Great Throughts Treasury

"Really, to stand apart from the mind and watch its activities is a blissful exercise."

"Self-effacement is for him, who, having become like a drop, one with the infinite ocean of existence, plays thereafter the part of the Lord?s servant or child."

"Self-realization is the realization of your immortal nature and your union with the supreme Godhead, your actions becoming the expression of your true and exalted being."

"Self-surrender is not a state to be attained. We live always in that state. We are simply to become conscious of it. Situations need not change; there need be no alterations in activity."

"Self-surrender means offering of all your actions to the divine Shakti, i.e., to become conscious by gradual practice that you, as a separate individual doer, do not exist."

"Repetition of the Ram-mantram, meditation on the attributes of God, and surrender of all your actions to the Lord, is the way."

"Repetition of the holy mantram purifies the mind. Satsang elevates you and grants you right knowledge. Last comes Gurukripa. The awareness of it makes you realize that you are the embodiment of an eternal existence full of bliss and peace."

"Renounce all desires of the mind and the intellect, and enjoy the bliss of the Atman, even though you may, for its sake, live in a garret or turn into a wandering, naked, mendicant."

"Sanyasa is not a thing to be received from or given to anybody. It is a dedication of our entire being to the Lord and His service. It is a spontaneous wave of aspiration rising from within your own heart."

"Seek guidance from within. Listen to this voice and act. Don?t do things simply because others ask you to do so."

"Seek within?know Thyself. These secret and sublime hints come to us wafted on the breath of Rishis through the dust of ages."

"Shakti is the universal Mother that has assumed all forms of the universe and, by the will of the Lord, is causing all motions and activities in them."

"So long as a man is obsessed with the sense of duality, prayer, meditation and self-surrender are things real and necessary for him."

"Sorrowing over the passing away of the body is pure folly; only what is perishable has resolved itself into its elements but the Truth is immortal, and we are, in our true essence, everlastingly one with it."

"Surely, to become a divine worker one ought to have a complete effacement of the ego-sense without which true freedom and joy cannot be attained in the sphere of activity."

"Surely, if we see the world with a clear vision, we realize how transient and fleeting are the forms of all lives and creatures in this world."

"Take anything that comes as being for your best."

"Shakti is the power that animates and activates all your physical, mental and vital movements. Your very form or body, and all forms, are Her body and Her forms. You are one with Prakriti, the manifest and, at the same time, one with Purusha, the unmanifest. So, rise above all forms, of sight and mind and find your union with God, who is all, and all in all."

"Stand above the petty praise and blame of the world. During the period of sadhana for the attainment of this goal, the sadhaka must learn to be calm and collected in all that he does; he must watch the mysterious workings of the Divine Shakti in him and everywhere about him, and must remember that all things happen for good and good alone."

"That the ego-sense is the cause of man?s fall from his supreme state of blessedness and peace is evident in this wonderful lila of the Lord."

"Surrender yourself to the divine Mother who is the Shakti that works in you, and She will see that you live a true and peaceful life, ever guided and led by Her omniscient will."

"That you are immortal is a self- evident truth. Prem is the very perfume that comes out of a life of implicity, purity, self-sacrifice, humility, compassion and forgiveness. Oh! the joy of such a life!"

"The all-pervading witness, formless, motionless and infinite, is Shiva. All forms and movements are of Shakti. Shiva and Shakti are the same in the Lord, Who is at once both, and beyond. He is ParamaShiva. Identify yourself with ShivaGive up the individual ?I?. God only is, and He is all. Even your sadhanas are"

"The desire to reach God possesses us in such a manner that there would be no other ambition in life for us than that of realizing God. This longing consumes us like a fire day after day?nay, a veritable madness for God seizes our mind, and all our mental and physical energies are utilised exclusively for taking possession of God. When this bhakti has brought us face to face with the dearest object of our struggle and of the quest of our life, we shall have found peace once for all. We shall have then realized a condition in which we have no desire of any kind left to be fulfilled. We are then one with the supreme Truth Bnakti does not denote a chaotic life. A well regulated life, a keen sense of duty,"

"The conflict of apparently opposing forces in the play of the natural phenomena is viewed by a man of clear vision exactly as a drama on the stage is viewed by one in an audience witnessing it."

"The culmination of bhakti is to realize that God, Who pervades the universe and Who has assumed all forms, is dwelling within us."

"The bhakta speaks thus: O God! Thou art the doer; all forms are Thine; everything is Thine. And thus he realizes that he is Purusha, the unaffected, inactive, eternal witness. This is his way, different from that of the jnani who speaks thus: All activity belongs to Prakriti or Shakti; I am Purusha, the dispassionate witness."

"The Anand of pure Jnana and the Anand of Parabhakti are the same. The one is enjoyed in the inactive aspect of God, while the other in His active one."

"The desire to see external forms must vanish, so that you can find union and oneness with the all-pervading and immortal swarup of God."

"The easiest method by which we can keep God-remembrance is the repeating of His glorious Name. Be always cheerful, fearless and free."

"The divine Name is the one refuge for the man struggling for the darshan of God."

"The ego or the sense of separation is false. There is only one limitless ocean of joy at once moving and still. There is one light, one power, one consciousness, one existence, one sole Reality, that is eternal and infinite."

"The ego is an obsession, a shadow, an illusion; all life is One, and that One is Yourself."

"The ego-sense is individual consciousness, in which a man thinks that he is a mere body, formed out of the five elements, and that he is the doer, as a separate jiva."

"The end of sadhana is to realize our oneness with the eternal and immutable Atman and perform all actions in the field of manifestation."

"The eternal has no death and the perishable cannot escape dissolution. Then, why grieve over the dead? Every death? every loss?awakens us to Reality."

"The Lord is infinite love. Our body is the temple, our heart is the throne and He, the supreme Paramatman, is seated on this throne in all His magnificence and glory!"

"The great object of life is to crystallize all desires into the one supreme desire for the realization of God. In the fulfillment of this supreme desire all other desires will be automatically realized."

"The individual struggle, started and continued from the egoistic standpoint, in which God had no part to play, reveals only the weakness and helplessness of the aspirant."

"The external universal life is a huge game of change and activity having mainly three movements in it?actuated by the same power?of creation, preservation and destruction."

"The Guru?s heart is ever soft and, by constant meditation, the chela (disciple) grows into the likeness of his Master and possesses the same purity and softness of heart as those of the Guru. Forget not that the Guru is within you?know that you are not different from Him."

"The moment the disassociation becomes complete, that is to say, one?s identification with the watcher or the witness becomes perfect, that very moment the mind dissolves, and you attain samadhi i. e. absolute peace and bliss."

"The Lord says, he is a bhakta who always remembers God and surrenders all his actions to Him."

"The manifest is love and joy?the unmanifest is stillness and peace."

"The only thing that a man has to renounce in order to attain the supreme Truth is the individual sense and nothing else."

"The quarrels and strifes between sects, creeds and cults are born of utter ignorance. So, to know and realize God we have to love all beings and creatures alike, irrespective of any man-made distinctions."

"The most exalted way to realize God is through nishkama seva. Real worship consists in constantly remembering and glorifying the great Truth that dwells in the hearts of us all."

"The obstacle that comes in the way of an aspirant towards the attainment of God is a restless and desire-ridden mind. Hence, in the first place, control of the mind and eradication of its vasanas are absolutely necessary before the Divine light and knowledge can illumine his heart."

"The place of Bhagawan is always in the heart of His bhakta. That is His mandir and His home. And He is never silent, always busy talking to His beloved bhakta."

"The real does not die and the unreal cannot be eternal: so, grief over the death of the perishable is a mark of ignorance."