Bhakti-Yoga quotes

He who at the beginning of creation projected Brahmâ (i.e. the universal consciousness), and who delivered the Vedas unto him — seeking liberation I go for refuge unto that effulgent One, whose light turns the understanding towards the Âtman."

Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love.

One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. "Bhakti", says Nârada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense love to God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever";

Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love.

One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom.

"Bhakti", says Nârada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense love to God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever";

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.

All the weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e. by hating every other ideal.

Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal.

Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal.

This kind of love is somewhat like the canine instinct of guarding the master's property from intrusion; only, the instinct of the dog is better than the reason of man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an enemy in whatever dress he may come before it.

Again, the fanatic loses all power of judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of such absorbing interest that to him it is no question at all what a man says — whether it is right or wrong;

yet we know that that character is of the noblest type in which all these three — knowledge and love and Yoga — are harmoniously fused.

Three things are necessary for a bird to fly — the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering.

Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance.

… remembering again is of the same form as seeing, because it is of the same meaning as in the passage, 'When He who is far and near is seen, the bonds of the heart are broken, all doubts vanish, and all effects of work disappear'

He who is near can be seen, but he who is far can only be remembered.

Nevertheless the scripture says that he have to see Him who is near as well as Him who, is far, thereby indicating to us that the above kind of remembering is as good as seeing. This remembrance when exalted assumes the same form as seeing.

He, soon, through the mercy of the Lord, reaches a plane where pedantic and powerless reason is left far behind, and the mere intellectual groping through the dark gives place to the daylight of direct perception.

He no more reasons and believes, he almost perceives. He no more argues, he senses.

And is not this seeing God, and feeling God, and enjoying God higher than everything else? Nay, Bhaktas have not been wanting who have maintained that it is higher than even Moksha — liberation. And is it not also the highest utility?

and the sooner the followers of this curious mixture of ignorance and fanaticism come out in their true colours and join, as they well deserve to do, the ranks of atheists and materialists, the better will it be for the world.

One ounce of the practice of righteousness and of spiritual Self-realisation outweighs tons and tons of frothy talk and nonsensical sentiments.

Show us one, but one gigantic spiritual genius growing out of all this dry dust of ignorance and fanaticism;

CHAPTER IV THE NEED OF GURU

Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection.

Whatever we are now is the result of our acts and thoughts in the past; and whatever we shall be in the future will be the result of what we think and do now.

Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection.

Whatever we are now is the result of our acts and thoughts in the past; and whatever we shall be in the future will be the result of what we think and do now.

But this, the shaping of our own destinies, does not preclude our receiving help from outside; nay, in the vast majority of cases such help is absolutely necessary.

nay, in the vast majority of cases such help is absolutely necessary. When it comes, the higher powers and possibilities of the soul are quickened, spiritual life is awakened, growth is animated, and man becomes holy and perfect in the end.

This quickening impulse cannot be derived from books.

The soul can only receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else. We may study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual, but in the end we find that we have not developed at all spiritually.

This quickening impulse cannot be derived from books. The soul can only receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else.

We may study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual, but in the end we find that we have not developed at all spiritually.

It is not true that a high order of intellectual development always goes hand in hand with a proportionate development of the spiritual side in Man. In studying books we are sometimes deluded into thinking that thereby we are being spiritually helped;

This quickening impulse cannot be derived from books.

The soul can only receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else.

We may study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual, but in the end we find that we have not developed at all spiritually.

and in the second place, the soul to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it.

The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes place.

"The true preacher of religion has to be of wonderful capabilities, and clever shall his hearer be" —

and when both of these are really wonderful and extraordinary, then will a splendid spiritual awakening result, and not otherwise. Such alone are the real teachers, and such alone are also the real students, the real aspirants.

All others are only playing with spirituality.

They have just a little curiosity awakened, just a little intellectual aspiration kindled in them, but are merely standing on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion.

We may study that in ourselves. Many a time in our lives, somebody dies whom we loved; we receive a blow; we feel that the world is slipping between our fingers, that we want something surer and higher, and that we must become religious.

In a few days that wave of feeling has passed away, and we are left stranded just where we were before.

