Saturday, September 19, 2015

Leaf – Counters

The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans; but they are all only words, syntax, etymology, philology, and the dry bones of religion. The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teacher. The network of the words of the scriptures is life a huge forest in which the human mind often loses itself and finds no way out.

Ramakrishna used to tell a story of some men who went into a mango orchard and busied themselves in counting the leaves, the twigs, and the branches, examining their color, comparing their size, and noting down everything most carefully, and then got up a learned discussion on each of these topics, which were undoubtedly highly interesting to them. But one of the them, more sensible then the others, did not care for all these things, and instead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave this counting of leaves and twigs and note taking to others. This kind of work has its proper place, but not here in the spiritual domain. You never see a strong spiritual man among the “ leaf – counters “.
     
- Swami Vivekananda – Page 128 ( Meditation and Its Methods )

Saturday, August 22, 2015

WHENEVER VIRTUE SUBSIDES AND IMMORALITY PREVAILS, THEN I COME AGAIN AND AGAIN TO HELP THE WORLD

Since the dawn of history, no missionary went out of India to propagate the Hindu doctrines and dogmas; but now a wonderful change is coming over us. Shri Bhagavân Krishna says, "Whenever virtue subsides and immorality prevails, then I come again and again to help the world." Religious researches disclose to us the fact that there is not a country possessing a good ethical code but has borrowed something of it from us, and there is not one religion possessing good ideas of the immortality of the soul but has derived it directly or indirectly from us.

- Swami Vivekananda
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Pamban
 

 

Sunday, August 9, 2015

LOOK HERE - WE SHALL ALL DIE!!

One day, with some of my young friends belonging to different colleges, I went to the Belur Math to see Swamiji. We sat round him: talks on various subjects were going on. No sooner was any question put to him than he gave the most conclusive answer to it. Suddenly he exclaimed, pointing to us, " You are all studying different schools of European philosophy and metaphysics and learning new facts about nationalities and countries; can you tell me what is the grandest of all the truths in life ? "

We began to think, but could not make out what he wanted us to say. As none put forth any reply, he exclaimed in his inspiriting language:

" Look here - we shall all die! Bear this in mind always, and then the spirit within will wake up. Then, only, meanness will vanish from you, practicality in work will come, you will get new vigour in mind and body, and those who come in contact with you will also feel that they have really got something uplifting, from you. "


- Swami Vivekananda
( THINK OF DEATH ALWAYS AND NEW LIFE WILL COME WITHIN - WORK FOR OTHERS - GOD THE LAST REFUGE )
Page: - 497 - Talks with Swami Vivekananda

Sunday, July 12, 2015

HOW THEN CAN WE FIND THE PATH TO LIBERTY ?

For in the case of a Vivekananda or of any other man cast in the heroic mold, there can be no question of throwing up the arms in advance, raising the hands and resigning himself to despair - still less is it possible to cover the eyes as do some agnostics, while they chant " What do I know ? " and to gulp down the fleeting and passing pleasures which past our bodies like ghosts floating along the edge of the river!....What is it that will assuage the cry of the soul, the Great Hunger? Certainly such rags of flesh will not fill up the gulf: all the Epicure's roses will not keep him from starting back, like the horses of Orcagna in the Campo Santo, from the stench of putrefying corpses. He must get out of the graveyard, out of the circle of tombs, away from the crematorium. He must win freedom or die: and better to die, if need arises, for freedom! " Better to die on the battlefield than to live a life of defeat ! "


- Swami Vivekananda
The life of Vivekananda And The Universal Gospel - Romain Rolland - Page 150

Saturday, June 27, 2015

TO HURL ONESELF UPON THE SWORD'S POINT

TO HURL ONESELF UPON THE SWORD'S POINT

" Fools!" he exclaimed once - as he dwelt in quiet talk on " The worship of the Terrible, " on " becoming one with the Terrible " - " Fools! they put a garland of skulls round Thy neck, and then start back in terror, and call Thee " the Merciful"!". And as he spoke, the underlying egoism of worship that is devoted to the kind God, to Providence, the consoling Divinity, without a heart for God in the earthquake, or God in the volcano, overwhelmed the listener. One saw that such worship was at bottom, as the Hindu calls it, merely " Shop- keeping, " and one realised the infinitely greater boldness and truth of the teaching that God manifests through evil as well as through good. One saw that the true attitude for the mind and will that are not to be baffled by the mind and will that are not to be baffled by the personal self, was in fact the determination, in the stern words of the Swami Vivekananda, ' to seek death not life, to hurl oneself upon the sword's point, to be come one with the Terrible for evermore!"

