Quotes from Vivekananda

That singleness of attachment (Nishthâ) to a loved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of the denunciation of everything else.

The gigantic will which Buddha and Jesus threw over the world, whence did it come? Whence came this accumulation of power? It must have been there through ages and ages, continually growing bigger and bigger, until it burst on society in a Buddha or a Jesus, even rolling down to the present day.

At the same time, he must struggle hard to acquire these things — firstly, knowledge, and secondly, wealth. It is his duty, and if he does not do his duty, he is nobody. A householder who does not struggle to get wealth is immoral. If he is lazy and content to lead an idle life, he is immoral, because upon him depend hundreds. If he gets riches, hundreds of others will be thereby supported.

The householder by digging tanks, by planting trees on the roadsides, by establishing rest-houses for men and animals, by making roads and building bridges, goes towards the same goal as the greatest Yogi.

This is a particular idea in all our teachings which I like, either in philosophy, or in religion, or in work. If you read the Vedas, you will find this word always repeated — fearlessness — fear nothing. Fear is a sign of weakness. A man must go about his duties without taking notice of the sneers and the ridicule of the world.

religion does not consist of doctrines or dogmas. It is not what you read nor what dogmas you believe that is of importance, but what you realize. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," yea, in this life. And that is salvation

We may convert every house in the country into a charity asylum, we may fill the land with hospitals, but the misery of man will still continue to exist until man's character changes.

It is practice first and knowledge afterwards.

By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnâni, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by both of them. The difficulty is here. Liberation means entire freedom — freedom from the bondage of good, as well as from the bondage of evil.

If a king goes mad, and runs about trying to find the king of his country, he will never find him, because he is the king himself.

Nishkâma Karma, or work without desire or attachment.

Take up one idea Make that one idea your life Think of it Dream of it Live on that idea Let the brain, muscles, nerves every part of your body be full of that idea and just leave every other idea alone

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it, think of it, and live on that alone. Let the brain, the muscles, the nerves and indeed every part of your body be full of that idea, to the exclusion of every other idea. That indeed is the way to success, and that is how the great spiritual giants are produced.

We reap what we sow We are the makers of our own fate None else has the blame None has the praise

Don't look back only forward! Infinite energy infinite enthusiasm infinite daring and infinite patience then alone can great deeds be accomplished

We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.

Before every one of them was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course, they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can never become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone makes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one.

Do not hate anybody because that hatred which comes out from you must, in the long run come back to you If you love that love will come back to you completing the circle

According to the Yogis there are two nerve-currents in the spinal column, called Pingalâ and Idâ, and that there is a hollow canal called Sushumnâ running through the entire spinal cord. At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the "Lotus of the Kundalini." They

I dare say, in the vast majority of cases, it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.

When it is acute, we call it disease; when it is chronic, we call it nature. It is a disease

Secondly, we have also to know that, of all the centres, we have particularly to remember three,—the Mulâdhâra or the basic, the Sahasrâra or the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain, and the Manipura or the lotus in the navel.

This, therefore, is the physiological explanation of the breathing exercises, that they tend to bring a rhythmic action in the body, and help us, through the respiratory centre, to control the other centres. And that is what the Yogi aims to do when he speaks of rousing the coiled-up power in the Mulâdhâra, called the Kundalini with the help of Prânâyâma.

Karma in its effect on character is the most tremendous power that man has to deal with. Man is, as it were, a centre, and is attracting all the powers of the universe towards himself, and in this centre is fusing them all and again sending them off in a big current. Such a centre is the real man — the almighty, the omniscient — and he draws the