Book detail: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book includes a wide range of Swami Vivekananda's teachings on spirituality, philosophy, and social issues, offering insights into his thoughts on various aspects of life and the human condition.
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“Religion in India must be made as free and as easy of access as is God's air.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Religion is the life of India, religion is the language of this country, the symbol of all its movements.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Religion is the one and sole interest of the people of India.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Religion is the peculiarity of the growth of the Indian mind.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“To the other nations of the world, religion is one among the many occupations of life. There is politics, there are the enjoyments of social life, there is all that wealth can buy or power can bring, there is all that the senses can enjoy; and among all these various occupations of life and all this searching after something which can give yet a little more whetting to the cloyed senses - among all these, there is perhaps a little bit of religion. But here, in India, religion is the one and the only occupation of life.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Never producing pain by thought, word, and deed, in any living being, is what is called Ahimsâ, non-injury.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Ahimsa (non-killing), truthfulness, purity, mercy, and godliness are always to be kept.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The Buddhist tenet, "Non-killing is supreme virtue", is very good, but in trying to enforce it upon all by legislation without paying any heed to the capacities of the people at large, Buddhism has brought ruin upon India.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“There is no virtue higher than non-injury.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“To his enemies the householder must be a hero. Them he must resist. That is the duty of the householder. He must not sit down in a corner and weep, and talk nonsense about non-resistance. If he does not show himself a hero to his enemies he has not done his duty.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“An intellectual, heartless man never becomes an inspired man. It is always the heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument of inspiration.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Each man is divine. Each man that you see is a God by his very nature.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“In one sense Brahman is known to every human being; he knows, "I am"; but man does not know himself as he is.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man always is perfect, or he never could become so; but he had to realise it.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man dies but once. My disciples must not be cowards.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man has infinite power within himself, and he can realise it - he can realise himself as the one infinite Self. It can be done; but you do not believe it. You pray to God and keep your powder dry all the time.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man in his true nature is substance, soul, spirit.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is born to conquer nature and not to follow it.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is guided by the stomach. He walks and the stomach goes first and the head afterwards. Have you not seen that? It will take ages for the head to go first.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is really free, the real man cannot but be free.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is the apex of the only world we can ever know.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is the highest being that exists, and this is the greatest world.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man is the product of two forces, action and reaction, which make him think.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Man will have to go beyond intellect in the end.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Manushya (man) is a being with Manas (mind); and as soon as his thinking power goes, he becomes no better than an animal.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The ignorant man never enjoys.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The perfect man sees nothing but God.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“We can have no conception of God higher than man, so our God is man, and man is God.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Well has it been said that man is the only animal that naturally looks upwards; every other animal naturally looks down.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“What is this universe but name and form?”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“A wave in the ocean is a wave, only in so far as it is bound by name and form.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“All forms are transitory, that is why all religions say, "God has no form".”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Everything is substance plus name and form. Name and form come and go, but substance remains ever the same.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Form and formless are intertwined in this world. The formless can only be expressed in form and form can only be thought with the formless.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“In nature alone are forms. That which is not of nature cannot have any forms, fine or gross. It must be formless.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Space-time-causation, or name-and-form, is what is called Maya.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within. If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The Indian idea is that the soul is formless. Whatever is form must break some time or other.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The soul ... is nameless because it is formless. It will neither go to heaven nor [to hell] any more than it will enter this glass.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“There cannot be any form unless it is the result of force and matter; and all combinations must dissolve.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“This is the work of Nâma-Rupa - name and form. Everything that has form, everything that calls up an idea in your mind, is within Maya; for everything that is bound by the laws of time, space, and causation is within Maya.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“When we free ourselves from name and form, especially from a body - when we need no body, good or bad - then only do we escape from bondage.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Every Hindu knows that astrologers try to fix the caste of every boy or girl as soon as he or she is born. That is the real caste - the individuality, and Jyotisha (astrology) recognises that. And we can only rise by giving it full sway again. This variety does not mean inequality, nor any special privilege.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“Excessive attention to the minutiae of astrology is one of the superstitions which has hurt the Hindus very much.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“I have seen some astrologers who predicted wonderful things; but I have no reason to believe they predicted them only from the stars, or anything of the sort. In many cases it is simply mind-reading. Sometimes wonderful predictions are made, but in many cases it is arrant trash.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“I think the Greeks first took astrology to India and took from the Hindus the science of astronomy and carried it back with them from Europe. Because in India you will find old altars made according to a certain geometrical plan, and certain things had to be done when the stars were in certain positions, therefore I think the Greeks gave the Hindus astrology, and the Hindus gave them astronomy.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“The Vedas give information on various subjects. They have come together and form one book. And in later times, when other subjects were separated from religion - when astronomy and astrology were taken out of religion - these subjects, being connected with the Vedas and being ancient, were considered very holy.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda