Swami Vivekananda epistle...

I like to work on calmly and silently, and the Lord is always with me.
Follow me, if you will, by being intensely sincere, perfectly
unselfish, and above all, by being perfectly pure. My blessings go
with you.

From Chicago: January 11, 1895. Letter to G. G. Narasimhachariar.
Complete Works, 5: 65

P. 87 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing
greater faith.

P. 87 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

P. 91 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Dekho, Hanumaner Ki Bhab! Dhan, Maan, Dehasukh Kichu-I Chay Na; Kebol
Bhagaban-Ke Chay.

Just imagine Hanuman's state of mind. He didn't care for money, honor,
creature comforts, or anything else. He longed only for God. P. 91 The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Edgar Cayce Reading 4047-2

The purpose in life, then, is not the gratifying of appetites nor of
any selfish desires, but it is that the entity, the soul, may make the
earth, where the entity finds its consciousness, a better place in
which to live.

Edgar Cayce Reading 4047-2

P. 291 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Why, can't a married man lead a virtuous life? It is through the mind
that one achieves everything. Didn't the Master marry me?
P. 291 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

You may pray to everyone that was ever born, but who will come to
help you?... Help thyself out by thyself. None else can help thee,
friend... Get hold of the Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid. In
the midst of all miseries and all weakness, let the Self come out,
faint and imperceptible though it be at first.

The one great question asked by Vedanta is: why are people so afraid?
The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependant on
others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything for ourselves.
We want a personal god, a saviour or a prophet to do everything for
us... If everything is done for a man by another he will lose the use
of his own limbs. Anything we do ourselves, that is the only thing we
do. Anything that is done by another never can be ours... All this
running after help is foolishness.

You know, there are bullock carts... sometimes a sheaf of straw is
dangled at the tip of the pole, a little in front of the bulls but
beyond their reach. The bulls try continually to feed upon the straw,
but never succeed. That is exactly how we are helped! We think we are
going to get security, strength, wisdom, happiness from the outside.
We always hope but never realize our hope. Never does any help come
from the outside.

Complete Works of swami vivekanada, 5: 394

Think always, 'I am ever-pure, ever-knowing, and ever-free. How can I
do anything evil? Like ordinary people, can I ever be fooled with the
insignificant charms of lust and wealth?' Strengthen the mind with
such thoughts. This will surely bring real good.

Conversation with Priya Nath Sinha. Recorded in Bengali. Complete Works, 5: 394

Help Yourself - Swami Vivekananda

Therefore, stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole
responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the
creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is
within yourselves.

It is a tremendous error to feel helpless. Do not seek help from
anyone. We are our own help. If we cannot help ourselves, there is
none to help us... this is the last and greatest lesson, and oh, what
a time it takes to learn it!... Just think of that huge mass of
misery, and all caused by this false idea of going to seek for help!

There is no help for man. None ever was, none is, and none will be...
But you are spirit. Pull yourself out of difficulties by yourself!
Save yourself by yourself! There is none to help you - never was. To
think that there is, is sweet delusion. It comes to no good.

Complete Works of swami vivekanada, 2: 100

Renounce and give up. What did Christ say? 'He that loseth his life
for my sake shall find it.' Again and again did he preach renunciation
as the only way to perfection. There comes a time when the mind awakes
from this long and dreary dream--the child gives up its play and wants
to go back to its mother.

Complete Works, 2: 100

Edgar Cayce Reading 397-1

. . in thine own heart there comes those things that would make
afraid. But fear is of the earth. The spirit of truth and
righteousness casteth out fear.

Edgar Cayce Reading 397-1

Japa and Meditation

" Practise a little Japa and meditation every day. Never stop for a
single day. The mind is like a restless child, it wants to runaway.
You must bring it back again and again and apply it to the meditation
on the Lord. Go on this way for two or three years, and then an
inexpressible joy will fill your mind. Meditation and Japa appear dry
in the beginning. But still you must engage the mind in the
contemplation of the Deity, like swallowing a bitter medicine. Slowly
spiritual joy will grow in you. People work so hard to pass an
examination! To realise the God is even easier than that. Only let
them call on Him with a calm, cheerful heart." - Swami Brahmananda

"To follow the Master means to practice what he taught; otherwise
nobody can advance by just offering to him a few flowers or through
some momentary sentimental outbursts." - Swami Premananda

"Now-a-days there are so many religious societies, but people lose
all interest in them after a few days. What is the reason for this?
The reason is our words are not in accord with our thoughts. The first
step in religion is to be sincere to the core." - Swami Saradananda

"Low thoughts will come and go. Don't mind them. Through His grace, as
a result of constant practice you will get strength. Devote your whole
mind to japa, meditation, worship and the study of the scriptures,
whichever appeals to you for the time being." - Swami Shivananda

"So long as we have no ideal to follow, we will have to heed the calls
of our lower nature. A characterless man is slave to all worldly
enjoyments." - Swami Ramakrishnananda

"Never expect anything from anyone. But always give. Otherwise a sense
of dryness will overtake you. But you must not give your mind to
anyone. That you must give only to God." - Swami Turiyananda.

