- If there is just a trace of worldliness, you can’t see God. If a match-stick is wet, you may strike it a thousand times and it won’t ignite; you will only waste a pile of matches. The mind attached to the world is like a wet match stick.
- Give your mind to the Being of bliss and consciousness and you will also feel joy. The bliss of God-consciousness is always there, it is only hidden by a veil. The less you are attached to the senses, the more the mind will go towards God.
- You may lecture a thousand times, and you’ll not be able to change worldly men. Can one drive a nail into a stone wall? The nail is what will bend.
- It is seldom that worldly people show spiritual wisdom – only occasionally, like the flame of a lamp. No, no, it is like the ray of the sun when it peeps through a chink in the wall
- Worldly people have no grit. It does not matter to them whether they succeed or not. If they dig a well for water but strike a rock, they stop digging and look for another spot. If they find sand in the next spot, they give that spot up too. If they had continued to dig at the original spot, they would have found water there.
- Don’t let flatterers deceive you. Flatterers gather around a worldly man. Vultures gather where they find the carcass of a dead cow.
- Words reveal a man’s true nature. If a person worries night and day about worldly affairs and continues to deceive people, his words convey that attitude. He who eats radish, belches radish.
- Why should one not attain the direct realization of the formless Brahman? But it is exceedingly difficult. When one renounces all sense objects – of form, taste, smell, speech and touch – and the mind is merged, only then one attains the inner experience of God.
- When the sap of attachment is completely dried up, one attains the inspiration of God in no time. A wet match stick will not strike fire, even if you rub it a thousand times. But when it is dry, it at once strikes fire when rubbed just a little.
- He who has worldly wisdom is very far from the Lord. If a person has no worldliness, the Lord remains in his grip – very close to him indeed..
- A man can perform any amount of repetition of the Name and austerities, but if he remains possessed of worldly thoughts, he can never attain God. On the other hand, if a person eats pork but his mind remains attached to the Lord, he is blessed indeed. Such a person gradually attains the Lord – there is no doubt about it.
- The love of worldly people for God is momentary, drying up like drops of water falling on a hot iron. They don’t last long.
- Why is man bewitched by things of the world? Because he lives among them without having realized God. You don’t get bewitched after realizing Him. A moth doesn’t like darkness any more once it has seen light.
- The worship, japa, and austerities of worldly people are only for the moment. Those who know nothing but God repeat His name with every breath. Some unceasingly chant the name of Rama, or Om Rama mentally. People who follow the path of knowledge also repeat ‘So ’ham’ (I am He). The tongues of some people are always moving. Indeed there must be constant remembrance and contemplation of God.
- Worldly people have great regard for wealth. They think there’s nothing like money. Sambhu said, ‘This is my desire – to place all this wealth at His feet when I depart.’ Does God need worldly wealth? He wants spiritual knowledge, love, discrimination and dispassion.
- He is beyond the worldly intellect. You cannot attain Him if there is the least trace of attachment for ‘lust and greed.’ But He is visible to the pure intellect and pure mind – that intellect and mind which do not have the least trace of attachment. Pure mind, pure intellect, pure Atman are one and the same.
- You people listen to all these things – but try to put them into practice. When a worldly-minded man goes to see a sadhu, he hides all worldly thoughts and worries. After leaving, he takes them out again.
- The fact is that God is very far away from worldliness. Otherwise, He is as near as the palm of the hand.
- What is there in sense-enjoyment? What is there? And what is there in money, name, fame, and comforts of the body? If one has not known Rama, what has he known?
- How can yearning come when a person is involved in worldly things day and night? In the beginning Jadu Mallick used to listen to spiritual talk, and he also used to talk about God. These days he doesn’t talk so much. Day and night he is surrounded by flatterers and only talks about worldly things.
- If there is worldliness in a person, he can’t grasp spiritual instruction. You can keep milk safely in a new pot, but if you put it in a pot already used for making curds, it turns sour. A cup that garlic paste has been made in doesn’t lose its smell even if you wash it a thousand times.