Volume VIII

I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not thought, I am not even consciousness; I am the Atman.

. . .

...there is but one Being and...every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being. All the sun is reflected in each dew-drop.

. . .

We are not drops to fall into the ocean and be lost; each one is the whole, infinite ocean, and will know it when released from the fetters of illusion. Infinity cannot be divided, the "One without a second can have no second, all is that One.

. . .

...our battle for spirituality must be fought out in this life; so we must not flee from it.

. . .

The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is in some body. Death (so-called) is but a change of centre. God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere, and when we can get out of the narrow centre of body, we shall realise God - our true Self.

. . .

Our bodies are symbols of thought behind, and the thoughts themselves are in their turn symbols of something behind them, that is, the one Real Existence, the Soul of our soul, the Self of the universe, the Life of our life, our true Self.

. . .

"Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable".

. . .

All the propitiatory offerings to the gods were but dimly understood types of the only sacrifice that is of any real value, the surrender of the apparent self, through which alone we can realise the higher Self, the Atman.

. . .

Only that is ours which we earn.

. . .

Evil deeds are not "sins", we are not offending some Ruler in committing these; we are simply injuring ourselves, and we must suffer the penalty. It is not a sin to put one's finger in the fire, but...[they]...who...[do]...will surely suffer just as much as if it were. All deeds produce certain results, and "every deed returns to the doer".

. . .

Get rid of the bondage of body; we have become slaves to it and learnt to hug our chains and love our slavery; so much so that we long to perpetuate it, and go on with "body" "body" for ever. Do not cling to the idea of "body", do not look for a future existence in any way like this one; do not love or want the body, even of those dear to us. This life is our teacher, and dying only makes room to begin over again. Body is our schoolmaster, but to commit suicide is folly, it is only killing the "schoolmaster". Another will take...[its]...place. So until we have learnt to transcend the body, we must have it, and losing one, will get another. Still we must not identify ourselves with the body, but look upon it only as an instrument to be used in reaching perfection.

. . .

The apparent variety is but the reflection seen in time and space, as we see the sun reflected in a million dewdrops, though we know that the sun itself if one and not many.

. . .

Only through renunciation of this life and of all life to come (heaven etc.) can we reach the point where we stand firmly on the true Self.

. . .

This little puny self must be sacrificed.

. . .

Water the root of the tree and the whole tree is watered. It is of little advantage to waste time to water each leaf. In other words, seek the Lord and getting...[This]...we get all. Churches, doctrines, forms - these are merely the hedges to protect the tender plant of religion; but later on they must all be broken down, that the little plant may become a tree. So the various religious sects, Bibles, Vedas, and scriptures are just "tubs" for the little plant; but it has to get out of the tub and fill the world.
We must learn to feel ourselves as much in the sun, in the stars, as here.

. . .

The world...is the shadow of truth.

. . .

While we recognize a God, it is really only the Self that we have separated from ourselves and worship as outside of us; but all the time it is our own true Self...

. . .

Persevere through thick and thin, through health and sickness, never miss a day in practice.

. . .

For millions of years we have worked so hard to manufacture these bodies that in the struggle we have forgotten our real purpose in getting them, which was to become perfect. We have grown to think that body-making is the end of our efforts. This is Maya. We must break this delusion and return to our original aim and realise we are not the body, it is our servant.
Learn to take the mind out and to see that it is separate from the body. We endow the body with sensation and life and then think it is alive and real. We have worn it so long that we forget that it is not identical with us. Yoga is to help us put off our body when we please and see it as our servant, our instrument, not our ruler. Controlling the mental powers is the first great aim in Yoga practices. The second is concentrating them in full force upon any subject.

. . .

What we are, we see outside, for the world is our mirror.

. . .

Those children that come with curses, that slip into the world, just in a moment of inadvertence, because that would not be prevented - what can we expect of such progeny?

. . .

Who dares to be proud in this mortal life of ours, in this world of woes and miseries?

. . .

Do you all pray for the children to come? Are you thankful to be mothers, or not? Do you think that you are sanctified by motherhood, or not? Ask that of your minds. If you do not, your marriage is a lie, your womanhood is false, your education is superstition, and your children, if they come without prayer, will prove a curse to humanity.

. . .

A little book on ethic, taught by an old...[person]...we learnt by heart, and I remember one of the lessons:
"For the good of a village...[one]...ought to give up...[their]...family;
For the good of a country...[one]...ought to give up...[their]...village;
For the good of humanity...[one]...out to give up...[their]..country;
For the good of the world, everything."

. . .

This world is nothing. It is a vision, a dream. This life is one of many millions like it. The whole of this nature is Maya, is phantasm, a pest house of phantasms.

. . .

I have not much to lose, and I do not care if I lose that.

. . .

This was what Buddha taught.

. . .

If...[God]...is not bound by the law of causation, then why does...[God]...create? Such a God is not at all satisfactory. There is the ruler in heaven that rules the universe according to...[its]...sweet will and leaves us all here to die in misery...never...[having]...the goodness to look at us for a moment. Our whole life is continuous suffering; but this is not sufficient punishment - after death we must go to places where we have other punishments. Yet we continually perform all kinds of rites and ceremonies to please this creator of the world.

