Swami Vivekananda 2

Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm,  infinite daring, and infinite patience then alone can great deeds be accomplished.

Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.

Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full  fledged devotion to God.

God did not give me everything that i wanted. But, He gave me everything that i needed!

He who struggles is better than he who never attempts.

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

Serve man Serve god

GOD is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything  in this and next life.

The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the  present.

My Faith is in the Younger Generation, the Modern Generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like Lions.

If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the  better.

If there is something here that is not in the Vedas, that is your delusion. It does not exist.

A little of the infinite is projected into consciousness, and that we call,  our world.

The mother and the father are the causes of this body; so a man must undergo a thousand troubles in order to do good to  them.

There is salvation only for the brave.

Swami Vivekananda 1

You have to grow from the inside out.None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea.Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.

In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.

The greatest sin is to think yourself weak

Anything that makes weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.

Strength is Life, Weakness is Death

The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the fault of the fire.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.

Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.

Take Risks in Your Life If u Win, U Can Lead! If u Lose, U Can Guide!

There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point

The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously.Iron nerves with an intelligent brain — and the whole world is at your feet.

A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library; but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to.

Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.

Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Speeches - 11th September 1893

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.

I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world;

I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who,referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration.

I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.

I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny.

I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.

I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me."

Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth.

They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair.

Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now.

But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished  fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring  it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labor.

My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth  first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it.

My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed  this platform

My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions.

A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony.

My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.

Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity.

I am not going just now to venture my own theory.

But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope.“

Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid.

Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian?

God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it.

Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water?

No.

It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion.

The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian.

But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character.

In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction,“"Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."