We are all of us often mistaking such impulses for real thirst after religion;

When the sun rises, we instinctively become aware of the fact, and when a teacher of men comes to help us, the soul will instinctively know that truth has already begun to shine upon it.

Truth stands on its own evidence, it does not require any other testimony to prove it true, it is self effulgent.

It penetrates into the innermost corners of our nature, and in its presence the whole universe stands up and says, "This is truth."

Truth stands on its own evidence, it does not require any other testimony to prove it true, it is self effulgent.

It penetrates into the innermost corners of our nature, and in its presence the whole universe stands up and says, "This is truth."

The teachers whose wisdom and truth shine like the light of the sun are the very greatest the world has known, and they are worshipped as God by the major portion of mankind. But we may get help from comparatively lesser ones also;

No impure soul can be really religious. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary for any one to be religious. As to the thirst after knowledge, it is an old law that we all get whatever we want.

None of us can get anything other than what we fix our hearts upon.

To pant for religion truly is a very difficult thing, not at all so easy as we generally imagine. Hearing religious talks or reading religious books is no proof yet of a real want felt in the heart;

The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teacher.

The network of the words of the scriptures is like a huge forest in which the human mind often loses itself and finds no way out.

— "The network of words is a big forest; it is the cause of a curious wandering of the mind."

In regard to the teacher, we must see that he knows the spirit of the scriptures.

The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans; but they are all only words, syntax, etymology, philology, the dry bones of religion.

The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teacher.

and instead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave this counting of leaves and twigs and note-taking to others. This kind of work has its proper place, but not here in the spiritual domain.

You never see a strong spiritual man among these "leaf counters".

Religion, the highest aim, the highest glory of man, does not require so much labour.

but in the spiritual sciences it is impossible from first to last that there can be any spiritual light in the soul that is impure.

What religion can an impure man teach?

The sine qua non of acquiring spiritual truth for one's self or for imparting it to others is the purity of heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of the beyond never comes until the soul is pure.

The third condition is in regard to the motile. The teacher must not teach with any ulterior selfish motive — for money, name, or fame; his work must be simply out of love, out of pure love for mankind at large.

The only medium through which spiritual force can be transmitted is love.

Any selfish motive, such as the desire for gain or for name, will immediately destroy this conveying median. God is love, and only he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and God to man.

The only medium through which spiritual force can be transmitted is love. Any selfish motive, such as the desire for gain or for name, will immediately destroy this conveying median.

God is love, and only he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and God to man.

When you see that in your teacher these conditions are all fulfilled, you are safe;

but the unopened heart will see in them nothing but mere stones or mere brooks.

A blind man may go to a museum, but he will not profit by it in any way; his eyes must be opened first, and then alone he will be able to learn what the things in the museum can teach.

This eye-opener of the aspirant after religion is the teacher. With the teacher, therefore, our relationship is the same as that between an ancestor and his descendant.

Under such circumstances spirituality becomes almost an unknown quantity. There is none to transmit it and none to have it transmitted to. Religion with such people becomes business; they think they can obtain it with their dollars.

Would to God that religion could be obtained so easily!

But unfortunately it cannot be.

अहेतुकदयासिन्धुः — "the ocean ofmercy without any motive". आचार्यं मां विजानीयात् — "Know the Guru to be Me", says Shri Krishna in the Bhagavata.

The moment the world is absolutely bereft of these, it becomes a hideous hell and hastens on to its destruction.

Higher and nobler than all ordinary ones are another set of teachers, the Avatâras of Ishvara, in the world. They can transmit spirituality with a touch, even with a mere wish.

That man in the street, however, is quiet and does not disturb the peace of the world, while this big talker creates disturbance and misery among mankind. Religion is, after all, realisation, and we must make the sharpest distinction between talk; and intuitive experience.

What we experience in the depths of our souls is realisation.

Nothing indeed is so uncommon as common sense in regard to this matter.

Religion is, after all, realisation, and we must make the sharpest distinction between talk; and intuitive experience. What we experience in the depths of our souls is realisation.

Nothing indeed is so uncommon as common sense in regard to this matter.

By our present constitution we are limited and bound to see God as man. If, for instance the buffaloes want to worship God, they will, in keeping with their own nature, see Him as a huge buffalo;

And these various conceptions are not due to morbidly active imagination. Man, the buffalo, and the fish all may be supposed to represent so many different vessels, so to say.

