Ramakrishna Quotes

Every person I've known has had an effect on me, as have people whom I've not met in the physical in this life, but whom I've met inwardly, teachers from other eras - Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramakrishna and Lao Tse. ~ Frederick Lenz

Right discrimination is of two kinds analytical and synthetical. The first leads one from the phenomena to the Absolute Brahman, while by the second one knows how the Absolute Brahman appears as the universe. ~ Ramakrishna

There are three kinds of love;
unselfish, mutual, and selfish.
The unselfish love is of the highest kind;
The lover only minds the welfare of the beloved and does not care for his own sufferings.
In mutual love the lover not only wants the happiness of his beloved;
but has an eye towards his own happiness also. It is middling.
The selfish love is the lowest. It only looks towards its own happiness,
no matter whether the beloved suffers weal or woe. ~ Ramakrishna

There is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. ~ Ramakrishna

Let's not go into the past. ~ Ramakrishna

As the shell, the pith and the kernel of the fruit are all produced form one parent seed of the tree, so from the one Lord is produced the whole of creation, animate and inanimate, spiritual and material. ~ Ramakrishna

Many people think they cannot have knowledge or understanding of God without reading books. But hearing is better than reading, and seeing is better than hearing. Hearing about Benares is different from reading about it; but seeing Benares is different from either hearing or reading. ~ Ramakrishna

The world is impermanent. One should constantly remember death. ~ Ramakrishna

The ego is like the root of a banyan tree, you think you have removed it all then one fine morning you see a sprout flourishing again. ~ Ramakrishna

Sugar and sand may be mixed together, but the ant rejects the sand and goes off with the sugar grain; so pious men lift the good from the bad. ~ Ramakrishna

Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny. ~ Ramakrishna

Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal. ~ Ramakrishna

The breeze of grace is always blowing; set your sail to catch that breeze. ~ Ramakrishna

God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached, and beyond pain and pleasure. There is much confusion in this world of His maya. One can by no means say that 'this' will come after 'that' or 'this' will produce 'that'. ~ Ramakrishna

When divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low. ~ Ramakrishna

As long as I live, so long do I learn. ~ Ramakrishna

Pray to Him anyway you like, He can even hear the footfall of an ant. ~ Ramakrishna

Why should you renounce everything? You are all right as you are, following the middle ... ~ Ramakrishna

Through love one acquires renunciation and discrimination naturally. ~ Ramakrishna

Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing. ~ Ramakrishna

I have now come to a stage of realization in which I see that God is walking in every human form and manifesting Himself alike through the sage and the sinner, the virtuous and the vicious. Therefore when I meet different people I say to myself, God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous. ~ Ramakrishna

How long do small girls play with their dolls? As long as they are not married and do not live with their husbands. After marriage they put the dolls away in a box. What further need is there of worshipping the image after the vision of God? ~ Ramakrishna

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing. ~ Ramakrishna

Men are like pillow-cases. The colour of one may be red, that of another blue, and that of the third black; but all contain the same cotton within. So it is with man; one is beautiful, another is ugly, a third holy , and a fourth wicked; but the Divine Being dwells in them all ~ Ramakrishna

It is easy to talk on religion, but difficult to practice it. ~ Ramakrishna

We laugh at the efforts of the musk deer to find the source of the scent which comes from itself and despair at our efforts to find the peace which is our essence. ~ Ramakrishna

Why does God allow evil in the world? To thicken the plot. ~ Ramakrishna

The waves belong to the Ganges, not the Ganges to the waves. A man cannot realize God unless he gets rid of all such egotistic ideas as "I am such an important man" or "I am so and so". Level the mound of "I" to the ground by dissolving it with tears of devotion. ~ Ramakrishna

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. ~ Ramakrishna

The world is impermanent. [All things change. Knowing this helps you see the end of any difficulty and thereby have hope.] ~ Ramakrishna

Different people call on [God] by different names: some as Allah, some as God, and others as Krishna, Siva, and Brahman. It is like the water in a lake. Some drink it at one place and call it 'jal', others at another place and call it 'pani', and still others at a third place and call it 'water'. The Hindus call it 'jal', the Christians 'water', and the Moslems 'pani'. But it is one and the same thing. ~ Ramakrishna

