Quotes from Swami Vivekananda

Then Krishna says, "O Arjuna, you and I have run the cycle of births and deaths many times, but you are not conscious of them all. I am without beginning, birthless, the absolute Lord of all creation. I through my own nature take form. Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I come to help mankind. For the salvation of the good, for the destruction of wickedness, for the establishment

Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863, in Calcutta. From the beginning he was a precocious boy of exceptional energy. Yet his innate tendency toward meditation showed itself even in his early life. For along with the ordinary childhood games, he would play at meditation.

When men are once trained, it is essential that their leader leave them, for without his absence they cannot develop themselves

Thinking of objects, attachment to them is formed in a man. From attachment longing, and from longing anger grows.

When we have succeeded in preventing all the forces in the world from throwing us off our balance, then alone we have attained to freedom, and not before.

Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my own mind [is the ideal of education]. If I want to concentrate my mind upon a point, it goes there, and the moment I call, it is free [again]....

The selfless and unattached man may live in the very heart of a crowded and sinful city; he will not be touched by sin.

Everything that you do under compulsion goes to build up attachment. Why

The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their impressions are to be controlled by good habits. Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions. Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character.

In the first place, a man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes, without any selfish motive whatever, without thinking of future, of heaven, of punishment, or anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a powerful moral giant.

Mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.

Men Men Men, these are wanted. Strong believing young men, A hundred such and the world will get revolutionized.

First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all distractions, shut your minds to outside influences, and devote yourselves to developing the truth within you. (I. 177) PATIENCE

As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee." The

To the man who has begun to hate himself the gate to degeneration has already opened; and the same is true of a nation. Our

Where there is fire, or in water or on ground which is strewn with dry leaves, where there are many ant-hills, where there are wild animals, or danger, where four streets meet, where there is too much noise, where there are many wicked persons, Yoga must not be practised.

Buddha gave up his throne and renounced his position, that was true renunciation; but there cannot be any question of renunciation in the case of a beggar who has nothing to renounce.

Therefore we see at once that there cannot be any such thing as free-will; the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by conditions of time, space and causality. ... To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe; it cannot be found here.

all misery comes from fear, from unsatisfied desire.

To love anyone personally is bondage. Love all alike, then all desires fall off.

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean," says the persevering soul, "at my will mountains will crumble up." Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal. (CW 1. 178) Be

It teaches that desires and wants are in man, that the power of supply is also in man; and that wherever and whenever a desire, a want, a prayer has been fulfilled, it was out of this infinite magazine that the supply came, and not from any supernatural being.

In the ocean we cannot raise a wave without causing a hollow somewhere else.

Thinking about sense-objects Will attach you to sense-objects; Grow attached, and you become addicted; Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; Be angry, and you confuse your mind; Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; Forget experience, you lose discrimination; Lose discrimination, and you miss life's only purpose.