All these vessels go to the sea of God to get filled with water, each according to its own shape and capacity; in the man the water takes the shape of man, in the buffalo, the shape of a buffalo and in the fish, the shape of a fish.

In each of these vessels there is the same water of the sea of God.

in the man the water takes the shape of man, in the buffalo, the shape of a buffalo and in the fish, the shape of a fish.

In each of these vessels there is the same water of the sea of God.

When men see Him, they see Him as man, and the animals, if they have any conception of God at all, must see Him as animal each according to its own ideal.

To him all nature has become his own Self. He alone can worship God as He is.

Here, too, as in all other cases, the two extremes meet.

The extreme of ignorance and the other extreme of knowledge — neither of these go through acts of worship. The human brute does not worship because of his ignorance, and the Jivanmuktas (free souls) do not worship because they have realised God in themselves.

— "As one lump of clay being known, all things of clay are known", so the knowledge of the microcosm must lead to the knowledge of the macrocosm.

Now form is the outer crust, of which the name or the idea is the inner essence or kernel.

The body is the form, and the mind or the Antahkarana is the name, and sound-symbols are universally associated with Nâma (name) in all beings having the power of speech.

On the other hand, intensely narrow sectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their own ideals, are seen to have acquired every particle of that love by hating every one who is not of exactly the same opinions as themselves.

Would to God that this world was full of men who were as intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies!

But such are only few and far between. Yet we know that it is practicable to educate large numbers of human beings into the ideal of a wonderful blending of both the width and the intensity of love;

Bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative command not to hate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation.

Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until it has grown into a tree.

The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals.

Bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative command not to hate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation. Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until it has grown into a tree.

The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals.

Many people, in the name of what may be called religious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiosity with a continuous succession of different ideals. With them, hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort of religious drink-mania.

They want to hear new things just by way of getting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such exciting influence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another.

Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opium-eating, and there it ends.

"There is another sort of man", says Bhagavan Ramakrishna, "who is like the pearl-oyster of the story.

To restrain the Indriyas (organs) from going towards the objects of the senses, to control them and bring them under the guidance of the will, is the very central virtue in religious culture. Then comes the practice of self-restraint and self-denial.

All the immense possibilities of divine realisation in the soul cannot get actualised without struggle and without such practice on the part of the aspiring devotee.

"The mind must always think of the Lord." It is very hard at first to compel the mind to think of the Lord always, but with every new effort the power to do so grows stronger in us.

nor, as with some others, does it mean the protecting of cats and dogs and feeding of ants with sugar — with liberty to injure brother-man in every horrible way!

It is remarkable that almost every good idea in this world can be carried to a disgusting extreme.

A good practice carried to an extreme and worked in accordance with the letter of the law becomes a positive evil.

It is remarkable that almost every good idea in this world can be carried to a disgusting extreme.

A good practice carried to an extreme and worked in accordance with the letter of the law becomes a positive evil.

The stinking monks of certain religious sects, who do not bathe lest the vermin on their bodies should be killed, never think of the discomfort and disease they bring to their fellow human beings. They do not, however, belong to the religion of the Vedas!

The stinking monks of certain religious sects, who do not bathe lest the vermin on their bodies should be killed, never think of the discomfort and disease they bring to their fellow human beings. They do not, however, belong to the religion of the Vedas!

The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy.

Any man may do a good deed or make a good gift on the spur of the moment or under the pressure of some superstition or priestcraft; but the real lover of mankind is he who is jealous of none.

But woe unto the man and woe unto the nation that forgets the real, internal, spiritual essentials of religion and mechanically clutches with death-like grasp at all external forms and never lets them go.

The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within.

If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.

The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within.

If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.

The next means to the attainment of Bhakti-Yoga is strength (Anavasâda). "This Atman is not to be attained by the weak", says the Shruti. Both physical weakness and mental weakness are meant here. "The strong, the hardy" are the only fit students.

So long as this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from the perfection of Ahimsa.

The cow does not eat meat, nor does the sheep. Are they great Yogis, great non-injurers (Ahimsakas)?

Any fool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives him no more distinction than to herbivorous animals.