An ordinary man seeks freedom through enlightenment. An enlightened man expresses freedom through being ordinary. - Adyashanti.

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home. - Rumi.

If you feel like you do not fit in this world, it is because you are here to help create a new one. - Anonymous.

Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom. - William Jordan.

Indispensable Man

By Saxon White Kessinger

Sometimes when you’re feeling important;

Sometimes when your ego’s in bloom

Sometimes when you take it for granted

You’re the best qualified in the room,

Sometimes when you feel that you're going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions

And see how they humble your soul;

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining

Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore,

But stop and you’ll find that in no time

It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example

Is do just the best that you can,

Be proud of yourself but remember,

There’s no indispensable man.

We call them leaders because they go first because they take the risk before anybody else does because they will choose to sacrifice so their people will be safe and protected. - Simon Sinek.

Sometimes you find your path, sometimes it finds you. - Max Brooks.

Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning. - Anonymous.

The wonder of teaching is watching caterpillars become butterflies. - Anonymous.

The deeper you go within yourself, the more you begin to realize that you are far more powerful than you have been permitted to believe. - Anonymous.

Storms make trees take deeper roots. - Anonymous.

Humanity is our uniting religion, breath our uniting prayer, and consciousness our uniting God. - Yogiraj Satgurunath Siddhanath.

In spite of all drawbacks and in spite of the downfall the spirit of Indian culture, its central ideas, and its best ideals have still their message for humanity and not for India alone. - Sri Aurobindo.

There is nothing too small for gratitude. - Mary Davis.

It might take a year, it might take a day, but what's meant to be will always find its way. - Anonymous.

As soon as we take one thing by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. - John Muir.

Understand that everyone here on earth is learning just as you are and not everyone learns at the same pace or even the same lessons as you. - Anonymous.

 

The superior man thinks only of virtue; the common man thinks only of comfort. - Confucius.

A man who has reformed himself will reform thousands. - Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.

This path may not have been where you wanted to go or made you who you wanted to be. But, as painful and challenging as this transition can be, it can also be beautiful and rewarding in many ways. These changes, these challenges are not meant to break you, but to encourage you and help you grow. Amidst all the changes and this growth, you will find it was worth it all along. One day you will look back and remember this moment, the moment you decided to take the risk and change your life forever. - Anonymous.

What is yours will find you. - Anonymous.

When you sit in the silence of deep meditation, joy bubbles up from within, roused by no outer stimulus. The joy of meditation is overwhelming. Those who have not gone into the silence of true meditation do not know what real joy is. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

There is no separation between that what you call God and that what you call creation. - The Mother.

These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb. - Najwa Zebian.

"I cannot explain how I feel," said the Tiny Dragon.

Big Panda smiled. "That's Ok. Words are not adequate for all things."

"We are lost again." said the Big Panda.

"When I'm lost," said the Tiny Dragon, "I find it helps to go back to the beginning and try to remember why I started."

Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. - Anonymous.

The Saint and the Scorpion
By Nayaswami Devi

There is a story about a saint who was peacefully meditating under a tree along the banks of the Ganges. At a certain point, he heard a rustling overhead and opened his eyes to see a large scorpion moving along a branch overhanging the river.

When the creature reached the end of the branch, it fell into the water below. Filled with compassion, the saint waded into the river to rescue it. Cupping his hands together, he lifted the drowning scorpion and placed him gently on the river’s bank. In return for his kindness, the scorpion stung him.

Unperturbed, the saint then returned to the peace of his meditation. Again he heard a rustling overhead, again the scorpion plunged into the water, and again the saint rescued him, only to be stung.

When this happened a third time, a passerby who had been observing the drama could no longer contain himself. Approaching the saint, he asked, “Sir, why do you continue to rescue the scorpion, when each time he stings you?”

“Well,” the saint replied, his eyes luminous with divine love, “you see, it is the nature of the scorpion to sting. He cannot help himself.”

“That may be so, reverend sir, but knowing this, why do you continue to rescue him?” the passerby asked.

“You see, my child, I too cannot help myself. It is my nature to help him.”

This story provides us with a valuable lesson on how to live. Each of us encounters “human scorpions” filled with venom and spite whose sting can cause us suffering. But whether insects or human beings, such creatures are driven by instinct or the compulsions of past karma, and have no choice but to sting whenever they feel threatened.

