Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902)
Teacher of the Vedanta philosophy, and one of the most famous and influential spiritual leaders of Hinduism.
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.
Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are …[but] unless you realize the Self (atman), there is no freedom.
There is to be found in every religion the manifestation of the struggle toward freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unselfishness, which means getting rid of the idea that human beings are the same as this little body.
To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.
Do any deserve liberty who are not ready to give it to others? Let us calmly go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary fretting and fuming.
A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourself. Therefore make your own future.
Many times I have been in the jaws of death, starving, footsore, and weary; for days and days I had no food, and often could walk no further; I would sink down under a tree, and life would seem to be ebbing away. I could not speak, I could scarcely think, but at last the mind reverted to the idea: "I have no fear nor death; never was I born, never did I die; I never hunger or thirst. I am It! I am It! The whole of nature cannot crush me; it is my servant. Assert thy strength, thou Lord of lords and God of gods! Regain thy lost empire! Arise and walk and stop not!" And I would rise up, reinvigorated; and here I am today, living! Thus, whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must vanish. For after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but Maya. Fear not, and it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies.
The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!
Thank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world.
One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.
Please everyone without becoming a hypocrite or a coward.
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.
Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.
Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy — by one, or more, or all of these — and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
We must overcome difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothing can happen to us unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.
Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love.
Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.
This world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.