"If you desire to have firm and unshakable faith and devotion to the
Lord, you should also take to tapasya, hard austerities. Tapasya does
not mean aimless wandering hither and thither, it really means regular
and steadfast japa, meditation and self-control." - Swami Abhedananda

"It is better to continue calling on the Lord devotedly than to know,
speak, and preach thousand and one religious cants and shibboleths." -
Swami Adbhutananda

"People of all castes can be initiated by a good guru who has
attained perfection. What caste can a true devotee or the perfect soul
have? When the individual soul merges in God (like rivers in the sea),
they can no more have any individuality. So how can there be then,
the distinction of caste, as Brahmin, Shudra etc., belonging to the
body and never to the soul?" - Swami Trigunatitananda

"The spiritual path for the present age lies through the harmony of
all paths of earlier ages -- harmony of knowledge, devotion and
selfless work. We must have knowledge, devotion and service. It won't
do to have only one." - Swami Akhandananda

"Before the Lord enters the temple of anyone of His children's hearts,
he fills it with devotion, faith and love, just as a king sends
different pieces of furniture and vessels to a subject's house which
he intends to visit. Else, where can the poor subject get all those
things? The Lord grants devotion, faith and love, just because He will
come." - Swami Subodhananda

"One who can detach his mind from material things will see the light
of God and his presence in everything. Worldly attachment draws people
away from God and scorch them in the wild fire of the world." - Swami
Vijnanananda

"There is no sin which I have not committed, but still there is no end
of Grace I have received from the Master." - Girish Chandra Ghosh

Edgar Cayce Reading 2803-2

... Know thy ideal, and live to that. For, each soul must give account
for its own self.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2803-2

P. 266 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

If someone comes here and calls me 'Mother', I can't neglect him. P.
266 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Edgar Cayce Reading 4028-1

... For all prayer is answered. Don't tell God how to answer it.

Edgar Cayce Reading 4028-1

Edgar Cayce Reading 2574-1

In Him there are no limitations. One only limits self by doubt or fear.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2574-1

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

Hear day and night that you are that Soul. Repeat it to yourselves
day and night till it enters into your very veins, till it tingles in
every drop of blood, till it is in your flesh and bone. Let the whole
body be full of that one ideal, "I am the birthless, the deathless,
the blissful, the omniscient, the omnipotent, ever-glorious Soul."
Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes part and parcel
of your life. Meditate upon it... All your actions will be magnified,
transformed, deified, by the very power of thought. If matter is
powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon your
life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your
majesty and your glory.

These conceptions of Vedanta must come out, must remain not only in
the forest, not only in the cave, but they must come out to work at
the bar and the bench, in the pulpit, and in the cottage of the poor
man, with the fishermen that are catching fish, and with the students
that are studying... If the fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he
will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks that he is the
Spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks that he is
the Spirit, he will be a better lawyer, and so on...

You have now to make the character of Mahavira [Hanuman] your
ideal... He was a perfect master of his senses and wonderfully
sagacious. You have now to build your life on this great ideal of
personal service. Through that, all the other ideals will gradually
manifest in life. Obedience to the guru without questioning, and
strict observance of Brahmacharya - this is the secret of success. As
on the one hand Hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the
other he represents leonine courage, striking the whole world with awe.

Karma Yoga. New York, 1896. Complete Works, 1: 109 - Swami Vivekananda

All the great systems of ethics teach absolute unselfishness as the
goal. When a man reaches this absolute selfishness, he is no more the
little Mr. So-and-so. He acquires infinite expansion. The little
personality which he had before is now lost to him for ever. He
becomes infinite. The attainment of this expansion is indeed the goal
of all religions and of all moral and philosophical teachings.

Karma Yoga. New York, 1896. Complete Works, 1: 109

The Gospel of Strength

You must know what you are, what your real nature is. You must become
conscious of that infinite nature within. Then your bondage will
burst.

Think all of you that you ate the infinitely powerful Atman, and see
what strength comes out.

"Knowledge is power," says the proverb, does it not? It is through
knowledge that power comes. Man has got to know that he is a man of
infinite power and strength. Really he himself is by his own nature
potent and omniscient. And this he must know. And the more he becomes
conscious of his own Self, the more he manifests this power, and his
bonds break and at last he becomes free.

