“Here is a peculiarity: When you serve a Jiva, it is Daya (compassion) and not Prema (love); but when you serve him with the idea that he is the Self, that is Prema. That the Atman is the one objective of love is known from Shruti, Smriti, and direct perception. Bhagavan Chaitanya was right, therefore, when he said, “Love to God and compassion to the Jivas”. This conclusion of the Bhagavan, intimating differentiation between Jiva and Isvara, was right, as He was a dualist. But for us, Advaitins, this notion of Jiva as distinct from God is the cause of bondage. Our principle, therefore, should be love, and not compassion. The application of the word compassion even to Jiva sees to me to be rash and vain. For us, it is not to pity but to serve. Ours is not the feeling of compassion but of love, and the feeling of Self in all.
(p.133, V.5, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji’s letter to Sarat Chandra Chakravarthy dt. 3rd July 1897)
“Brahman doesn’t act in consultation with others. It is Brahman’s pleasure. Brahman is self-willed. Why should we try to know the reason for Brahman’s acting this way or that? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes. What is the good of calculating how many trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? One cannot realize Truth by futile arguments and reasoning. I am asking you not to indulge in futile reasoning. But reason by all means, about the Real and the Unreal, about what is permanent and what is transitory. You must reason when you are overcome by lust, anger, or grief.”
(p.496, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Srai Ramakrishna’s advice to Pratap on 3rd July, 1884)