Pearls of Wise

Devotee: But I do not find delight in His 'name'. The Master: Then pray with a yearning heart that He may teach you to relish His 'name'. Undoubtedly He will grant your prayer ... "I find no delight in Thy 'name' ! "If a delirious patient loses all taste for food, you must despair of his life. But if he relishes food even slightly, you may hope for his recovery. So I say, "Find joy in His 'name'." Durga, Krishna, Siva―any name will do. And if you daily feel a greater attraction for taking His 'name' and a greater joy in it, you need fear no more. The delirium must get cured, and His grace will surely descend on you. Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna,

The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves! If you do not exist,  how can God exist, or anybody else? Swami Vivekananda

The human mind’s tendency to want to create black and white distinctions gets in the way of any deeper understanding of the role and purpose of the ego in the evolutionary cycle. Clearly there must be some serious meaning to the existence of the ego, as it represents an effort of Nature over long millennia of time. At the same time, those who seek spiritual development, liberation or salvation all tend to fixate on the dissolution of the ego as a necessity. How do these two positions, so seemingly opposite to one another, get reconciled with one another? In one of his aphoristic statements elsewhere, Sri Aurobindo states: “The ego is the helper; the ego is the bar.” He recognizes in this statement, that the ego has a purpose at one stage of human development and must be overpassed at another stage. Just as a child will play with a toy at one age, but when he grows up, he puts the toy aside and takes up other activities and objects upon which to focus, there are times and season...

Bhagavan: Your real nature is always there, your meditation, etc., come only temporarily. Reality being your Self, there is nothing for you to realise. All that is required is that you should give up regarding the unreal as real, which is what all are doing. The object of all meditation, dhyana or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the not-self, to give up many thoughts and to keep to the one thought. As for sadhana, there are many methods. You may do vichara, asking yourself ‘Who am I?’ or, if that does not appeal to you, you may do dhyana ‘I am Brahman’ or otherwise, or you may concentrate on a mantra or name in japa. The object is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts, and if we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source. (From 'Day by Day with Bhagavan': 19-10-45 Morning) Sri Ramana Maharishi

Lord Rama lived a life of love and showed love in every inch of his activity. My dear children of Love, draw inspiration from their teachings. Tread the path of love, commune with God, and reach the eternal abode of love. This is your highest duty. You have taken this body to achieve Love, which alone is the goal of life. Live in love. Breathe in love. Sing in love. Eat in love. Drink in love. Talk in love. Pray in love. Meditate in love. Swami Sivananda

Swamiji was invited for bhiksha at the residence of a local devotee, who was a prosperous businessman with a large family, all living together in a spacious house. After the dinner was over, the devotee, abut sixty-five years of age, said: “Swamiji, I have worked all my life and established my business. Now I wish to take rest and retire. What is the age at which one should take sannyasa?” After some moments, Swamiji answered, “When you find that your duties are over and your sons are capable of looking after the business.” “But, Swamiji, my sons don’t let me. They keep asking for advice even when they don’t need it. They just don’t want me to leave the business,” the host asserted respectfully. Swamiji had a hearty laugh: “Never mind,” he said. “In that case your daughter-in-law will certainly make you leave one of these days.” The subtle message of vairagya had been delivered with wit. Swami Chinmayananda Chinmaya Mission

You are caught up with past life conditioning which you have brought into your resent life. If you don't work on it now, you will come back with it in a more aggravated form. In your next life and your next and your next. Imagine being caught in a maze of angry vibrations and lifetimes. Is this not Hell? Swami Udit Chaithanya

  There are pearls in the deep sea, but you must hazard all perils to get them. If you fail to get at them by a single dive, do not conclude that the sea is without them. Dive again and again, and you are sure to be rewarded in the end. So also in the quest for the Lord, if your first attempt to see Him proves fruitless, do not lose heart. Persevere in the attempt, and you are sure to realize Him at last. -Sri Ramakrishna

 Swami Vijnanananda (1868-1938) :  Sri Ramakrishna one day challenged a young man to wrestle with him. The tall and hefty youth put him down in no time. And the wonder of wonders: The young man soon felt a power entering from Sri Ramakrishna’s body into his own, making him completely powerless!  That was how Hariprasanna had one of his early encounters with the Master. Born on the 28th October, 1868 at Belgharia (Calcutta), Hariprasanna Chattopadhyaya (the pre-monastic name of Swami Vijnanananda) received a good education from his parents. He became an engineer and rose to the position of District Engineer at the erstwhile State of United Provinces, before renouncing the world. Since he had lost his father early and had to support his mother, he was obliged to take to government service, but kept in touch with the disciples of the Master, especially Narendra (Swami Vivekananda). Later in 1896, he gave up the world and joined the Math then at Alambazar and became ‘Swami...

