Ramakrishna
All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self.Collection: Morning
When the fruit appears the blossom drops off. Love of God is the fruit, and rituals are the blossom.Collection: Fruit
It is true that God is even in the tiger, but we must not go and face the animal. So it is true that God dwells even in the most wicked, but it is not meet that we should associate with the wicked.Collection: Animal
When the head of a goat is severed from its body, the trunk struggles for some time, still showing signs of life. Similarly, though ahamkara (egotism) is slain in the perfect man, yet enough of its vitality is left to make him carry on the functions of physical life; but it is not sufficient to bind him again into the world.Collection: Struggle
You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.Collection: Path
Do yourself what you wish others to do.Collection: Wish
Man needs a guru. But a man must have faith in the guru's words. He succeeds in spiritual life by looking on his guru as God Himself.Collection: Spiritual
Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.Collection: Water
When you meditate, go into the solitude of a forest, or a quiet corner, and enter into the chamber of your heart. And always keep your power of discrimination awake.Collection: Heart
What is the use of merely listening to lectures? The real thing is practice.Collection: Real
If diving once does not bring you pearls, you need not therefore conclude that the sea is without them.Collection: Healing
One cannot be spiritual as long as one has shame, hatred, or fear.Collection: Spiritual
Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic.Collection: True Nature
The young bamboo can be easily bent, but the full grown bamboo breaks when it is bent with force. It is easy to bend the young heart towards God, but the untrained heart of the old escapes the hold whenever it is so drawn.Collection: Heart
The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire. Subtle is the way of dharma. If you are trying to thread a needle, you will not succeed if the thread has even a slight fiber sticking out.Collection: Desire
By the mind one is bound; by the mind one is freed. ... He who asserts with strong conviction: "I am not bound, I am free," becomes free.Collection: Strong
Men are like pillow-cases. The colour of one may be red, that of another blue, and that of the third black; but all contain the same cotton within. So it is with man; one is beautiful, another is ugly, a third holy, and a fourth wicked; but the Divine Being dwells in them all.Collection: Beautiful
Why does God allow evil in the world? To thicken the plot.Collection: Evil
The waves belong to the water. Does the water belong to the waves?Collection: Water
To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward.Collection: Attachment
Pray to Him anyway you like, He can even hear the footfall of an ant.Collection: Ants
Imagine a limitless expanse of water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The 'I' is the jar.Collection: Water
Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.Collection: Wise
It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire.Collection: Anger
Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but the pure and pious hearts of holy men receive and reflect that light well.Collection: Fall