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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic)

Inspirational Quotations by Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic)

Swāmī Vivekānanda (1863–1902,) born Narendra Nath Datta, is one of the most admired spiritual leaders of India. He was the chief disciple of the 19th-century Hindu mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the driving force behind the Ramakrishna Mission and Neo-Hinduism.

Born in Calcutta in British India, Swāmī Vivekānanda was an associate of the Brahmo Samāj, a Hindu reform movement, and training to be a lawyer. When he stumbled upon Ramakrishna, Swāmī Vivekānanda had a forceful religious experience and became one of Ramakrishna’s disciples. After his master’s death, he became a saṃnyāsin and founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He became a mendicant, traveled the length and breadth of India on foot, meditating and propagating his interpretation of Ramakrishna’s teachings.

Swāmī Vivekānanda proposed that, underneath their seeming diversity, all religions are one. His appeal for universal tolerance attracted much attention at the Chicago World Parliament of Religions in 1893, where he introduced Hinduism with an inspiring speech that began, “Sisters and brothers of America…, it fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us.”

Swāmī Vivekānanda was a crucial figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedānta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a significant force in the revival of Hinduism in India and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India.

In India, Swāmī Vivekānanda is widely regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and a source of inspiration. His notable literary works include Karma Yoga (1896,) Raja Yoga (1896,) and The East and the West (1909.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Swami Vivekananda

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Inspirational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic)

Never are we nearer the Light than when the darkness is deepest.
—Swami Vivekananda
Topics: Light

Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
—Swami Vivekananda

There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion—I am God—cannot be made with regard to the sense-world.
—Swami Vivekananda

Have you got the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions? If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right?
—Swami Vivekananda

Mercy is heaven itself; to be good, we have all to be merciful. Even justice and right should stand on mercy.
—Swami Vivekananda

The greatest source of strength for any society is its faith in God. The day it renounces such faith will be the day that society begins to die.
—Swami Vivekananda

All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
—Swami Vivekananda

Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God.
—Swami Vivekananda

To define God is grinding what is already ground; for He is the only being we know.
—Swami Vivekananda

Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing it can we know God. It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing God can we understand human nature.
—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
Topics: Thought

We often talk of right and justice, but we find that in the world right and justice are mere baby’s talk. There are two things which guide the conduct of men: might and mercy. The exercise of might is invariably the exercise of selfishness.
—Swami Vivekananda

I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.
—Swami Vivekananda

Is there any sex-distinction in the Atman (Self)? Out with the differentiation between man and woman—all is Atman! Give up the identification with the body, and stand up!
—Swami Vivekananda
Topics: Fear, Anxiety, Security, Opportunity, Safety

Comfort is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being “comfortable”.
—Swami Vivekananda

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin? To say that you are weak, or others are weak.
—Swami Vivekananda

If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature.
—Swami Vivekananda

First, let us become gods and then help others to become gods. ‘Be and make.’ Let this be our motto.
—Swami Vivekananda

Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear.” Tell this to everyone—“Have no fear.”
—Swami Vivekananda

This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. If all of us think for the society and the country, all our problems will be solved.
—Swami Vivekananda

However we may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.
—Swami Vivekananda

As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?
—Swami Vivekananda

The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do. When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds, and accomplish very little work.
—Swami Vivekananda

A tremendous stream is flowing toward the ocean, carrying us all along with it; and though like straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the long run we are sure to join the Ocean of Life and Bliss.
—Swami Vivekananda

We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.
—Swami Vivekananda
Topics: Action

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

Be for a lone moment really “hopeless”, and the mist will clear. For what to hope when one is the all of existence.
—Swami Vivekananda

The highest manifestation of strength is to keep ourselves calm and on our own feet.
—Swami Vivekananda

We have to go back to philosophy to treat things as they are. We are suffering from our own karma. It is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should God be blamed?
—Swami Vivekananda

Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
—Swami Vivekananda
Topics: Duty

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