The saint, by choosing to attune his consciousness to God’s love, had the freedom to express that love under all circumstances. Like the saint, we, too, can choose to align our actions with divine love and peace, no matter what is happening around us.

At first, this choice requires an act of will, as the ego tries to protect itself. With repeated effort and determination, however, the choice becomes “second nature.” Unlike the scorpion driven by instinct, we find that the higher path, illumined by a constant flow of divine grace, opens clearly before us.

In a sense, all decisions in life then become very simple. As a great saint once said, “We have but one decision to make in life: whether to think of God or not.” All the rest are details.

The big lesson in life is never to be scared of anyone or anything. - Frank Sinatra.

My will is a part of the eternal will. My fate is what my spirit's strength can make. My fate is what my spirit's strength can bear. My strength is not the Titans; it is God's. - Sri Aurobindo.

Life is going to give you a lot of reasons to be angry, you only need one to be grateful. - Anonymous.

God is not partial. His spirit is as fully within you as it was in Jesus and the great Masters. Find it by making your mind more transparent, and more receptive. The more you meditate and remember that image of God, the more you will feel God’s harmony uniting all things. Meditation and holding on to God’s presence in that inner calmness all day long is what is necessary. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Through meditation, and acting in harmony with divine law, you link your individuality to Cosmic Intelligence, and become one with that Intelligence in the tiniest atom and the farthest star — and in Infinitude, whence universes come and whither they return. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Meditation opens wide all the closed inner doors of your body, mind, and soul to admit the surge of God’s power. Your whole body and entire being changes when you practice meditation regularly. When you really contact God, all things become harmonious; all things melt into an ocean of peace. But you have to practice meditation earnestly, consistently, and continually, in order to have the full consciousness of that supreme force. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

The best things in life are not things. - Anonymous.

The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural and real way of life. We veil ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions that carry the mark of the Creator's hand. - George Bernard Shaw.

There are some parts of the world that once visited get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place. - Keith Bellows.

Perhaps in return for arrogance and spoliation, India will teach us the gentleness of a mind, the quiet content of the uninquisitive soul, and a pacifying love for all living things. - Will Durant.

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most constructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. - Mark Twain.

India was the motherland of our race and Sanskrit was the mother of Europe's languages. India was the mother of our philosophy, much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; of self-government and democracy. In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all. - Will Durant.

Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy. The greater the flow of energy, the greater the magnetism. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Your trails did not come to punish you, but to awaken you. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. - Khalil Gibran.

Doesn't matter how far you travel, you can never escape your "self". - Anonymous.

To strive. to seek, to find, and not to yield. - Ulysses.

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. - Anonymous.

Be careful how you are talking to yourself because you are listening. - Anonymous.

Even by the mind, this truth is to be learned: there are not many but only one. - Katha Upanishad.

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

Greatness comes from small beginnings. - Anonymous.

When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created this universe, everything else seems so superfluous. I have made the Bhagavad Gita as the source of my inspiration and guide for the purpose of scientific investigation and formation of my theories. - Albert Einstien.

An affirmation to practice: “All spiritually successful persons, such as Jesus, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, Swami Shankara, and other masters are manifestations of our one Father, God. I am happy in the thought that my spiritual ambition to realize unity with God is one that has already been attained by all great masters.” - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Every day, in the beginning, my mind used to say, “You can’t know God. Only great ones like Krishna, Jesus, and Buddha could.” Then I would reason, “If God favored them, He is partial; but I know He is not — He does not favor anyone. Even they had to go through great trials. But they were divinely successful, so I too can realize God.” - Paramahansa Yogananda.

This offers hope to every seeking heart, for there would be no incentive in following the example of Jesus if we could not be like him. Jesus was not sent to us to symbolize an unattainable goal. He came as a living inspiration, demonstrating what we all may successfully seek and achieve. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

When St. John said that “as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God,” he meant that anyone who could receive that Christ Consciousness…would become, as did Jesus, a son of God — one with the Father. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

There is a difference in meaning between Jesus and Christ. Jesus is the name of a little human body in which the vast Christ Consciousness was born. Although the Christ Consciousness manifested in the body of Jesus, it cannot be limited to one human form. It would be a metaphysical error to say that the omnipresent Christ Consciousness is circumscribed by the body of anyone human being. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

When we open our inner eyes of soul wisdom, we behold the omnipresent Light of God. Within this Light is the consciousness of Christ, the “Son” or pure reflection of God present everywhere in the universe. This Christ Consciousness, the Infinite Christ, is God's intelligence and love knocking on the closed eyelids of our souls, urging us that all we have to do is look to this Light within and we shall see all ignorance and diversities vanish. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. - Anais Nin.

