- A householder must take care of his family, so he has to save. Birds and sadhus don’t lay things away – but a bird does accumulate when it has a chick; it collects food in its beak for its chick.
- It is very difficult to practice spiritual disciplines while living in the family. There are so many hindrances.
- There’s no harm in leading a family life. But you have to live in the family like a maidservant.
- Why should you have to renounce? If you have to fight, it is better to fight from within a fort. You have to fight against your senses and against hunger and thirst. It is good that all these are fought while living in the household.
- Why do you have to renounce the home? It is convenient there. You don’t have to worry about food, and there is no harm in living with your wife. In a family, all your bodily needs are easily met. If you fall ill, you have people to nurse you.
- Janaka, Vyasa, and Vasishtha lived in the family after attaining spiritual knowledge. They wielded both swords – the one of knowledge and the other of action.
- One look after one’s children till they reach adulthood. When a bird grows up and can look after itself, its mother forces it out of the nest with its beak. She doesn’t let it near.
- The signs of a householder’s having attained knowledge of God are tears flow from his eyes, and the hair on his body stands on end at the name of God. No sooner does he hear the sweet name of God than the hair on his body stands on end and a stream of tears flows from the eyes.
- You householders have to have ‘this’ as well as ‘that’ – to live in the world and also to stick to the spiritual path.
- You have to fight against lust, anger, and so on in worldly life; you have to fight against various desires. You have to fight against attachment. If the fight is from inside the fort, it is convenient. It is better to fight from home.
- In the Kaliyuga life depends on food. It is better to be at one place than to roam around for food from one place to another. Living at home is fighting from inside the fort.
- If you ask whether there is a difference between the knowledge of a householder and a sannyasin, the answer is that both are the same. There is some risk for a householder living in the midst of ‘lust and greed.’ Living in a sooty room, you cannot escape a little stain, however clever you may be.
- Once you have churned the butter from the milk, if you keep it in a new earthen pot, it runs no risk of spoiling. But if you keep it in a pot of buttermilk, it is risky.
- When either a householder or a sannyasin gains spiritual knowledge, he becomes stainless, just like a jasmine flower. But after gaining spiritual knowledge, if he lives in the frying pan of the world, there may be a little red stain on his body.
- As far as possible, you should live unattached among women. From time to time you should go into solitude and meditate on God. No one else should be there. When you have gained faith and love for Him, you will be able to live unattached to a large extent. After having one or two children, a husband and wife should live together as brother and sister. And they should pray to God that the mind not go to sense enjoyment – and that there will be no more children.
- He who lives a family life after God-realization need have no fear. If one practices spiritual disciplines at times in a solitary place and thus develops pure love for God, there is no danger in family life for him. Chaitanya Deva also had family men as his devotees. But they lived as householders only in name – for they lived without attachment.
- Live like a mud fish. It lives in the mud, but the mud does not stain its body. Or live like a woman of easy virtue. She attends to all her household chores, but her mind remains tied to her lover. Fixing your mind on the Lord, attend to all your worldly work.
- Do you know what happens when you live as a householder? A lot of your mental powers are unnecessarily expended. This wastage of mental powers can be made up only by embracing sannyasa.
- The householder must hiss [threaten], but never pour venom. Reason? One must not harm anybody. However, you have to make a show of anger to save yourself from the enemy or he will hurt you.
- A householder must live like a mudfish. He must develop love for the Lord by meditating on Him in a solitary place away from home. He can then live with his family without attachment to it. He lives in the mud but does not allow it to soil his body. Such a person leads a life of nonattachment in the world.
- Is it not possible to meditate on the Lord while living with the wicked? Remember the rishis who used to meditate on the Lord in forests with tigers, bears and other wild animals around them. Unfriendly people have the nature of tigers and bears – they chase offensively and can harm you.
- Live in the household like a maidservant in a rich man’s house. She attends to all her chores, she brings up the master’s children and calls his son her Hari. But she knows quite well that it is not her house, nor is the boy her son. She attends to all her duties, but inwardly her mind dwells on her native village. Similarly, perform all your household duties, but keep your mind fixed on the Lord. And know that the home, the wife, the son, none are yours. They are all His. You are merely His servant.
- You people should renounce the world mentally. Live in your household with a spirit of nonattachment.
- People who renounce the world painfully belong to an inferior class. Do you know what a householder jnani is like? It is as if he is in a glass house from where he can see inside as well as outside.
- How long does one have duties toward one’s family? Make sure that they are not in want of food and clothing. But there is no need to take your children’s burden when they can stand on their own feet. When a young bird learns to find grain for itself, it is pecked away by its mother when it approaches her for food.
- One can lead a family life after attaining knowledge. But one must first attain it. If you keep the milk of your mind in the water of the world, it will get mixed with water. You must first turn the milk of your mind into curd by placing it in a solitary nook and churn it to take out the butter. Then you can put it in the water of the world.
- Why renounce the world altogether? It is enough if one gets rid of attachment. But you need to practice spiritual disciplines. You have to fight with your senses. Besides, it is more convenient to fight a battle from within the fort. One receives a lot of help from the fort.
- The world is a place for enjoyment. One should enjoy it, and then quickly give up one article of enjoyment after the other. Once I had a desire to wear a golden chain around my waist. I even got one and put it on – but I took it off immediately. I ate some onion and began to discriminate in this way – my mind, this is what is called onion. I moved it around in my mouth for awhile, first on one side and then on the other. I spat it out after making it touch the mouth on all sides.
- Spiritual life in the household is possible. But one should first attain the knowledge of God before entering family life – one should first realize God before living as a householder. Then ‘even though one may swim in the black waters of lamp-black, the body will not be stained.’ One can then live like a mudfish. The household life which one leads after God-realization is a world of spirituality. There is no ‘lust and greed’ in it – only devotion, devotee and God.
- These people talk of practicing religion while leading a worldly life. It is like a person who has shut himself in a room – with all the doors and windows closed – with just a small hole for a little light to come in from the roof. Can one see the sun with a roof overhead? What will he do with only a little light? ‘Lust and greed’ constitute the roof. Can one see the sun unless the roof is removed? Worldly people have, as it were, shut themselves inside a room.