- Swami Vivekananda
Page 136, The Master As I Saw Him - Sister Nivedita 



Sunday, May 31, 2015

THE REAL WORKING FORCE OF ALL GREAT WORK IS IN ITS ALMOST UNPERCEIVED BEGINNINGS

Above all, beware of compromises. I do not mean that you are to get into antagonism with anybody, but you have to hold on to your own principles in weal or woe and never adjust them to others' "fads" through the greed of getting supporters. Your Âtman is the support of the universe — whose support do you stand in need of? Wait with patience and love and strength; if helpers are not ready now, they will come in time. Why should we be in a hurry? The real working force of all great work is in its almost unperceived beginnings.

- Swami Vivekananda
ON PROFESSOR MAX MÜLLER
(Written for the Brahmâvadin, from London, June 6, 1896.)

Saturday, May 23, 2015

WORK, WORSHIP, AND JNANA - FIRST WORK, AND YOUR MIND WILL BE PURIFIED

No good will come of sitting idle and having princely dishes, and saying "Ramakrishna, O Lord!" — unless you can do some good to the poor. Go to other villages from time to time, and teach the people the arts of life as well as religion. Work, worship, and Jnana (knowledge) — first work, and your mind will be purified; otherwise everything will be fruitless like pouring oblations on a pile of ashes instead of in the sacred fire.

- Swami Vivekananda
(March or April?) 1894. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Epistles - Second Series/LV Akhandananda

Sunday, May 17, 2015

THE WILL OF THE TOTALITY NOTHING CAN RESIST


And then he went off into a musing on Kali.

" I am not one of those, he chanted, " Who put the garland of skulls, round Thy neck, " And then look back in terror" And call Thee " The Merciful"!
" The heart must become a burical ground,
" Pride, selfishess, and desire all broken into dust,
" Then and then alone will the Mother dance there ! "

" I love terror for its own sake, " He went on, " Despair for its own sake, misery for its own sake. Fight always. Fight and fight on, though always in defeat, That's the ideal. That's the ideal. "

" The totality of all souls, not the human alone, " He said once, " Is the Personal God. The will of the Totality nothing can resist. It is what we know as Law. And this is what we mean by Shiva and Kali " and so on.

- Swami Vivekananda
[ The Master As I Saw Him ]


Saturday, May 9, 2015

NEVER FORGET...



" Never forget the glory of human nature! We are the Greatest God..... Christs and Buddhas are but waves on the boundless Ocean which I AM. "

_Vivekananda in America, 1895
The life of Vivekananda AND THE UNIVERSAL GOSPEL_ROMAIN ROLLAND

Saturday, February 14, 2015

I KNOW MY MISSION IN LIFE, AND NO CHAUVINISM ABOUT ME


Dear Alasinga, ( Pasis, 9th September, 1895 )

...I am surprised you take so seriously the missionaries nonsense.....If the people in India want me to keep strictly to my Hindu diet, Please tell them to send me a cook and money enough to keep him. This silly bossism without a mite of real help makes me laugh. On the other hand, if the missionaries tell you that I have even broken the two great vows of the Sannyasin - chastity and poverty - tell them that they are big liars. Please write to the missionary Hume asking him categorically to write you what mis demeanour he saw in me, or give you the names of his informants, and whether the information was first-hand or not; that will settle the question and expose the whole thing.....

As for me, mind you, I stand at nobody's dictation. I know my mission in life, and no chauvinism about me; I belong as much to India as to the world, no humbug about that, I have helped you all I could. You must now help yourselves. What country has any special claim on me ? Am I any nation's slave ? Don't talk any more silly nonsense, you faithless atheists.

- Swami Vivekananda
Page 257 - Letters of Swami Vivekananda

Sunday, January 25, 2015

NATURE IS CONQUERED BY MAN EVERY DAY

Nature is conquered by man every day. As a race, man is manifesting his power. Try in imagination to put a limit to this power in man. You admit that man as a race has infinite power, has [an] infinite body. The only question is what you are. Are you the race or one [individual]? The moment you isolate yourself, everything hurts you. The moment you expand and feel for others, you gain help. The selfish man is the most miserable in the world. The happiest is the man who is not at all selfish. He has become the whole creation, the whole race and God [is] within him. . . . So in dualism — Christian, Hindu, and all religions — the code of ethics . . . . is: Do not be selfish . . . . things for others! Expand! . . . .

- Swami Vivekananda
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/The Goal