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Remember this much: 'I have someone to look after me. There is
certainly a Mother or Father.' P. 242 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of Strength - The Source of Strength - Soul!

What we need is strength; who will give us strength? There are
thousands to weaken us and of stories we have had enough. Every one of
our Puranas, if you press it, gives out stories enough to fill three-
fourths of the libraries of the world. Everything that can weaken us
as a race we have had for the last thousand years... Therefore, my
friends, as one of your blood, as one that lives and dies with you,
let me tell you that we want strength, strength, and everytime
strength. And the Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein
lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world; the whole world
can vivified, made strong, energised through them.

Strength, strength is what the Upahishads speak to me from every
page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one
great lesson I have been taught in my life. Strength, it says,
strength, O man, be not weak. Are there no human weaknesses? - says
man. There are, say the Upanishads, but will more weakness heal them?
Would you try to wash dirt with dirt? Will sin cure sin? Will weakness
cure weakness? Strength, O man, strength, say the UPanishads, stand up
and be strong.

First step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads, and
believe - "I am the soul," "Me the sword cannot cut; nor weapons
pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry; I am the
Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient." So repeat these blessed saving words
and be strong.

P. 242 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

What is the good in doing Japa for a whole day if there is no
concentration of mind? Collectedness of one's mind is essential, then
only His grace descends. P. 242 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Swami Vivekananda - Conversation with Priya Nath Sinha

At your very threshold, God himself in the form of a poor beggar is
dying of starvation. Instead of giving him anything, would you only
satisfy the appetites of your wife and children with delicacies? Why,
that is beastly!

Conversation with Priya Nath Sinha. Recorded in Bengali. CW, 5: 382

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-33

... Whether in joy, in sorrow, in trouble or in pain, let that mind be
in you as was in He that gave, "I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world."

The Gospel of Strength

The sign of vigour, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of
health, the sign of everything that is good, is strength.

Mark you, those things which you see in pusillanimous, effiminate
folk who speak in a nasal tone chewing every syllable, whose voice is
as thin as of one who has been starving for a week, who are like a
tattered wet rag, who never protest or are moved even if kicked by
anybody - those are the signs of death, not of sattva [the calm and
balanced state] - all corruption and stench... During these last
thousand years, the whole country is filling the air with the name of
the Lord and is sending its prayers to Him; and the Lord is never
lending His ears to them. And why should He? When even man never hears
the cries of the fool, do you think God will? Now the only way out is
to listen to the words of Lord in the Gita, "yield not to unmanliness,
O Partha!"

This I lay down as the first essential in all I teach: anything that
brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the
toes of your feet.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come
afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You
will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of
Gita. These are bold worlds; but I have to say them, for I love you. I
know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You
will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a
little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty
strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You
will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when
your body stands firm upon feet, and you feel yourselves as men.

That is all I have to say to the world. Be strong!... The sign of
life is strength and growth. The sign of death is weakness. Whatever
is weak, avoid! It is death! If it is strength, go down into hell and
get hold of it!

Be strong. Be manly. I have respect even for a wicked person so long
as he is manly and strong, for his strength will someday make him give
up his wickedness, and even renounce all work for selfish ends. It
will thus eventually bring him to the Truth.

The Gospel of Strength

You must learn to make the physique very strong and teach the same to
others... Body and mind must run parallel... When the necessity of
strengthening the physique is brought home to people, they wll exert
themselves of their own accord.

This is not the time with us to weep even in joy; we have had weeping
enough; no more is this the time for us to become soft. This softness
has been with us till we have become like masses of cotton and are
dead. What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of
steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate
into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will
accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going down to
the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face.

If you, my sons, can proclaim this message to the world - "Yield not
to unmanliness, O son of Pritha; it does not befit thee" - then all
this disease, grief, sin and sorrow will vanish off from the face of
the earth in three days.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and
not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that?
Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything;
we must strengthen it.

You are lions, you are souls, pure, infinite, and perfect. The might
of the universe is within you. Why weepest thou my friend?

The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with
an intelligent brain - and the whole world is at your feet.

Edgar Cayce Reading 487-17

. . those that find fault with others will find fault in themselves;
for they are writing their own record--they must meet, every one, that
which they have said about another; for so is the image, the soul of
the Creator in each body, and when ye speak evil of or unkindly to thy
brother, thou hast done it unto thy God.

Edgar Cayce Reading 487-17

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Why entertain any fear? All conditions can turn favourable by the
will of the Master.
P. 241 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

Say not man is a sinner. Tell him that he is a God.

