Ramakrishna

If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.

The goal of life is not the earning of money, but the service of God.

Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone.

God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.

When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.

Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind. If you say 'I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me' free you shall be.

The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.

Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body as the tenant pays house rent for the use of the house.

Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.

Through love one acquires renunciation and discrimination naturally.

When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. One retains only compassion for them.

The breeze of grace is always blowing set your sail to catch that breeze.

God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.

If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.

Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day.

A man is truly free, even here in this embodied state, if he knows that God is the true agent and he by himself is powerless to do anything.

Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body, as the tenant pays house-rent for the use of the house.

You should love everyone; no one is a stranger; God dwells in all beings; without Him nothing can exist.

Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which He may be approached.

As a piece of rope, when burnt, retains its form, but cannot serve to bind, so is the ego which is burnt by the fire of supreme Knowledge.

Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God Who is the soul of truth.

Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, yet you will find nothing anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here.

More are the names of God and infinite are the forms through which He may be approached. In whatever name and form you worship Him, through them you will realise Him.

If one has faith, one has everything.

The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself.

Sugar and sand may be mixed together, but the ant rejects the sand and goes off with the sugar grain; so pious men lift the good from the bad.

If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth and worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you.

As the snake is separate from its slough, even so is the Spirit separate from the body.

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.

Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.

One must be very particular about telling the truth. Through truth one can realize God.

The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.

The physicians of one class feel the patients and go away, merely prescribing medicine. As they leave the room they simply ask the patient to take the medicine. They are the poorest class of physicians.

With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions. The Vaishnavas will realize God, and so will the Saktas, the Vedantists, and the Brahmos. The Mussalmans and Christians will realize Him too. All will certainly realize God if they are earnest and sincere.

When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.

It is easy to talk on religion, but difficult to practice it.

To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end.

If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the Universal Self and then live in the midst of wealth and worldliness surely they will in no way affect you.

A boat may stay in water but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world but the world should not live within him.

If you want to go east, don't go west.

Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then through his grace one realize him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to him as I am talking to you.

Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out comes the sun. Longing is followed by the vision of God.

The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails.

You should love everyone because God dwells in all beings.