Swami Satchidananda

Image of Swami Satchidananda
Peace comes not from doing, but from undoing; not from getting, but from letting go.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Letting Go
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Any kind of expectation creates a problem. We should accept, but not expect. Whatever comes, accept it. Whatever goes, accept it. The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Acceptance
Image of Swami Satchidananda
You are the cause of your own joy or your own misery. You hold that power. You are your own friend and your own enemy.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Joy
Image of Swami Satchidananda
The light is within. It is already there. Take your time to see it.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Light
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Let us accept all the different paths as different rivers running toward the same ocean.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Running
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Yoga believes in transforming the individual before transforming the world. Whatever change we want to happen outside should happen within. If you walk in peace and express that peace in your very life, others will see you and learn something.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Believe
Image of Swami Satchidananda
If your heart is beautiful, your face will be beautiful, your life will be beautiful, everything will be beautiful.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Beautiful
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Anything that you throw comes back. All your actions are echoes.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Positivity
Image of Swami Satchidananda
We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? (136-137)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Change
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Though we can't always see it at the time, if we look upon events with some perspective, we see things always happen for our best interests. We are always being guided in a way better than we know ourselves.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Karma
Image of Swami Satchidananda
If you are becoming more easeful, peaceful & useful then you know you are growing.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Peaceful
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Never give up; nothing is done overnight. Anyone who achieved anything in life always did it after many failures. Don’t give up hope.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Giving Up
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Do you want to know the secret of life? If you want to have everything, don’t want anything. Everything will run after you.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Running
Image of Swami Satchidananda
The greatest victory you can win is over your own mind.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Winning
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Now will never leave. It is always here. Like a clear canvas, it awaits our painting.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Mindfulness
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Begin with little things daily and one day you will be doing things that months back you would have thought impossible.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: One Day
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Death can come at any minute, in any way. We do not know what is in store tomorrow, or, whether there is a tomorrow, or even a tonight! But still, we have the golden present. Now we are alive and kicking. What should we do now? Love all, serve all.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Kicking
Image of Swami Satchidananda
You are not given the light by anyone—not even by a spiritual teacher. You are that light.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Spiritual
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Give up the drop and gain the whole ocean.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Giving Up
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Every pain has a gain behind it
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Pain
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Devotion gradually progresses to higher levels. . . . One type goes to God and asks Him to remove his suffering. Another one will ask for money or material things. A third will request liberation or release from his bondage. And the fourth will not ask for anything. He will just enjoy praying and praising his Lord. That is the highest form of prayer. (Beyond Word, 119)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Prayer
Image of Swami Satchidananda
God knows your breaking point. You simply don’t know your own strength.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Point Break
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Yoga began with the first person wanting to be healthy and happy all the time.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Yoga
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Don't depend on something that comes from outside. Outside things are never going to make you happy.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Make You Happy
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Everything begins in the mind. If you want to see clearly, you need clear vision.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Mind
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Don't give up your power to change things. Negativity and unhappiness are caused by you. You can change your attitude.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Giving Up
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved. (3)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Philosophy
Image of Swami Satchidananda
True love knows no bargains. It is one-way traffic: giving, giving, giving.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Giving
Image of Swami Satchidananda
If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy. (99)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Worst Enemy
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Music is the celestial sound, and it is sound that controls the whole universe, not atomic vibrations. Sound energy, sound power, is much, much greater than any other power in the world.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Energy
Image of Swami Satchidananda
What is it that dies? A log of wood dies to become a few planks. The planks die to become a chair. The chair dies to become a piece of firewood, and the firewood dies to become ash. You give different names to the different shapes the wood takes, but the basic substance is there always. If we could always remember this, we would never worry about the loss of anything. We never lose anything; we never gain anything. By such discrimination we put an end to unhappiness. (118-119)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Loss
Image of Swami Satchidananda
There’s no value in digging shallow wells in a hundred places. Decide on one place and dig deep. Even if you encounter a rock, use dynamite and keep going down. If you leave that to dig another well, all the first effort is wasted and there is no proof you won’t hit rock again. (52)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Rocks
Image of Swami Satchidananda
The stones of a river start out rough, but with the current continually bumping and polishing them, they end up being beautiful.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Beautiful
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Calming the mind is yoga, not just standing on the head
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Yoga
Image of Swami Satchidananda
There is one Cosmic Essence, all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful. This nameless formless essence can be approached by any name, any form, any symbol that suites the taste of the individual. Follow your religion, but try to understand the real purpose behind all of the rituals and traditions, and experience that Oneness.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Powerful
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Truth is the same always. Whoever ponders it will get the same answer. Buddha got it. Patanjali got it. Jesus got it. Mohammed got it. The answer is the same, but the method of working it out may vary this way or that. (115)
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Jesus
Image of Swami Satchidananda
The same thing can be both good and bad. Whenever you speak of good, bad is also present. The world is a mixture of both. There is not good without bad. They are both sides of the same coin. Both are necessary. We have been given free will and discriminating capacity to select what is beneficial to us and to avoid what is detrimental to us. Even Cobra poison can be used as medicine.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Medicine
Image of Swami Satchidananda
We can see the same spirit in everybody only when we know we are that spirit, Atman or Self. Only a person who has understood his own Self can see that Self in everybody.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Yoga
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Equality comes in realizing that we are all doing different jobs for a common purpose. That is the aim behind any community. The very name community means let's come together to recognize the unity. Come ... unity.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Jobs
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Yoga is not only learning to stand on your head but also learning to stand on your feet.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Yoga
Image of Swami Satchidananda
One truth, many paths.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Truth
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Not only does charity begin at home. Everything begins at home, including spirituality.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Home
Image of Swami Satchidananda
The moment you understand yourself as the true Self, you find such peace and bliss that the impressions of the petty enjoyments you experienced before become as ordinary specks of light in front of the brilliant sun.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Light
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Yoga says instinct is a trace of an old experience that has been repeated many times and the impressions have sunk down to the bottom of the mental lake. Although they go down, they aren’t completely erased. Don’t think you ever forget anything. All experiences are stored in the chittam; and, when the proper atmosphere is created, they come to the surface again. When we do something several times it forms a habit. Continue with that habit for a long time, and it becomes your character. Continue with that character and eventually, perhaps in another life, it comes up as instinct.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Yoga
Image of Swami Satchidananda
We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Serenity
Image of Swami Satchidananda
..just do, leave it there, if it comes let it come, but don't look for it.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Looks
Image of Swami Satchidananda
Just as a little bird cracks open the shell and flies out, we fly out of this shell, the shell of the body. We call that death, but strictly speaking, death is nothing but a change of form.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Grieving
Image of Swami Satchidananda
When you win and the other fellow loses, what do you see? A losing face. There is great joy in losing and making the other person win and have a happy face. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others.
- Swami Satchidananda
Collection: Winning