2nd July 2024- The Kaṭha Upaniṣad describes the body as the chariot, the self (ātman) as the master, the intellect (buddhi) as the charioteer, the mind (manas) as the reins, and the senses (indriya) as the horses galloping on the path of this world. To reach the destination quickly and safely, it is vital that the charioteer remains alert, holding the reins tightly (śama) and controlling the horses (dama), so they don’t go berserk but remain on the path.
3rd July 2024- Know that you are the Infinite, then fear must die. Say ever, “I and my Father are one.”
With most people religion is a sort of intellectual assent and goes no further than a document. I would not call it religion. It is better to be an atheist than to have that sort of religion.
5th July 2024- Different powers will come to the yogis, and if they yield to the temptations of any one of these, the road to their further progress will be barred. Such is the evil of running after enjoyments. But if the yogis are strong enough to reject even these miraculous powers, they will attain to the goal of yoga, the complete suppression of the waves in the ocean of the mind. Then the glory of the soul, undisturbed by the distractions of the mind, or motions of the body, will shine in its full effulgence; and the yogis will find themselves as they are and as they always were, the essence of knowledge, the immortal, the all-pervading.
6th July 2024- Talk not about impurity, but say that we are pure. We have hypnotised ourselves into this thought that we are little, that we are born, and that we are going to die, and into a constant state of fear. [Jnana Yoga: “The Real Nature of Man” (London, June 21, 1896). Complete Works, 2.86]
The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. Realize you are Brahman. Nothing has power except what you give it. We are beyond the sun, the stars, the universe. Deny evil, create none. Stand up and say, I am the master, the master of all. We forge the chain, and we alone can break it. Retreat giving at the Thousand Island Park, USA, July 16, 1895. Complete Works, 7.54.
8th July 2024- There should be no jealousy in regard to objects of the senses. Jealousy is the root of all evil, and a most difficult thing to conquer. Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: The Preparation (New York: December 16, 1895)
There is good and bad everywhere-but a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings called the wicked, as they are only the weeds which lag behind. but by the good, the noble, and the pure who indicate the national life-current to be flowing clear and vigorous.
9th July 2024- Cut down the banyan tree of desire with the axe of non-attachment, and it will vanish utterly. It is all illusion. “He from whom blight and delusion have fallen, he who has conquered the evils of association, he alone is azad (free).” Retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA. July 24, 1895. Complete Works, 7.66.”
10th July 2024- We are all apt to think too highly of ourselves. Our duties are determined by our deserts to a much larger extent than we are willing to grant. Competition rouses envy, and it kills the kindliness of the heart. To the grumbler, all duties are distasteful; nothing will every satisfy such people, and their whole life is doomed to prove a failure.
11th July 2024- Forbearance of all misery, without even a thought of resisting or driving it out, without even any painful feeling in the mind, or any remorse-this is Titiksa. Suppose I do not resist, and some great evil comes thereby; if I have Titiksa, I should not feel any remorse for not having resisted. When the mind has attained to that state, it has become established in forbearance.
12th July 2024- The same thing which is producing misery in one, may produce happiness in another. The fire that burns the child, may cook a good meal for a starving man. The same nerves that carry the sensations of misery carry also the sensations of happiness. The only way to stop evil, therefore, is to stop good also; there is no other way. To stop death, we shall have to stop life also. Life without death and happiness without misery are contradictions, and neither can be found alone, because each of them is but a different manifestation of the same thing.
13th July 2024- “Never say “mine.” Whenever we say a thing is “mine,” misery will immediately come. Do not say “my house,” do not say, “my body.” The whole difficulty is there. The body is neither yours, nor mine, nor anybody’s. These bodies come and go by the laws of nature, but we are free, standing as witness. This body is not more free than a picture or a wall. Why should we be attached so much to a body? If somebody paints a picture, he does it and passes on. Do not project that tentacle of selfishness, “I must possess it.” As soon as that is projected, misery will begin. (Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896). Complete Works, 1.100-101)
14th July 2024- “Can you tell me where this ‘I’ exists? How can you speak of anything being killed, which never exists at all? We only remain hypnotized with the false idea of an ego. When this ghost is off from us, all dreams vanish, and then it is found that the one Self only exists from the highest Being to a blade of brass.
15th July 2024- “Learn to help without pitying or feeling that there is any misery. Learn to be the same to enemy and to friend; then when you can do that and no longer have any desire, the goal is attained. [Retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA, July 24, 1895. Complete Works, 7.66]”
Let us work on, doing as we go whatever happens to be our duty, and being ever ready to put our shoulders to the wheel. Then surely shall we see the Light!
16th July 2024- “Those who can become mad with an idea, they alone see light. Those that only take a nibble here and a nibble there will never attain anything. They may titillate their nerves for a moment, but there it will end. They will be slaves in the hands of nature, and will never get beyond the senses. Those who really want to be Yogis must give up, once for all, this nibbling at things.” (From Swamiji’s book “Raja Yoga,” Chapter Six, “Pratyahara and Dharana.” Complete Works, 1.177)
17th July 2024- Religion does not depend on our intellectual assent or dissent. You say there is a soul. Have you seen the soul? How is it we all have souls and do not see them? You have to answer the question and find out the way to see the soul. If not, it is useless to talk of religion. If any religion is true, it must be able to show us the soul and show us God and the truth in ourselves.
18th July 2024- One must have tremendous faith in religion and God. Until one has it, one cannot aspire to be a Jnani. A great sage once told me that not one in twenty millions in this world believed in God. I asked him why, and he told me, “Suppose there is a thief in this room, and he gets to know that there is a mass of gold in the next room, and only a very thin partition between the two rooms; what will be condition of that thief?” I answered, “He will not be able to sleep at all; his brain will be actively thinking of some means of getting at the gold, and he will think of nothing else.” Then he replied, “Do you believe that people could believe in God and not go mad to get him? If they sincerely believe that there is that immense, infinite mine of Bliss, and that it can be reached, would not they go mad in their struggle to reach it?” Strong faith in God and the consequent eagerness to reach God constitutes śraddhā.
19th July 2024- Do you judge of an apple tree and the taste of its fruits by the unripe, undeveloped, worm-eaten ones that strew the ground, large even though their number be sometimes? If there is one ripe developed fruit, that one would indicate the powers, the possibility and the purpose of the apple tree and not hundreds that could not grow.
22nd July 2024- The lotus leaf is in the water. The water cannot touch and adhere to it. You should be in the world like that. This is called vairāgya, dispassion or non-attachment. Without non-attachment there cannot be any kind of yoga. Non-attachment is the basis of all the yogas. (Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10,1896. Complete Works, 1.101.)
23rd July 2024- In every religion there are three parts: philosophy, mythology, and ritual. Philosophy is the essence of every religion; mythology explains and illustrates it by means of the more or less legendary lives of great people, stories and fables. Ritual gives to philosophy a still more concrete form, so that every one may grasp it. Ritual is, in fact, concretized philosophy.
24th July 2024- Through the vistas of the past the voice of the centuries is coming down to us … and the first message it brings us is: Peace be unto you and to all religions. It is not a message of antagonism, but of one united religion.
25th July 2024- If you and I fight for all eternity about doctrines or documents, we shall never come to any conclusion. People have been fighting for ages, and what is the outcome? Intellect cannot reach there at all. We have to go beyond intellect. The proof of religion is in direct perception. The proof of the existence of this wall is that we see it; if you sat down and argued about its existence or non-existence for ages, you could never come to any conclusion, but directly you see it, it is enough. If everyone in the world