It is all nonsense. I am nothing, the world is nothing, the Lord alone is the only worker. We are simply tools in His hands.
(p.15, Vol.9, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamijis in his letter to Mrs. G.W Hale from Detroit on 16 March 1894.)
It is easy to take the vow of monasticism, but a person cannot have supreme devotion and knowledge without God’s grace. The Lord is sure to grant the desire of one who sincerely yearns for devotion and knowledge. What shall it profit a man to have the ochre cloth if he does not possess knowledge and devotion?
(p.56, For Seekers of God, Mahapurush Maharaj’s words to the newly ordained monks in Belur on 16 March, 1929)