If you are really ready to take the world’s burden, take it by all means. But do not let us hear your groans and curses. Do not frighten us with your sufferings, so that we came to feel we were better off with our own burdens. The man who really takes the burden blesses the world and goes his own way. He has not a word of condemnation, a word of criticism, not because there was no evil but that he has taken it on his own shoulders willingly, voluntarily. It is the Saviour who should “go his way rejoicing, and not the saved”. This is the only light I have caught this morning. This is enough if it has come to live with me and permeate my life. Come ye that are heavy laden and lay all your burden on me, and then do whatever you like and be happy and forget that I ever existed.
(p.521, V.7, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji’s letter to Sister Nivedita dt 6 December 1899)
‘Woman and gold alone is the world; that alone is maya. Because of it you cannot see or think of God. None can taste the divine bliss without giving up his animal feeling. A devotee should pray to God to help him get rid of this feeling. It must be a sincere prayer. God is our inner controller; He will certainly listen to our prayer.
(p.670, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna’s advice to Bankim on 6 December 1884)