In this page, we’ll make a collection of Swami Vivekananda‘s quotes on Heaven and Hell.
- All the heavens and the world are in the person.
- Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita. These are bold words; but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches.
- Bread! Bread! I do not believe in a God, who cannot give me bread here, giving me eternal bliss in heaven.[Source]
- Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.
- Give up all these mad pursuits, and then play your part in the universe, as an actor on the stage. The whole vision is changed, and instead of an eternal prison this world has become a playground; instead of a land of competition it is a land of bliss, where there is perpetual spring, flowers bloom and butterflies flit about. This very world becomes heaven, which formerly was hell.[Source]
- Have faith that you are all, my brave lads, born to do great things! Let not the barks of puppies frighten you— no, not even the thunderbolts of heaven— but, stand up and work.
- If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine.
- If there is any road to Heaven, it is through Hell. Through Hell to Heaven is always the way.[Source]
- Mercy is heaven itself; to be good, we have all to be merciful. Even justice and right should stand on mercy.
- Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first. He who thinks, ‘I will eat first. I will have more money than others, and I will possess everything’, he who thinks, ‘I will get to heaven before others, I will get mukti before others’ is the selfish man. The unselfish man says, ‘I will be last, I do not care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell if by doing so I can help my brothers.’ This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more spiritual and nearer to Shiva.
- The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God.
- The idea of heaven must pass away. The idea of heaven after death where the good live a life of eternal happiness is a vain dream, without a particle of meaning or sense in it. Wherever there is happiness there must follow unhappiness sometime. Wherever there is pleasure there must be pain. This is absolutely certain, every action has its reaction somehow. The idea of freedom is the only true idea of salvation — freedom from everything, the senses, whether of pleasure or pain, from good as well as evil.[Source]
- The moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is the fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven in a moment.
- The worship of a God in heaven and all these things are not bad, but they are only steps towards the Truth and not the Truth itself.[Source]
Related Articles: