Kankhal 10 September 1914 Dear X, . . . I am glad to know that you have learned many new ideas about karma yoga from my previous letter [27 July 1914]. It does not matter whether your actions are with desire or without desire, the main thing is: “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, […]
Where there is not truth there is no grace. While praying, listen to the words very carefully. When your heart is attentive, your entire being enters your prayer without your having to force it. Grant me the ability to be alone. May it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and […]
Master: “The important thing is somehow to cultivate devotion to God and love for Him. What is the use of knowing many things? It is enough to cultivate love for God by following any of the paths. When you have this love, you are sure to attain God. Afterwards, if it is necessary God will […]
Sri Ramakrishna used to say, ‘God reveals himself to a devotee who feels drawn to him by the combined force of these three attractions: the worldly man’s attraction for possessions, the child’s attraction for its mother, and the husband’s attraction for his chaste wife.’ What does this mean? It means that when intense longing for […]
It is only work that is done as a freewill offering to humanity and to nature that does not bring with it any binding attachment. Duty of any kind is not to be slighted. A man who does the lower work is not, for that reason only, a lower man than he who does the […]
Individuality is my motto. I have no ambition beyond training individuals up. I know very little; that little I teach without reserve. Where I am ignorant I confess it as such, and never am I so glad as when I find people being helped by Theosophists, or Christians, or Mohammedans, or anybody in the world. […]
Govinda: “Revered sir, why does the Divine Mother have a black complexion?” Master: “You see her as black because you are far away from Her. Go near and you will find Her devoid of all color. The water of a lake appears black from a distance. Go near and take the water in your hand, […]
Wisdom can be preached even on a battlefield. The Gita [Bhagavad Gita] was preached so. There are three states of mind: the active, the passive, and the serene. The passive state is characterized by slow vibrations; the active, by quick vibrations, and the serene by the most intense vibrations of all. Know that the soul […]
First you must find a teacher, a true teacher, and you must remember that he is not just a man. You may get a teacher in the body, but the real teacher is not in the body; he is not the physical man—he is not as he appears to your eyes. It may be the […]
In what scriptures do you find statements that women are not competent for knowledge and devotion? In the period of degradation, when the priests made the other castes incompetent for the study of the Vedas, they deprived the women also of all their rights. Otherwise you will find that in the Vedic or Upanishadic age […]