It is necessary to pray to Him, with a longing Heart. ~ Ramakrishna

Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious. ~ Ramakrishna

As a toy fruit or a toy elephant reminds one of the real fruit and the living animal, so do the images that are worshipped remind one of the God who is formless and eternal. ~ Ramakrishna

Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal , and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God . ~ Ramakrishna

If one has faith, one has everything. ~ Ramakrishna

Whoever wants God intensely, finds Him. Go and verify it in your own life. ~ Ramakrishna

If diving once does not bring you pearls, you need not therefore conclude that the sea is without them. ~ Ramakrishna

In the scriptures you will find the way to realize God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work, Only then can you attain your goal. ~ Ramakrishna

Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection. ~ Ramakrishna

Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic. ~ Ramakrishna

My name should not be made prominent. It is my ideas that I want to see realized. The disciples of all the prophets have always inextricably mixed up the ideas of the Master with person, and at last killed the ideas for the person. The disciples of Sri Ramakrishna must guard against doing the same thing. Work for the idea, not the person. ~ Swami Vivekananda

A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him. ~ Ramakrishna

Even avatars have to desire to be in God in every moment. And when avatars die, they desire with all their being to be united with God. ... .. Look at Ramakrishna.
How much he wept and prayed for the Divine Mother. ~ Mother Meera

To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end. ~ Ramakrishna

Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action. ~ Ramakrishna

When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again. ~ Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna is far greater than the disciples understand him to be. He is the embodiment of infinite spiritual ideas capable of development in infinite ways ... One glance of his gracious eyes can create a hundred thousand Vivekanandas at this instant. If he chooses now, instead, to work through me, making me his instrument, I can only bow to his will. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Who is whose Guru? God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe. ~ Ramakrishna

Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone. ~ Ramakrishna

Bondage and Liberation are of the mind alone. ~ Ramakrishna

The vanities of all others may gradually die out, but the vanity of a saint regarding his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away. ~ Ramakrishna

A man develops a subtle power as a result of the strict observance of celibacy for twelve years. Then he can understand and grasp very subtle things which otherwise elude his intellect. Through that understanding the aspirant can have direct vision of God. That pure understanding alone enables him to realize Truth. ~ Ramakrishna

A devotee who can call on God while living a householder's life is a hero indeed. God thinks: 'He is blessed indeed who prays to me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find me, overcoming a great obstacle
pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero. ~ Ramakrishna

Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which He may be approached. ~ Ramakrishna

It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated. ~ Ramakrishna

God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer. ~ Ramakrishna

The twin aspects of genius, the passive and the active, are possessed by the fully realized artist; they also form the necessary equipment of the Adept. Yet in very few people are these twin aspects manifested. Nearly everyone has a capacity for the passive aspect, which involves some sort of appreciation of aesthetic values. There are few people totally unresponsive to the beauties of nature, and none at all that is not responsive to its ferocious manifestations.Fewer are able to respond profoundly to the beauty of natural phenomena, and fewer still to so-called works of art. It takes a degree of genius to respond to such manifestations the whole time. Artists in this category are among the saints, some of whom thrilled with rapture at the constant awareness of the total unity, harmony, and beauty of things.

Such were Boehme, Ramakrishna, etc. Some yogis are immersed in an unsullied and vibrant bliss derived from the incessant contemplation of this 'world-bewitching maya'4-the breath-taking wonder of the great and glamorous illusion which surrounds us.
On the other side of the fence, on the side of active or creative genius, there are yet fewer. Active or creative genius means nothing less than the ability to translate the wonder or the terror of the great lfla (the great play of life) in terms of visual, tactile, audible, olfactory, or some other sensual presentation of phenomena.