We find in the Upanishads a variety of statements about the nature of the Brahman, such as “One without a second,” “All this is the Brahman,” “Thou art That,” “I am He,” and descriptions that imply that the Brahman is implicit in each being in existence. Those who gravitate toward the concept “one without a second” generally overlook the importance of these other formulae. Each one of these points to a specific aspect of the Reality, and must be taken in their totality, as a unity, to provide a complete knowledge. Sri Aurobindo uses the term “reality omnipresent” to encompass all these aspects, and he insists on the need to realize the status of the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual aspects in order to achieve the knowledge of the unity of all existence. There is no doubt that for the individual seeker, the need to transcend the limits of the ego-personality is an essential step. This is not done, however, to exclude the rest of creation, but to adjust the viewpoint or ...

A Pilgrims’ special train brought several visitors from Bengal. One of them said that he had read Mr. Paul Brunton’s book and since then he was anxious to see Sri Bhagavan. He also asked: How shall I overcome my passions? Maharishi .: Find their root and then it will be easy. (Later) What are the passions? Kama (lust), krodha (anger), etc. Why do they arise? Because of likes and dislikes towards the objects seen. How do the objects project themselves in your view? Because of your avidya, i.e., ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of the Self. Thus, if you find the Self and abide therein there will be no trouble owing to the passions. (Later) Again, what is the cause of the passions? Desire to be happy or enjoy pleasure. Why does the desire for happiness arise? Because your nature is happiness itself and it is natural that you come into your own. This happiness is not found anywhere besides the Self. Do not look for it elsewhere. But seek the Self and abide therein. Still again, that happin...

Allow the waves of love to arise constantly in your heart. Feel the warmth of divine love. Bask in the sunshine of divine love. Taste the bliss of eternal life. Do not murmur when you have to encounter troubles, difficulties, diseases and sorrows. Be courageous. Endure them with patience. Turn your mind towards God. Cultivate serenity of mind. Educate your will. You will possess tremendous inner spiritual strength.  You will have rapid spiritual progress. Conquer all your difficulties one by one. Do meditation daily. Realise the ideals of your life. Become a magnanimous soul. You will enjoy supreme bliss. "Love is the immediate way to Truth or the Kingdom of God. It is the life-principle of creation. It is the highest expression of soul-force. It is the sum total of all the duties of religion. It is the magic wand in the hand of a devotee by which he conquers the whole world." ~ Swami Sivananda Sri Sabarimala Iyyappa swa...

Someone asked Swamiji at satsang: “Does Brahmam do anything?” Swamiji’s response was more than a simple yes or no: “We look at the sun and say that the sun is shining. So we put doership on the sun. But what does the sun say? If anything, it says merely, ‘I am.’ That’s all.” At the end of a satsang, Gurudev was getting up to leave when someone asked him,  “Swamiji, when Vedanta is so marvelous to the human ear, why are so few people attracted to it?” Swamiji answered, “PhDs are not for the many.” Swami Chinmayananda Chinmaya Mission  Sri Sabarimala Dharma Sastha Temple Sannidanam at Nght

A love that is unconditional wants the other person, whom you love, to be themselves and a different person from them with their own personality, their own special strengths, skills and qualities. This happens in such a way that these qualities and skills complement your strengths and the two of you become a beautiful pair of people who keep each other ahead and also at the same time focus on your own qualities and bring them into action. This is true love. When you love truly, there is no place for hate. If hate still manages to crawl into the orbit, it only means there was a void in the heart that love hasn't filled. Swami Udit Chaithanya A View of Sabarimala Temple Sannidanam at night

Bhakti is the one essential thing. To be sure, God exists in all beings. Who, then, is a devotee? He whose mind dwells on God. But this is not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity. The water of God's grace cannot collect on the high mound of egotism. It runs down. I am a mere machine. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,

ANNAMALAI DEVOTEE: “How did this Mountain get the name Annamalai?” BHAGAVAN: “That which is not reachable by Brahma or Vishnu is Annamalai. That means it is the embodiment of the Jyoti (divine light) which is beyond word or mind. Anna means unreachable. That is the cause of the name.” DEVOTEE: “But the mountain has a form and a shape.” BHAGAVAN: “When Brahma and Vishnu saw it, it appeared as a pillar of Light enveloping the whole universe. It was only later that it appeared like a mountain. This is Ishwara’s sthula sariram (gross body). Jyothi itself is the sukshma sariram (subtle body). That which is beyond all these bodies is the Reality. Subtle means the Tejas (illumination which fills the whole universe).” (From 'Letters from Sri Ramanasramam': 145.) Sri Ramana Maharishi

