SELECTED PRECEPTS OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA 1. Know yourself and you will know God. What is your ego?

Is it your hand or foot or flesh or blood or any other part of your body? Reflect well the ego has no real you peel off the skin layer, in search of a more and more skin nothing at all, so it is and you will find that existence. Just as, if of an onion layer after kernel, appears, for a while then

and

if you go looking for

the ego. There is no kernel within the onion; there is no ego within yourself. In the last analysis what is within you is only the AtmanPure Conscious ness. When the illusion of the ego disappears, then appears the RealityGod. 2. There are two kinds of egoone ripe, and the other

unripe. The unripe ego thinks, This is my house, my son, my this, my that. The ripe ego thinks, I am the servant of the Lord, I am his child; I am the Atman, immortal, free; I am Pure Consciousness. The light of the sun shines equally on all surfaces, but it reflects clearly only on bright surfaces like water, mirrors, and polished metals. In like manner, although God dwells in the hearts of all, he is clearly manifest only in the hearts of the holy.

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3.

How long does one argue about the meaning of the

scriptures? Only until the Sat-chid-ananda becomes revealed in ones own heart. The bee buzzes only so long as it does not sit on the flower. As soon as it sits on the flower and begins to drink of the honey, all noise stopsthere is complete silence. 4. Useless is the study of the scriptures if one has no

discrimination and dispassion. One cannot find God unless one is endowed with these. Discrimination is knowledge of what is eternal and what is non-eternal, and devotion to the eternal, which is God; it is knowledge that the Atman is separate from the body. Dispassion is nonattachment to the objects of sense. 5. The true hero is he who can discipline his mind by

devotional exercises while living in the world. A strong man can look in any direction while carrying a heavy burden on his head. Similarly, the perfect man can keep his gaze constantly fixed on God while carrying the burden of worldly duties. 6. A boy holds on to a pillar and circles round it with

headlong speed. While he is spinning, his attention is constantly fixed on the pillar. He knows that if he lets go his hold upon it he will fall and hurt himself. Similarly, the wise householder holds on to the pillar of God: keeps his mind fixed on him, and performs his worldly duties. Thus is he free from all dangers.

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7.

Let the boat stay on the water: there is no harm. But let

not water get into the boat, lest the boat sink. Similarly, there is no harm if the devotee lives in the world, provided he lets not worldliness enter his mind. 8. Clay in its natural state can be moulded into any form,

but burnt clay cannot. Similarly, spiritual truths cannot be impressed upon hearts that have been burnt by the fire of lust. To bring ones heart and ones speech into accord is the goal of all spiritual discipline. If you say, O Lord, Thou art my all in all, while in your heart you believe the objective world to be all In all, your devotional exercises are bound to be fruitless. 9. Countless are the pearls lying hidden in the sea. If a

single dive yields you none, do not conclude that the sea is without pearls. Similarly, if after practising spiritual disciplines for a little while you fail to have the vision of God, do not lose heart. Continue to practise the disciplines with patience, and at the proper time you are sure to obtain grace. 10. Strike a match, and the light disperses all at once the

darkness of a room, even though accumulated for centuries. Similarly, a single gracious glance of the Lord disperses the accumulated sins of innumerable births. 11. The magnetic needle always points towards the north,

whatever the direction in which the ship is sailing; that is why the
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ship does not lose her course. Similarly, if the mind of man is always turned towards God, he will steer clear of every danger. 12. There is only one God, but endless are his aspects and

endless are his names. Call him by any name and worship him in any aspect that pleases you, you are sure to see him. You see many stars in the sky at night, but nor when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not there is no God. 13. He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth,

so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life. Seekest thou God? Then seek Him in man! His Divinity is manifest more in man than in any other object. Man is the greatest manifestation of God. 14. Jiva is Shiva (all living beings are God). Who then dare

talk of showing mercy to them? Not mercy, but service, service. For man must be regarded as God. 15. God. 16. I tell you the truth: there is nothing wrong in your being There is one whom you may call your own, and that is

in the world. But you must direct your mind towards God. 17. If you say, 'I am a sinner', eternally, you will remain a