But there is a third aspect of genius which is yet more rare. It is ~ Kenneth Grant

The magnetic needle always points to the north, and hence it is that sailing vessel does not lose her direction. So long as the heart of man is directed towards God, he cannot be lost in the ocean of worldliness. ~ Ramakrishna

Try to cultivate love of God. You are born as a human being only to attain divine love. ~ Ramakrishna

If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God. ~ Ramakrishna

You should love everyone because God dwells in all beings. ~ Ramakrishna

As a boy holding to a post or a pillar whirls about it with headlong speed without any fear or falling, so perform your worldly duties, fixing your hold firmly upon God, and you will be free from danger. ~ Ramakrishna

The name of God is identical with the Lord. ~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole. ~ Ramakrishna

Through selfless work, love of God grows in heart. ~ Ramakrishna

At times Maharajji's behavior reminds me of a story Ramakrishna tells of a saint who asked a snake not to bite but to love everyone. The snake agreed. But then many people threw things at the snake. The saint found the snake all battered. "I didn't say not to hiss," said the saint. ~ Ram Dass

Have love for everyone, no one is other than you. ~ Ramakrishna

Imagine a limitless expanse of water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The 'I' is the jar. ~ Ramakrishna

Once a person has faith, he has achieved everything. ~ Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna didn't suddenly become enlightened. We had years of him meditating, seeking, crying to Mother Kali, going in and out of samadhi; but after many years of this process, he was enlightened. He was no longer a finite individual. ~ Frederick Lenz

As for myself, I look upon all women as my Mother. This is a very pure attitude of mind. There is no risk or danger in it. To look upon a woman as one's sister is also not bad. But the other attitudes are very difficult and dangerous. It is almost impossible to keep to the purity of the ideal. ~ Ramakrishna

All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self. ~ Ramakrishna

As for me, I consider myself as a speck of the dust of the devotee's feet. ~ Ramakrishna

The nearer you approach to God, the less you reason and argue. When you attain Him, then all sounds - all reasoning and disputing - come to an end. Then you go into samadhi - sleep - , into communion with God in silence. ~ Ramakrishna

I have no disciple. I am the servant of the servant of Rama . ~ Ramakrishna

If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that. ~ Ramakrishna

If you spent one-tenth of the time you devoted to distractions like chasing women or making money to spiritual practice, you would be enlightened in a few years. ~ Ramakrishna

A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. Shri Ramakrishna used to say that, to pick out one thorn which has stuck into the foot, another thorn is requisitioned, and when the thorn is taken out, both are thrown away. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, but after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The winds of God's grace are always blowing, it is for us to raise our sails. ~ Ramakrishna

With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions. ~ Ramakrishna

Honour both spirit and form, the sentiment within as well as the symbol without. ~ Ramakrishna

Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind. If you say 'I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me' free you shall be. ~ Ramakrishna

If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him. ~ Ramakrishna

You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. ~ Ramakrishna

Now, stopping thought is only the beginning. As Brahmananda, who was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, once remarked: The inner life begins with samadhi. This is an awesome thought, I realize, for the average person who meditates, that it could begin with samadhi. ~ Frederick Lenz

Shri Ramakrishna use to say, "As Long as I Live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Do yourself what you wish others to do. ~ Ramakrishna

If a householder is a genuine devotee, he performs his duties without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to God - his gain or loss, his pleasure or pain. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Abridged) ~ Ramakrishna

It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire. ~ Ramakrishna

If a white cloth is stained even with a small spot, the stain appears very ugly indeed. So the smallest fault of a holy man becomes painfully prominent. ~ Ramakrishna

The physicians of one class feel the patients and go away, merely prescribing medicine. As they leave the room they simply ask the patient to take the medicine. They are the poorest class of physicians. ~ Ramakrishna

If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God. ~ Ramakrishna

Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God. ~ Ramakrishna

Knowledge leads to unity, but ignorance to diversity. ~ Ramakrishna

Do not be small minded. Do not pray for gourds and pumpkins from God, when you should be asking for pure love and pure knowledge to dawn within every heart. ~ Ramakrishna

Now... We are going in a loop. ~ Ramakrishna

Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,p.81 ~ Ramakrishna

My son, there is no rest for me. That which Sri Ramakrishna called "Kali" took possession of my body and soul three or four days before his passing away. That makes me work and work and never lets me keep still or look to my personal comfort. ~ Swami Vivekananda

When the flower blooms
The bees come uninvited. ~ Ramakrishna