Swami Vivekananda Quotes

The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Whether you bathe in the Ganga for a thousand years or live on vegetable food for a like period, unless it helps towards the manifestation of the Self, know that it is all of no use. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Curiously enough, it seems that at times the spiritual side prevails, and then the materialistic side - in wave-like motions following each other. ...At one time the full flood of materialistic ideas prevails, and everything in this life - prosperity, the education which procures more pleasures, more food - will become glorious at first and then that will degrade and degenerate. Along with the prosperity will rise to white heat all the inborn jealousies and hatreds of the human race. Competition and merciless cruelty will be the watchword of the day. To quote a very commonplace and not very elegant English proverb, "Everyone for himself, and the devil take the hindmost", becomes the motto of the day. Then people think that the whole scheme of life is a failure. And the world would be destroyed had not spirituality come to the rescue and lent a helping hand to the sinking world. Then the world gets new hope and finds a new basis for a new building, and another wave of spirituality comes, which in time again declines. As a rule, spirituality brings a class of men who lay exclusive claim to the special powers of the world. The immediate effect of this is a reaction towards materialism, which opens the door to scores of exclusive claims, until the time comes when not only all the spiritual powers of the race, but all its material powers and privileges are centered in the hands of a very few; and these few, standing on the necks of the masses of the people, want to rule them. Then ~ Swami Vivekananda

Practice makes us what we shall be. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Put God behind everything-human beings, animals, food, and work. Make this a habit. ~ Swami Vivekananda

All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody's property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls. ~ Swami Vivekananda

We must also remember that in every little village-god and every little superstitious custom is that which we are accustomed to call our religious faith. But local customs are infinite and contradictory. Which are we to obey, and which not to obey? The Brāhmin of Southern India, for instance, would shrink in horror at the sight of another Brahmin eating meat; a Brahmin in the North thinks it a most glorious and holy thing to do - he kills goats by the hundred in sacrifice. If you put forward your custom, they are equally ready with theirs. Various are the customs all over India, but they are local. The greatest mistake made is that ignorant people always think that this local custom is the essence of our religion. ~ Swami Vivekananda

As the cause is, so the effect will be. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The Soul is not composed of any materials. It is unity indivisible. Therefore it must be indestructible. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The moment you think creed and form and ceremony the "be-all" and "end-all", then you are in bondage. Take part in them to help others, but take care they do not become a bondage. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Each nation has a theme: everything else is secondary. India's theme is religion. ~ Swami Vivekananda

What is the world that is to be given up? It is here. I am carrying it all with me. My own body. It is all for this body that I put my hand voluntarily upon my fellow human beings, just to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure. It is all for the body that I injure others and make mistakes. ~ Swami Vivekananda

I am neither man nor angel. I have no sex nor limit. I am knowledge itself. I am He. I have neither anger nor hatred. I have neither pain nor pleasure. Death or birth I never had. For I am Knowledge Absolute, and Bliss Absolute. I am He, my soul, I am He! ~ Swami Vivekananda

Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Mind you, there is no value in learning. You are all mistaken in learning. The only value of knowledge is in the strengthening, the disciplining, of the mind. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-makin g, assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Faith, sympathy - fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Life is nothing, death is nothing, hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord - march on, the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls - forward - onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls, and another takes up the work ~ Swami Vivekananda

We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute. ~ Swami Vivekananda

See here, how fresh is the air, there is the Ganga, and the Sadhus (holy men) are practising meditation, and holding lofty talks! While the moment you will go to Calcutta, you will be thinking of nasty stuff. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Purity, perseverance, and energy- these three I want. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Bullies are always cowards. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The body is the external coating and the mind is the internal coating of the Atman who is the real perceiver, the real enjoyer, the being in the body who is working the body by means of the internal organ or the mind. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The mind of the man who receives gifts is acted on by the mind of the giver, so the receiver is likely to become degenerated. Receiving gifts is prone to destroy the independence of the mind, and make us slavish. Therefore, receive no gifts. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The sky never changes: it is the cloud that is changing. ~ Swami Vivekananda

How many sepoys were brought by the Musalmans? How many Englishmen are there? Where, except in India, can be had millions of men who will cut the throats of their own fathers and brothers for six rupees? Sixty millions of Musalmans in seven hundred years of Mohammedan rule, and two millions of Christians in one hundred years of Christian rule - what makes it so? ~ Swami Vivekananda