. . .

Work...because you are seeking your own release by killing your self.

. . .

Soft-brained...[people]...weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth.

. . .

I do not care to go to heaven. What is heaven? Only the continuation of this earth. We would be better and the little foolish dreams we are dreaming would break sooner if there were no heaven, no continuation of this silly life on earth. By going to heaven we only prolong the miserable illusions.

. . .

It is evident that the heavenly people have not much sympathy. There are vast masses of them over there, and we are miserable creatures suffering in this horrible place. They could pull us all out of it; but they do not. They do not weep. There is no sorrow or misery there; therefore they do not care for anyone's misery.

. . .

This craving for health, wealth, long life, and the like - the so-called good - is nothing but an illusion. To devote the mind to them in order to secure them only strengthens the delusion.

. . .

Here is a...[person]...in America, born nineteen hundred years after Christ, who does not even belong to the same race as Christ... [They have]...not seen Jesus or...[their]...family. [They say]..."Jesus was God. If you do not believe it, you will go to hell". We can understand how the disciples believe it - that Christ was God; he was their Guru, and they must have believe he was God. But what has this American got to do with the man born nineteen hundred years ago? This young...[person]...tells me that I do not believe in Jesus and therefore I shall have to go to hell. What...[do they]...know of Jesus? [They are]...fit for a lunatic asylum. This kind of belief will not do.

. . .

...the Lord was once incarnated on earth as a pig. He had a pig mate and in course of time several little pigs were born to Him. He was very happy with His family, living in the mire, squealing with joy, forgetting His divine glory and lordship. The gods became exceedingly concerned and came to the earth to beg Him to give up the pig body and return to heaven. But the Lord would have none of that; He drove them away. He said He was very happy and did not want to be disturbed. Seeing no other course, the gods destroyed the pig body of the Lord. At once He regained His divine majesty and was astonished that He could have found any joy in being a pig.
People behave in the same way. Whenever they hear of the Impersonal God, they say, "What will become of my individuality? - my individuality will go!" Next time that thought comes, remember the pig, and then think what an infinite mine of happiness you have, each one of you. How pleased you are with your present condition. But when you realize what you truly are, you will be astonished that you were unwilling to give up your sense-life. What is there in your personality? Is it any better than that pig life? And this you do not want to give up. Lord bless us all.

. . .

One moment in infinite time is quite as complete and all-inclusive as every other moment.

. . .

We, with five senses, look upon this world and find it gross, having colour, form, sound, and the like. Suppose I develop an electric sense - all will change. Suppose my senses grow finer - you will all appear changed. If I change, you change. If I go beyond the power of the senses, you will appear as spirit and God. Things are not what they seem.

. . .

This whole universe is one existence.

. . .

Sometimes I agree that there is some good in the dualistic method: it helps many who are weak. If...[one]...wants you to show...[them]...the polar star, you first point out..a bright star near it, then a less bright star, then a dim star, and then the polar star. This process makes it easy for...[them]...to see it. All the various practices and trainings, Bibles and Gods, are but the rudiments of religion, then kindergartens of religion.
But then I think of the other side. How long will the world have to wait to reach the truth if it follows this slow, gradual process? How long? And where is the surety that it will ever succeed to any appreciable degree? It has not so far. After all, gradual or not gradual, easy or not easy to the weak, is not the dualistic method based on falsehood? Are not all the prevalent religious practices often weakening and therefore wrong? They are based on a wrong idea, a wrong view of...[humanity]. Would two wrongs make one right? Would the lie become truth? Would darkness become light?

. . .

Happiness, joy, addition, enjoyment make not such a deep impression on our mind as unhappiness, sorrow and subtraction. Our nature is joy, enjoyment, pleasure, and happiness. Anything that violently breaks it makes a deeper impression than the natural course.

. . .

The Semitic worships God to go to heaven. The...[Hindu]...rejects heaven to go to God.

. . .

...the individual soul is an assumption through Maya, and it is no more a reality than nature itself.

. . .

If we are inseparable from God, and always one, have we no individuality? Oh yes; that is God. Our individuality is God. This is not real individuality which you have now.

. . .

...nature, soul, and God make one individual being the universe.

. . .

...the Universal Self becomes God and becomes this universe; ...it is not that this universe is one and God another and the Supreme Self another, but that they are different states of the manifestation of the same Unity behind.

. . .

Most persons are unconscious atheists who self-complacently think that they are devout believers.

. . .

A Brahmin, his wife, his son, and his son's wife had not tasted food for some time on account of a famine. The head of the house went out and after a search found a small quantity of barely. He brought this home and divided it into four portions, and the small family was about to eat, when a knock was heard at the door.l It was a guest. The different portions were set before him, and he departed with his hunger satisfied, while the quartette who had entertained him perished.

. . .