sinner to all eternity. You ought rather to repeat, 'I am not

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bound, I am not bound. Who can bind me? I am the son of God, the king of kings.' 18. It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the

spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga (i.e. modern age). If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. 19. All religions are true. God can be reached by different

religions. Many rivers flow by many ways but they fall into the sea. There all are one. 20. A truly religious man should think that other religions

also are paths leading to truth. We should always maintain an attitude of respect towards other religions. 21. Women whether naturally good or not, whether chaste or

unchaste, should always be regarded as images of the Blissful Divine Mother. 22. Money can fetch you bread alone. Do not consider it as

your sole end and aim. 23. He is truly a man to whom money is only a servant; but,

on the other hand, those who do not know how to make a proper use of it, hardly deserve to be called men. 24. To become great one must be humble. The tree laden

with fruit always bends low. So if you wish to be great, be lowly and meek.

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25.

Rain water never stands on high ground, but runs down to

the lowest level. So also the mercy of God remains in the hearts of the lowly, but drains off from those of the vain and the proud. The ego that asserts, 'I am the servant of God' is the characteristic of the true devotee. It is the ego of Vidya (Knowledge), and is called the 'ripe' ego. 26. Wherein is the strength of a devotee? He is a child of

God, and his devotional tears are his mightiest weapon. 27. Look at the anvil of a blacksmith-how it is hammered and

beaten; yet it moves not from its place. Let men learn patience and endurance from it. 28. Visit not miracle-mongers and those who exhibit occult

powers. These men are stragglers from the path of Truth. 29. Don't find fault with anyone, not even with an insect. As

you pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not find fault with anyone. 30. Purify the spectacles of your mind and you will see that

the world is God. 31. As the dawn heralds the rising sun, so sincerity,

unselfishness, purity, and righteousness precede the advent of the Lord. 32. Every man should follow his own religion. A Christian

should follow Christianity, and a Mohammedan Mohammedanism.

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For the Hindu, the ancient path, the path of the Aryan Rishis, is the best. 33. Dispute not. As you rest firmly in your own faith and

opinion, allow others also equal liberty to stand by their own faith and opinion. 34. Let me be condemned to be born over and over again,

even in the form of a dog, if so I can be of help to a single soul. 35. I will give up twenty thousand such bodies to help one

man. It is glorious to help even one man. SWAMI VIVEKANANDAS Teachings 1. My ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is

to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life. 2. Religion is the manifestation of the

divinity already in man. 3. Religion is the idea which is raising

the brute unto man, and man unto God. 4. The secret of religion lies not in

theories but in practice. To be good and do good - that is the whole of religion. 5. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is

greater than man.

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6.

One may gain political and social independence, but if one

is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom. 7. Look at the wall. Did the wall ever tell a lie? It is always

the wall. Man tells a lie and becomes a god, too. 8. After so much austerity, I have understood this as the

real truth - God is present in every jiva; there is no other God besides that. 'Who serves jiva, serves God indeed.' 9. Cut out the word help from your mind. You cannot help; it

is blasphemy! You worship. When you give a morsel of food to a dog, you worship the dog as God. He is all, and is in all. 10. Unselfishness is God. One may live on a throne, in a

palace, and be perfectly unselfish; and then he is in God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and have nothing in the world; yet if he is selfish, he is intensely merged in the world. 11. All nations have attained greatness by paying proper

respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future. 12. With five hundred men, ... the conquest of India might

take fifty years: with as many women, not more than a few weeks. 13. Religion and religion alone is the life of India, and when

that goes, India will die, in spite of politics, in spite of social

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reforms, in spite of Kubera's wealth poured upon the head of every one of her children. 14. Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas,

first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. 15. We want to lead mankind to the place where there is

neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonizing the Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran. 16. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the

varied expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that each may choose the path that suits him best. 17. Who will give the world light? Sacrifice in the past has

been the Law, it will be, alas, for ages to come. The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all. 18. Truth, purity, and unselfishness - whenever these are

present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition. 19. Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot

be sacrificed for anything. 20. The highest ideal is eternal and entire self-abnegation,

where there is no 'I', but is Thou'. 21.

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All expansion is life, all contraction is death.

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22.

