- If I can quench my thirst with one glass of water, what need is there for me to measure the quantity of water in the lake? If I get intoxicated with half a bottle of wine. What is the need to know the quantity of wine in the wine shop? In the same way, what is the need to know the Infinite?
- Dive deep into the sweetness of God’s love. What need is there for us to find out about God’s infinite creation, His limitless splendours?
- Who can really know God? It is enough to know as much as one needs. What is the need for a whole well? A jug of water is enough. An ant went to a mound of sugar. What need had it for the whole mound? A grain or two made it happy.
- As is the disease, so is the remedy. The Lord says in the Gita, ‘O Arjuna, take refuge in me, I shall free you from all your sins.’ Take refuge in God. He will grant you right understanding. He will take up your whole burden. Then all your defects and aberrations will be wiped away.
- You’ve come to drink wine. What is the use in knowing how many maunds of wine are in the wine shop? Just a tumbler-full is enough for you. What is the need for you to know His infinite affairs?
- There are numberless paths to reach the ocean of immortality. Any path you take, it is enough if you can jump into this ocean.
- There are innumerable paths. Among them are the path of knowledge, the path of action, and the path of love and devotion. You will attain God by any path if you have sincere longing for Him.
- No one recognized the depth of Rupa and Sanatana’s emotion. If an elephant goes into a small pond, everything goes topsy-turvy. But if it plunges into a deep lake, there is no disturbance; no one even notices.
- Eat the mangoes! What’s the use of calculating how many hundreds of trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, how many millions of leaves? Why calculate all this? You’ve come to eat mangoes. Eat them!
- When the butter is taken out of the buttermilk, one realizes that the butter is not essentially different from the buttermilk, nor the buttermilk essentially different from the butter. One has full realization that God has become everything. Only at some places He manifests Himself in a greater degree than in others.
- He who is a genuine worshipper of Shiva receives a portion of Shiva. Some of Shiva’s characteristics enter into him. He who is a genuine Vaishnava is endowed with some of elements of Narayana.
- One develops the qualities of him whom one worships. If one worships Shiva, one acquires his nature. One who is born into the spiritual heritage of Shiva acquires jnana, the nature of Shiva, and one who is born into the spiritual heritage of Vishnu acquires bhakti, the nature of Vishnu. They who belong to Shiva have the nature of a jnani and they who belong to Vishnu conduct themselves as devotees.
- You must know that if a boy holds his father’s hand, he can fall into a pit. But when the father holds the boy’s hand, he need have no fear.
- It depends on physical traits. A dwarfish stature and dents here and there on the body are bad signs. Such a person takes a long time to attain jnana.
- Who is an intimate disciple? -There are inner pillars and outer pillars in the natmandir. They who remain ever close to their master are the intimate disciples.
- If you peel off the sheaths of a banana tree, one after the other, you reach its pith. The layers of sheath are different from the pith. Neither is the pith the sheath, nor the sheath the pith. At the end, the man sees that the sheath cannot exist without the pith and the pith cannot exist without the sheath. God has Himself become the twenty-four cosmic principles, He Himself has become man.
- Inclinations are different from man to man. And all men are not equally fit. Do you know what the difference in inclinations means? Some like to eat fish gravy, others fried fish, others pickled fish, yet others take fish cooked with rice. Then there is also the difference of competency. I say first learn to aim at the banana plant, then at the wick of a lamp, and then at a flying bird.
- I see Him both within and without as Indivisible Sachchidananda. Indeed, it is Sachchidananda who dwells both within, taking the cover [of the body] as its support, and without.
- Have you heard of the ‘achina tree’? It is a special kind of tree, but nobody can recognize it.
- To practice spiritual disciplines to win a lawsuit, or to earn a lot of money – or to help somebody win a lawsuit, or to procure property! These are matters of very low intelligence!
- If a light is brought into a room that has been dark for a thousand years, does it take long to light the room? Is it not illuminated immediately?
- After awhile Sri Ramakrishna adds, “God keeps a teacher of the holy word tied by a single string. Otherwise, who would propagate the holy word? He keeps this bond to enable him to teach humanity. The Divine Mother has kept you in the world just for this.”
