World Spiritual Heritage

The quotes of Ramakrishna

91 quote(s) | Page 2 / 4

Y ou will feel restless for God when your heart becomes pure and your mind free from attachment to the things of the world. Then alone will your prayer reach God. A telegraph wire cannot carry messages if it has a break or some other defect.

quote 3900 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 375

D o you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: "0 God, Thou art the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I am Thy child." Or again: "Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part." He doesn't like to say, "I am Brahman."

quote 3899 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 134

T he path of knowledge leads to Truth, as does the path that combines knowledge and love [bhakti]. The path of love too leads to this goal. The way of love is as true as the way of knowledge. All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.

quote 3898 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 104

A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practiced spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child.

It -is His will that we should run about a little. Then it is great fun. God has created the world in play, as it were. This is called Mahamaya, the Great Illusion. Therefore one must take refuge in the Divine Mother, the Cosmic Power Itself. It is She who has bound us with the shackles of illusion. The realization of God is possible only when those shackles are severed.

quote 3897 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 116

O ne cannot see God without purity of heart. Through attachment to "woman and gold" the mind has become stained -covered with dirt, as it were. A magnet cannot attract a needle if the needle is covered with mud. Wash away the mud and the magnet will draw it. Likewise, the dirt of the mind can be washed away with the tears of our eyes. This stain is removed if one sheds tears of repentence and says, "0 God, I shall never again do such a thing." Thereupon God, who is like the, magnet, draws to Himself the mind, which is like the needle. Then the devotee goes into samadhi and obtains the vision of God.

You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God's grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive the grace of God? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels "I am the doer ... ... God doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his own master. But God can be seen the moment His grace descends. He is the Sun of Knowledge. One single ray of His has illumined the world with the light of knowledge. This is how we are able to see one another and acquire varied knowledge. One can see God only if He turns His light toward His own Face.

quote 3896 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 173-174

E ven after attaining samadhi, some retain the "servant ego," or the "devotee ego." The bhakta keeps this "I-consciousness." He says, "0 God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant; Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee," He feels that way even after the realization of God. His "I" -is not completely effaced. Again, by constantly practicing this kind of consciousness," one ultimately attains God...

One can attain the Knowledge of Brahman too by following the path of bhakti. God is all-powerful. He may give His devotee Brahmajnana [the knowledge of Brahman] also if He so wills. But the devotee generally doesn't seek the Knowledge of the Absolute. He would rather have the consciousness that God is the Master and he the servant, or that God is the Divine Mother and he the child.

quote 3895 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 171

T he Vedantist says, "I am He." Brahman is real and the world illusory. Even the "I" is illusory. Only the Supreme Brahman exists.

quote 3894 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 181

T he jnani--the Vedantist, for instance-always reasons, applying the process of "Not this, not this." Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness.

quote 3893 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 148

I , and "mine" that is ignorance. By discriminating, you will realize that what you call "I" is really nothing but Atman [the Self].

quote 3892 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 208

M aya is nothing but the egotism of the embodied soul. This egotism has covered everything like a veil. All troubles come to an end when the ego dies. 'if by the grace of God a man but once realizes that he is not the doer, then he at once becomes a jivanmukta [a liberated being]. Though living in the body, he is liberated. He has nothing else to fear.

quote 3891 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; pp. 168-169

T he phenomenal world belongs to that very Reality to which the Absolute belongs; again, the Absolute belongs to that very Reality to which the phenomenal world belongs. He who is realized as God has also become the universe and its living beings. One who knows the Truth knows that it is He alone who has become father and mother, child and neighbor, man and animal, good and bad, holy and unholy, and so forth.

quote 3890 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 328

B rahman is Shakti; Shakti is Brahman. They are not two. These are only two aspects, male and female, of the same Reality-Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.

quote 3889 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 271

T he implication of the story is that Brahman and the Primal Energy at first appear to be two. But after attaining the knowledge of Brahman, one does not see the two. Then there is no differentiation; it is One, without a second, Advaita-non-duality.

quote 3888 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 242

N othing exists except the One. That One is the supreme Brahman. So long as He keeps the "I" in us, He reveals to us that -it is He who, as the Primal Energy, creates, preserves, and destroys the universe.

quote 3887 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 242

H e is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are one-sided. But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views-the Shakta, the Vaishnava, the Vedanta-have that One for their center. He who is formless is, again, endowed with form. It is He who appears in different forms. The attributeless Brahman is my Father. God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? The two sides of the scale are equally heavy.

quote 3886 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 490

F urther, some say that God has form and is not formless. Thus they start quarelling, ... One can speak rightly of God only after one has seen Him. He who 'has seen God knows really and truly that God has form and that He is formless as well. He has many other aspects that cannot be described.

quote 3885 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 191

T he inferior devotee says, "God exists, but He is very far off, up there in heaven." The mediocre devotee says, "God exists is in all beings as life and consciousness." The superior devotee says, "it is God Himself who has become everything; whatever I see is only a form of God. it is He alone who has become maya, the universe, and all living beings. Nothing exists but God."

quote 3884 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 265

G od is one, but His names are many.

quote 3883 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 112

S ome people indulge in quarrels, saying, "One cannot attain anything unless one worships our Krishna," or "Nothing can be gained without the worship of Kali, our Divine Mother," or "One cannot be saved without accepting the Christian religion." This is pure dogmatism. The dogmatist says, "My religion alone is true, and the religions of others are false." This is a bad attitude. God can be reached by different paths."

quote 3882 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 191

L et each man follow his own path. if he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely reach Him.

quote 3881 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 35

A ll religions- Hinduism, Islam, Christianity-and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once.

quote 3880 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 35

W hen I think of the Supreme Being as inactive neither creating nor preserving nor destroying-, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active-creating, preserving, destroying-, I call Him Shakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. Iit is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.

quote 3879 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 32

K ali is none other than He whom you call Brahman. Kali is the primal Shakti. When it is inactive, we call It Brahman. But when It has the function of creating, preserving or destroying, we call That Shakti or Kali. He whom you call Brahman, She whom I call Kali, are Do more different from each other than fire and its power of burning.

quote 3878 | Ramakrishna
Rolland, 1952; p. 156

W hen a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadbi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of maya. Whatever -is within the domain of maya is unreal. Give it up. Destroy the prison house of name and form arid rush out of it with the strength of a lion. Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through samadhi, You will find the world of name and form vanishing into void, and the puny ego dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.

quote 3877 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 28

B rahman is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation. Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power of maya, that enchantress who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really One and undivided.

quote 3876 | Ramakrishna
Nikhilananda, 1942; p. 28

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