“One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom”

Man in his true nature is substance, soul, spirit.

Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can never have faith in God.

He who is alone is happy. Do good to all, like everyone, but do not love anyone. It is a bondage, and bondage brings only misery. Live alone in your mind – that is happiness. To have nobody to care for and never minding who cares for one is the way to be free.

Liberty is the first condition of growth. It is wrong, a thousand times wrong, if any of you dares to say, ‘I will work out the salvation of this woman or child.

Purity, patience and perseverance overcome all obstacles. All great things must of necessity be slow.

Education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man.

Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else.

Have faith in yourself. You people were once the Vedic Rishis. Only, you have come in different forms, that’s all. I see it clear as daylight that you all have infinite power in you. Rouse that up; arise, arise – apply yourselves heart and soul, gird up your loins.

To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition.

As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave.

He whose book of the heart has been opened needs no other books.

My children, the secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine.

Do not desire, for what you desire you get, and with it comes terrible bondage. It is nothing but bringing “noses on us,” as in the case of the man who had three boons to ask. We never get freedom until we are self-contained. “Self is the Saviour of self, none else.”

Man makes the mistake of separating himself from God and identifying himself with the body.

Do not desire to fit in. Desire to lead.

If this should end in fire come, fill this desire.

It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

Duty without love is deplorable. Duty with love is desirable. Love without duty is Divine.

A man’s wealth must be determined by the relation of his desires and expenditures to his income. If he feels rich on ten dollars, and has everything else he desires, he really is rich.

LIFE + DESIRE = MAN; LIFE – DESIRE = GOD.

We should always speak what would please the man of whom we expect a favor, like the hunter who sings sweetly when he desires to shoot a deer.