Highest love for God can never be achieved without renunciation. ~ Swami Vivekananda

There is, however, only one idea of duty which has been universally accepted by all mankind, of all ages and sects and countries, and that has been summed up in a Sanskrit aphorism thus: "Do not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue, injuring any being is sin." ~ Swami Vivekananda

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. ~ Swami Vivekananda

There is no happiness higher than what a man obtains by this attitude of non-offensiveness, to all creation. ~ Swami Vivekananda

One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom ~ Swami Vivekananda

So never mind these failures, these little backslidings. Hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more ... There is infinite life before the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end. ~ Swami Vivekananda

you should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do slave's work. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Let him who has courage in his mind and love in his heart come with me. I want none else. ~ Swami Vivekananda

It is the Prana that is manifesting as motion. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Who shall make me perfect? I am perfect already. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara. ~ Swami Vivekananda

There is salvation only for the brave. ~ Swami Vivekananda

With the attraction for lust and lucre working the other way, how many long for the realisation of God? ~ Swami Vivekananda

Throw aside your scriptures in the Ganga and teach the people first the means of procuring their food and clothing, and then you will find time to read to them the scriptures. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Who can break the law? If I break this glass, it will fall down. If anyone succeeds in throwing one atom out of place, every other atom will go out of balance ... The law can never be broken. Each atom is kept in its place. Each is weighed and measured and fulfils its [purpose] and place. Through His command the winds blow, the sun shines. Through His rule the worlds are kept in place. Through His orders death is sporting upon the earth. Just think of two or three Gods having a wrestling match in this world! It cannot be. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Some may be helped by images, some may not. Some require an image outside, others one inside the brain. ~ Swami Vivekananda

It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. ~ Swami Vivekananda

If a person who can [give a blow] forbears, there is merit in that. ~ Swami Vivekananda

When you talk and think of the Absolute, you have to do it in the relative; so all these logical arguments apply. ~ Swami Vivekananda

flying from work is never the way to find peace. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Arise! Arise! A tidal wave is coming! Onward! Men and women, down to the Chandala (Pariah) - all are pure in his eyes. Onward! Onward! There is no time to care for name, or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti! We shall look to these some other time. Now in this life let us infinitely spread his lofty character, his sublime life, his infinite soul. This is the only work - there is nothing else to do. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Have faith in your destiny ~ Swami Vivekananda

"I do not want to get material life, do not want the sense-life, but something higher." That is renunciation. Then, by the power of meditation, undo the mischief that has been done. ~ Swami Vivekananda

May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea. ~ Swami Vivekananda

If you [can realise Brahman] by standing on your head, or on one foot, or by worshipping five thousand gods with three heads each - welcome to it! ... Do it any way you can! Nobody has any right to say anything. Therefore, Krishna says, if your method is better and higher, you have no business to say that another man's method is bad, however wicked you may think it. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and this nature is both internal and external. ~ Swami Vivekananda

A perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Life itself is a state of continuous struggle between ourselves and everything outside. Every moment we are fighting actually with external nature, and if we are defeated, our life has to go. ~ Swami Vivekananda

You are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. You divinities on earth. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; you are not matter, you are not bodies; matter is your servant,not you the servant of matter. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The greatest force is derived from the power of thought. The finer the element, the more powerful it is. The silent power of thought influences people even at a distance, because mind is one as well as many. The universe is a cobweb; minds are spiders. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The help which tends to make us spiritually strong is the highest help, next to it comes intellectual help and after that comes physical help. ~ Swami Vivekananda

When he has become perfectly satisfied, he has no more cravings ~ Swami Vivekananda

What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe. It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite. ~ Swami Vivekananda

There is no help for you, outside yourself; You are the creator of the universe. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Bold has been my message to the people of the west, bolder is my message to you, my beloved countryman. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Never try to follow another's path for that is his way, not yours. When that path is found, you have nothing to do but fold your arms and the tide will carry you to freedom. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Take risks in life, if u win u can lead, if u loose u can guide ~ Swami Vivekananda

The sages are often ignorant of physical science, because they read the wrong book-the book within; and the scientists are too often ignorant of religion, because they too read the wrong book-the book outside. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being. ~ Swami Vivekananda

When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being. ~ Swami Vivekananda

