Recommended Reading
- ‘The Holy Geeta‘ by Swami Chinmayananda
- ‘Meditation & Life‘ by Swami Chinmayananda
- ‘Journey of a Master: Swami Chinmayananda‘ by Nancy Freeman Patchen
- ‘Pursuit of Happiness‘ by Swami Chinmayananda
- ‘Discourses on Astavakra Gita‘ by Swami Chinmayananda
Inspirational Quotes by Swami Chinmayananda (Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher)
We like someone because, we love someone in spite of.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Charity is an attempt wherein I try to expand and bring into the ambit of my life, all others around me and grow to consider the other man’s needs and requirements as important as my own personal needs. To live seeking an identity thus, with at least those who are immediately around me, is to live away from the suffocating selfishness and the throttling grip of my body-consciousness.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The highest form of Grace is silence.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Comfort – Comes as Guest, Lingers to become Host and stays to ENSLAVE us.
—Swami Chinmayananda
A Conquest, without facing dangers is as dull as Victory without a shining glory. A game without a prize.
—Swami Chinmayananda
History is full of instances, wherein, victory would have been to the vanquished, if only they had battled a little longer! We often fail for lack of perseverance in our efforts. We leave our work half done in our impatience. Every job demands its quota of efforts. Never give up too soon.
—Swami Chinmayananda
To define God is to defile God.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Become quietly effective.
Don’t expect them, to fully understand you.
They won’t: So ?
Demonstrate with results
What they would not understand with words .
—Swami Chinmayananda
Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Both renunciation of action and the performance of action lead to Nirvana (Liberation); but these performance of action is superior to renunciation of action. The action of today becomes the destiny of tomorrow.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Topics: Become, Action, Destiny, Act
Let not your choice leave behind a sense of guilt.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Our present work may be great or small.
Yet, the important thing is to do it well.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Not to do what you feel like doing is freedom.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Everybody exists. It is only the few who live.
To live, you should have an ideal.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Sandalwood perfumes even the axe that hurls it down!
The more we rub sandalwood against a stone, the more its fragrance spreads.
Burn it, and it wafts its glory through the entire neighbourhood.
Such is the enchanting beauty of forgiveness in life.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The greatness is not what we do but, unavoidably, it is always in how we do what we do.
—Swami Chinmayananda
To say, ‘LORD IS’ is Gyanam. But ‘THE LORD IS I’ is Vigyanam.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Disappointment can come only to those who make appointments with the future.
—Swami Chinmayananda
He who submits to discipline is a DISCIPLE.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Stop all your attachments to false values. In an ever changing world, there is nothing worthwhile for us to desire or weep for. Joys and sorrows are bound come in human life; they are just like the two sides of the same coin.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Love is a consistent passion to give, not a meek persistent hope to receive.
The only demand of life is the privilege to love all.
—Swami Chinmayananda
It is sure to be dark if you close your eyes.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Religion must not be considered true because it is necessary, but necessary because it is true.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Character is formed from the repeated choice of thoughts and action.
Make the right choice – You shall have a firm and noble character.
—Swami Chinmayananda
He who depends on chances and situations to be happy, is a Sansari.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Wisdom is the assimilated knowledge in us, gained from an intelligent estimation and close study of our own direct and indirect experience in the world.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The greatness in an ideology is not, in fact, in the ideology;
it is in the subject which lives that ideology.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Everyone points to the other man, who, according to him, is happier. But the only one, who has the courage to declare that he is truly happy, is he who has relinquished all his passions and hungers from within.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The end of ego is the ‘Mystic Death’ of the mediator.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Silently hear everyone.
Accept what is good.
Reject and forget what is not.
This is intelligent living.
—Swami Chinmayananda
To forget oneself totally, one’s mind should keep awake at every moment. A mind that has forgotten the past and the future, that is awake to the now, to the present, expresses the highest concentration of intelligence. It is alert, it is watchful, it is inspired. The actions of a man who has such a mind are exceptionally creative and perfect. Verily to forget oneself totally, is to be in perfection.
—Swami Chinmayananda
When opportunity knocks,
We are either out or sleeping in.
—Swami Chinmayananda
The secret of action is to get established in equanimity, renouncing all egocentric attachments, and forgetting to worry over our successes and failures.
—Swami Chinmayananda
To give love is true freedom; to demand love is pure slavery.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Universe is a cosmos and not a chaos. There exists a mental affinity; a scientific law;
a rhythm of mental relationship in which the entire living world is held together, in one web of love.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Hindu culture is essentially based upon the sacrifice implied in duty, and not upon acquisition, which is implied in rights.
—Swami Chinmayananda
To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Some act till they meet obstacles, others act inspite of obstacles and conquer them; but some act not fearing the possibility of some obstacles, that might arise enroute.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Unless we have a definite faith in the goal of our existence, and unless we believe, work for, and actually come to experience the goal positively as an existent factor, there is no hope of any plan becoming successful.
—Swami Chinmayananda
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Sri Aurobindo Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet
Paramahansa Yogananda Indian Hindu Mystic
Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Indian Hindu Philosopher
Ramana Maharshi Indian Hindu Mystic
Sathya Sai Baba Indian Hindu Religious Leader
B. K. S. Iyengar Indian Hindu Yoga Teacher
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Indian Hindu Religious Leader
Nisargadatta Maharaj Indian Hindu Religious Leader
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami American Hindu Teacher