swami vivekananda in chicago, september 1893.
swami vivekananda is one of the most popular spiritual teacher from 19th century. his talks are inspirational and motivating for today’s youth. in his talks, vivekananda focused onย higher values of life like fearlessness, truthfulness and on vedanta, meditation and also on realizing the ultimate goal of life that is nirvana/enlightenment.
swami vivekananda was against superstition or anything which makes you weak. he was all for a fearless person and a strong india.ย ย in india, vivekananda image is of a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated as “national youth day”.
swami vivekananda introduced hinduism and theย philosophyย of vedanta to the west. during his time, india was suffering badly under the rule of british. the morale of people was all time low. there were lot of misconceptions about india and hinduism in the west. vivekananda visit to the “parliament of world’s religions” in chicago in 1893 was a path breaker in this direction. he gave hundreds of talks in america on various tenets of hinduism (sanatan dharma). this changed the whole attitude of west towards india. many leading people of west started taking keen interest in knowing about hindu culture and religion.
swami vivekananda was disciple of enlightened mystic sri ramakrishna paramhansa. although ramakrishna attained to god via many paths but the path more suited to him was of devotion to ma kali. whereas vivekananda was inclined towards meditation. according to sri ramakrishna god can by attained via many paths. the teachings of sri ramakrishna and the time vivekananda spend with his master can be read in the excellent book “gospel of sri ramakrishna”. when sri ramakrishna left the body then vivekananda was instructed to take further the masters work.
vivekananda founded the ramakrishna math and the ramakrishna mission. both these institutes are doing excellent work on social issuesย and also on spreading the message of sri ramakrishna and swami vivekananda.
swami vivekananda quotes:
1. pure love has no motive. it has nothing to gain.
2.ย keep your thoughts on virtue; what we think we tend to become.
3. we reap what we sow. we are the makers of our own fate. none else has the blame, none has the praise.
4.ย the strong, the well-knit, the young, the healthy, the daring alone are fit to be yogis.
5. is there any sex-distinction in the atman (self)? out with the differentiation between man and womanโall is atman! give up the identification with the body, and stand up!
6. the soul is not composed of any materials. it is unity indivisible. therefore it must be indestructible.
7. however we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the soul is there and is never injured. we are that infinite.
8.ย all power is within you. you can do anything and everything. believe in that. do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. stand up and express the divinity within you.
9. always free on the spiritual plane; never free on the mental and physical โ hence the struggle.
10. through truth everything is attained. in truth everything is established.
11.ย superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.
12.ย there is no other teacher but your own soul.
13.ย be strong! โฆ you talk of ghosts and devils. we are the living devils. the sign of life is strength and growth. the sign of death is weakness. whatever is weak, avoid! it is death. if it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it! there is salvation only for the brave. “none but the brave deserves the fair.” none but the bravest deserves salvation.
14.ย every successful man must have behind him somewhere tremendous integrity, tremendous sincerity, and that is the cause of his signal success in life. he may not have been perfectly unselfish; yet he was tending towards it. if he had been perfectly unselfish, his would have been as great a success as that of the buddha or of the christ. the degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere.
15.ย when the soul wants to depend upon nothing, not even upon life, that is the height of philosophy, the height of manhood.
16.ย be brave! be strong! be fearless! once you have taken up the spiritual life, fight as long as there is any life in you. even though you know you are going to be killed, fight till you โare killed.โ donโt die of fright. die fighting. donโt go down till you are knocked down.
17.ย it is only work that is done as freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment.
18.ย you must avoid excessive merriment. a mind in that state never becomes calm; it becomes fickle. excessive merriment will always be followed by sorrow. tears and laughter are near kin. people so often run from one extreme to the other.
19.ย the mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal.
20.ย the greatest thing is meditation. it is the nearest approach to spiritual life โ the mind meditating. it is the one moment in our daily life that we are not at all material โ the soul thinking of itself, free from all matter โ this marvellous touch of the soul!
21.ย 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.
22.ย always discriminate–your body, your house, the people and the world are all absolutely unreal like a dream. always think that the body is only an inert instrument. and the atman (soul) within is your real nature.