Silly fools tell you that you are sinners, and you sit down in a
corner and weep. It is foolishness, wickedness,
down-right rascality to say that you are sinners! You are all God.

The greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak,
that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no
power and you cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that
way, you, as it were, rivet one more link in the chain that binds you
down, you add one more layer of hypnotism into your own soul .
Therefore, whosoever thinks he is weak is wrong, whosoever thinks he
is impure is wrong, and is throwing a bad thought into the world.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

One stumbles more than another, and him who stumbles more we call
bad, him who stumbles less we call good... The difference is not one
of kind, but of degree.

In spite of the greatness of the Upanishads, in spite of our boasted
ancestry of sages, compared to many other races, I must tell you that
we are weak, very weak. First of all is our physical weakness. That
physical weakness is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries.

Do you know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces are
still lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has known all
that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man first came
here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been
manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you
know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You
know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the
ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

Gems of Gospel of Holy Mother P. 239

Whenever any evil thought haunts you, tell your mind: 'Being her
child, can I stoop so low as to indulge in any such activity?' You
will find that you gain strength and peace of mind. P. 239 The Gospel
of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really
weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. Stand up,
assert yourself, procalim the God within you, do not deny Him! Too
much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism has
been and is upon our race... De-hypnotise yourselves. The way to do
that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach
everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it
awakens. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity
will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this
sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activitiy.

The more I live, the more I become convinced everyday that every
human being is dinine. In no man or woman, however vile, does that
divinity die.

Studying the external alone, man begins to feel himself to be
nothing. These vast powers of nature, these tremendous changes
occurring - whole communities wiped off the face of the earth in a
twinkling of time, one volcanic eruption shattering to pieces whole
continents - perceiving and studying these things, man begins to feel
himself weak. Therefore it is not the study of external nature that
makes one strong. But there is the internal nature of man - a million
times more powerful than any volcanic eruption or any law of nature -
which conquers nature, triumphs over all its laws. And that alone
teaches man what he is.

Swami Vivekananda , Conversation with disciples.

Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even
thinking the least good of others gradually instills into the heart
the strength of a lion. I love you all ever so much, but I wish you
all to die working for others--I should rather be glad to see you do
that!

Conversation with Priya Nath Sinha. Recorded in Bengali. Complete Works, 5: 382

The Gospel of Strength

Everybody is hypnotised already. The work of attaining freedom, of
realising one's real nature, consists in de-hypnotisation.

Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you
are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; you are not
matter, you are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the
servant of matter.

"Children of immortal bliss" - what a sweet, what a hopeful name!
Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name - beings of
immortal bliss... You are the children of God, the sharers of immortal
bliss, holy and perfect beings. You divinities on earth - sinners! It
is sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3003-1

Love the Lord. Keep His ways. For He, as ye must always remember, hath
blessed thee personally. And that means for keeps!

Edgar Cayce Reading 2823-1

Each soul . . . has a definite job to do. But ye alone may find and do that job!

Edgar Cayce Reading 97-2

In the application of self as towards will's influence: This the
factor through which one develops or retards in the earthly
experience.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

Know that every thought and word that weakens you in the world is the
only evil that exists. Whatever makes man weak and fear is the only
evil that should be shunned.

The greatest sin is to think yourself weak.

I beg you to understand this one fact - no good comes out of the man
who day and night thinks he is nobody. If a man day and night thinks
he is miserable low and nothing, nothing he becomes... That is the
great fact which you ought to remember.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak,
weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be;
if you think yourselves impure, impure you will be; if you think
yourselves pure, pure you will be. This teaches us not to think
ourselves as weak, but as strong, omnipotent, omniscient.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

First you have to build the body by good nutritious food -- then only
will the mind be strong. The mind is but the subtle part of the body.
The only test of good things is that they make us strong. As soon as
you say,"I am a little mortal being," you are saying something which
is not true, you are giving the lie to yourselves, you are hypnotising
yourselves into something vile and weak and wretched.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda.

Strength is the medicine for the world's disease. Strength is the
medicine which the poor must have when tyrannised over by the rich.
Strength is the medicine that the ignorant must have when oppressed by
the learned.

Non-injury is right; "resist not evil" is a great thing--these are
indeed grand principles; but the scriptures say, "... if anyone smites
you on your cheek, and you do not return him an eye for eye, a tooth
for a tooth, you will verily be a sinner."

This is very true, and this is a thing which should not be forgotten.
Heroes alone enjoy the world. Show your heroism... Otherwise, you live
a disgraceful life if you pocket your insults when you are kicked and
trodden down by anyone who takes it into his head to do so; your life
is a veritable hell here, and so is the life hereafter. This is my
advice to you... Of course do not do any wrong, do not injure or
tyrannise over anyone, but try to do good to others as much as you
can. But passively to submit to wrong done by others is a sin... Try
to pay them back in their own coin then and there. If you cannot do
that, how do you profess to be a man?

