Ramakrishna Quotes
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God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.
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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.
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Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, yet you will find nothing anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here.
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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.
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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.
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Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.
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Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin. Sin is the only thing one hears at your Brahmo Samaj too... He who says day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’, verily becomes a sinner... Why should one only talk about sin and hell, and such things?
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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.
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The vanities of all others may gradually die out, but the vanity of a saint regarding his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away.
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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.
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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.
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If one has faith one has everything.
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God made me pass through the disciplines of various paths. First according to the Puranas, then according to the Tantra. I also followed the disciplines of the Vedas...I practised all sorts of Sadhana .... During my Sadhana period I had all kinds of amazing visions.
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When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.
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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.
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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.
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Through love one acquires renunciation and discrimination naturally.
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The goal can never be reached unless a man makes his mind strong, and firmly resolves that he must realise God in this very birth, nay, this very moment.
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Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone.
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The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.
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Men are like pillow-cases. The colour of one may be red, that of another blue, and that of the third black; but all contain the same cotton within. So it is with man; one is beautiful, another is ugly, a third holy , and a fourth wicked; but the Divine Being dwells in them all
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When the fruit appears the blossom drops off. Love of God is the fruit, and rituals are the blossom.
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In a potter's shop there are vessels of different shapes and forms - pots, jars, dishes, plates, etc., - but all are made of the same clay. So God is one, but He is worshipped in different ages and climes under different names and aspects.
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As a toy fruit or a toy elephant reminds one of the real fruit and the living animal, so do the images that are worshipped remind one of the God who is formless and eternal.