Ramakrishna Quotes, Status, and Thoughts

The supreme purpose and goal for human life... is to cultivate love.

All troubles come to an end when the ego dies

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 meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God.

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

You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.

As long as I live, so long do I learn.

An ocean of bliss may rain down from the heavens, but if you hold up only a thimble, that is all you receive

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

To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward.

The ego is like the root of a banyan tree, you think you have removed it all then one fine morning you see a sprout flourishing again.

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

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

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

Through selfless work, love of God grows in heart.

One day, it was suddenly revealed to me that everything is pure spirit.

When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.

The winds of God's grace are always blowing, it is for us to raise our sails.

Who is whose Guru? God alone is the guide and Guru of the universe.

Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic.

Bondage and Liberation are of the mind alone.

God cannot be realizxd if there is the slightest trace of pride.

Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace.

Man suffers through lack of faith in God.

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

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

Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God.

God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous.

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

He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life.

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.

The compassion that you see in the kindhearted is God's compassion. He has given it to them to protect the helpless.

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

Try to cultivate love of God. You are born as a human being only to attain divine love.

If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that.

It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated.

Knowledge leads to unity, but ignorance to diversity.

So many religions, so many paths to reach the one and the same goal.

Whoever wants God intensely, finds Him. Go and verify it in your own life.

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

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

I have no disciple. I am the servant of the servant of Rama .

Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions.

Men bound hand and foot in the endless chain of cause & effect cannot free each other.

Dislodging a green nut from it's shell is almost impossible, but let it dry and the lightest tap will do it.

Honour both spirit and form, the sentiment within as well as the symbol without.

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.

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing.

The vanities of all others may gradually die out, but the vanity of a saint regarding his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away.

Live like a mud-fish: its skin is bright and shiny even though it lives in mud.

As for me, I consider myself as a speck of the dust of the devotee's feet.

God has created the world in play, as it were.

At a certain stage in the path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in God with form, and at another stage, in God without it.

It's enough to have faith in one aspect of God. But never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false.

He who is called Krishna is also Siva and the Primal Sakti...He again, who is called Jesus and Allah. Truth is one.

Respect is heaven, respect is liberation.

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

The world is not impermanent if one lives there after knowing God.

If a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can reach Thee, through Thy grace, by any path.

With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God through all religions.

So long as one does not become simple like a child, one does not get divine illumination. Forget all the worldly knowledge that thou hast acquired and become as a child, and then will thou get the divine wisdom.

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

Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.

Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.

One should not think, 'My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.' God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite are the opinions.

The magnetic needle always points to the north, and hence it is that sailing vessel does not lose her direction. So long as the heart of man is directed towards God, he cannot be lost in the ocean of worldliness.

The tree laden with fruits always bends low. If you wish to be great, be lowly and meek.

The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire. Subtle is the way of dharma. If you are trying to thread a needle, you will not succeed if the thread has even a slight fiber sticking out.

It is true that God is even in the tiger, but we must not go and face the animal. So it is true that God dwells even in the most wicked, but it is not meet that we should associate with the wicked.

If you spent one-tenth of the time you devoted to distractions like chasing women or making money to spiritual practice, you would be enlightened in a few years.

Do not be small minded. Do not pray for gourds and pumpkins from God, when you should be asking for pure love and pure knowledge to dawn within every heart.

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

We laugh at the efforts of the musk deer to find the source of the scent which comes from itself and despair at our efforts to find the peace which is our essence.

Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, you will find nothing (no true religion) anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here (i .e . in one 's own heart.)

All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self.

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.

You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.

Those whose spiritual awareness has been awakened never make a false move. They don't have to avoid evil. They are so replete with love that whatever they do is a good action. They are fully conscious that they are not the doer of their actions, but only servants of God.

It is on account of the ego that one is not able to see God. In front of the door of God's mansion lies the stump of ego. One cannot enter the mansion without jumping over the stump.

The way of love is as true as the way of knowledge. All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.

Make your meditation a continuous state of mind. A great worship is going on all the time, so nothing should be neglected or excluded from your constant meditative awareness.

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.

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.

The young bamboo can be easily bent, but the full grown bamboo breaks when it is bent with force. It is easy to bend the young heart towards God, but the untrained heart of the old escapes the hold whenever it is so drawn.

You must know that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion... different temperaments... differences in the capacity to comprehend.

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.

You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.

It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire.

If you keep your heart immersed always in the depth of that holy love, your heart is sure to remain ever full to overflowing with the Divine fervour of sacred love.

The fool who repeats again and again: "I am bound, I am bound," remains in bondage. He who repeats day and night: "I am a sinner, I am a sinner," becomes a sinner indeed.

One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.

One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from all sides.

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.

When you meditate, go into the solitude of a forest, or a quiet corner, and enter into the chamber of your heart. And always keep your power of discrimination awake.

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.

Right discrimination is of two kinds analytical and synthetical. The first leads one from the phenomena to the Absolute Brahman, while by the second one knows how the Absolute Brahman appears as the universe.

Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection.

One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like. Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him.

Brahman is beyond mind and speech, beyond concentration and meditation, beyond the knower, the known and knowledge, beyond even the conception of the real and unreal. In short, It is beyond all relativity.

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 shell, the pith and the kernel of the fruit are all produced form one parent seed of the tree, so from the one Lord is produced the whole of creation, animate and inanimate, spiritual and material.

As for myself, I look upon all women as my Mother. This is a very pure attitude of mind. There is no risk or danger in it. To look upon a woman as one's sister is also not bad. But the other attitudes are very difficult and dangerous. It is almost impossible to keep to the purity of the ideal.

As a boy holding to a post or a pillar whirls about it with headlong speed without any fear or falling, so perform your worldly duties, fixing your hold firmly upon God, and you will be free from danger.

Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but the pure and pious hearts of holy men receive and reflect that light well.

Imagine a limitless expanse of water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The 'I' is the jar.

Wisdom leads to unity, but ignorance to separation. So long as God seems to be outside and far away, there is ignorance. But when God is realised within, that is true knowledge.

It is very pleasant to scratch an itching ring-worm, but the sensation one gets afterwards is very painful and intolerable. In the same way the pleasures of this world are very attractive in the beginning, but their consequences are terrible to contemplate and hard to endure.

The sun can give heat and light to the whole world, but he cannot do so when the clouds shut out his rays. Similarly as long as egotism veils the heart, God cannot shine upon it.

Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.

Spirituality automatically leads to humility. When a flower develops into a fruit, the petals drop off on its own. When one becomes spiritual, the ego vanishes gradually on its own. A tree laden with fruits always bends low. Humility is a sign of greatness.