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love

is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live. 23. The national ideals of India are Renunciation and

Service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself. 24. Good motives, sincerity, and infinite love can conquer the

world. One single soul possessed of these virtues can destroy the dark designs of millions of hypocrites and brutes. 25. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of

it, dream of it, live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. 26. The world is the great gymnasium where we come to

make ourselves strong. 27. Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha

and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. 28. The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause

and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.

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29.

The more we come out and do good to others, the more

our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them. 30. There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments

are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things. 31. The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of

every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him -- that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. 32. Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live

up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth. 33. That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by

nothing material. 34. You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach

you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. 35. The goal of mankind is knowledge. . . . Now this

knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man "knows," should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what man "learns" is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
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36.

If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some

value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better. 37. All differences in this world are of degree, and not of

kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. 38. To devote your life to the good of all and to the

happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion. 39. The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature.

Have faith in yourselves! 40. The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-

action, and everything, but it is untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat of cold, and all the dualism of nature, although it lends its light to everything. 41. It is our own mental attitude which makes the world

what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. throw the burden on yourselves! 42.
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In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.

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43.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we

who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. 44. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught

and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. 45. Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our

own hearts and in every living being. 46. The Vedanta teaches that Nirvana can be attained here

and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and after having once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality. 47. The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error.

And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that. 48. Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It

is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak. 49. Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet

each one can be true. 50.

51.

"Instead of counting your days, make your days count" "If you judge people, you have no time to love them"
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Sayings of Holy Mother

1. One should desire of God desirelessness. For desire all of suffering. a flower As by

alone is at the root of one gets the fragrance handling it, or as one sandalwood by rubbing in the same way one awakening by constantly

gets the smell of it against a stone, gets thinking spiritual of God.

But you can realize Him right now, if you become desireless. 2. Sri Ramakrishna left me behind to manifest the

Motherhood of God to the world. I shan't be able to turn away anybody if he addresses me as "Mother". 3. If my son wallows in the dust or mud, it is I who have to

wipe all the dirt off his body and take him to my lap. 4. The aim of life is to realize God and remain immersed in

contemplation of Him. God alone is real and everything else is false. 5. Many think of God only after receiving blows from the

world. But blessed indeed is he who can offer his mind, like a fresh flower, at the feet of the Lord from his very childhood. One should practice renunciation in youth.

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6.

Through japa and austerity the bondage of karma is cut

asunder, but God cannot be realized except through love and devotion. 7. all equal. 8. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These How can the devotees really have any caste? Children are

cannot be classed as desires. 9. As wind removes the cloud, so the name of God destroys

the cloud of worldliness. 10. Only through work can one remove the bondage of work.

Total detachment comes later. One should not be without work even for a moment. Work helps one to fend off idle thoughts. 11. 12. Everyone has to be accommodating. Forbear everything. One should not hurt others even by words. One must not

speak even an unpleasant truth unnecessarily. By indulging in rude words one's nature becomes rude. One's sensibility is lost if one has no control over one's speech. 13. One should not trifle with a thing, though it may be very

insignificant. If you respect a thing, the thing also respects you. Even a broomstick should be treated with respect. One should perform even an insignificant work with respect. 14. We should give everyone his due. What is not edible for

a man, give to a cow; What is not edible for a cow, give to a dog;
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what is not edible for a dog, throw into a lake for fishes to eat. But never waste. 15. 16. To err is human; but how few know to lead an erring man. It is idle to expect that dangers and difficulties will not

come. They are bound to come. But, for a devotee they will pass away from under the feet like water. 17. Misery is truly a gift of God. I believe it is a symbol of

His compassion. 18. Love is our forte. It is through love that the Master's

family has taken shape. 19. The mind is everything. It is in the mind alone that one

feels pure and impure. A man, first of all must make his own mind guilty and then alone can he see another man's guilt. If you want peace, do not see the faults of others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child. The whole world is your own. 20. My son, if a thorn pricks your foot, it hurts me like a

spear entering my heart. I am the mother of the wicked, as I am the mother of the virtuous. Whenever you are in distress, just say to yourself, 'I have a mother.' 21. I can't contain myself when one draws near me and calls

me "Mother."

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