Edgar Cayce Reading 3245-1

Know that ye are going through a period of testing. Remain true to all
that has been committed to thee, and know that each day is an
opportunity, and an experience. Speak a word for thy ideal. Not as to
force an issue but ever constructive. Sow the seed of truth, the seed
of the spirit. God will give the increase.

Edgar Cayce Reading 451-2

. . that contentment that can only come with the knowledge of His
peace abiding ever with thee; for with His peace there comes
contentment, no matter what may be the vicissitudes of life, whether
in trials as of the mental surroundings, whether in the trials as of
material conditions or positions, there can come--with that
peace--that contentment of heart and mind, that He is in His holy
temple and all is well with those who have made Him the ideal . . .

Edgar Cayce Reading 1603-1

In the manner, the way ye attend, ye treat or ye hold--in thy mental
self--thy brother's position, or thy neighbor's or thy friend's as thy
own, that is the manner, the concept ye hold of thy Creator!

Edgar Cayce Reading 1469-1

For the entity, as each soul, is a portion of the whole. Thus, though
a soul may be as but a speck upon the earth's environs, and the earth
in turn much less than a mote in the universe, if the spirit of man is
so attuned to the Infinite, the music of harmony becomes as the divine
love that makes for the awareness in the experience of the Creative
Forces working with self for the knowledge of the associations with
same.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-29

Learn first that lesson of cooperation. Become less and less selfish,
and more and more selfless in Him. Be not afraid to be made fun of to
become aware of His presence, that self may be a channel through which
the glory of the Father may come unto men in a manner that all may
know there is a glory, even an Israel, of the Lord.

P. 943 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Suffering is inevitable when one assumes a human body.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5749-6

What separates ye from seeing the Glory even of Him that walks with
thee oft in the touch of a loving hand, in the voice of those that
would comfort and cheer? For He, thy Christ, is oft with thee.
Doubt, fear, unbelief; fear that thou art not worthy!
Open thine eyes and behold the Glory, even of thy Christ present here,
now, in thy midst! even as He appeared to them on that day!

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

What is sin and what is misery, and what are all these, but the
results of weakness?... Men are taught from childhood that they are
weak and sinners. Teach them that they are all glorious children of
immortality, even those who are the weakest in manifestation. Let
positive, strong, helpful thougts enter into their brains from very
childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening
and paralysing ones.

First build up your physique. Then only you can get control over the
mind.

Never can hatred and malice vanish from one's heart unless one
becomes a hero.

Karma Yoga. New York, 1896. Complete Works, 1: 79

You need not worry or make yourself sleepless about the world. It will
go on without you. When you have avoided fanaticism, then alone will
you work well. It is the levelheaded and calm person, of good judgment
and cool nerves, of great sympathy and love, who does good work and so
does good to himself. The fanatic is foolish and has no sympathy; he
can never straighten the world, nor himself become pure and perfect.

The Gospel of Strength - Swami Vivekananda

You must retain great strength in your mind and words. "I am low, I am
low"--repeating these ideas in the mind, man belittles and degrades
himself.

Sin may be said to be the feeling of every kind of weakness. From this
weakness spring jealousy, malice, and so forth. Hence weakness is sin.

What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves... Make your nerves
strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have
wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your own feet and be
men.

Story of a lazy tramp - Swami Vivekananda

Listen to an old story. A lazy tramp sauntering along the road saw an
old man sitting at the door of his house and stopped to inquire of him
the whereabouts of a certain place. 'How far is such and such a
village?' he asked. The old man remained silent. The man repeated his
query several times. Still there was no answer. Disgusted at this, the
traveler turned to go away. The old man then stood up and said, 'The
village of --- is only a mile from here.' 'What!' said the tramp. 'Why
did you not speak when I asked you before?' 'Because then,' said the
old man, 'you seemed so halting and careless about proceeding, but now
you are starting off in good earnest, and you have a right to an
answer.'

Will you remember this story, my son? Go to work, the rest will come:
'Whosoever not trusting in anything else but Me, rests on Me, I supply
him with everything he needs' (Gita 9.22). This is no dream.

From USA, 1894. Letter to Alasinga. Complete Works, 5: 60

strength is life, weakness is death

The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life.
Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of misery,
physical and mental. Weakness is death. There are hundreds of
thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless
we become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive
them. There may be a million microbes of misery floating about us.
Never mind! They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a
hold on us, until the mind is weakened.This is the great fact:
strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life
eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness is
death.

