New Religious Movement Leaders

"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)"

"Once the well should be emptied of its water. All the mud should be removed. The water which then comes is the purest. Jnana is like this pure water. Once you burn away the thought of 'I' and 'mine', then non-attachment to the objects of the senses will result of its own accord. (254)"

"Thou Asclepius, serves instead of a Sun unto me; for God hath brought thee to us, that thou mightest be present with us in thy divine Discourse, being such which may seem worthy to carry a greater lustre of Piety and Religion, than all the works before done of us, or any gifts inspired by divine Inspiration; which if understandingly thou shalt regard, thou shalt be richly filled with all good things throughout thy whole soul: If not withstanding there may be many good things, and not one generall, in which all things are, for the one is perceived to consent and agree with the other; all these things belong to that One, and that One is All; for the one so coheres to the other, that they can not be separated. Chapter I"

"If you keep a light before a thousand people, it reaches all without making any distinction. Anyone may take it. Where there is light, there is no darkness. In the darkness there is no light. There can only be one thing (either light or darkness), not two at the same time. One's nature should be like the sun; one's Chitta must be cool like the moon. (271)"

"It is not Bhakti to give a man some money or to give him a meal as charity. Bhakti is universal love. Seeing God, in all beings, without the least idea of duality, is Bhakti. (44)"

"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)"

"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)"

"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)"

"Thou Asclepius, the soul of every man is immortal, but not all alike; for there is a difference both in the time and manner."

"He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, he keepeth things that are not in Himself. He is the God beyond all name - He the unmanifest, he the most manifest; He whom the mind alone can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes as well. He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather, He of every body. Naught is there which He is not, for all are He, and He is all (ii, 104)."

"In the Kena Upanishad there is a statement: "That which is not thought about by the mind but by which the mind thinks-- know that as the Absolute." It takes a very subtle intellect to grasp this but if you understand it you will not have to make an effort to mediate. You will simply be aware of that which is meditation on you."

"When the mind becomes entirely free of thoughts, the light of the Self will naturally reveal itself. That is why the scriptures of meditation say that the true meaning of meditation is total stillness of mind."

"Not everyone is able to still the mind all at once, and therefore the sages have prescribed different techniques of meditation, according to people’s capacities."

"So how can these inner instruments show you the Self? God cannot be thought about by the mind, because it is God who sets the mind to thinking."

"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."

"Your true relationship is not with the mind, but with the Self. Therefore, understand what the Self is. Find this out: Are you supposed to know the Self, or is the Self the knower of everything? Are you supposed to meditate on the Self, or is the Self the one who is meditating on you?"

"The Self is Consciousness. It is self-effulgent, shining by its own light. It knows everything that goes on inside you. Therefore, it is not going to come within your grasp."

"One of the greatest of all techniques is mantra repetition. Mantra and meditation are companions; the mantra is a tremendous help in meditation."

"Just as when the mind focuses outside it perceives the outer world, when it looks within it sees the inner world. It is as simple as that."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Just as camphor is consumed by the flames of fire, so also, mind must be consumed by soul-fire. (4)"

"The Bhagavad Gita says, “Through meditation, the Self is seen.” Meditation is universal. It is not the property of any particular religion or nationality."

"Through meditation we become aware of our fundamental unity with all things. We cannot attain that awareness by reading books or listening to lectures. We can attain it only through direct experience. To have that experience we must pass from one state of awareness to another, moving gradually to deeper and deeper levels of our being."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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)"

"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."

"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."

"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)"

"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."

"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)"

"Suicide is a huge folly, because it places the committer of it in an infinitely worse position than he was in under the conditions from which he foolishly hoped to escape. It is not death. It is only a leaving of one well-known house in familiar surroundings to go into a new place where terror and despair alone have place. It is but a preliminary death done to the clay, which is put in the "cold embrace of the grave," leaving the man himself naked and alive, but out of mortal life and not in either heaven or hell."

"A tree or a mineral or a man is a combination of elements or parts, and each must have its projected life term. If we violently and prematurely cut them off one from the other, certain consequences must ensue. Each constituent requires its own time for dissolution. And suicide being a violent destruction of the first element - body - the other two, of soul and spirit, are left without their natural instrument. The man then is but half dead, and is compelled by the law of his own being to wait until the natural term is reached."

"The fate of the suicide is horrible in general. He has cut himself off from his body by using mechanical means that affect the body, but cannot touch the real man. He then is projected into the astral world, for he has to live somewhere. There the remorseless law, which acts really for his good, compels him to wait until he can properly die. Naturally he must wait, half dead, the months or years which, in the order of nature, would have rolled over him before body and soul and spirit could rightly separate. He becomes a shade...."

"Suicide, like any other murder is a sin because it is a sudden disturbance of the harmony of the world... Nature exists for the sake of the soul and for no other reason, it has the design, so to say, of giving the soul experience and self-consciousness. These can only be had by means of a body through which the soul comes in contact with nature, and to violently sever the connection before the natural time defeats the aim of nature, for the present compelling her, by her own slow processes, to restore the task left unfinished. And as those processes must go on through the soul that permitted the murder, more pain and suffering must follow."