We suffer as a result of our own actions; it is unfair to blame anybody for it.
A person may have no relatives anywhere, but Mahamaya may make him keep a cat and thus make him worldly. This is how She plays!
No one can suffer for all time. No one will spend all his days on this earth in suffering. Every action brings its own result, and one gets one’s opportunities accordingly.
Does it matter in the least to God whether you believe or not? Even the sage Suka Deva was to Him like a big ant at the most. Infinite is He. How much can you understand of Him?
Do you notice this human body? Today it is and tomorrow it is not. And the world is full of misery and pain. Why should one be eager to have another birth? The body is never free from its attendant troubles.
My child, I bless you from my heart that you live long, attain devotion, and enjoy peace. Peace is the principal thing. One needs peace alone.
One suffers as a result of one’s own actions. So, instead of blaming others for such sufferings, one should pray to the Lord and depending entirely on His grace, try to bear them patiently and with forbearance under all circumstances.
Open your grief-stricken heart to the Lord. Weep and sincerely pray, ‘O Lord, draw me towards You; give me peace of mind.’ By doing so constantly you, will gradually attain peace of mind.
The world is going on because not all can be free of desires. People with desires are born again and again.
You can practise pranayama a little, but no much, otherwise the brain will get heated. If the mind becomes calm of itself, what is then the necessity of practising pranayama? The practise of pranayama and asana often brings occult powers, and occult powers lead one astray.
No doubt, God alone has become all these objects, animate and inanimate, but in the relative world all beings act and suffer according to their past Karma and innate tendencies.
He who has really prayed to the Master, even once, has nothing to fear. By, praying to him constantly one gets ecstatic love (Prema Bhakti) through his grace.
Is faith so cheap, my child? Faith is the last word. If one has faith, the goal is practically reached.
As long as a man has desires there is no end to his transmigration. It is the desires alone that make him take one body after another. There will be rebirth for a man if he has even the desire to eat a piece of candy.
Ordinary human love results in misery. Love for God brings blessedness.
The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream … What you dream last night does not exist now.
The creation itself is full of griefs. How can one understand joy if there is no sorrow? And how can everyone be happy at the same time?
There is no treasure equal to contentment and no virtue equal to fortitude.
Whether you jump into water or are pushed into it, your cloth will get drenched. Is it not so? Meditate every day, as your mind is yet immature. Constant meditation will make the mind one-pointed.
The mantra purifies the body. Man becomes pure by repeating the name of God. So repeat His name always.
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.
What else does one obtain by realization of God? Does one grow two horns? No, the mind becomes pure, and through a pure mind one attains knowledge and awakening.
The Mother of the universe is the Mother of all. From Her have come out both good and evil.
Each has to get the results of the actions he earned for this life. A pin at least must prick where a wound from a sword was due.
First offer to God whatever you eat. One must not eat unoffered food. As your food is, so will be your blood. From pure food you get pure blood, pure mind, and strength. Pure mind begets ecstatic love (prema-bhakti).
If you do not pray to God, what is that to Him? It is only your misfortune.
Rebirth is inevitable so long as one has desires. It is like taking the soul from one pillow-case and putting it into another. Only one or two out of many men can be found who are free from all desires.
The difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play.
The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind.
If you do a good act, it cancels the effects of your evil deeds. If one prays, takes the Name of God and thinks of Him, the effects of evil are cancelled.
In one word, one should desire of God desirelessness. For desire alone is at the root of all suffering. It is the cause of repeated births and deaths. It is the obstacle in the way of liberation.
Practise meditation, and by and by your mind will be so calm and fixed that you will find it hard to keep away from meditation.
Even Avataras, saints, and sages have to undergo the ordeal of suffering, for they take upon themselves the burden of sins of omission and commission of ordinary human beings and thereby sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity.
God is one’s very own. It is the eternal relationship. He is everyone’s own. One realizes Him in proportion to the intensity of one’s feeling for Him.
One suffers as a result of one’s own actions. So, instead of blaming others for such sufferings, one should pray to the Lord and depending entirely on His grace, try to bear them patiently and with forbearance under all circumstances.
Certainly you will have doubts. There will be questionings and faith will return again. That is how faith is established.
Why do people argue? Even the wisest of men have not found God through argument! Is God a subject for argument?
One must be patient like the earth. What iniquities are being perpetrated on her! Yet she quietly endures them all. Man, too, should be like that.
Does one get faith by mere studying of books? Too much reading creates confusion. The Master used to say that one should learn from the scriptures that God alone is real and the world illusory.
One cannot escape from the effects of one past karma. But if a person lives a prayerful life, he gets off with only the prick of a thorn in the leg where he was to suffer from a deep cut.
The goal of life is to realize God and to be always immersed in thought in Him.
He who thinks always of the Lord, which way can evil come to him?
We have to surrender ourselves completely to the Lord with faith and devotion in Him, serve others to the best of our capacity, and never be a source of sorrow to anybody.
Desire may be compared to a minute seed. It is like a big banyan tree growing out of a seed, which is no bigger than a dot.
You see, my son, it is not a fact that you will never face dangers. Difficulties always come, but they do not last forever. You will see that they pass away like water under a bridge.
The grace of God is the thing that is needful. One should pray for the grace of God.
The body means the existence of desire, otherwise it would not have existed. It all ends when one no longer has any desires.
As clouds are blown away by the wind, the thirst for material pleasures will be driven away by the utterance of the Lord’s name.
In the course of time one does not feel even the existence of God. After attaining enlightenment one sees that gods and deities are all Maya.
Realization of God cannot be achieved without ecstatic love for Him.
It is best therefore to surrender all desires at the feet of God. He will do whatever is best for us. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These cannot be classed as desires.
Give up this dry discussion, this hodge-podge of philosophy. Who has been able to know God by reasoning? Even sages like Suka and Vyasa are at best like big ants trying to carry away a few grains of sugar from a large heap
One who makes a habit of prayer will easily overcome all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials of life.
Don’t be afraid. Human birth is full of suffering and one has to endure everything patiently, taking the Name of God. None, not even God in human form can escape the sufferings of the body and mind.
Don’t puzzle the mind with too many inquiries. One finds it difficult to put one single thing into practising, but dares invite distraction by filling the mind with too many things.
My son, forbearance is a great virtue; there’s no other like it.
An unmarried person is half free whether he prays to God or not. He will advance towards Him with rapid strides when he feel a little drawn towards Him.
If one calls upon Him repeatedly, He becomes compassionate; and so a devoted attachment comes into being. This love for love’s sake should be hidden from all eyes.
The world is the Lord’s. He created it for His own play. We are mere pawns in His game. Wherever He keeps us and in whatever way He does so, we have to abide by it contentedly.
Such is life, here today, gone tomorrow! Nothing goes with one, except one’s merit and demerit; good and evil deeds follow one even after death.
Everything, husband, wife, or even the body, is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world.
However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are so attached to it. Glory be to God.
What an illusion Mahamaya has conjured up! Here is this infinite world, and what one claims as his possession will be left behind at death. Still men cannot understand this simple truth.