P. 893 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

If a man truly believes that God alone does everything, that He is the
Operator and man the machine, then such a man is verily liberated in
life. 'Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.' Do you
know what it is like? Vedanta philosophy gives an illustration.
Suppose you are cooking rice in a pot, with potato, egg-plant, and
other vegetables. After a while the potatoes, eggplant, rice, and the
rest begin to jump about in the pot. They seem to say with pride: 'We
are moving! We are jumping!' The children see it and think the
potatoes, egg-plant, and rice are alive and so they jump that way. But
the elders, who know, explain to the children that the vegetables and
the rice are not alive; they jump not of themselves, but because of
the fire under the pot; if you remove the burning wood from the
hearth, then they will move no more. Likewise the pride of man, that
he is the doer, springs from ignorance. Men are powerful because of
the power of God. All becomes quiet when that burning wood is taken
away. The puppets dance well on the stage when pulled by a wire, but
they cannot move when the wire snaps.

Quote by Swami Vivekananda.

The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are
becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy, that may be dyspepsia, but it
is not religion. Misery is caused by sin, and by no other cause. What
business have you with clouded faces? It is terrible. If you have a
clouded face, do not go out that day, shut yourself up in your room.
What right have you to carry this disease out into the world?

— Swami Vivekananda

Edgar Cayce Reading 2448-2

Know that a smile will rally many to thy cause, while a frown would
drive all away.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-83

Count thy hardships, thy troubles, even thy disappointments, rather as
stepping-stones to know His way better.

Gems of Gospel of Holy Mother - P. 215

A monk must be free from anger and hatred, he must tolerate everything.

The Gospel of Strength

The only saint is that soul that never weakens and faces everything.

        All weakness, all bondage is imagination... Do not weaken!... Stand
up and be strong! That is all the religion I know.

        Know that all sins and all evils can be summed up in that one word,
weakness. It is weakness that is the motive power in all evil-doing;
it is weakness that is the source of all selfishness; it is weakness
that makes men injure others; it is weakness that makes them manifest
what they are not in reality.

The Gospel of Strength - Stop Becoming Weak! - Swami Vivekananda

Stop Becoming Weak!
Strength, strength, it is that we want so much in this life, for what
we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness.
With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.
Never be weak. You must be strong; you have infinite strength within
you.

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the
greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin--to
say that you are weak.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna P.863

Those actually engaged in a game of chess do not always judge the
moves on the board correctly. The onlookers often judge the moves
better than the players. Worldly people often think themselves very
intelligent, but they are attached to the things of the world. They
are the actual players and cannot understand their own moves
correctly. But holy men, who have renounced everything, are unattached
to the world; they are really more intelligent than worldly people.
Since they do not take any part in worldly life, their position is
that of onlookers, and so they see things more clearly.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3357-1

(Q) What is God's plan for me in assisting the furtherance of His
kingdom here on this planet, so that I may accomplish the greatest
good with whatever talents I may possess?
(A) Brighten the corner where thou art from day to day. Let not a day
go by without speaking to someone with the smile of the face and eye
reminding them that somebody cares, and it is Jesus!

Edgar Cayce Reading 1971-1

For the material, at best, is only temporal, or temporary, while that
which may be builded from spiritual desire, spiritual purposes, is
eternal.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1968-5

If the problems of the experience today, now, are taken as an
expectancy for the unusual and that which is to be creative and
hopeful and helpful, life becomes rather the creative song of the
joyous worker.
If the same problems become humdrum, something to be fought through,
something to be questioned as to their purpose, their activity, their
usefulness in the experience, then the life becomes rather as a drone,
as of one drudging, coming through toil, and with only turmoil and a
vision unclaimed, unactive in its associations with the general
conditions of the day.

Gems of Gospel of Holy Mother

When worldly thoughts crop up in your mind, and they possess it, then
you should go away from the company of others and pray to Him with
tears in your eyes. He will remove all the dross of your mind, and
will also give you understanding. P. 214 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

If the mind is kept engaged in some work, it doesn't indulge in silly
thoughts. But if you sit idle, the mind is likely to indulge in
various kinds of thoughts. P. 214

Karma Yoga. New York, 1896. Complete Works, 1: 77

If we were really unattached, we should escape all the pain of vain
expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Never
will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment.
The world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1620-1

For how does one cleanse the mind? By the pouring out, the
forgetting, the laying aside of those things that easily beset and
filling same with pure, fresh water that is of the eternal life, that
is of the eternal goodness as may be found in Him who is the light,
the way, the truth, the vine, the bread of life and the water of life.
These things are those influences that purify.

