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Sri
Ramakrishna Quotes
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Is anything impossible for the grace of
God? Suppose you bring a light
into a room that has been dark a thousand years; does it remove the
darkness little
by little? The room is lighted all at once. Intense renunciation is what
is
needed.
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Do you know my attitude? Books,
scriptures, and things like that only point out the way to reach God.
After finding the way, what more need is there of books and scriptures?
Then comes the time for action.
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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.
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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."
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No one can say with
finality that God is only 'this' and nothing else. He is formless, and
again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless
for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream.
The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore
God, reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani — the Vedantist,
for instance — always reasons, applying the process of 'Not this, not
this'. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception,
that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the
jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what
Brahman is.
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Give up worldly talk
altogether. Don't talk about anything whatever but God. If you see a
worldly person coming near you, leave the place before he arrives. You
have spent your whole life in the world. You have seen that it is all
hollow. Isn't that so? God alone is Substance, and all else is illusory.
God alone is real, and all else has only a two-days existence. What is
there in the world? The world is like a pickled hog plum: one craves for
it. But what is there in a hog plum? Only skin and pit. And if you eat
it you will have colic.
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Pilgrimage becomes futile
if it does not enable you to attain love of God. Love of God is the one
essential and necessary thing. Do you know the meaning of 'kites and
vultures'? There are many people who talk big and who say that they have
performed most of the duties enjoined in the scriptures. But with all
that their minds are engrossed in worldliness and deeply preoccupied
with money, riches, name, fame, creature comforts, and such things.
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Who can ever know God? I
don't even try. I only call on Him as Mother. Let Mother do whatever She
likes. I shall know Her if it is Her will; but I shall be happy to
remain ignorant if She wills otherwise. My nature is that of a kitten.
It only cries, 'Mew, mew!' The rest it leaves to its mother. The mother
cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen and sometimes on the
master's bed. The young child wants only his mother.
He doesn't know how wealthy his mother is, and he doesn't even want to
know. He knows only, 'I have a mother; why should I worry?' Even the
child of the maidservant knows that he has a mother. If he quarrels with
the son of the master, he says: 'I shall tell my mother. I have a
mother.' My attitude, too, is that of a child.
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A man may not know the
right path, but if he has bhakti and the desire to know God, then he
attains Him through the force of sheer bhakti. Once a sincere devotee
set out on a pilgrimage to the temple of Jagganath in Puri. He did not
know the way; he went west instead of south. He no doubt strayed from
the right path, but he always eagerly asked people the way, and they
gave him the right directions, saying, This is not the path; follow that
one.' At last the devotee was able to get to Puri and worship the Deity.
So you see, even if you are ignorant, someone will tell you the way if
you are earnest.
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A sannyasi must give up
'woman and gold'; he cannot accept it any more. One must not swallow
one's own spittle. When a sannyasi gives something to another, he knows
that it is not himself who gives. Kindness belongs to God alone. How can
a man lay claim to it? Charity depends on the will of Rama. A true
sannyasi renounces 'woman and gold' both mentally and outwardly. He who
eats no molasses must not even keep molasses about. If he does, and yet
tells others not to eat it, they won't listen to him.
Sri Ramakrishna Quotes -
Quotes2,
Quotes3,
Quotes4,
Quotes5,
Quotes6,
Quotes7,
Quotes8,
Quotes9,
Quotes10,
Quotes11,
Quotes12 |
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