You will never be able to escape from your heart. So, it is better to listen to what it has to say. - Paulo Coelho.

The space between bondage and liberation measures two feet only. Bondage says "this is mine", and liberation says "nothing is mine". - Hinduism.

Roads were made for journeys, not for destinations. - Confucius.

Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary. - Anonymous.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master. - Anonymous.

Grow through what you go through. - Anonymous.

Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity in oneself and others, is education. - J. Krishnamurti.

If your desire is intense, it is quite impossible that the light should not come to you. The question of whether the path is long or short must not be allowed any room in your mind. "Realization will have to be granted to me", this should be your determination. - Anandamayi Ma.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new. - Socrates.

What you refer to as Yoga is a technology to make your energies function by choice, not by compulsion or fixed patterns. - Sadhguru.

Do not try to please anyone. If you are truly joyful and an overflow of humanity, everyone will be pleased with you. - Sadhguru.

When you really understand you are just a speck of life in a limitless cosmos, you will naturally bow down to everything. - Sadhguru.

Yoga is a light, once lit, will never dim. The better you practice, the brighter the flame. - B. K. S. Iyengar.

What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle. - Rumi.

Every person carries the seed of enlightenment within. - Eckhart Tolle.

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. - Hafiz.

I felt in need of a great pilgrimage so I sat still for three days. - Hafiz.

Let us discover those truths that unite all religions, rather than compare the differences in faiths that men live by. - Ramana Maharishi.

I can do nothing for you but work on myself. You can do nothing for me but work on yourself. - Anonymous.

The most healing location on this earth is inside you. - Billie Jean.

True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; it is to be lived. Yoga doesn't care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied. - Aadil Palkhivala.

My yoga mat is a magic carpet when I am on it, I discover places within me I never knew existed. - Anonymous.

The choice is an illusion. You already know what you have to do. - Anonymous.

Love can melt stones. - Sri Swami Satchidananda.

When we are caught in a storm of emotions, we can practice being like the trunk of the tree. We don't stay up in the high branches. We go down to the trunk and become still, not carried away by our thinking and emotions. - Thich Nhat Hanh.

Yoga is a martial art of the soul, and the opponent is the strongest you have ever faced: your ego. - Anonymous.

Yoga essentially means to obliterate the boundaries of your individual nature and become universal. - Sadhguru.

Look at every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. - Anonymous.

Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject it as poison. - Swami Vivekananda.

No love is real love until it is one with God’s love; for all true love comes from God alone. Human love, to be divine, must be deep and selfless. Purify the heart’s love until it becomes divine. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

God is playing hide-and-seek through human hearts so that ultimately you will understand that it is His love you are seeking in your human loves. If you omit God from your human loves, love fades away. But by bringing God into your daily life, ordinary human love changes into divine love, manifested from the image of God within you. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Only when you are ignorant of your original nature, do other people's opinions become important. - Sadhguru.

Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful. - Beau Taplin.

Hard times do not create heroes. It is during hard times that the hero within us is revealed. - Bob Riley.

You can enjoy freedom if you can exercise restraint. - Anonymous.

Solitude is in the mind of man. One might be in the thick of the world and maintain the serenity of mind; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a forest, but still, be unable to control his mind. He cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude is a function of the mind. A man attached to desire cannot get solitude wherever he may be; a detached man is always in solitude. - Ramana Maharishi.

Let us together join our mental forces in strength for the benefit of humanity. - Taittariya Upanishad.

If you want to become fearless, choose love. - Rune Lazuli.

When love is deep, much can be accomplished. - Shinichi Suzuki.

A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it is in hot water. - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Reshape yourself through the power of your will; never let yourself be degraded by self-will. - Bhagavad Gita.

People say walking on water is a miracle, but to me walking peacefully on earth is the real miracle. - Thich Nhat Hanh.

A smile is the most beautiful curve on a woman's body. - Anonymous.

Being a leader does not require a title. Having a title does not make you one. - Anonymous.

Your hand is useful because it goes where you want it to go. Similarly, your mind is only useful if it goes where you want it to go. - Sadhguru.

