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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)

First get rid of the delusion “I am the body”, then only will we want real knowledge.
—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

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

Do you ask anything from your children in return for what you have given them? It is your duty to work for them, and there the matter ends. In whatever you do for a particular person, a city, or a state, assume the same attitude towards it as you have towards your children — expect nothing in return. If you can invariably take the position of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only where we expect a return.
—Swami Vivekananda

What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt.
—Swami Vivekananda

One party says thought is caused by matter, and the other says matter is caused by thought. Both statements are wrong; matter and thought are coexistent. There is a third something of which both matter and thought are products.
—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

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

He who always thinks himself as weak will never become strong, but he who knows himself to be a lion, rushes out from the worlds meshes, as a lion from its cage.
—Swami Vivekananda
Topics: Meditation

Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already. You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity.
—Swami Vivekananda

Good and bad are both bondages of the soul … If we do not attach ourselves to the work we do, it will not have any binding effect on our soul… This is the one central idea in the Gita: work incessantly, but be not attached to it.
—Swami Vivekananda

Time is like river. You can’t touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.
—Swami Vivekananda

Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.
—Swami Vivekananda

Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future.
—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

Look upon every man, woman, and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege.
—Swami Vivekananda

Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything ourselves. We want a Personal God, a Savior or a Prophet to do everything for us.
—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

So long as millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
—Swami Vivekananda

It is the patient building of character, the intense struggle to realize the truth, which alone will tell in the future of humanity.
—Swami Vivekananda

Only when a man sees this universe as God does the veil fall from his eyes; then that man, purified and cleansed, finds his whole vision changed.
—Swami Vivekananda

The will is not free – it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect – but there is something behind the will which is free.
—Swami Vivekananda

Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.
—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: Security, Anxiety, Opportunity, Fear, Safety

Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.
—Swami Vivekananda

If a man thinks good thoughts and does good works, the sum total of these impressions will be good; and they, in a similar manner, will force him to do good even in spite of himself.
—Swami Vivekananda

The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.
—Swami Vivekananda

Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are soul-immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; you are not matter, you are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.
—Swami Vivekananda

Strength is Life, Weakness is Death.
Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death.
Love is Life, Hatred is Death.
—Swami Vivekananda

Come out into the broad light of day, come out from the little narrow paths, for how can the infinite soul rest content to live and die in small ruts?
—Swami Vivekananda

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