Atmanam Viddhi | Know Thyself

1. There is naught else than Him; yet, this universe is not his real nature. He is not the objective world, for He is of the nature of nonobjective consciousness. And though He is devoid of the distinction of the knower, knowledge and the known, He is nevertheless always the knower,—that Hari, the destroyer of the darkness of samsâra, I praise. 2. Knowledge cannot spring up by any other means than enquiry, just as the perception of things is impossible without light. 3. He who thinks "I am the body" remains, alas! in ignorance, as also he who thinks "this body is mine", as if he were always looking at an earthen vessel belonging to him. 4. A dream becomes unreal in the waking state; nor does the waking state exist in dream. Both dream and waking are absent in sleep,and sleep too is absent in dream and in waking. 5. Thus all the three states are unreal, being produced by the three qualities. The Eternal is the witness of these three states, beyond the t...

1. As long as you are contaminated with notions of me or mine (e.g., my home, my body, my mind, my intellect), the Self will not be found, for it lies beyond cognition and cannot be realised as ‘my Self’. 2. Retire into solitude, analyse and see what those things are which are cognised as mine; discard them all and transcending them, look for the Real Self. 3. So the world is nothing but an image drawn on the screen of consciousness, it differs from a mental picture in its long duration; that is again due to the strength of will producing the phenomenon. The universe appears practical, material and perfect because the will determining its creation is perfect and independent; whereas the human conceptions are more or less transitory according to the strength or the weakness of the will behind them. 4. . One starts imagining something; then contemplates it; and by continuous or repeated association resolves that it is true, unless contradicted. In that way, the world app...

M: You need not get at it, for you are it. It will get at you, if you give it a chance. Let go your attachment to the unreal and the real will swiftly and smoothly step into its own. Stop imagining yourself being or doing this or that and the realisation that you are the source and heart of all will dawn upon you. With this will come great love which is not choice or predilection, nor attachment, but a power which makes all things love-worthy and lovable. Q: What do you see? M: I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. The way back to your self is through refusal and rejection. All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define your self. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. We discover it [Self] by being earnest, by searching, enqu...

Raja Yoga is a book by Swami Vivekananda about "Raja Yoga", his interpretation of Patanjali's Yoga sutras. The book was published in July 1896. It became an instant success and was highly influential in the western understanding of Yoga. [Wikipedia]  Here are some words from this book..... 1. The first lesson is just to breathe in a measured way, in and out. That will harmonise the system. When you have practiced this for some time, you will do well to join to it the repetition of some word as "Om," or any other sacred word. In India we use certain symbolical words instead of counting one, two, three, four. That is why I advise you to join the mental repetition of the "Om," or some other sacred word to the Pranayama. Let the word flow in and out with the breath, rhythmically, harmoniously, and you will find the whole body is becoming rhythmical. 2. After practicing the above mentioned breathing for a few days, you should take up a higher one...

Lectures from Colombo to Almora (1897) is a book of Swami Vivekananda based on his various lectures. After visiting the West, Vivekananda reached Colombo, British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on 15 January 1897. Upon Vivekananda's arrival in South India, a forty-feet high monument was built by the king of Ramnad on the spot where he landed to celebrate his achievements at the West. He reached Calcutta via Madras on 20 January 1897. Then Vivekananda travelled extensively and visited many Indian states. On 19 June (1897) he reached Almora. The lectures delivered by him in this period were compiled into the book Lectures from Colombo to Almora. The book contains reports of his 17 lectures. [Wikipedia] 1. Religion does not rest in book. 2. Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti(He is one, whom the sages declared by various names. ) 3. We are the effects, and we are the causes. We are free therefore. 4. We cannot understand God in our scriptures without knowing soul. 5. Souls are ...

Vedanta Philosophy: An address before the Graduate Philosophical Society is a lecture given by Swami Vivekananda on 25 March 1896 at the Graduate Philosophical Society of Harvard University. After this lecture, the university offered Vivekananda the chair of Eastern Philosophy. [Wikipedia] Here are the great words from this book. 1. All the Vedantists agree on three points. They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles. 2. The belief about cycles is as follows: All matter throughout the universe is the outcome of one primal matter called Âkâsha; and all force, whether gravitation, attraction or repulsion, or life, is the outcome of one primal force called Prâna. Prâna acting on Âkâsha is creating or projecting the universe. 3. At the beginning of a cycle, Âkâsha is motionless, unmanifested. Then Prâna begins to act, more and more, creating grosser and grosser forms out of Âkâsha — plants, animals, men, stars, and so on. 4. Now there is somethin...