Be Free - By Swami Vivekananda

Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we are all one.
Throw all other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your actions, good or
bad, never think of them again. What is done is done. Throw off
superstition. Have no weakness even in the face of death. Do not
repent, do not brood over past deed, and do not remember your good
deeds; be azad (free). The weak, the fearful, the ignorant will never
reach Atman. You cannot undo, the effect must come, face it, but be
careful never to do the same thing again. Give up the burden of all
deeds to the Lord; give all, both good and bad. Do not keep the good
and give only the bad. God helps those who do not help themselves.

When you have acquired the feeling of non-attachement, there will
then be neither good nor evil for you. It is only selfishness that
causes the difference between good and evil. It is a very hard thing
to understand but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the
universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a
power. Nothing has power over the Self of man, until the Self becomes
a fool and loses independence. So, by non-attachement you overcome and
deny the power of anything to act upon you. It is very easy to say
that nothing has the right to act upon you until you allow it to do
so; but what is the true sign of the man who...is neither happy nor
unhappy when acted upon by the external world? The sign is that good
or ill fortune causes no change in his mind: in all conditions he
continues to remain the same.

All these things which we call causes of misery and evil, we shall
laugh at when we arrive at that wonderful state of equality, that
sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta attaining to freedom. The
sign of approaching that freedom is more and more of this sameness and
equality. In misery and happiness the same, in success and defeat the
same--such a mind is nearing that state of freedom.

He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from
the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which
means,"gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind,
freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this, we
shall have taken a long step towards freedom; before that we are mere
machines.

The sage wants liberty; he finds that sense-objects are all vain and
that there is no end of pleasures and pains. How many rich people in
the world want to find fresh pleasures? All pleasures are old, and
they want new ones. Do you not see how many foolish things they are
inventing every day, just to titillate the nerves for a moment, and
that done, how there comes a reaction? The majority of people are just
like a flock of sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch, all
the rest follow and break their necks. In the same way, what one
leading member of a society does, all the others do, without thinking
what they are doing. When a man begins to see the vanity of worldly
things, he will feel he ought not to be thus played upon or borne
along by nature. That is slavery. If a man has a few kind words said
to him, he begins to smile, and when he hears a few harsh words, he
begins to weep. He is a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to
country, to name, and to fame. He is thus in the midst of slavery and
the real man has become buried within, through his bondage. What you
call man is a slave. When one realises all this slavery, then comes
the desire to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece of burning
charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he struggles to throw it
off. Similar will be the struggle for freedom of a man who really
understands that he is a slave of nature.

Be free, and then have any number of personalities you like. Then we
will play like the actor who comes upon the stage and plays the part
of a beggar. Contrast him with the actual beggar walking in the
streets. The scene is, perhaps, the same in both cases, the words are,
perhaps, the same, but yet what difference! The one enjoys his beggary
while the other is suffering misery from it. And what makes this
difference, the one is free and the other is bound. The actor knows
his beggary is not true, but that he has assumed it for play, while
the real beggar thinks that it is his too familiar state and that he
has to bear it whether he wills it or not. This is the law. So long as
we have no knowledge of our real nature, we are beggars, jostled about
by every force in nature; and made slaves of by everything in nature;
we cry all over the world for help, but help never comes to us; we cry
to imaginary beings, and yet it never comes. But still we hope help
will come, and thus in weeping, wailing, and hoping, one life is
passed, and the same play goes on and on.

Heroism - Swami Vivekananda

Be a man first, my friend, and you will see how all those things and
the rest will follow of themselves after you. Give up that hateful
malice, that dog-like bickering and barking at one another, and take
your stand on good purpose, right means, righteous courage, and be
brave. When you are born a man, leave some indelible mark behind you.
"When you first came to this world, O Tulsi, the world rejoiced and
you cried; now live your life in doing such acts that when you will
leave this world, the world will cry for you and you will leave it
laughing." If you can do that, then you are a man; otherwise what good
are you?

Let the world say what it chooses, I shall tread the path of duty--
know this to be the line of action for a hero. Otherwise, if one has
to attend day and night to what this man says or that man writes, no
great work is achieved in this world. Do you know this Sanskrit
Shloka:"Let those who are versed in the ethical codes praise or blame,
let Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, come or go wherever she wisheth,
let death overtake him today or after a century, the wise man never
swerves from the path of rectitude." Let people praise you or blame
you, let fortune smile or frown upon you, let your body fall today or
after a Yuga, see that you do not deviate from the path of Truth. How
much of tempest and waves one has to weather, before one reaches the
haven of Peace! The greater a man has become, the fiercer ordeal he
has had to pass through.Their lives have been tested true by the
touchstone of practical life, and only then have they been
acknowledged great by the world.Those who are faint-hearted and
cowardly sink their barks near the shore, frightened by the raging of
waves on the sea. He who is a hero never casts a glance at these. Come
what may, I must attain my ideal first--this is Purushakara, manly
endeavour; without such manly endeavour no amount of Divine help will
be of any avail to banish your inertia.