- An ‘ordinary receptacle’ can’t contain ecstasy. A ‘big receptacle’ can enter into a deep ecstatic mood, but it does not show outwardly. As, you said, the surface of a big lake remains undisturbed when an elephant enters it, but when the elephant goes into a small pond, it produces a lot of commotion and the water splashes over the edges of the pond.
- Everything is possible for God. It is He who casts the spell. The magician can thrust a dagger into his throat and take it out again. He can even swallow pieces of brick!
- I said to Keshab Sen, ‘If I talk to you of higher spiritual ideas, your organization and group of devotees will break up.’ In the state of divine knowledge, groups and organizations are illusory – like a dream.
- It is His will. It is by His ‘Yea’ that everything happens in this world. When He says, ‘Nay,’ it all comes to a halt. Why should one man not bless another? Because nothing happens by man’s will. It is by God’s will alone that everything happens.
- Water is God. There is water all around. But one kind of water is used for drinking, the other for bathing, and yet another for washing dirty things.
- Everyone will know Her – everyone will indeed be liberated. Some people get their meal in the morning, others at midday and yet others in the evening – but no one will remain hungry. Indeed, everyone will realize his own true nature.
- Why worry about all these calculations? Eat mangoes. What is the use of knowing how many mango trees, how many branches, how many millions of leaves are in the garden? I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. Let me eat and go.
- When a tree is almost axed in two, the person who is felling it stands some distance away after his last blow. In a little while the tree falls by itself.
- A Muslim was loudly calling out, ‘O Allah! O Allah!’ during his offering of Namaz. Someone said to him, ‘Why are you shouting so loudly when you are calling upon Allah? He can hear even the sound of little anklets on an ant’s feet!’
- I sang another song – ‘O Mother, it is no one else’s fault. I drown in the waters of the well these very hands have dug.’ The Naked One – such a jnani – did not understand the meaning of the song. And yet it brought him to tears.
- There are brahmarishis, devarishis, and rajarishis. Sukadeva was a brahmarshi – he didn’t keep one book with him. Narada was a devarishi, Janaka a rajarishi – he performed work without expectation of any reward.
- It is good to observe the ekadashi. It purifies the mind a great deal and develops love and devotion for God.
- While Arjuna was aiming at the target, Drona asked him, ‘What are you seeing? Do you see the kings?’ Arjuna said, ‘No.’ ‘Do you see me?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you see the tree?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you see the bird perched on the tree?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then what do you see?’ ‘Only the eye of the bird.’ He who only sees the eye of the bird can hit the target.
- Why do people worship young virgins? All women are different forms of the Divine Mother, but She manifests Herself more in pure, unmarried girls.
- God doesn’t consult anybody before He does anything. It is His pleasure. He is self-willed. Why should we care to know the reason why God does it? You’ve come to the orchard to eat mangoes, so eat them. If you begin to count the trees, how many thousands of branches and how many hundreds of thousands of leaves – what use are all these calculations? Futile reasoning and discussions do not yield the truth.
- There are some who eat mangoes and then secretly wipe their mouths. There are others who eat and also share the mangoes with others. They work for the benefit of mankind and to enjoy the bliss of God. ‘I want to eat sugar.’
- A scattered mind doesn’t notice something even if it is nearby. A fellow went to a friend’s house to light some charcoal for his tobacco. And he was holding a lantern in his own hand! Another fellow, looking everywhere for his hand towel, found it on his own shoulder!
- Unless the clay is properly prepared, you cannot make a pot. If there is grit or sand in the clay, the pot will crack. That’s why a potter prepares the clay carefully. If a mirror is dirty, you cannot see your face in it. Unless your mind is pure, your real Self cannot be seen.
- I am the servant of the servant of all. The wave belongs to the Ganges. Does the Ganges ever belong to the wave?
- I bring together two people of the same nature and same age. It has a special meaning. They both make progress.
- Taking up a body puts one in great trouble. And if one is cursed, he will have to be born another seven times. You have to live very cautiously! A person has to take up a new body if only one desire remains.
- Try to find your ‘I.’ When you are searching for ‘I,’ you find Him. ‘I am the instrument, You are the operator.’ You know, a puppet goes into a shop with a letter in its hand. God alone is the doer. Work as though you are a doer, but know that you are not.
