Great Throughts Treasury

"Compassion is the root of religion; pride the root of sin."

"Show love to all creatures, and thou wilt be happy; for when thou lovest all things, thou lovest the Lord, for he is all in all."

"The world is based on the laws of Karma. As is one’s Karma (deeds), so are its Phalas (results)."

"Holding the Lord's ring in your mouth, it's no surprise that you leapt over the ocean."

"As the Ruler, so the people."

"All the sleepers in a night of delution beholding so many dreams. In this world of darkness, only those who sever themselves from the meterial world, become absorbed in the contemplation of the supreme. None can be regarded as really woken up from sleep till they have renounced all sensuous delights."

"Even your pity is like a blast of wind and the words you speak would strip a tree of its blossoms."

"Faith in the Creator, who is mainly in his Godness and Godly in his man-ness, is like a human-self and can take him along."

"Faith is that which dispels desire, devotion is that which generates knowledge. And Vedas say that knowledge is that which fashions freedom."

"Holding the Lord's ring in your mouth, it's no surprise that you leapt over the ocean."

"He walks without legs, hears without ears, does all the deeds without hands. He enjoys all the juices without a mouth, spells all the truth without a voice, touches everything without hands. He see very object without eyes and inhales all the scents without a breath."

"God refuses to be mine, thine or his. For him the truth is but one but the proud and the vain have forged many out of their desires and fancies."

"I begged for crumbs and morsels door to door...Plodding and doddling around lanes."

"I call him Rama. You can call him by any other name but have faith in him, surrender all worldly desires and passions to his will and without effort, become disciplined and principled."

"In dependence, there is no happiness, even in a dream."

"Mine is no caste or cult, what care I for one or the other... No one is of any use to me, nor am I of any use to anyone. Don?t have a son to need, someone?s daughter to wed. Tulsi is the slave of Rama, whoever may say whatever he likes. Begged for food, slept in a mosque, have nothing to take and nothing to give, call me a swindler or a saint, call me a Rajput or a Julaha."

"I am a servant of Rama, accredited to His Court, what for should I be a Courier of man?"

"Lord Ram gave Hanuman a quizzical look and said, What are you, a monkey or a man? Hanuman bowed his head reverently, folded his."

"Mother and father abandoned me at birth and the author of my life also did not write any worth or merit on the page of destiny."

"No virtue is equal to the good of others and no vice greater than hurting others."

"The world knows that to quell the belly-fire, I ate crumbs and morsels given by men of caste, high-caste, low-caste or no caste."

"The story of Ramachandra, as narrated in the Valmiki Ramayan and the Adhyatma Ramayan, after reinforcing and revitalizing it with the essence of whatever the Puranas, the Vedas, and other scriptures could give, I, Tulsidas, am writing for the delight of my own soul."

"To follow the path of knowledge is to tread on the edge of a sword. Once you get into it, there is no escape."

"Unless one cultivates slave-master relationship with the Lord, no one can go across the ocean of this material world. Who is as virtuous a master as Rama? And who is as vicious as I am?"

"There is no difference between knowledge and devotion, both of them save the soul from the miseries of worldly life."

"What did I not do, where did I not go, to whom did I not bow."