Ramakrishna

Let's not go into the past.

You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.

What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world _ the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy _ have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is.

Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God.

God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached, and beyond pain and pleasure. There is much confusion in this world of His maya. One can by no means say that 'this' will come after 'that' or 'this' will produce 'that'.

One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.

You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.

As long as I live, so long do I learn.

Bondage is of the mind freedom too is of the mind. If you say 'I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me' free you shall be.

That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge.

When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. One retains only compassion for them.

Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.

If you want to go east, don't go west.

When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.

If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.

Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, yet you will find nothing anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here.

Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God Who is the soul of truth.

The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.