the purity of the flower. Today it is imagination, but if you continue imagining for five days, or ten days, or a month or two, then you are bound to see and feel the flower within you. First you may feel it, then you are bound to see the existence of the flower, and then automatically the fragrance and the purity of the flower will enter into you to purify you."

"You do not have to be the fastest starter. Just be a starter! You will, without fail, reach your destination-sun."

"You follow your heart's love. Your life's happiness will follow you."

"You hate someone whom you really wish to love, but whom you cannot love. Perhaps he himself prevents you. That is a disguised form of love."