Great Throughts Treasury

"I would sit quietly for hours and hours in meditation, but nothing came to my heart. I didn’t feel or realize anything... Then I learned to pray for the sake of prayer and not for anything else. I would not be satisfied with anything but God. If our prayers are that sincere and our interest is only in God and nothing else, then God cannot sit quietly somewhere. He has to run to us. If we need help, it is always waiting. All we need to do is ask sincerely."

"At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning."

"Continence is a very important part of yoga. If a handful of people come forward with strong wills, nothing is impossible. One Buddha changed half the globe; one Jesus, three quarters of the world. We all have that capacity."

"Death can come at any minute, in any way. We do not know what is in store tomorrow, or, whether there is a tomorrow, or even a tonight! But still, we have the golden present. Now we are alive and kicking. What should we do now? Love all, serve all."

"Devotion gradually progresses to higher levels. . . . One type goes to God and asks Him to remove his suffering. Another one will ask for money or material things. A third will request liberation or release from his bondage. And the fourth will not ask for anything. He will just enjoy praying and praising his Lord. That is the highest form of prayer."

"I don’t think just the name of a country, Israel, is what is real. And whoever thinks of that reality and works to realize the reality are the chosen people. Whoever is interested in reality is an Israelite. So this song is addressed to the true children of that reality: Hear, O children of the reality! The Lord is our God. There is only one God who is our Lord, who is the life in us. We are of that image. God is always one. Every religion talks about this."

"I feel we don’t really need scriptures. The entire life is an open book, a scripture. Read it. Learn while digging a pit or chopping some wood or cooking some food. If you can’t learn from your daily activities, how are you going to understand the scriptures?"

"If anybody asks me, “What is your philosophy or God?” I say, “Peace is my God.” If they ask, “Where is He?” I reply,” He is in me and He is everywhere. He is all-peaceful; He is all serenity. He is to be felt and experienced within oneself.”"

"All the scriptures tell us one thing: ‘Know thyself.’ If you have known yourself, you have known everything else. Know that, by knowing which, you will know everything else. The Bible says, ‘Seek that kingdom within you.’ It is not outside. Seek that within you. Once you have found That, then everything else will be automatically added unto you; you don’t have to go looking for outside things, they will all come to you. So learn that first."

"A wise person will never expect joy from the outside world or by contact with outside objects. The truth is, joy can never come from outside. Even if it seems to be coming from outside, it’s only a reflection of your own inner happiness."

"If we only look within, we will see the Light as if we were seeing our own image in a mirror."

"If you do not pour water on your plant, what will happen? It will slowly wither and die. Our habits will also slowly wither and die away if we do not give them an opportunity to manifest. You need not fight to stop a habit. Just don’t give it an opportunity to repeat itself."

"If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy."

"In not only the physical science, but in the real mental silence, the wisdom dawns."

"In the worldly, selfish life people live for themselves, using their scientific knowledge for themselves, while in the religious life that same scientific knowledge is utilized for others. Even in the religious field, if people are selfish they are really living a worldly life."

"It’s not possible to please everyone. Instead, satisfy your own conscience by doing things without any selfish motive. Then you will be pleasing God."

"It's very simple. Keep your body as clean as possible, your mind as clear as possible. That's all you need. And do it in any way you can, in your own way. It doesn't matter. That's why I say 'peaceful body, peaceful mind'. And then you'll be useful. You don't have to become a useful person. You will be useful."

"Just do, leave it there, if it comes let it come, but don't look for it."

"Keep this in mind: I am here to serve; I am doing everything to serve others."

"Meditation is an accident, and yoga practice makes us accident prone."

"Meditation is to calm the mind, bring the mind together. If you are already restful, peaceful, why do you need meditation? Meditation is a sort of medication. The same way, when you feel the disturbance in the mind, then you try to calm down the mind, and that's why you practice meditation. So don't get disappointed that you couldn't meditate right away. Nothing is achieved overnight. When did you learn to walk or run? From the beginning? No. When you were a baby, you couldn't even stand up, you couldn't even crawl. Then you gradually learned to crawl, and walk, and run. Meditation is also like that."

"Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved."

"Music is the celestial sound, and it is sound that controls the whole universe, not atomic vibrations. Sound energy, sound power, is much, much greater than any other power in the world."

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I am overwhelmed with joy to see the entire youth of America gathered here in the name of music. In fact, through music we can work wonders. Music is the celestial sound and it is sound that controls the whole universe, not atomic vibrations. Sound energy, sound power, is much, much greater than any other power in this world."

"No person is an untouchable. Differences come, not with the work one does nor the caste into which one is born, but with the state of mind. Essentially we are all one and the same. All are God’s children."