- God talked to me. It’s not only that you can see God – you can talk with Him. Under the banyan tree, I saw Him coming up from the Ganges. O, how much we laughed after that! He twisted my fingers playfully. And then He talked. He actually talked to me.
- The Naked One used to say that at such an hour, in the depth of night, one can hear the anahata sound.
- Curing disease using occult powers is an act of miracle. Those who call upon the Lord for healing a disease have a very low spiritual ideal.
- Without receiving God’s command, a person can’t teach other people. Shankaracharya retained the ‘I of knowledge’ after attaining Knowledge in order to teach mankind. But lecturing without having attained Him! What good can it do for people?
- Don’t teach your girls songs anymore. It is different if they sing on their own, but a woman’s modesty suffers if she sings in the presence of anybody and everybody. It is very important that women preserve their modesty.
- Distinction between the castes? There is only one way to wipe it away. That way is love for God. An untouchable becomes pure. An outcaste is no longer an outcaste after attaining love for God. Chaitanya Deva embraced all, including outcastes.
- If you find a hair in your food, you have to spit out everything you have in your mouth.
- A nail knife is enough to kill yourself, but to kill others you need such weapons as a sword and a shield. That’s the purpose of the scriptures.
- Don’t involve yourself with undue concern about outward purity. A sadhu felt very thirsty. A man with a water-skin passed his way. He offered water to the sadhu. The sadhu asked, ‘Is your container clean?’ The man said, ‘Sir, it is very clean, but in yours is a lot of urine and excreta. So I say, drink water from my skin. It won’t cause any harm.’ Your skin, i.e. your body, your stomach, contains filth.
- Gauri used to give very nice interpretations. He would say, ‘O this!’ explaining, ‘O disciple! This is your ideal deity.’ He would say that the ten heads of Ravana are the ten senses. Kumbhakarana was a man of tamas, Ravana of rajas, and Bibhishana of sattva. That’s why Bibhishana was blessed by Rama.
- Sixteen rupees are a lot of paise. But when sixteen rupees are put together it doesn’t look like much of a heap. When they are turned into one gold piece, how small they become. And when you buy a diamond for it, people hardly notice it.
- Those who play the game of chess can’t understand the right moves as well as unattached onlookers. They can suggest much better moves. This is because an unattached person needs nothing for himself. An unattached person who is free from attachment and malice, who is a spiritual personality, who is liberated in this very life, who has practiced spiritual disciplines for a long time and attained Him doesn’t like anything else.
- Don’t look up to a man. Men are just worms. The mouth that speaks well of a man one moment will soon run him down the next. I don’t want to be respected. I’d rather be the lowest of the low, the most insignificant of the insignificant.
- Nobody can be made great by being written about in books and newspapers. If God makes someone great, even a person who lives in a dense forest becomes known. A flower opens out in a dense forest and a honeybee finds it, not flies. What can a man do?
- “Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings, Ye divinities on earth – sinners! It is a sin to call a man so. Come up, O lions! and shake off the delusion that you are sheep! You are souls immortal, spirits free and blest and eternal, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant; not you the servant of matter.” (Lecture on Hinduism – Chicago)
- “Shall we advise men to kneel down and cry – O miserable sinner that I am! No, rather let us remind them of their divine nature … If the room is dark, do you go about striking your breast and crying, ‘It is dark?’ No, the only way to get in light is to strike a light and then the darkness goes. The only way to realise the Light above you is to strike the spiritual light within you and darkness of impurity and sin will flee away. Think of your higher Self, not of your lower.”
- A person can’t teach people without renouncing ‘lust and greed.’ If, living in ‘lust and greed,’ you say that the world is transitory, that only God is eternal, many will not accept your words. You have treacle with you but you’re saying to others, ‘Don’t eat treacle.’ That’s why, after giving it a lot of thought, Chaitanya Deva renounced the world. If he hadn’t, no one could have been saved.
- Learning! What will mere scholarship do for you? A vulture soars high up in the sky, but its gaze is fixed on the charnel pits below where the carcasses of dead animals are thrown. A scholar can recite many verses fluently – but where does his mind dwell? If his mind dwells on the lotus feet of the Lord, I respect him. But if it dwells on ‘lust and greed,’ I consider him dry straw.