23.ย him i call a mahatma (“great soul”) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a duratma (“wicked soul”). let us unite our wills in continued prayer for their good.
24.ย stand as a rock; you are indestructible. you are the self, the god of the universe.
25.ย stick to god! who cares what comes to the body or to anything else! through the terrors of evil, sayโmy god, my love! through the pangs of death, sayโmy god, my love! through all the evils under the sun, say my god, my love!
26.ย you cannot believe in god until you believe in yourself.
27.ย misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause.
28.ย if you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. if you know that you are free, you are free this moment. this is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. freedom is the goal of all nature.
29.ย the infinite ocean of spiritual truth lies before us to be worked on, to be discovered, to be brought into our lives. the world has seen thousands of prophets, and the world has yet to see millions.
30.ย work a little harder at meditation and it comes. you do not feel the body or anything else. when you come out of it after the hour, you have had the most beautiful rest you ever had in your life. that is the only way you ever give rest to your system.
31.ย yet we must do good; the desire to do good is the highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help others. do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, “here, my poor man,” but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. it is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect. all good acts tend to make us pure and perfect.
32.ย be grateful to the man you help, think of him as god. is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship god by helping our fellow men? if we were really unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. never will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment. the world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity.
33.ย mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.
34.ย if there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word โfearlessness.โ
35.ย the greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. in meditation we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. we do not depend upon any external help in meditation.
36.ย what is material and what is not? when the world is the end and god is the means to attain that end, that is material. when god is the end and the world is only the means to attain that end, spirituality has begun.
37.ย desire, want, is the father of all misery. desires are bound by the laws of success and failure. desires must bring misery. the great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the person who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.
38.ย every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good; every action that retards it is evil.
39.ย watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.
40.ย stand upon the atman, then only can we truly love the world. take a very, very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.
41.ย purity, physical and mental. all uncleanness, all that would draw the mind down, must be abandoned.
42.ย worship of society and popular opinions is idolatry. the soul has no sex, no country, no place, no time.
43.ย unborn and uncreated, without beginning and without end, deathless, birthless and omnipresent โ that is what i am; and all misery comes just because i think this little lump of clay is myself. i am identifying myself with matter and taking all the consequences.
44.ย who will bring light to the poor? who will travel from door to door bringing education to them? let these people be your godโthink of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly. the lord will show you the way.
45.ย the schools and colleges should be training grounds for prophets. the whole universe must become prophets; and until a man becomes a prophet, religion is a mockery and a byword unto him. we must see religion, feel it, realise it in a thousand times more intense a sense than that in which we see the wall.
46.ย love knows no fear. you may cut me to pieces, and i [will] still love you. suppose one of you mothers, a weak woman, sees a tiger in the street snatching your child. i know where you will be: you will face the tiger. another time a dog appears in the street, and you will fly. but you jump at the mouth of the tiger and snatch your child away. love knows no fear. it conquers all evil. the fear of god is the beginning of religion, but the love of god is the end of religion. all fear has died out.
47.ย truth, purity and unselfishnessโwherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition.
48.ย what is the use of talking of oneโs mistakes to the world? they cannot thereby be undone. for what one has done one must suffer; one must try and do better. the world sympathizes only with the strong and the powerful.
49.ย every man who, we think, gets something by chance, has been working for it slowly and surely through ages. and the whole question devolves upon us: “do we want to be prophets?” if we want, we shall be.
50.ย love is its own end. it can never be the means. the man who says, “i love you for such and such a thing”, does not love. love can never be the means; it must be the perfect end. what is the end and aim of love? to love god, that is all. why should one love god? [there is] no why, because it is not the means. when one can love, that is salvation, that is perfection, that is heaven. what more? what else can be the end? what can you have higher than love?
51.ย love never asks; it always gives. . . . when a young man goes to see his sweetheart, there is no business relationship between them; theirs is a relationship of love, and love is no beggar. [in the same way], we understand that the beginning of real spiritual worship means no begging. we have finished all begging: “lord, give me this and that.” then will religion begin.
52.ย work unto deathโi am with you, and when i am gone, my spirit will work with you. this life comes and goesโwealth, fame, enjoyments are only of a few days. it is better, far better, to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. advance!