Authors From India

"This body made of flesh is subject to death. If it is not washed for a single day, it stinks. We cannot trust the human body. (48)"

"Meditation is not some strange technique that we have to learn with great effort and difficulty. There is already a strong element of meditation in our lives, but we are simply not aware of it."

"By visiting places of pilgrimage like Benares and Rameshvaram, a man cannot attain Mukti. What is essential is keeping the mind steady for a moment by introversion.(31)"

"There is light in the heart; there is no darkness in it. If a man's head be struck off, we cannot say who the man is by simply looking at his trunk. It is the heart which sees through the eye. A man must have the internal eye. (95)"

"Lovers meditate on one another. A mother meditates on her child. Whatever we accomplish in this world we accomplish through the power of concentration, which is nothing but meditation."

"The characteristics of Sadhuguna, Satwaguna, and peace and all such qualities, come from non-attachment. When Buddhi becomes steady, it is called Satwaguna. Sat (truth) is like letters engraved in stone. The talk of the worldly is like letters engraved on a chalk slab. (253)"

"We pass from the level from which we have the awareness ‘I am the body” to the level in which we have the experience ‘I am God."

"Above all, meditation stills the wandering mind and establishes us forever in a state of peace that remains stable no matter what happens around us."

"Meditation is a complete path. It not only brings inner experiences, but removes all the worries and tensions of the mind and washes away the sins of countless lifetimes."

"Those whose minds are merged in Samadhi, are not deluded by the external jugglery. They are quite fearless. Siddhas (God realized souls) are not afraid of the world. A tiger or a cobra, when they see such a person, become calm, forgetting their ferocity. Similarly, all animals become calm at their sight. Even enemies forget their enmity and become friendly. As soon as they see a sadhu, they become stone-still. What is the cause of this? It is because of their doubting nature. At the sight of a sadhu, there is no darkness. Mind gets purified, realizing the Satwa quality. (280)"

"The heart of a Mahatma is like the tamarind seed perfectly pure. These Mahatmas are ever young. For a Jnyani, there is no age-idea. (251)"

"A man does not become a guru by simply wearing sandals and counting beads on a rosary. One who talks 'Brahma Jnana' and gives stones to his disciples is not a guru. Whatever a guru speaks in words, he must show it in action. First one must practice and after realisation, he must begin to teach others. (28)"

"We know only the ordinary states of consciousness in which we live; we do not have complete knowledge of reality. When we are awake, we are totally immersed in our waking world. When we dream, our activities, our world, and our understanding are completely different from when we are awake. When we go into the state of deep sleep, we lose consciousness altogether."

"The human body is a temple within which God dwells in the form of the Self. However, to know this, you must turn within through meditation. In your present state, you have only partial awareness."

"When we meditate, we pass even beyond the deep sleep state and enter the state of the Self. That state is the foundation of all the other states, and it alone is permanent and unchanging."

"If we could only penetrate beneath these roles to our own divinity, then once again we would all know that we are God."

"A human being has the freedom to become anything. By his own power he can make his life sublime or wretched. By his own power he can reach the heavens or descend to the depths."

"We will realize that we are nothing but Consciousness. This physical body is like the clothes we wear. Just as they are merely a covering for the body, in the same way the physical body is merely a covering for our innermost Consciousness."

"We are all portions of this universe of Consciousness. We are not different from one another, and we are not different from God. If one sows a mango seed one will get a mango, never a lemon. In the same way, that which is born of God can never be other than God."

"Western scientists are now beginning to discover the truth that the philosophers of India have known for millennia: that the entire universe consists of one energy. Our ancient philosophers, who were scientists of the spirit, called that energy Consciousness, or God. This supreme Consciousness created the entire cosmos out of its own being."

"Within the human heart dwells a shimmering effulgence whose brilliance surpasses even that of the sun. This inner Consciousness is the same as that which creates and animates the entire universe. But we are not aware of this. Even though we have come from this Consciousness, we have changed our understanding about ourselves."

"How did we change? Every one of us has become one thing or another, according to our own understanding. We believe ourselves to be men or women, rich people or poor people. We believe that we are teachers, soldiers, psychiatrists. We believe that we are young or old, fat or thin, happy or miserable... Americans or Indians, Russians or Arabs, Hindus or Christians, Muslims or Jews."

"Why does he live with enmity and competition instead of a feeling of brotherhood? He does these things because he lacks true understanding about himself. He does not know the greatness that lies within the human heart."

"If everyone could experience that inner Truth, if everyone could understand his real nature, there would no longer be enmity among people, but only friendliness, affection, and the feeling of universal brotherhood... When we look at ourselves with the true awareness of humanity, we will see that same humanity in everyone else, and then we will realize that everyone in this world is a child of God."

"O friend, where are you going? Where have you come from, and what are you supposed to do? You belong to the supreme Truth, but you have forgotten your origin, Now it is time to get back on the main road."

"People talk about innovation and reform, but in the name of these things they have succeeded only in destroying the environment, in wrecking family life, and in increasing selfishness and hostility."

"In such a world there is only one thing we need, and that is the true understanding of humanity. Yet that is exactly what we lack."

"It is certain... that to experience the Self we must follow a spiritual practice. Even to achieve something in daily life we have to work for it. We cannot satisfy our appetite merely by reading a description of a delicious meal."

"If you keep sugar apart from us, we cannot have experience of its sweetness. If we eat it, then only we know its taste. A man cannot get Mukti if he simply repeats 'Rama, Krishna, or Govinda' for a thousand years. He must repeat it heartily (knowing the secret). (30)"

"Meditation is a natural sadhana, and it has been recognized bv all the saints and sages as the most direct means of perceiving the Self."

