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Swami Vivekananda Quotes - Page 56

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Every change is being forced upon us.

Every change is being forced upon us.

Swami Vivekananda
Change
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3361, Manonmani Publishers

This universe is the wreckage of the infinite on the shores of the finite.

Swami Vivekananda
Wreckage, Infinite, Shore

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
Faith, Heart, People
Swami Vivekananda, Vivekananda Kendra (2009). “Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation”, p.91, Vivekananda Kendra

How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

Swami Vivekananda
Faith, Lying, Ocean
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Practical Vedanta Philosophy”, p.11, editionNEXT.com

Do you believe in that Infinite, good Providence working in and through you? If you believe that this Omnipresent One is present in every atom, is through and through, Ota-Prota, as the Sanskrit word goes, penetrating your body, mind and soul, how can you lose heart?

Swami Vivekananda
Faith, Believe, Heart
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1278, Manonmani Publishers

And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.

Swami Vivekananda
Strength, Ignorance, Causes
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1086, Manonmani Publishers

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

Swami Vivekananda
Motivational, People, West

Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction.

Swami Vivekananda
Motivational, Running, Mind
Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: Art of living”, p.9, editionNEXT.com

What makes you weep, my friend? In you is all power. Summon up your all-powerful nature, O mighty one, and this whole universe will lie at your feet. It is the Self alone that predominates, and not matter.

Swami Vivekananda
Motivational, Powerful, Lying
Swami Vivekananda (2004). “Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India”

Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, O man, be not weak. Are there no human weaknesses? - says man. There are, say the Upanishads, but will more weakness heal them, would you try to wash dirt with dirt? Will sin cure sin, weakness cure weakness? Strength, O man, strength, say the Upanishads, stand up and be strong.

Swami Vivekananda
Motivational, Strong, Men
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1154, Manonmani Publishers

We find the vast majority of people in every country believing that there will be a time when this world will become perfect, when there will be no disease, nor death, nor unhappiness, nor wickedness. That is a very good idea, a very good motive power to inspire and uplift the ignorant. But if we think for a moment, we shall find on the very face of it that it cannot be so. How can it be, seeing that good and evil are the obverse and reverse of the same coin? How can you have good without evil at the same time?

Swami Vivekananda
Uplifting, Country, Believe

We say that if a temple, or a symbol, or an image helps you to realize the Divine within, you are welcome to it. Have two hundred images if you like. If certain forms and formulas help you to realize the Divine, God speed you; have, by all means, whatever forms, temples, whatever ceremonies you want to bring you nearer to God. But do not quarrel about them; the moment you quarrel, you are not going Godward, you are going backward towards the brutes.

Swami Vivekananda
Mean, Two, Want

Where is fate and who is fate? We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none else has the praise. We make our own destiny. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. Each must assimilate the spirit of other religion and yet preserve his individuality and follow his own law of growth.

Swami Vivekananda
Christian, Buddhist, Fate

Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego. Hold fast to the real Self. Think only pure thoughts, and you will accomplish more than a regiment of mere preachers. Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.

Swami Vivekananda
Real, Thinking, Self

By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger; and improving our strength in this manner step by step, we may reach a state in which it shall be our privilege to do the most coveted and honored duties in life and in society.

Swami Vivekananda
Hands, Stronger, Privilege

God is self-evident, impersonal, omniscient, the Knower and the Master of nature, the Lord of all. He is behind all worship and it is being done according to Him, whether we know it or not.

Swami Vivekananda
Self, Done, Worship
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.309, Manonmani Publishers

Have faith in Guru, in his teachings, and in the surety that you can get free. Think day and night that this universe is zero, only God is. Have intense desire to get free.

Swami Vivekananda
Zero, Teaching, Night
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3204, Manonmani Publishers

Him I call a Mahatma (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratma (wicked soul). Let us unite our wills in continued prayer for their good.

Swami Vivekananda
Prayer, Heart, Soul

I have been asked many times, Why do you laugh so much and make so many jokes? I become serious sometimes-when I have a stomachache! The Lord is all blissfulness. He is the reality behind all that exists. He is the goodness, the truth in everything. You are His incarnations. That is what is glorious. The nearer you are to Him, the less you will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from Him, the more will long faces come. The more we know of Him, the more misery vanishes.

Swami Vivekananda
Reality, Long, Laughing
Swami Vivekananda (196?). “Swami Vivekananda on Himself”

If you want to be a yogi, you must be free, and place yourself in circumstances where you are alone and free from all anxiety. One who desires a comfortable and nice life and at the same time wants to realize the Self is like the fool who, wanting to cross the river, caught hold of a crocodile, mistaking it for a log of wood.

Swami Vivekananda
Nice, Self, Rivers
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Powers of The Mind”, p.21, editionNEXT.com

If you want to have life, you have to die every moment for it. Life and death are only different expressions of the same thing looked at from different standpoints; they are the falling and the rising of the same wave, and the two form one whole.

Swami Vivekananda
Fall, Expression, Two
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.67, Advaita Ashrama

Love is always mutual and reflective. You may hate me, and if I want to love you, you repulse me. But if I persist, in a month or a year you are bound to love me. It is a well-known psychological phenomenon.

Swami Vivekananda
Hate, Love You, Love Is
Swami Vivekananda (2017). “Vedanta: Voice of Freedom”, p.295, Vedanta Society of St. Louis

Many of us get many messages in our lives, or think we get them. As long as the message is regarding our own selves, go on doing what you please. But when it is in regard to our contact with and behavior to others, think a hundred times before you act upon it-and then you will be safe.

Swami Vivekananda
Thinking, Self, Long

May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls-and, above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.

Swami Vivekananda
Believe, Race, Soul
Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2114, Manonmani Publishers

No authority can save us, no beliefs. If there is a God, all can find Him. No one needs to be told it is warm; all can discover it for themselves. So it should be with God. He should be a fact in the consciousness of every person.

Swami Vivekananda
If There Is A God, Needs, Facts
"Pearls of Wisdom". Book by Swami Vivekananda, edited by the Ramakrishna Mission, 2010.

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