Quotes from Swami Prabhavananda

The breeze of God's grace is blowing continually. You have to set your sail to catch that breeze.

There is no failure in the spiritual life, as long as we do not give up the fight.

The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.

That which is not comprehended by the mind but by which the mind comprehends—know that...

As the sun, revealer of all objects to the seer, is not harmed by the sinful eye, nor by the impurities of the objects it gazes on, so the one Self, dwelling in all, is not touched by the evils of the world. (The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal, pg. 35)

To darkness are they doomed who worship only the body, and to greater darkness they who worship only the spirit.

As fire, though one, takes the shape of every object which it consumes, so the Self, though one, takes the shape of every object in which it dwells. (The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal, pg. 35)

I cannot say that I know Brahman fully. Nor can I say that I know him not.... Nor do I know that I know him not.

Thou art imperishable. Thou art changeless reality. Thou art the source of life.

The right relation between prayer and conduct, wrote Archbishop Temple, is not that conduct is supremely important and prayer may help it, but that prayer is supremely important and conduct tests it.

He is within and without: He lives in the live and the lifeless: Subtle beyond mind's grasp; so near to us, so utterly distant: Undivided, He seems to divide into objects and creatures; Send creation forth from Himself, He upholds and withdraws it; Light of all lights, He abides beyond our ignorant darkness; Knowledge, the one thing real we may study or know, the heart's dweller.

Give your body and mind to worldly enjoyments, and the world will destroy them both. Devote them to God and his service, and you will enjoy bodily health, peace of mind, and spiritual joy.

If we attempt nothing more than a rigid negative control of the waves of desire, without raising waves of love, compassion and devotion to oppose them, then the result may be even more tragic.

A man is above all his will

To stress the negative aspect of self-discipline is to contribute to the vast amount of indirect propaganda which is made, in our society, against the spiritual life.

The truth is that we are all inclined to flatter our- sclvcs-despite our daily experience to the contrary-that we spend our time thinking logical, consecutive thoughts. In fact, most of us do no such thing.

The fulfillment of every desire only reveals its inadequacy.