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| Ramakrishna |
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"God can be realized through all paths.
All religions are true.
The important thing is to reach the roof.
You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs
or by bamboo steps or by a rope.
You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.
Can you weep for Him with intense longing of heart?
Men shed a jugful of tears for the sake of their children,
for their wives, or for money.
But who weeps for God?
So long as the child remains engrossed with its toys,
the mother looks after her cooking
and other household duties.
But when the child no longer relishes the toys,
it throws them aside and yells for its mother.
Then the mother takes the rice-pot down from the hearth,
runs in haste, and takes the child in her arms.
Take the case of the infinite ocean.
There is no limit to its water.
Suppose a pot is immersed in it:
there is water both inside and outside the pot.
The jnani sees that both inside and outside
there is nothing but Paramatman.
Then what is this pot?
It is 'I-consciousness'.
Because of the pot the water appears
to be divided into two parts;
because of the pot you seem to perceive
an inside and an outside.
One feels that way as long as this pot of 'I' exists.
When the 'I' disappears, what is remains.
That cannot be described in words.
The nearer you come to God,
the less you are disposed to questioning and reasoning.
When you actually attain Him,
when you behold Him as the reality,
then all noise, all disputations, come to an end.
Who is whose Guru?
God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe.
"God realization is possible for all.
The householders need not renounce the world;
but they should pray sincerely,
practise discrimination
between the Eternal and the temporal
and remain unattached. God listens to sincere prayer.
Intense longing
is the secret of success in spiritual life."
"Lust and greed are the
two main obstacles
to God realization "
Please remember.
Although our conventional bodies
are mere containers,
the lotus heart of the lover
is God's living room.
A powerful sovereign may
mercifully visit various regions
of his vast kingdom
at one time or another,
but he remains directly accessible
to his far family and close advisors
in the innermost chamber of the royal palace.
This is the heart of humankind.
God dwells and flows
as consciousness in and through
all conscious beings,
no doubt,
but Divine Reality manifests
most vividly in the hearts
of those who love
only for the sake of pure love-
O friends, I beg you to come.
Come to the living room of God!
"In the kaliyuga,
man, being totally dependent
on food for life,
cannot altogether shake
off the idea that he is the body.
In this state of mind
it is not proper for him to say:
'I am He'.
When a man does all sorts of worldly things,
he should not say, 'I am Brahman'.
Those who cannot
give up attachment to worldly things,
and who find no means
to shake off the feeling of 'I',
should rather cherish the idea,
'I am God's servant;
I am His devotee.'
One can also realize God by following
the path of devotion."
"The path of knowledge leads to Truth,
as does the path that
combines knowledge and love.
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
"Is it possible to understand
God's action and His motive?
He creates, He preserves, and He destroys.
Can we ever understand why He destroys?
I say to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother,
I do not need to understand.
Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet'.
The aim of human life is to attain bhakti.
As for other things, the Mother knows best."
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