"You are pure and perfect, and what you call sin does not belong to you". Sins are low degrees of Self-manifestation; manifest your Self in a high degree. ~ Swami Vivekananda

When I see an object there is no will; when its sensations are carried to the brain, there comes the reaction, which says "Do this", or "Do not do this", and this state of the ego-substance is what is called will ~ Swami Vivekananda

If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better. ~ Swami Vivekananda

They only live, who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The one eternal religion is applied to the opinions of various minds and various races. There never was my religion or yours, my national religion or your national religion; there never existed many religions, there is only the one. One infinite religion existed all through eternity and will ever exist, and this religion is expressing itself in various countries in various ways. ~ Swami Vivekananda

if you want to do a great or a good work, do not trouble to think what the result will be. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Change is inherent in every form. ~ Swami Vivekananda

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind? ... We make our own destiny. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-action, and everything, but it is untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat of cold, and all the dualism of nature, although it lends its light to everything. ~ Swami Vivekananda

They Laugh at me because I am different,
I laugh at them because they all are the same. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Whose meditation is real and effective? Who can really surrender to the will of God? Only the person whose mind has been purified by selfless work. ~ Swami Vivekananda

According to the history of human progress, it is disobedience to nature that has constituted that progress. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The Upanishads do not reveal the life of any teacher, but simply teach principles. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. ~ Swami Vivekananda

This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilisation, and if there has been degeneration, if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find that degeneration to have started on the day our people lost faith in themselves. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Man cannot be satisfied by wealth. Man cannot go beyond his nature, no more than you can jump out of your body. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Nothing is gained except by sacrifice ... Do not degrade it to the level of the brutes ... Make yourselves decent men! ... Be chaste and pure! ... There is no other way. Did Christ find any other way? ~ Swami Vivekananda

Three things are necessary to make every man great,every nation great1.Conviction of the powers of goodness.2.Absence of jealousy and suspicion.3.Helping all who are trying to be and do good. ~ Swami Vivekananda

He who in the midst of intense activity finds himself in the greatest calmness, and in the greatest peace finds intense activity, that is the greatest [Yogi as well as the wisest man] (note 2). ~ Swami Vivekananda

The best principles in our lives were those which we heard from our mothers through our ears. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Have fire and spread all over. Work, work. Be the servant while leading, be unselfish, and never listen to one friend in private accusing another. Have infinite patience, and success is yours. ~ Swami Vivekananda

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

Whatever had form or shape must be limited, and could not be eternal. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Father is the existence out of which everything comes; Son is that knowledge. It is in Christ that God will be manifest. God was everywhere, in all beings, before Christ; but in Christ we became conscious of Him. This is God. The third is bliss, the Holy Spirit. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The happiest is the man who is not at all selfish. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Ordinary love is mere animal attraction. Otherwise why is the distinction between the sexes? If one kneels before an image, it is dreadful idolatry; but if one kneels before husband or wife, it is quite permissible! ~ Swami Vivekananda

The one who actually succeeds in making himself believe that he is having a good time is the man of splendid physical health. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Christianity was preached just on the basis of the fascination of this fanaticism, and that is what made it so attractive to the Greek and the Roman slaves. They believed that under the millennial religion there would be no more slavery, that there would be plenty to eat and drink; and, therefore, they flocked round the Christian standard. Those who preached the idea first were of course ignorant fanatics, but very sincere. In modern times this millennial aspiration takes the form of equality--of liberty, equality, and fraternity. This is also fanaticism. True ~ Swami Vivekananda

The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Everything will come right if you are pure and sincere. We want hundreds like you bursting upon society and bringing new life and vigor of the spirit wherever they go. ~ Swami Vivekananda

He whom the sages have been seeking in all these places is in our own hearts; the voice that you heard was right, says Vedanta, but the direction you gave to the voice was wrong. ~ Swami Vivekananda

All action of Sattva, a modification of Prakriti characterised by light and happiness, is for the soul. When Sattva is free from egoism and illuminated with the pure intelligence of Purusha, it is called the self-centred one, because in that state it becomes independent of all relations. ~ Swami Vivekananda

The law of attraction which holds good for the heavenly bodies also holds good for the smallest particles. ~ Swami Vivekananda

My brother, do men grieve over the fight of cats and dogs? So the jealousy, envy, and elbowing of common men should make no impression on your mind. ~ Swami Vivekananda