"Not only does charity begin at home. Everything begins at home, including spirituality."

"One thing I very much wish you all to remember ‘ with sound we can make, and at the same time break’ So let all our actions and all our arts express Yoga. Through the sacred art of music let us find peace that will pervade all over the globe. The future of the whole world is in your hands. You can make it or break it. The entire world is going to be watching. The entire world is going to know what the American youth can do for humanity."

"Our own bodies are changing every second. Yet we take the body to be our Self; and, speaking in terms of it, we say, I am hungry or I am lame; I am black or I am white. These are all just the conditions of the body. We touch the truth when we say, My body aches, implying the body belongs to us and that therefore we are not that."

"Our own true nature is Infinite Joy! Always happy, Always peaceful, Always free."

"Peace and joy is our goal. Whatever we do, we are doing it for that. Not everyone believes in God. But the real God, the absolute God, the cosmic God who is being searched for by one and all, is that peace and joy. Everyone wants that."

"People often ask me, “What religion are you? You talk about the Bible, Koran, Torah. Are you a Hindu?” I say, “I am not a Catholic, a Buddhist, or a Hindu, but an Undo. My religion is Undoism. We have done enough damage (with religious dogma). We have to stop doing any more and simply undo the damage we have already done.”"

"Pleasures that come from sense contacts, Arjuna, actually are the womb of pain. A wise person does not delight in pleasure that comes and goes."

"Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize. Be good, do good, be kind, be compassionate."

"Show the same love to one and all. Let nothing get harmed, hurt, or pained, even by your thought. Love everything and everybody as God would love: unconditionally."

"Temples and churches have become social centers. They have lost their original purpose because the minds of the people are more attracted to worldly things than to prayer. The lips repeat the prayer mechanically like a phonograph record, but the mind wanders to other places."

"The cause of bandha and moksha (bondage and liberation) is our own minds. If we think we are bound, we are bound. If we think we are liberated, we are liberated. . . . It is only when we transcend the mind that we are free from all these troubles."

"The entire world is nothing but your own projection. It is based on your thoughts and mental attitude. If there is hell in your mind, you won’t see heaven anywhere. If there is heaven in your mind, even hell will be a heaven for you."

"The essence of Yoga and all the faiths and traditions is to be easeful in body, peaceful in mind and useful in life. The aim of Yoga is to make the body healthy and the mind tranquil and pure. With a pure mind and a healthy body, you become a useful instrument for."

"The five points of yama, together with the five points of niyama, remind us of the Ten Commandments of the Christtian and Jewish faiths, as well as of the ten virtues of Buddhism. In fact, there is no religion without these moral or ethical codes. All spiritual life should be based on these things. They are the foundation stones without which we can never build anything lasting."

"The period between four and six in the morning is called the Brahmamuhurta, the Brahmic time, or divine period, and is a very sacred time to meditate."

"The purification of the mind is very necessary."

"The same thing can be both good and bad. Whenever you speak of good, bad is also present. The world is a mixture of both. There is not good without bad. They are both sides of the same coin. Both are necessary. We have been given free will and discriminating capacity to select what is beneficial to us and to avoid what is detrimental to us. Even Cobra poison can be used as medicine."

"The stones of a river start out rough, but with the current continually bumping and polishing them, they end up being beautiful."

"The whole world is an ocean filled with waves. Learn to float on them and don't get caught in them. Equanimity, or balance, is Yoga. Learn to balance yourself - then you will enjoy everything."

"There is only one thing that hurts me. If I feel I have caused anyone else’s unhappiness, I won’t be happy. Until I see that person’s smiling face again, I will feel sorry."

"There’s no value in digging shallow wells in a hundred places. Decide on one place and dig deep. Even if you encounter a rock, use dynamite and keep going down. If you leave that to dig another well, all the first effort is wasted and there is no proof you won’t hit rock again."

"These Sutras are reminiscent of the Four Noble Truths of Lord Buddha: the misery of the world, the cause of misery, the removal of that misery, and the method used to remove it. Patanjali tells us that pain can be avoided. He further tells us that its cause is ignorance."

"This is a time for us to remember that in the name of religion more people have died than in all the wars and natural calamities put together. Now more than ever we must understand that the purpose of religion is not to separate us. True faiths don’t preach hatred and killing, nor did any of the prophets. It is the people who interpret the scriptures who create the divisions. Division comes if we put our ego into the teachings of these religions. Let us strive to be free of that kind of egoism"

"Though we can't always see it at the time, if we look upon events with some perspective, we see things always happen for our best interests. We are always being guided in a way better than we know ourselves."

"True love knows no bargains. It is one-way traffic: giving, giving, giving."