"Put the seeds of courage in your heart. Allow courage to grow. Fear will die by itself. The positive always overcomes the negative. This is an immutable psychological law. This is the Pratipaksha-bhavana method of Raja Yogins. Try this method again and again. You are bound to succeed." ~ Swami Sivananda

Hari om. The goal of human life is Moksha - liberation. Liberation is not to go somewhere after death! It is attaining permanent happiness without a dash of sorrow, here in this life itself!!! Today on the 9th day, Mother is worshipped as Siddhidatri - one who gives Siddhi. The real Siddhi is Liberation, the culmination of our upaasanaa! Being pleased with the upaasaka, Mother blesses him with Moksha!! Sakhyam is the ninth step/form of Devotion. In this, we worship the Lord as our dear friend! No doubt, the Lord, as Antaryami is constantly helping us with right suggestions! He never leaves us even if the whole world has! But we should always keep the respect towards Him along with our love & care! Swami Chinmayananda

Never degrade yourself. Nature has never shown any partiality to anyone . All of us have infinite powers/ resource. We need to tap into this infinite resource and strength within ourselves and transform. Swami Udit Chaithanya

God is beyond both mind and intellect as long as they are bound within relativity; but He manifests Himself to them when they are purified. It is lust and greed which make the mind impure. So long as Avidya (ignorance) reigns in the heart, the mind and the intellect can never be pure. Ordinarily, mind and intellect are known to be different from each other; but in their purified state, they become one, and are resolved into Chaitanya (Pure Consciousness). Then God, the Chaitanya, becomes manifest to the Chaitanya. Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna Mission

Swami Vireswarananda 'The spiritual message of Sri Ramakrishna has a potentiality to usher in a new civilization the signs of which we are seeing all around in different parts of the world. Many books written by great thinkers have reference to His message and to the Indian way of life. It is, therefore, a great responsibility on us to live up to this ideal and spread his message so that a new civilization, a new order of things, may come to existence as early as possible -  a society where there will be no conflict and hatred,  but concord and love.' -Swami Vireswarananda Sri Ramakrishna Mission The 18 Steps to Sannidanam of Sri Ayyappan-Sabarimala

Swami Brahmananda, in the course of his morning strolls, visited the Lakshmi-nivasa and inquired about the Mother's health from Golap-Ma and sometimes made fun. One morning, as he came there, Master Mahashaya (M) came out of his room and from the upper verandah Golap-Ma said, 'Rakhal, Mother asks you, why Shakti (Divine Energy conceived as a woman) is worshipped first (before the male aspect)? ' Swami Brahmananda replied, 'It is because Motherhas in her keeping the key to knowledge of Brahman. There is no other way unless Mother, out of compassion, unlocks the door with the key.' And he sang a song in the baul tune  : - O mind, remain immersed in meditating the feet of Shiva's wife; Be immersed and avoid all misery. All these three worlds are vain, and in vain you roam about. Meditate within you the Coiled Energy that's of none but Brahman. This is Kamalakanta's (poet's) message, 'Sing the glory of Mother Kali. This indeed is a stream of bliss...

Prana, the life-energy, supports the physical body as the physical prana, but it also supports the action of the mind as the psychic prana. The seeker, in order to overcome the limitations of the life-energy in its characteristic action, needs to appreciate and fully understand the action of the psychic prana. Sri Aurobindo describes the three characteristics of the life-energy: “The characteristics of Life are action and movement, a reaching out to absorb and assimilate what is external to the individual and a principle of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in what it seizes upon or what comes to it, which is associated with the all-pervading phenomenon of attraction and repulsion. These three things are everywhere in Nature because Life is everywhere in Nature. But in us mental beings they are all given a mental value according to the mind which perceives and accepts them. They take the form of action, of desire and of liking and disliking, pleasure and pain.” This vital action disto...

1. For the delight of the wise, the conversation between Daivarata (D) and [Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi (M)] is recorded in this chapter. 2. D.: Bhagavan, what is the paramount duty of a human being caught up in the cycle of births and deaths? Please decide on one and expound it to me. 3. M.: For those desiring the highest, discovering one's own true nature is most important. It is the basis of all actions and their fruits. 4. D.: Briefly, by what spiritual practice does one become aware of one's own true nature? What effort brings about the exalted inner vision? 5. M.: Withdrawing all thoughts from sense-objects through effort, one should remain fixed in steady non-objective enquiry. 6. M.: This in brief, is the practice for knowing one's own nature. This effort alone brings about the exalted inner vision. (From 'Sri Ramana Gita' (A. R. Natarajan translation), Ch. 3, V. 1-6) Sri Ramana Maharishi