A great saint said...: "Four eyes met. There were changes in two souls. And now I cannot tell whether he is a man and I a woman, or he is a woman and I am a man. This only I remember, two souls were. Love came, and there was one."

. . .

...mind is one as well as many. The universe is a cobweb; minds are spiders.
The universe equals the phenomena of one Universal Being. [This]...seen through our senses, is the universe. This is Maya. So the world is illusion, that is, the imperfect vision of the Real, a semi-revelation, even as the sun in the morning is a red ball. Thus all evils and wickedness are but weakness, the imperfect vision of goodness.

. . .

We live in slavery, and we would die if we were out of it. We are like the...[person]...who lived in total darkness for ninety years and when taken out into the warm sunshine of nature, prayed to be taken back to...[their]...dungeon.

. . .

I and the lowest pig differ only in degree. It is less manifested, I am more. Sometimes I am worse, the pig is better.

. . .

These various names mark only differences of degree in the expression of that One. The worm of today is the God of tomorrow.

. . .

...the Many and the One are the same Reality, perceived by the same mind at different times and in different attitudes.

. . .

Is it not the multitude of cells in the body that make up the personality, the many brain-centres, not the one, that produce consciousness? ...Unity in complexity. Just so. And why should it be different with Brahman? It is Brahman. It is the One. And yet - and yet - it is the good too.

. . .

The totality of all souls, not the human alone, is the Personal God.

. . .

...you are not individuals yet. When you realise your whole nature, you will attain your true individuality, not before.

. . .

Vibrations of light are everywhere, even in the darkest corners; but it is only in the lamp that it becomes visible...

. . .

...a single drop of poison poisons the whole mass.

. . .

The more the shades around deepen, the more the ends approach and the more the one understands the true meaning of life, that it is a dream; and we begins to understand the failure of everyone to grasp it, for they only attempted to get meaning out of the meaningless.

. . .

Denial of the will to live, knowledge, and samesightedness is the trinity of liberation.

. . .

...even the unconscious plant-will is a manifestation of the consciousness, not of the plant, but of the cosmos.

. . .

It is in the nature of things that...tremendous difficulties should arise, that selfishness and all the other devils in the human heart should struggle hard when they are about to be driven out by the fire of spirituality.

. . .

...what is there to be desired in this little mud-puddle of a world, with its ever-recurring misery, disease, and death?

. . .

"A good world", "a happy world", and "social progress", are all terms equally intelligible with "hot ice" or "dark light". ...The soul foolishly thinks of manifesting the Infinite in finite matter, Intelligence through gross particles; but at last it finds out its error and tries to escape. This going-back is the beginning of religion, ...its method, destruction of self, that is, love.

. . .

"The higher is your ideal, the more miserable you are"; for such a thing as an ideal cannot be attained in the world, or in this life even. [They]...who want perfection in the world...[are mad]...for it cannot be.

. . .

Matter changed into spirit by the force of love. Nay, that is the gist of our Vedanta. There is but One, seen by the ignorant as matter, by the wise as God. ...The ignorant see the person in the non-person. The sage sees the non-person in the person.

. . .

This life is not, in my view, such a sweet thing that I would long to live through so much care and caution and fear.

. . .

O hero, awake, and dream no more. Death has caught you by the forelock...still fear not.

. . .

Defeat is the ornament the hero adorns...[themselves]...with.

. . .

This toy world would not be here, this play could not go on, if we were knowing players.

. . .

The world cannot touch our souls. If you want, even if the body be torn and bleeding, you may enjoy the greatest peace of mind.
And the way to that is to attain hopelessness. Do you know that? Not the imbecile attitude of despair, but the contempt of the conqueror for things...[they have]...attained, for things...[they]...struggled for and then throw aside as beneath...[their]...worth.

. . .

I have a good deal of love given to me by the world; I deserve a good deal of hatred therefore.

. . .

This mind is omnipresent and can be heard and felt anywhere.

. . .

Mother is becoming propitious once more. Things are looking up. They must.
Work always brings evil with it. I have paid for the accumulated evil with bad health. I am glad. My mind is all the better for it. There is a mellowness and a calmness in life now, which was never there before. I am learning now how to be detached as well as attached, and mentally becoming my own master.
Mother is doing Her own work; I do not worry much now. Moths like me die by the thousand every instant. Her work goes on all the same. Glory onto Mother. ...Alone and drifting about in the will-current of the Mother has been my whole life. The moment I have tried to break this, that moment I have been hurt. Her will be done.
I am happy, at peace with myself, and more of the Sannyasin than I ever was before. The love for my own kith and kin is growing less every day, and that for Mother increasing. Memories of long nights of vigil with Shri Ramakrishna under the Dakshineswar Banyan are waking up once more. And work? What is work? Whose work? Whom shall I work for?
I am free. I am Mother's child. She works, She plays. Why should I plan? things came and went, just as She liked, without my planning. We are Her automata. She is the wirepuller.

. . .

This is the world, hideous, beastly corpse. Who thinks of helping is a fool But we have to work out our slavery by doing good or evil.