"I count myself blessed that I'm able to follow this line of work. I didn't grow up with the burning ambition to be a writer - I never even thought of it as a possibility. It seemed such a huge thing, it never occurred to me that I could aspire to it."

"It appeals to me when I read it but I cannot write like that. I have tried to write like that; for a while I get really involved and enjoy it but then it all starts to feel like a pointless exercise. It is just too clever by half; I don't like clever books, I like honest books…"

"Before I start writing I know I have at least one character who I want to work with…and I would have a vague idea of where the story might lead. Though it could change direction, I have at least a vague idea of where it might go."

"…People who know about these things say that the short story is the most challenging form, much more so than the novel, because of the precision required; sometimes you have to achieve as much as a novel in a much shorter space and period of time. Had I known that it was the most difficult of forms, I probably would not have started with the short story…"

"We should seek for the Fountain-head of all knowledge. If we do not do so we find ourselves poorly supplied. Our capacity for retention of knowledge also leaves us when we choose to be conversant with local, temporary, apparent truths. The symbolical deceptive Knowledge is presented when we neglect to seek the connecting thread of all knowledge. A time comes when our physical equipment parts with all its seeming possessions."

"Of all the occupations the best one is to attend to the service of the Absolute."

"Try to rectify yourself rather than blaspheming the nature or activities of others. That is my instruction."

"We should trace the Fountain-Head, the Real Cause from Whom all these have emanated, not being content with the agnosticism that prevails more or less at present."

"The fullest development of the idea about Godship is in Shri Krishna. He reveals Himself to His devotees of different competences in three Forms. All these three are perfect conceptions, not like the partial one of Paramatma and the incomplete one of Brahman. These three perfect conceptions are full, fuller and fullest. These three are revealed in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavana. At Dwaraka Krishna's manifestation is full, at Mathura it is fuller and in Braja (including Vrindavana) it is the fullest."

"In the region of the Absolute we know there are three different energies working, one of which is His ecstatic energy by which bliss is conferred on us, and He is found to be inebriated with the ecstatic explorations. The very Absolute indulges Himself in the ecstatic mood and He is delighted; and when we find that He is delighted, we, being more or less part and parcel of the transaction, get a share as well, we being not the mind but the soul proper. When He is delighted, we necessarily get the advantage of that delightful temper of the Absolute. When He is surcharged with all beatific phases, we are also endowed with a part as per our own eligibility; as per our affinity for serving Him, we enjoy a part. Here where we are passing through a non-absolute region, our enjoyment is nothing but depriving Him of His enjoyment. We should take proper care not to carry our defective ideas there. The passionate desires of this mundane world should not be carried to the Absolute region."

"Truth suffers where money rules. Thinkers pursue truth and hence, thinkers must stay away from money."

"I knew Muhammad Mujeeb personally. He was Head of the Department of History and Shaikh-ul-Jamia... In 1972, however, there was a mild 'confrontation' between him and me. Sometime that year there was a Selection Committee meeting for the post of Professor of History in Delhi University. I was then a Reader and candidate for the post of Professor. Mujeeb was an 'expert'... Mujeeb asked me a question: "Why did the Hindu convert to Islam?" It was a loaded question carrying the suggestion that the initiative for conversion came from the Hindu. In all probability Mujeeb expected me to say that the Hindus suffered from the injustices of the caste system, that Islam was spiritually so great and its message of social equality so attractive that the Hindus queued up for conversion the moment they came in contact with Islamic invaders. A tactful candidate (not a truthful one) would have said what Mujeeb desired, but my answer was different. I said that Hindus did not (voluntarily) convert to Islam; they were converted, often forcibly, as told by Muslim chroniclers. Muslim invaders and rulers felt proud of their achievements in the fields of loot and destruction, enslavement and proselytization. Their chroniclers, writing at their command or independently, speak about their achievements in these spheres in glowing terms. They repeatedly write about the choice offered to the Hindus - "Islam or death". Mujeeb expected a different answer. I was not selected."

"Interestingly enough an academic conflict is going on between those who do not wish to tamper with facts (Mohammad Habib, S.S.A. Rizvi) and those who are determined to give a benign face to Islam (I.H. Qureshi, Mohammad Mujeeb, Ashgahar Ali Engineer)."

"There was never any doubt in the minds of the Muslims of their right to spread over the earth… The Hidayah is quite explicit about the legality of jihad (holy war) against infidels even when they have not taken the offensive… The Muslim Turks found the moral justification for their advance into India in the induction to propagate Islam. As this could not, in the opinion of kings and warriors, be achieved without the subjugation of non-Muslims and occupation of their territory, the propagation of Islam became identical with war and conquest."

"The only thing appeared to be fine in most of the rooms was blackboard. It seemed black; and fine too."

"He (night-guard) was wearing an underwear and a torn vest which said ‘yeh aram ka maamla hai.’ He implemented that statement literally in his life, I could see that."

"Either I had to get my admission in grade ninth again or else I had to do some work-around to seek for a ‘jugaad’ (hack). I chose the latter."

"Stealing is really an art, a dangerous, risky art, though."

"The moment I stood there I saw people from houses to my right, left and front were already on their balcony’s and they stared at me all at once as if I was from Jupiter. Their interrogative expression was asking me ‘who the hell are you?’ repeatedly. I did not give a damn, though."

"‘Be in line and then see what’s going on!’ a fat lady shouted at me. ‘Hell yeah! you greasy piece of flesh.’ I cursed her in my mind. But ‘Yes I am going back in line!’ I shouted at her."