Quotessence
Home / Topics / Enlightened One Quotes

Enlightened One Quotes

Browse 140 quotes about Enlightened One.

Enlightened One Quotes

“I stand on the banks of time silently witnessing the world change beneath my feet. I arrive at a desirable place in a world when I learn to accept a world devoid of my paltry existence. When my self-inflicted wounds heal, I will stand as mute as a mountain impervious to the whimsy of the quaking world and no longer be deluded into aspiring to be a member of a fantasy world of pleasure-seeking people. Fame and fortune do not matter to an enlightened person, it is sufficient simply to be present and unflinchingly support all life forms without hesitation.”

“What is considered as a vow (vrat)? For this Dada [Gnani Purush], the five mahavrats (great vows of truth, non-possessiveness, non-violence, non-stealing, and celibacy as expounded by Lord Mahavir) prevail at all times! He lives in wordly life yet He prevails in the mahavrats, what must that be like? One in whom pudgal pariniti (the belief that 'I am doing' in what are the results of the non-Self) does not arise at all! Where there is mahavrat, there is no pudgal pariniti. And where there is anuvrat (observance of minor religious vows), there to a certain extent, pudgal pariniti is present and to certain extent, it has also decreased!”

“The Self is not what people believe it to be, or what the intellect can grasp. It is immeasurable. Where there is no measure, there is no scale, there is nothing at all that will work here! The Self is such that It can only be Known through the Knowledge of the Self. It is actually only through the Knowledge of the Gnani that the Self can be realized.”

“A doubt that in reality, 'I am not this' has arisen regarding the knowledge of 'Who am I'. From the moment a doubt sets in about the knowledge that one has known up until now, 'we' [the Gnani Purush] Know that the time has come for that knowledge to break! The knowledge over which doubts arise, that knowledge will dissipate. Doubts can never arise over real Knowledge.”

“To first get to know what One's own inherent nature is like, to set the conviction (pratiti) for that, that is known as samkit (right belief of 'I am pure Soul'). Of all the inherent natures [out there], is any of them 'mine' [the Self's]? The Gnani will say, "No." Whether you wiggle your tongue in this or that direction, whether you awaken the kundalini (in yoga, latent female energy believed to lie coiled at the base of the spine) or read the scriptures, there is no Soul in that. It is all pudgal (relative) whereas there is no other [relative] thing present in the Atma (Soul).”

“No effort is needed for each and every thing to revert back to its inherent natural state. Effort is required to take it into any other nature [vishesh bhaav]. How much effort is needed to heat water. And what if you have to cool it down? You don’t have to do anything because that (coolness) is indeed its attribute. Similarly the Soul (the Real Self) is moksha-swaroop, by its own inherent nature (liberation is the nature of the Self). Therefore, the Gnani Purush [the enlightened one] through His grace paves the way for you. Moksha is attained by following the Gnani’s Agnas [commandments of the enlightened one], you don’t have to exert any effort for it. Effort gives rise to the worldly life. All these ‘fruits’ you are reaping now are due to all the penance and rosaries you had done.”

“If you want to know the answer to ‘Who am I?’, then you will have to go to a Gnani purush [the enlightened one]. The Gnani Purush will give you Knowledge of your real Self [Who Am I] in the presence of the egoism. Thereafter your accounts (karmic) will be settled [& things will start falling in place].”

“There is no means other than vitrag-science (science that frees us from all attachments) that will give Final-Liberation [Moksha]. Other means [methods, instruments] will cause bondage; they only help to pass the time; [whereas] means to attain the Eternal Thing (experience of Pure Soul) can be attained from the ‘Gnani Purush’ (the enlightened one).”

