In the presence of my Master I found out that man could be perfect, even in this body.  Those lips never cursed anyone, those eyes never criticized anyone.  Those eyes were beyond the possibility of seeing evil, that mind had lost the power of thinking evil.  He saw nothing but good.  That tremendous purity, that tremendous renunciation is the one secret of spirituality.  "Neither through wealth, nor through progeny, but through renunciation alone, is inmortality to be reached," say the Vedas.  "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and follow Me," says the Christ.  So all great saints and prophets have expressed it, and have carried it out in their lives.  How can great spirituality come without that renunciation?  Renunciation is the background of all religious thought wherever it be, and you will always find that as this idea of renunciation lessens, the more will the senses creep into the field of religion, and spirituality will decrease in the same ratio.

 Swami Vivekananda

My Master

Here is a passage showing how, in the case of one of the blessed Gopis, the soul-binding chains of both merit and demerit were broken.  “The intense pleasure in meditating on God took away the binding effects of her good deeds. Then her intense misery of soul in not attaining unto Him washed off all her sinful propensities; and then she became free (Vishnu-Purana).

 Swami Vivekananda

Bhakti-Yoga

Life consists of a series of rises and falls.  One should not get too much elated during the rise; nor too much depressed during the fall. And at all hours one should try to be in touch with the Divine within and outside.  In this lies the secret of the balanced state, and also of progress towards the goal.

Again it is not enough if we have the highest ideal before us.  We must know also that as we cannot reach it all of a sudden we should have ideals that serve as stepping stones leading towards it.  This holds good as regards moral culture and spiritual practice.  We have to pass through the lower regions if we want to attain to the summit.  This is a point we should never lose sight of.” 

Swami Prahavananda

It has been my unshakable conviction that the greatest amount and degree of service that one can render to the universe can only be in the realm of thought.  There is a common saying that “thoughts are things.”  In my estimation, thoughts are even more potent, substantial, and permanent than mere things.  If you give a coin or a car to another, it will be spent, lost, exhausted, or worn out before long.  But if you can give your genuine good thoughts to him, beyond any doubt and contradiction, it brings more benefit than anything else.  Owing to our gross and materialistic impatience, we fail to appreciate the value of thoughts.  But with higher unfoldment we come to understand that we can help the world more by creating spiritual vibrations of thought, than by offering any material thing.

Swami Gnaneswarananda

I am the mother of the wicked,

as I am the mother of the virtuous.

Whenever you are in distress,

just say to yourself,

‘I have a mother.’

                                                       Sri Sarada Devi

 

A HYMN TO THE DIVINE MOTHER

 

Manifestations of Her glory show

In power of immeasurable might,

Throughout the universe, powers that swell

The sea of birth and death, forces that change

And break up the Unchanged and changed again.

Lo! Where shall we seek refuge, save in Her?

To friend and foe Thy lotus - eyes are even;

Ever Thine animating touch brings fruit

To fortunate and unfortunate alike;

The shade of death and immortality --

Both these, O mother, are Thy grace Supreme!

Mother Supreme! Oh, may Thy gracious face

Never be turned away from me, Thy child!

What Thou art, the Mother? The All. How praise?

 My understanding is so little worth.

 

                                                            Swami Vivekananda

 

 

Love, lifted high above all qualities and persons!

Love, delivering from bondage,

Love, casting out all fear,

Love, in which the body has no part,

Love, eternal—transcendent-universal,

Love of the Sacred Heart, ever self-consumed in its own light,

 

To Thee our salutation,

Thee we salute.   Thee we salute.

Thee we salute.

Sister Nivedita

Vedanta claims that man is divine.  To quote the words of Vivekananda: “Man is like an infinite spring, coiled up in a small box, and that spring is trying to unfold itself.”  All struggles, individual or social are the result of this attempt to unfold.  When the struggle becomes a conscious effort, it is spiritual.  As long as the ideal of life and of life’s struggles remain unknown we waste our effort and go round in a circle; and howsoever we may attempt to find happiness or freedom in our individual lives, or to bring the millennium on earth, the result is failure and disappointment.  Through our failures and disappointments, however, we at last wake up to our spiritual heritage.

Swami Prabhavananda