As long as you are locked up in your own logic, the magic of life will not reveal itself to you. - Sadhguru.

No one has a perfect body or a perfect mind. In that sense, all of us are disabled in some way. But beyond the physiological and psychological dimensions, all life is just the same. - Sadhguru.

The land from where books were first written and from where wisdom and knowledge sprang is India. - The Fourth Caliph, Ali Bin Abi Talib.

A certain darkness is needed to see the stars. - Osho.

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. - Hindu Proverb.

Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you. - Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri.

Anyone can keep calm in a cave or when asleep. Stand in the whirl and madness of action and reach the center. Live in the midst of the battle of life. - Swami Vivekananda.

Sitting silently, just start watching your breath. Inhalation, gap, exhalation, gap, inhalation, gap. That gap is the most mysterious phenomenon inside you. When the breath comes in and stops and there is no movement that is the point where one can meet God. - Buddha.

In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the earth, but not adhering to it. Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed on them, possessing everything but possessed by nothing. - Apollonius of Tyana.

True friendship can exist only between equals. - Plato.

Every time you meditate deeply on God, beneficial changes take place in the patterns of your brain. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. - Jason Crandell.

The universe has shaken you to awaken you. - Anonymous.

The whole world can easily be won by forgiveness, mercy, love, good words, honesty, modesty, and service. - Sanskrit Saying.

"Tell us what have you got from enlightenment. Did you become divine?"
"No."
"Did you become a saint?"
"No."
"Then what did you become?"
"Awake."
- Anthony De Mello.

There is no knowledge for the seekers of comfort, and no comfort for the seekers of knowledge. - Mahabharata.

We do not use the body to get into a pose. We use the pose to get into the body. - Bernie Clark.

Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, 'It will not come to nigh me.' By the falling of water drops a pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good, even if he gather it little by little. - Lord Buddha.

We sweep up the fallen leaves in the garden. But we do not hate the trees for dropping them. - Zen Master Mamiya.

The mastery over the mind results in control of the relationship with everything from atom to cosmos. - Sanskrit Saying.

Remember, this December that love weighs more than gold. - Anonymous.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. - Meister Eckhart.

It is not that I am so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer. - Albert Einstein.

Genius is 1 percent talent and 99 percent hard work. - Albert Einstein.

What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs. - Rumi.

A great man doesn't seek to lead. He is called to it and he answers. - Anonymous.

Mountains have always been an inspiration for seekers of all sorts. The peak signifies fulfillment. May you know the peak of your being. - Sadhguru.

People who logically examine their relationships cannot sustain them. Two bodies, two minds, two emotions can never fit perfectly. The magic of being together can never be contained in logic. - Sadhguru.

Saints of all religions have attained God-realization through the simple concept of the Cosmic Beloved. Because the Absolute is nirguna, ‘without qualities,’ and acintya, ‘inconceivable,’ human thought and yearning have ever personalized It as the Universal Mother. A combination of personal theism and the philosophy of the Absolute is an ancient achievement of Hindu thought, expounded in the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. This “reconciliation of opposites” satisfies heart and head; bhakti (devotion) and jnana (wisdom) are essentially one. Prapatti, “taking refuge” in God, and sharanagati, “flinging oneself on the Divine Compassion,” are really paths of the highest knowledge. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

The divine purpose of creation, so far as man’s reason can grasp it, is expounded in the Vedas. The rishis taught that each human being has been created by God as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity. All men, endowed thus with a facet of Divine Individuality, are equally dear to God. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

One should forgive under any injury. It hath been said that the continuation of the species is due to man's being forgiving. Forgiveness is holiness; by forgiveness the universe is held together. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; forgiveness is sacrifice; forgiveness is quiet of the mind. Forgiveness and gentleness are the qualities of the self-possessed. They represent eternal virtue. - The Mahabharata.

The more weapons of violence, the more misery to mankind. The triumph of violence ends in a festival of mourning. - Lao Tzu.

The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see. - Alexandra K. Trenfor.

Anything that can ever be done by either man or God has been done on this land (India). - Mark Twain.

Love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us. It is not a mere sentiment. It is truth, it is the joy that is at the root of all creation. - Guru Rabindranath Tagore.

The path into the light seems dark. - Lao Tzu.

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you are certain you don't have anything to learn from them. You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past. - Richard Bach.

