Quotes By - Swami Vivekanand

Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk and social reformer from India. He was born on January 12, 1863, in Calcutta, and died on July 4, 1902. He was a major figure in the revival of Hinduism in India and played a key role in introducing Hinduism to the Western world. Swami Vivekananda was born into an affluent family and was a brilliant student. He was interested in spirituality from a young age and was greatly influenced by the teachings of his guru, Sri Ramakrishna. After the death of his guru, Swami Vivekananda spent several years travelling across India, living as a wandering monk and studying various religious and philosophical texts. In 1893, Swami Vivekananda travelled to the United States to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. His powerful speeches on Hinduism and spirituality were widely celebrated and earned him international recognition. He spent the next few years traveling and lecturing in Europe and the United States, spreading the message of Vedanta and Indian spirituality. In 1897, Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, a religious and philanthropic organization dedicated to the service of humanity. He also established several schools and colleges in India, including the Ramakrishna Mission College in Calcutta. Swami Vivekananda's teachings on the importance of self-realization, service to others, and the unity of religions continue to inspire millions of people around the world. His legacy lives on through the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, as well as the many followers and disciples who continue to spread his teachings.

“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Anything that makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life. ”

― Swami Vivekananda

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far. ”

― Swami Vivekananda

"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual.There is no other teacher but your own soul." ― Swami Vivekananda

“We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate.

The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled

catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have

their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of

the wind?....... We make our own destiny.

”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The only religion that ought to be taught is the religion of fearlessness. Either in this world or in the world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer, that is all.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Shri Ramakrishna use to say, "As Long as I Live, so long do I learn". That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“There is no God separate from you, no God higher than you, the real 'you'. All the gods are little beings to you, all the ideas of God and Father in heaven are but your own reflection. God Himself is your image. 'God created man after His own image.' That is wrong. Man creates God after his own image. That is right. Throughout the universe we are creating gods after our own image. We create the god and fall down at his feet and worship him; and when this dream comes, we love it!”

― Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3

“Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point”

― Swami Vivekananda

“How often does a man ruin his disciples by remaining always with them! When men are once trained, it is essential that their leader leave them, for without his absence they cannot develop themselves. Plants always remain small under a big tree.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain — and the whole world is at your feet.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Things do not grow better; they remain as they are. It is we who grow better, by the changes we make in ourselves.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The cheerful mind perseveres and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Give up the idea that by ruling over others you can do any good to them. But you can do just as much as you can in the case of the plant: you can supply the growing seed with the materials for the making up of its body, bringing to it the earth, the water, the air, that it wants. It will take all that it wants by its own nature, it will assimilate and grow by its own nature.”

― Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3

“He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Be strong! … You talk of ghosts and devils. We are the living devils. The sign of life is strength and growth. The sign of death is weakness. Whatever is weak, avoid! It is death. If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it! There is salvation only for the brave. "None but the brave deserves the fair." None but the bravest deserves salvation.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The earth is enjoyed by heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.”

― Vivekananda

“Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of all our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment. Therefore, "arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols or temples, or churches or books, are only the supports, the help of his spiritual childhood.”

― Swami Vivekananda,Complete Works

“All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody’s property; no race, no individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all souls.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“God did not give me everything that i wanted. But, He gave me everything that i needed!”

― Swami Vivekananda

“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. . . .”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The Tapas and the other hard Yogas that were practiced in other Yugas do not work now. What is needed in this Yuga is giving, helping others. ”

― Swami Vivekananda

“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.”

― Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3

“The knowing ones must have pity on the ignorant.

One who knows is willing to give up his body even for an ant,

because he knows that the body is nothing.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“This World will always continue to be a mixture of Good and Evil. Our duty is to sympathize with the weak and to Love even the wrongdoer.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Do not believe in a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe in a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“Talk to yourself at least once in a Day, otherwise you may miss a meeting with an EXCELLENT person in this World.”

― Swami Vivekananda

“The mother and the father are the causes of this body; so a man must undergo a thousand troubles in order to do good to them.”

― Swami Vivekananda, The complete works of Swami Vivekananda

“People laugh at me because I am different;

I laugh at people cause the are all the same.”

― Vivekananda Swami

“If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, would it be right to call that a sin? Nor, even when he has passed that stage, should he call it an error. [...] man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength till it reaches the Glorious Sun.”

― Swami Vivekananda