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Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

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Famous Swami Vivekananda Quotes

“So we find that in almost every religion these are the three primary things which we have in the worship of God - forms or symbols, names, God-men. All religions have these, but you find that they want to fight with each other...These are the external forms of devotion, through which man has to pass; but if he is sincere, if he really wants to reach the truth, he goes higher than these, to a plane where forms are as nothing.”

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Author:Swami Vivekananda
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“How has all the knowledge in the world been gained but by the concentration of the powers of the mind? The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration. There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point; that is the secret.”

IfsKnowsWorldGivingMindHumansForceSecretKnow HowReadyBearsLimitsGiving UpBlowConcentrationHuman MindPower Of The MindReady To Give Up
Book:Raja Yoga: Conquering the Internal Nature
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“Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow-never a man. 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.”

IfsMenMindLittlesWould BeLife IsLyingNaturalMistakeStruggleFailingHeardThousandIdealsCowsBeauty Of LifeBacksliding
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“Action will come. Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of the thought. If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory.”

IfsThinkingWellsMatterActionPowerfulBearsGloryIdealsTransformedMajestyOmnipotentPowerful Thoughts
Book:Practical Vedanta Philosophy
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“Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery and would exist if all humanity forgets it, so it is with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical and spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery and would remain even if we forget them.”

IfsWorldSoulSpiritualLawSpiritHumanityFatherIndividualForgetMoralDiscoveryRelationEthicalForget ItGravitation
Book:Chicago Addresses
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“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.”

PeopleIfsHeartHas BeensFaithLostMarkMotiveMarchAncestorDefectsCivilisationDegenerationLost Faith
Book:Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation
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“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?”

IfsMindBelieveHeartSoulBodyFaithLosesInfiniteYour BodyAtomsProvidenceIf You BelieveSanskritMind Body And Soul
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“Everything that can weaken us as a race we have had for the last thousand years. It seems as if during that period the national life had this one end in view, viz how to make us weaker and weaker, till we have become real earthworms, crawling at the feet of every one who dares to put his foot on us. Therefore my friends, as one of your blood, as one that lives and dies with you, let me tell you that we want strength, strength, and every time strength.”

IfsWantYearsRealEndsSeemsLastsDiesViewsRaceBloodFeetStrengthPeriodsThousandMy FriendsLet MeDareThousand YearsCrawling
Book:Lectures from Colombo to Almora
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“If the suns come down, and the moons crumble into dust, and systems after systems are hurled into annihilation, what is that to you? Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self, the God of the universe. Say - "I am Existence Absolute, Bliss Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, I am He," and like a lion breaking its cage, break your chain and be free forever. What frightens you, what holds you down? Only ignorance and delusion; nothing else can bind you. You are the Pure One, the Ever-blessed.”

IfsSelfMotivationalUniverseExistenceBreakSunForeverRocksIgnorancePureMoonAbsolutesDown AndBlessedDustChainsBlissDelusionLionsCagesAnnihilationIndestructible
Book:Jnana Yoga
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“Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it be after his heart. But the intelligent man is he who can convert every work into one that suits his taste. No work is petty. Everything in this world is like a banyan seed, which, though appearing tiny as a mustard seed, has yet the gigantic banyan tree latent with it. He indeed is intelligent who notices this and succeeds in making all work truly great.”

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Book:Personality Development
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“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?”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldBelieveIdeasCountryMomentsFacesEvilPerfectSeeingThis WorldInspireDiseaseMajorityVery GoodIgnorantUpliftingMotiveGood And EvilUnhappinessGood IdeasReverseCoinsWickedness
Author:Swami Vivekananda
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“I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of others. Give and take is the law; and if India wants to raise herself once more, it is absolutely necessary that she brings out her treasures and throws them broadcast among the nations of the earth, and in return be ready to receive what others have to give her. Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, and hatred is death. We commenced to die the day we began to hate other races; and nothing can prevent our death unless we come back to expansion, which is life.”

IfsWantGivingEarthLawHateDiesIndividualNationsCommunityLove IsRaceReadyReturnHatredIndiaRaisesConvincedTreasureLive ByExpansionGive And TakeContractionsLove Is Life
Book:The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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“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.”

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Author:Swami Vivekananda
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“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and everything shall be added unto you. This is the one great duty, this is renunciation. Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else. Let us put forth all our energies to acquire that which never fails-our spiritual perfection. If we have true yearning for realization, we must struggle, and through struggle growth will come. We shall make mistakes, but they may be angels unawares.”

IfsMindFirstsMaySpiritualEnergyGrowthMistakeStruggleFailingDutyAngelIdealsPerfectionKingdomsRealizationAcquireMaking MistakesYearningKingdom Of GodRenunciationSpiritual Perfection
Book:The Powers of The Mind
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“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.”

IfsWantSelfDesireRealizingNiceFoolCircumstancesAnxietyComfortableRiversCrossesCaughtWoodsWhere You AreYogiCrocodilesNice Life
Book:The Powers of The Mind
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“Some people are so afraid of losing their individuality. Wouldn't it be better for the pig to lose his pig-individuality if he can become God? Yes. But the poor pig does not think so at the time. Which state is my individuality? When I was a baby sprawling on the floor trying to swallow my thumb? Was that the individuality I should be sorry to lose? Fifty years hence I shall look upon this present state and laugh, just as I now look upon the baby state. Which of these individualities shall I keep?”

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Book:Practical Vedanta Philosophy
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“We can never lose what is really ours. Who can lose his being? Who can lose his very existence? If I am good, it is the existence first, and then that becomes colored with the quality of goodness. If I am evil, it is the existence first, and that becomes colored with the quality of badness. That existence is first, last, and always; it is never lost but ever present.”

IfsFirstsLastsEvilLostLosesExistenceQualityGoodnessGoodBadness
Book:Living at the Source: Yoga Teachings of Vivekananda
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“I am what I am, and what I am is always due to him; whatever in me or in my words is good and true and eternal came to me from his mouth, his heart, his soul. Sri Ramakrishna is the spring of this phase of the earth's religious life, of its impulses and activities. If I can show the world one glimpse of my Master, I shall not have lived in vain.”

IfsWorldHeartI CanSoulShowsEarthReligiousMastersActivityEternalSpringMouthsDuesVainImpulsePhasesGlimpseReligious LifeI Am What I Am
Author:Swami Vivekananda
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“Sri Ramakrishna is far greater than the disciples understand him to be. He is the embodiment of infinite spiritual ideas capable of development in infinite ways....One glance of his gracious eyes can create a hundred thousand Vivekanandas at this instant. If he chooses now, instead, to work through me, making me his instrument, I can only bow to his will.”

IfsWayI CanIdeasEyeSpiritualGreaterDevelopmentThousandCapableHundredInfiniteInstrumentsInstantBowsDiscipleGlancesGraciousEmbodimentVivekananda
Author:Swami Vivekananda
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“Who cares for your bhakti and mukti? Who cares what your scriptures say? I will go into a thousand hells cheerfully if I can rouse my countrymen, immersed in tamas, to stand on their own feet and be men inspired with the spirit of karma-yoga. I am a follower only of he or she who serves and helps others without caring for his own bhakti and mukti!”

IfsMenI CanHelpingCareSpiritHellFeetThousandYogaInspiredCaringKarmaHelping OthersScriptureFollowersWho CaresBe A ManCountrymenKarma YogaBhakti YogaCare For YouBhakti
Author:Swami Vivekananda
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