Kriya Yoga is no ordinary breathing exercise: It is the highest known technique of pranayama, by which you can consciously control the life force in the body and thereby attain cosmic consciousness. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

The reversal of the life force from matter to Spirit is called pranayama. By withdrawing the life current from externals through Kriya Yoga, the consciousness begins inwardly to awaken to its higher nature in God. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

No matter what your faith is, what your belief is, Kriya Yoga is the scientific highway to the Infinite - for you will ascend the path from which your spirit descended into the flesh and became locked in the body. That is the purpose of Kriya Yoga. Kriya means action, and yoga means unity. Kriya Yoga means that action which brings unity of the descended soul with the Spirit from which we descended. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are Souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our Souls play their music. - Albert Einstein.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. - Rumi.

Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens. Have faith and He will do everything for you. - The Mother.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, the men below and saints above; For love is heaven and heaven is love. - Walter Scott.

If we do not work for individual transformation, talking about world peace is just entertainment. - Sadhguru.

Life is always unsafe and unstable, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. The company of a divine personage, even for a moment, can save and redeem us. - Adi Shankaracharya.

‘Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva’ (Serving people is akin to serving the divine). - Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Yoga is not about touching your toes, it is about what you learn on the way down. - Anonymous.

When you are in direct contact with the Creator of this universe, you are in direct contact with all wisdom and understanding. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

The world will go on like this in its ups and downs. Where shall we look for a sense of direction? Not to the prejudices roused within us by our habits and the environmental influences of our families, our country, or the world; but to the guiding voice of Truth within. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. - Dalai Lama.

Today you could be talking to someone who is trying their best not to fall apart. So whatever you do today, do it with kindness in your heart. - Anonymous.

Guru's grace is not designed to fulfill your plans but life's plan for you. - Sadhguru.

With life as short as half taken breath, don't plant anything but love. - Rumi.

If you think you are superior, because you are awakened, you are still asleep. - Anonymous.

A human being is a highly sophisticated mechanism. If you are in proper tune, you are capable of perceiving the whole cosmos within oneself. - Sadhguru.

Teaching should not be a profession - it must be a passion. Only then can education move from imposition of facts to exploration of truth. - Sadhguru.

Meditation is not about going somewhere - it is falling back into yourself. - Sadhguru.

If you realize your life is 100 percent your responsibility, there is no room for being resentful towards anyone. - Sadhguru.

The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realize the Self. There is nothing else to do. - Sri Ramana Maharishi.

True devotion means becoming the hand of the Divine. Whatever comes your way, you will know how to transform it into something beautiful. -Sadhguru.

My Paramguru Lahiri Mahasaya carried all the burdens and responsibilities of family life, yet never ceased to commune with the omnipresent Spirit. This great Yogavatar, who introduced Kriya Yoga in India and taught it to all receptive seekers, said that the requisites for spiritual liberation are association with a Christlike soul or meditation on him, fellowship with other spiritual aspirants, and the faithful practice of meditation. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

A higher power is leading you; be led by the same. It knows what to do and how to do it. - Ramana Maharishi.

When you don't understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you. - Bodhidharma.

All know the way, but few actually walk it. - Bodhidharma.

Moving from compulsiveness to consciousness is the only way out for a human being. - Sadhguru.

God is Sahaja, or as we say in English simple. You can't recognize the simple without being simple yourself. - Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

O, my Lord, my Lord! What you want of me, let me be. What you want me to do, let me do. - The Mother.

Pointing to the heart, the Master used to say, "He who has God here, has Him also there [pointing to the external world]. He who does not find God within himself will never find Him outside of himself. But he who sees Him in the temple of his own Soul, sees Him also in the temple of the universe." - Sri Ramakrishna.

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as He himself will be seeking you. - Sri Ramana Maharishi.

If you think something or someone is against you, you lost your yoga; you lost your inclusiveness. - Sadhguru.

The highest force in existence is consciousness, and you are that. - Sadhguru.

The more security you seek, the more disturbed you will be about every change that happens in your life. - Sadhguru.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. - Mahatma Gandhi.

Whatever may be the circumstances, rudeness or curt behaviour is never permissible. - The Mother.

Prayer for a Disciple
By Sri Aurobindo

Mother, be with me, now and always. Envelope me with your presence. Raise and purify me with your touch. Inhabit me with your living image. Transform all dullness and darkness into bright and perfect faith. Transform all restlessness and agitation into inviolable calm and peace. Transform all attachment into a deep and stainless purity. Mother, liberate and change me, perfect your child.

When every activity you perform becomes an offering, then karma cannot bind you - Sadhguru.

Don't be afraid of the solitude that comes with raising your standards. - Ebonee Davis.

The Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world; the whole world can be verified, made strong, energized through them. - Swami Vivekananda.

Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred. - Hafiz.

True prayer is an expression of the soul, an urge from the soul. It is a hunger for God that arises from within, expressing itself to Him ardently, silently. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Fear

By Khalil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea

a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,

from the peaks of the mountains,

the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,

she sees an ocean so vast,

that to enter

there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.

The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.

To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk

of entering the ocean

because only then will fear disappear,

because that’s where the river will know

it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,

but of becoming the ocean.

Who am I? What do I really enjoy doing? How can I serve people using what I really enjoy doing? What is life all about? Is it about me? Is it about others? How important is money? The answer to all these questions is more important before we care about any degree. The whys are far more important the hows and whats. Figure out your whys. - Anonymous.

Be thankful for closed doors, detours, and roadblocks. They protect you from paths and places not meant for you. - Anonymous.

When a man becomes a little wiser, he will not complain about anything and will take the things the Divine sends him as a manifestation of His all-compassionate Grace. The more surrendered we are, the more we shall understand. The more grateful we are the happier we shall be. - The Mother.

Being a seeker of truth means refusing to make assumptions about things that you do not know. - Sadhguru.

If your work is about creating something that you truly care for, there is no need to balance work and life - life is work, and work is life. - Sadhguru.

Virtue is the only friend that follows us beyond the grave. Everything else ends with death. - Swami Vivekananda.

You are all searching for the silence of the mountain. But you are looking for something outside. The silence is accessible to you right now, inside the centre of your own being. - Ramana Maharishi.

As long as we require someone else to make us happy, we are slaves. - Swami Vivekananda.

Everything in the future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now. - Swami Sri Yukteshwar Giri.

Just as a piece of iron, which had been covered with the dust of centuries, might be lying near a magnet all the time, and yet not be attracted by it, but as soon as the dust is cleared away, the iron is drawn by the magnet; so, when the human soul, covered with the dust of ages, impurities, wickedness, and sins, after many births, becomes purified enough by these forms and ceremonies, by doing good to others, loving other beings, its natural spiritual attraction comes, it wakes up and struggles towards God. - Swami Vivekananda.

The question 'Who am I?' is not really meant to get an answer, the question 'Who am I?' is meant to dissolve the questioner. - Ramana Maharishi.

One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light, but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as the virtuous. - Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Work hard. Discipline yourself. Build your character. Endure to the end. Realize yourself Self. And be free. - Swami Trigunatitananda.

How easy the spiritual path is if you give even a little time each day to meditation. Meditate intensely, morning and evening. Even fifteen minutes of meditation is better than no time at all. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

"A mother has several children, to one she has given a toy, to another a doll, to a third some sweets, so that absorbed in these things they forget their mother. But among them, the child who throws aways his playthings and cries after the mother, 'Where is my mamma?' - draws her to himself. She runs quickly to him and takes him up in her arms and soothes him. So, O Man! You are absorbed in the thoughts of lust and greed. When you throw them off and cry for the Divine Mother, She will come to you and take you up in her arms." - Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Staying young means being willing to learn, evolve, and be open to life. - Sadhguru.

If you want to go beyond your compulsive tendencies, the only way is to become conscious. - Sadhguru.

Indian culture produced phenomenal human beings because education was not about learning things but enhancing the human being. If human beings are sufficiently enhanced, they are able to learn whatever they want. - Sadhguru.

There is no easy way out. There is no shortcut home. - Robert Tepper.

Remember, there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future. - Anonymous.

Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful because we put our hearts into whatever we do. - Sadhguru.

First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi.

 

Then life is sweet, and death a dream

When Thy Song flows through me.

Then health is sweet, and sickness a dream

When Thy Song flows through me.

Then praise is sweet, and blame a dream

When Thy Song flows through me.

Then life is sweet, and death a dream

When Thy Song flows through me. 

- Paramahansa Yogananda.

Read a little, Meditate more. Think of God all the time. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all - with wife, and children, Father and Mother - and serve them. Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you. Everything belongs to God alone. A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home. She brings up master’s children as if they were her own. She even speaks of them as ‘My Rama’ or ‘My Hari'. But in her own mind, she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all. - Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna Dev.

