- Can one reach God by reading scriptures? By reading scriptures you might at most understand that He exists. But unless you yourself dive deep, you cannot see God. Only when you have dived deep and He lets you know Him are all your doubts removed.
- You may read a book a thousand times, you may chant a thousand verses, but you cannot comprehend God without earnestly diving into Him. By mere scholarship you may deceive man, but you can’t attain God.
- Books, scriptures, and the like only show the way to realize God. When you know the way, the means, what need is there for books and scriptures? One only has to act.
- In the scriptures you will find ways to realize God, but after knowing them, you have to get to work. Then only will you attain the goal.
- A pundit may know a number of couplets, a number of scriptures. But he who is attached to the world, who has love for ‘lust and greed’ in his mind, has not internalized the contents of the holy books.
- Do you know the use of scriptures? Somebody wrote a letter asking for five seers of sandesh and a piece of cloth. The recipient read the letter, remembered ‘five seers of sandesh and a piece of cloth,’ and threw the letter away. Of what use was the letter then?
- Mere learning is of no avail. It is for finding the means for attaining Him and knowing Him that one reads books. A sadhu had a book with him. Somebody asked him what it was about. The sadhu opened it and on every page was written, ‘Om, Rama’.
- What is the purpose of studying holy books or scriptures? It is the realization of God. Somebody opened a sadhu’s book to see what was in it. There was nothing written but the name of Rama – on every page. Nothing else.
- The Gita is the essence of all scriptures. A sannyasin may or may not have any other book, but he must have a pocket Gita with him.
- There are two interpretations of religious texts: the literal and the real. One should only take the real – that which tallies with the words of God. There is a great difference between what you read in a letter and what you hear from the lips of the letter writer. A religious text is like the words of a letter, and the Lord’s word is like the words of the letter writer. I accept nothing till I have seen that it agrees with the Divine Mother’s words.
- The practice of spiritual disciplines is essential. Mere study of scriptures does no good. I found Vidyasagar very learned. But to what end? Didn’t you see that his only joy was to teach boys how to read and write? He has never tasted the Bliss of God. What will mere study do?
- Simply studying the scriptures is not much help. Living in the midst of ‘lust and greed,’ you can’t understand the real significance of the scriptures. Attachment to the world keeps spiritual knowledge from you.
- Too much study of the scriptures brings more harm than good. You should know the essence of them. After that the holy book is not needed. Having understood the essence, you should dive deep to attain God.
- The essence of the Gita is: O man, renounce everything and practice spiritual disciplines to realize God.
- The Divine Mother has told me that the essence of the Vedanta is that Brahman is the reality and the world an illusion. The essence of the Gita is what you get after pronouncing the word Gita ten times – in other words, tyagi, tyagi [a man of renunciation].
- Holy books, scriptures, contain sand mixed with sugar. A holy man takes only the sugar, leaving the sand. A holy man takes only the essence.
- What is the use of knowing many scriptures? All you need is to know how to cross the river of the world. God alone is the real substance, all else is unsubstantial.
- One holy book of the Vaishnavas is the Bhaktamala. It is a beautiful book. It contains nothing but stories about devotees. But it is one-sided. It goes so far in one place as to make the Divine Mother adopt a Vishnu mantra.
- What good will it do you just to speak or listen to the words of the scriptures? You have to internalize them. The almanac says it’s going to rain a certain amount, but you don’t get even a drop by squeezing the almanac.
- God is beyond the Vedas and their rituals. Can you realize God by studying the Vedas and the Vedanta? The Vedas only give a faint idea of God.
- You’ve received a letter requesting five seers of sandesh and a piece of wearing cloth. If the letter is lost, you look for it anxiously. Finding it after a long search, you read it: ‘Send five seers of sandesh and a piece of cloth.’ Then, you can throw the letter away. What use is it now? Your work now is to procure the sandesh and cloth.
- What you hear when the word gita is repeated ten times is the essence of the Gita; that is, ‘tagi, tagi’ [renounce, renounce].
- The scriptures describe various states one has after a direct vision of God. I had them all – the state of a child, of a ghoul, and of lifeless matter.
- It is one thing to have God’s vision and another to read about Him in the scriptures. The scriptures only give hints about Him, so there’s no need to read many of them. It’s better to pray to Him in a solitary place.
- You don’t need many scriptures. If you don’t have discrimination, mere scholarship won’t help. Even the study of the six philosophies is of no avail. Go in solitude and weep for Him, call upon Him. He will certainly do everything for you.
- A person should know the essence of the scriptures from the lips of a guru, but then practice spiritual disciplines.
- How long will you study scriptures? What is the use of only reasoning? First you have to try to realize Him. What will you know by reading books? As long as you are at a distance from the marketplace, you only hear the hustle and bustle. When you reach it, you find it very different. Then you see and hear clearly: ‘Take these potatoes, pay me for them.’