- God alone is real, the eternal substance, and all else is unreal, transitory.
- Know that God is in all things. But you must mix with the good and keep a distance from the bad. God is present even in a tiger, but surely you can’t hug him for that reason.
- One becomes a jivanmukta only by realizing, ‘God is the sole actor in the three worlds. I am a mere instrument in His hands.’ All troubles, all want of peace, come from the notion, ‘I am the doer, I am a free agent.’
- The more one advances towards God, the more one gains fervour and loving devotion to Him. The more a river advances to the sea, the more one sees its ebb and flow.
- Whoever knows God sees that He Himself has become the world, its creatures, and all that.
- Feeding others is also a kind of service to God. God is in all beings in the form of the fire of hunger. Feeding someone means making an offering to Him.
- Dive deep. Diving into this sea, there is no fear of death. It is the sea of immortality. Don’t think that it will make you lose your head. Don’t think that a person becomes mad by calling longingly on God.
- Can a person with an ounce of intelligence know the nature of God? Can a one seer container hold four seers of milk?
- Only a person who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature. Only he knows that God reveals Himself in various forms. He is seen in different ways. He has attributes, and then He is without attributes.
Formless God – God With Form
- One cannot limit God. He is formless and then with form, too. For a devotee, He is with form. For a jnani, that is to say, one who considers the world a dream, God is formless.
- Whether you accept God with form or not does not matter. It is enough to feel that God is a person who listens to your prayers, who creates, preserves, and dissolves – a person who is infinitely powerful.
- Kabir used to say, ‘The One without form is my Father and with form, my Mother.
- Believe firmly in one – either in God with form or God without form. Only then will you realize Him, not otherwise. A man with firm faith in God with form will attain Him, as will one who has firm faith in the formless God.
God Realization
- Those who have realized God do not look upon women with lustful eyes, so they have nothing to fear. They actually see that women are but manifestations of the Mother of the Universe, so they worship them all as the Mother.
- The fronds of a coconut tree dry up and drop off, leaving only a mark [on the trunk]. One can make out from these marks that there were once palm fronds there. Similarly, the ego of one who has realized God only leaves a mark, only a semblance of lust and anger.
- It is said that truthful speech is the austerity in this Kaliyuga. By sticking to truth, one realizes God.
- The aim of life is to realize God. Work is only the first chapter of human life. It can’t be the aim of life. Even selfless work is only a means, not the end.
- It is one thing to have the faith that fire is in wood; it is another to make fire with that wood, to cook rice, and to feel filled and satisfied by eating it. There is no end to divine states. There is always a state higher than the one before.
- You have to be firm in one ideal. Dive. Without diving deep, you cannot reach the gems at the bottom of the sea. It is of no help to swim on the surface.
- To attain God while living a family life, hold onto His lotus feet with one hand and do your work with the other. Whenever you are free from work, hold His lotus feet with both hands, live in solitude, meditate on Him alone, and serve Him.
- The signs of God-realization are that a man becomes like a dry coconut – he is rid of identification with the body. Pleasure and pain of the body are no longer his concern.
- The nearer you come to God, the less you reason. When He is attained, no words, no reasoning, remains. Then it is samadhi.
- If a man doesn’t know the right path but has love for God within and wants to know Him, such a person attains God by sheer love and devotion for Him.
- After you have realized God, your nature becomes that of a five-year-old child.
God Vision
- Attain God by performing spiritual practices. Attain Him. He will give you power. Only then will you be able to do good to others; otherwise not.
- If God only once brings His light to His own face, we can see Him. A police sergeant goes around at night with a lantern in his hand. Nobody can see his face. But in this light he can see everybody else’s face, and others can see each other.
- When Arjuna aimed at his target, his sight was fixed solely on the eye of the fish. He didn’t see anything else. He didn’t see any other part of the fish but the eye. In such a state, breathing stops and a person experiences retention of breath.
- There is another sign of God-vision: The spiritual current from within rushes up toward the brain. At that time, if you attain samadhi, you realize God.
- There are signs of God-vision. According to the Srimad Bhagavata, there are four signs of God-vision. One becomes like a child, like an unclean spirit, like an insentient being, or like a madman.
- A person who has seen God develops the temperament of a child. He goes beyond the three gunas. He does not become bound by any of them. He seems to make no distinction between purity and impurity.
- If you go further, you will find God. You will have His vision. And gradually you will talk intimately with Him.
- Go seek, go seek, O mind, the blessed Vrindavan within your heart, the abode of the Lord of Love. Then in your heart the unceasing light of knowledge will ever shine.
- If you look for God with a longing heart, you can see Him, you can know Him, you can talk to Him just as I am talking to you. I tell you truly, you can see Him.
- It is better to listen than to read, and it is better to see than to listen. There is a great difference between hearing of Kashi and visiting Kashi.
Lord
- By chanting the name of God, both the body and mind become pure.
- Even while living in the family, one must go into solitude at times. It’s good if one can cry for God even for three days in solitude, away from home. But even if a man goes into solitude for a day when he gets the opportunity, and thinks of Him, that too is good.
- When the Lord Himself enacts His sport why is there need for Jatila and Kutila? Without troublemakers like Jatila and Kutila, the sport doesn’t develop. And without Jatila and Kutila, there is no fun.
Lotus Feet
- Having the rare privilege of being born as human beings, we should develop devotion to His lotus feet by any means possible.
- Pray earnestly for love and devotion at God’s lotus feet.
- After Ahalya was freed from the curse, Ramachandra said to her, ‘Ask for a boon from me.’ Ahalya said, ‘Rama, if you wish to grant me a boon, grant that even if I am born a pig, my mind will always dwell at your lotus feet.’
- If a person has love and devotion for the lotus feet of God, even though he may eat pork, he is blessed.
- There is no harm in leading a householder life. But you must do your work selflessly, fixing your mind at the lotus feet of God. If a person has a boil on his back, he talks to everybody and attends to his work too, but his mind is always on the boil. It is the same.