The mind turned outwards results in thoughts and objects. Turned inwards it becomes itself, the Self. - Ramana Maharishi.

The mind is an endless game. You should not play it all the time. - Sadhguru.

 

 

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. - Khalil Gibran.

To be calm is the greatest asset in the world. It's the greatest siddhi, the greatest power you can have. If you can only learn to be calm you will solve every problem. This is something you must remember. When you are perfectly calm, time stops. There is no time, karma stops, samskaras stop. Everything becomes null and void. For when you are calm you are one with the entire energy of the universe and everything will go well with you. To be calm means you are in control. You're not worried about the situation, the outcome - what is going to happen tomorrow. To be calm means everything is alright. There is nothing to worry about, nothing to fret over. This is also the meaning of the biblical saying, "Be still and know that I am God." To be calm is to be still. The only spiritual life you need is not to react. - Anonymous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True religion (Soul/Spirit science) is entirely transcendental. Every being that is in the universe has the potentiality of transcending the senses; even the little worm will one day transcend the senses and reach God. No life will be a failure; there is no such thing as failure in the universe. A hundred times man will hurt himself, a thousand times he will tumble, but in the end, he will realize that he is God. We know there is no progress in a straight line. Every Soul moves, as it were, in a circle, and will have to complete it, and no Soul can go so low but there will come a time when it will have to go upwards. No one will be lost. We are all projected from one common centre, which is God. The highest as well as the lowest life God ever projected, will come back to the Father of all lives. "From whom all beings are projected, in whom all live, and unto whom they all return, that is God." - Swami Vivekananda.

Like the lotus flower, we too have the ability to rise from the mud bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world. - Anonymous.

Bad chapters can still create great stories. Wrong paths can still lead to the right places. Failed dreams can still create successful people. Sometimes it takes losing yourself to find yourself. - Anonymous.

Being a leader does not mean dominating the situation. It means empowering people to do what they would not have imagined possible. - Sadhguru.

Every time you listen to a philosopher or spiritual teacher and take their values, you trust "their" process. Ironically the highest place they can ever get you to is to trust "your" (own) process. Why not cut to the chase and trust your process and trust "the" process as it unfolds in you, for you, as you, and through you. - Nithya Shanti.

People are dedicated to their lifestyle, not their life. Once you are dedicated to your lifestyle, you get enslaved to how much you earn. - Sadhguru.

If I say “Buddha,” today most people think of Gautama the Buddha. Gautama was not the only Buddha. There were many before him, many at that time, and many more after him. Buddha is not his name. His name was Gautama Siddhartha. He became a Buddha. The word "Bu" means buddhi or the intellect. One who is above his intellect is a Buddha. There is probably no one in the world who has not heard of Gautama's name. Though there have been many Buddhas, his name has lived on. He has been one of the greatest spiritual waves and probably the most successful spiritual teacher on the planet. In his own lifetime, he had forty thousand monks and this army of monks went out to bring a spiritual wave. He did not do anything very new as such, but he offered spirituality to society in the way that it works. Till then, the spiritual process was offered only in the Sanskrit language in that part of the world and Sanskrit was available only to a certain community of people. Others were barred from learning it because this language was seen as the key to the Divine. For the first time, Gautama spoke in Pali, which was the common language of the day. He opened up the floodgates of spirituality for all kinds of people. - Sadhguru.

 

There is no need to think outside the box. Simply, realize there is no box. - Paramshanti.

Life is so much simpler when you stop explaining yourself to people and just do what works for you. - Anonymous.

I saw the Teacher sitting under a tree. He was a young man of sixteen, and the disciple was an old man of eighty. The preaching of the Teacher was silence, and the doubts of the disciple departed. - Old Sanskrit Verse.

Take a moment. Understand the value you hold. - Anonymous.

 

Relieve the suffering of Mother Earth’s children and you will find peace. - Anonymous.

 

 

Unless the mind becomes steady there cannot be Yoga. It is the wind of worldliness that always disturbs the mind, which may be likened to a candle flame. If that flame doesn't flicker at all, then one is said to have attained Yoga. - Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Begin to weave and the Divine will provide the thread. - Old Proverb.

The one you are looking for is you. - Osho.