“Soul work [is] [...] seeking to realize (make "real") Who You Truly Are. You can create Who You Are over and over again. Indeed, you do - every day. As things now stand, you do not always come up with the same answer, however. Given an identical outer experience, on day one you may choose to be patient, loving and kind in relationship to it. On day two you may choose to be angry, ugly and sad. The Master is one who always comes up with the same answer - and that answer is always the highest choice. In this the Master is imminently predictable. Conversely, the student is completely unpredictable. One can tell how one is doing on the road to mastery by simply noticing how predictably one makes the highest choice in responding or reacting to any situation.”

“Worldly life means it is ever changing. So where is the need for [worrying] ‘this will happen’ or ‘that will happen’? Why have attachment for that [someone] which shows regards towards you one day and disregard the next? It is worth having attachment for trikali vastu [eternal element that remains constant during the three-time span - past, present and future], which is one’s own (real) ‘nature’. And one should do attachment for the Gnani Purush [the enlightened one] who graces you with the awareness of your Self. Never will a change occur in Him.”

“When one prays to an image of Lord Krishna, it reaches the 'relative'. If one bows down here (at the lotus feet of the Gnani Purush), then it reaches one's own Self (Atma) directly. This is because the vitaraag One (One free from all attachment and abhorrence) does not accept it, does He? It is always such that, wherever there is darshan of both the 'relative' and the 'real', there indeed lies liberation (moksha).”

“The entire path of the Vitraag Lords (the enlightened one) is one of humility (vinaya). The practice of humility (vinaya dharma) begins from Hindustan (India). There are endless practices of humility, starting from putting two hands together (in the gesture of Namaste) to prostrating. And ultimately when one attains absolute humility (param vinaya), he attains moksha (ultimate liberation).”

“Self-mastery is the first step towards attaining enlightenment. Change begins with personal dissatisfaction and belief that a person can do better. A person can set meaningful goals and vow not to hold onto frivolous attachments. My objective is to cultivate the ability to expect the best effort from myself and never be afraid to tackle the type of difficult projects or pursue scintillating adventures that spur mental growth. I aim to become a loyal, loving, and joyful person, and broaden personal knowledge through a self-prescribed course of active reading and studious contemplation. I aspire to use an expanded base of knowledge to live a more ethical and principled existence and rid myself of self-defeating behaviors brought on by brooding doubts regarding the paucity of my innate talent. Instead of grieving over what I failed to achieve, I plan to concentrate upon what I can achieve and bring the collective force of my newly resolved mindset to the forefront.”

“A person cannot exert absolute control over a capricious environment. A wise person concentrates on serenely adjusting to variable permutations in the environs. A personal journey is less anxious if a person resolves to serve as a conscious witness to the natural world and the unfolding lives of family and friends. It is emotionally stabilizing when we no longer delude ourselves with grand fantasies about living and dying, experience life for what it is and stop wishing for a different existence, an altered universe. Nothing good comes from resisting reality.”

“This ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that we see; are the states of the body complex, the non-Self (pudgal). Do not separate them into ‘this is good’ and ‘this is bad’. Such distinctions have been made by, those believing in dualities. These dualities are vikalps (intellectual ideas; contrary thoughts; not reality). The nirvikalpi, one with awareness of the Self, sees both the good and the bad as vibhavik avastha, as states of the non-Self.”

“There are two types of worldly life: renouncing [tyaag] is a worldly life and family life [gruhasti] is also a worldly life. Those who renounce are constantly in the knowledge of ‘I am renouncing…I am renouncing’. And the family man prevails in the knowledge of ‘I am acquiring…I am taking…I am giving’. But the one, who attains knowledge of the self [soul], will attain liberation (moksha). Where does one acquire Knowledge of the Self? From the ‘Gnani Purush’ [the Enlightened One].”

“This [worldly life] is nature’s mysterious puzzle. No one has become free from it. And those who did become free, did not stay back to tell others. I failed [fell short] in achieving ‘Kevalgnan’ [360 degree enlightenment of the soul] so I am here to tell you, so take care of you and get your work done (of moksha - salvation). This is indeed yours. ‘We’ are just here to make you accomplish your task.”