- ‘Soham! Soham!’ – Swami Turiyananda
- How Can One Become Free From Lust Completely?
- Self-effort and God’s Grace – Sri Ramakrishna
- Who Seek Nirvana Are Selfish – Sri Ramakrishna
- To Serve Properly, Forget Yourself – Sri Ramakrishna
- I Hold It Down to The Lower Planes – Sri Ramakrishna
- Mother Supplies Me With Ideas – Sri Ramakrishna
- “But who are you?” – Sri Ramakrishna
- Absolute and Relative – Sri Ramakrishna
- I Am Not Frightened Even of Yama – Swami Turiyananda
- Speak With Your Audience in Mind
- You Are The Allpervading Atman
- I Have Made a New Path – Swami Vivekananda
- Vedanta is The Jewel Among Religions – Swami Turiyananda
- The Guru is The Physician – Swami Turiyananda
- God Will Help Me – Swami Turiyananda
- Standard is in Our Own Attitude – Swami Turiyananda
- Do Everything as Perfectly as You Can
- Go to The Source – Swami Turiyananda
- Go Beyond This World – Swami Turiyananda
- Yet I Love You So Much – Sri Ramakrishna
- Will of The Mother – Swami Vivekananda
- Final Instructions to Gurudas – Swami Turiyananda
- Be Humble and Not Hurt Anyone – Sri Ramakrishna
- Don’t See Fault in Others
- Adi Shankaracharya and Sri Ramakrishna
- Do Not Forget Him – Swami Turiyananda
- Dryness in Spiritual Life
- Attachment and Detachment
- “You Must Try”
- Some Thoughts of Swami Turiyananda
- Light of Knowledge
His father died when he was twelve. While Harinath was crying bitterly just before his father’s death, his sister asked Chandranath to say some words of consolation to him. “What is there to say?” the dying man replied. “Hari belongs to the world and the world belongs to Hari.”This prophecy became true.
Once Swami Turiyananda said: “Though I travelled much, I also studied much all along. At Vrindaban I studied a great deal of devotional scriptures. It is not good to wander much if you do not at the same time continue your spiritual effort.”
“One night in Ujjain, I was sleeping under a tree. A storm came, and suddenly someone touched me. I got up and at once a branch fell on the spot where I had slept.” Sri Ramakrishna had saved his life.
Swami Turiyananda often mentioned this great saying of the sage Vyasa, “He who wishes to think upon the Lord after all his duties have been finished is like the fool who wishes to bathe in the sea after the waves have subsided.”
From Almora, Turiyananda wrote many inspiring letters to the monks and the devotees. On 8 July 1916 he wrote: “‘The ever-free Atman takes a human birth in order to taste the bliss of liberation-in-life, and not for the fulfillment of any worldly desires.’ I can hardly convey to you what wonderful joy and light dawned on me when I first read this verse of Shankara. Then the purpose of life shined forth before me, and all problems were solved automatically. I realized: The purpose of human birth is nothing but tasting the bliss of jivan-mukti, or freedom while living. Truly there is no cause for the ever-free Atman to assume a human body, except that it likes to enjoy the freedom while in the body.”
In early 1911, after a short stay at Belur Math, Turiyananda went to Puri. He consulted a doctor there, who discovered that he had diabetes. Brahmananda was also in Puri, and he always enjoyed Turiyananda’s company. There is a Hindi saying, “When an ass meets another ass, they kick each other; and when a holy man meets another holy man, they only talk about God.”
Although Turiyananda’s health slightly improved in Puri, he had some trouble with his eyes. The doctor prescribed eye drops. One morning, as soon as his attendant, Sharvananda, put eye drops in his eyes, he cried out: “I think you have given me the wrong medicine. See what you have used!” The attendant was shocked when he discovered that it was diluted nitric acid. Filled with remorse and fear, he began to tremble and cry while someone else washed the acid out of the swami’s eyes. Turiyananda remained calm and composed. He was the embodiment of forbearance. He later consoled his attendant: “You see, as soon as you put the drops in my eyes, I felt a terrible burning sensation covering my whole body. I thought: ‘O Mother, what can I do if You want to take away my eyes? May Your will be done!’”84 Brahmananda also prayed. By the Master’s grace, his eyes were saved.