The habit of being inwardly in the calm presence of God must be developed, so that day and night that consciousness will remain steadfast. It is worth the effort; for to live in the consciousness of God is to be done with enslavement to disease, suffering, and fear. Just be with God; that is the be-all and end-all of life. If one resolves never to go to sleep at night without meditating and feeling the Divine Presence, into one's life will come happiness beyond all expectations. Effort is necessary, but that effort will make one a king enthroned in the kingdom of peace and joy. Time spent in the pursuit of extraneous material things is a waste of man's precious opportunities to know God. I am telling you this from my heart: Blessed is he who makes up his mind never to rest until he has found God. - Paramahansa Yogananda.

 

 

Kindness is never wasted. - Anonymous.

The older you get, the more you realize that it is okay to live a life others do not understand. - Anonymous.

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. - John Muir.

Love and kindness will always be louder. - Anonymous.

No matter how educated, talented, rich, or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything. - Anonymous.

Man conquers the world by conquering himself. - Anonymous.

The hardest battle we face is with ourselves. - Anonymous.

He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. - St. Francis of Assisi.

We ourselves feel what we are doing is a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. - Mother Theresa.

Anything that is unresolved within ourselves will keep manifesting itself in our lives until we heal it. - Anonymous.

When difficulties besiege you, know that the Divine Grace is with you. - The Mother.

Sometimes you don't realize the weight of what you have been carrying until you feel the weight of its release. - Anonymous.

The one you are looking for is you. - Osho.

Disinterest in the non-self must be very strong to do this. One's eagerness must be equal to that of a person kept underwater while trying to rise to the surface to breathe. - Ramana Maharishi.

No Siddha leaves the world without having given some truth to mankind. Every free Soul has to shed on others his light of God-realization. - Anonymous.

That sage who has solely engaged himself in drinking the nectar which is no other than the Brahman, the nectar which is the outcome of incessant mediation, that sage becomes the greatest of ascetics, Paramahansa, and a philosopher free of worldly taint, Avadhuta. By the sight of him, the whole world becomes consecrated. Even an ignorant man who is devoted to his service becomes liberated. - The Upanishads.

Happiness is the new rich. Kindness is the new cool. Health is the new wealth. Inner #peace is the new success. - Anonymous.

Gaudapada (Adi Shankara's Guru's Guru) in his treatise Agama Shastra (which is an exploratory vision of Manudkya Upanishad) gives an allegory: An empty pot has space inside it and outside it. The space inside may be an absolute state of bliss so far as the pot is concerned; however, the pot still separates the space inside it from the space outside. This pot must be shattered and broken to pieces so that the inner being melts into the oneness. When this barrier breaks, this layer of the pot (the space inside it) is no different from the space outside it - it just melts into oneness. The shell (layer of the pot) only acts as a tool that finally dissolves (breaks open) leaving the pure emptiness inside to surface and merge with the emptiness outside.

It is like a bucket of water dipped into the well. A rope is controlling the bucket through the pulley on top of the well. The bucket is full of water (Godliness) inside and is immersed in the water of the well (pure Godliness) on the outside; the bucket still "lingers" about in the water as it is tied to the rope suspended through the pulley. Even though the "water in the bucket" (the being of the one who is meditating) is the same as the "water in the well" (Godliness), the rope (ego) still dangles between the pulley and the water in the well. Meditation also takes you beyond (in Sanskrit this is called Thuriya or Shoonya) to a place where neither the meditator nor the meditation exists. It is the free flow state where the water in the bucket and the water in the well have melted into one another and there is no entity of either the rope or the bucket (or the well). Pure infiniteness, pure isness floats infinitely. - Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Once upon a time in a faraway land, a young man went to the forest and said to his spiritual master, "I want to have unlimited wealth, and with that unlimited wealth, I want to help and heal the world. Will you please tell me the secret to creating affluence?" And the spiritual master replied, "There are 2 Godesses that reside in the heart of every human being. Everybody is deeply in love with these supreme beings. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is. Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to on of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge, and her name is Saraswati. Pursue her, love, her, and give her your attention. The other Goddess, whose name is Lakshmi, is the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to Sarasvati, Lakshmi will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever." There is power in knowledge, desire and spirit. And, this power within you is the key to creating affluence. - Anonymous.

Our only hope: to stop, to look, to understand, and to get out of the traps of memory. For memory feeds imagination and imagination generates desire and fear. - Nisargadatta Maharaj.