Those who are always down-hearted and dispirited in this life can do
no work; from life to life they come and go wailing and moaning. "The
earth is enjoyed by heroes"--this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero.
Always say,"I have no fear". Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell,
fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts
and ideas that are in this world have proceeded from this evil spirit
of fear. This fear alone has kept the sun, air and death in their
respective places and functions, allowing none to escape from their
bounds...

In this embodied existence, you will be tossed again and again on the
waves of happiness and misery, prosperity and adversity--but know them
all to be of momentary duration. Never care for them.

Be Brave - Swami Vivekananda

I once read a story about some ships that were caught in a cyclone in
the South Sea Islands, and there was a picture of it in the
Illustrated London News. All of them were wrecked except one English
vessel, which weathered the storm. The picture showed the men who were
going to be drowned, standing on the decks and cheering the people who
were sailing through the storm. Be brave and generous like that.

Whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse
must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-high though
the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem,
they are but delusions. Fear not--it is banished. Crush it, and it
vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies. Be not afraid. Think not how
many times you fail. Never mind. Time is infinite. Go forward;assert
yourself again and again, and light must come. You may pray to
everyone that was ever born, but who will come to help you? And what
of the way of death from which none knows escape? Help thyself out by
thyself. None else can help thee, friend. For thou alone art thy
greatest enemy, thou alone art thy greatest friend. Get hold of the
Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid.

Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold
on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be
obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity, and
your country, and you will move the world. Remember it is the person,
the life, which is the secret of power--nothing else..Jealousy is the
bane of all slaves. It is the bane of our nation. Avoid that always.
All blessings attend you and all success.

Hold On to the Ideal - Swami Vivekananda

That is the one great first step--the real desire for the ideal.
Everything comes easy after that... The struggle is the great lesson.
Mind you, the greater benefit in this life is struggle. It is through
that we pass. If there is any road to Heaven, it is through Hell.
Through Hell to Heaven is always the way. When the soul has wrestled
with circumstances and has met death, a thousand times death on the
way, but nothing daunted has struggled forward again and again and yet
again, then the soul comes out as a giant and laughs at the ideal he
has been struggling for, because he finds how much greater is he than
the ideal. I am the end, my own self, and nothing else, for what is
there to compare to my own Self? Can a bag of gold be the ideal of my
Soul? Certainly not! My Soul is the highest ideal that I can have.
Realising my own real nature is the one goal of my life.

There is nothing that is absolutely evil. The devil has a place here
as well as God, else he would not be here. Just as I told you, it is
through Hell that we pass to Heaven. Our mistakes have places here. Go
on! No not look back if you think you have done something that is not
right. Now, do you believe you could be what you are today, had you
not made those mistakes before? Bless your mistakes, then. They have
been angels unawares. Blessed be torture! Blessed be happiness! Do not
care what be your lot. Hold on to the ideal. March on! Do not look
back upon little mistakes and things. In this battle field of ours,
the dust of mistakes must be raised. Those who are so thin-skinned
that they cannot bear the dust, let them get out of the ranks.

If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the
man without an ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is better to
have an ideal. And this ideal we must hear about as much as we can,
till it enters into our hearts, into our brains, into our very veins,
until it tingles in every drop of our blood and permeates every pore
in our body. We must meditate upon it. "Out of the fullness of the
heart the mouth speaketh," and out of the fullness of the heart the
hand works too.

It is thought which is the propelling force in us. Fill the mind with
the highest thoughts, hear them day after day, think them month after
month. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the
beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It
would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would
be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never
heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow--never a man. So never
mind these failures, these little backslidings;hold the ideal a
thousand times, and if you fail thousand times, make the attempt once
more. The ideal of man is to see God in everything. But if you cannot
see that thing which you like best, and then see infinite life before
the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life--think of it, dream of
it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of
your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea
alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual
giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.

The life of the practical is in the ideal. It is the ideal that has
penetrated the whole of our lives, whether we philosophise, or perform
the hard, everyday duties of life. The rays of the ideal, reflected
and refracted in various straight or tortuous lines, are pouring in
through every aperture and windhole, and consciously or unconsciously,
every function has to be performed in its light, every object has to
be seen transformed, heightened, or deformed by it. It is the ideal
that has made us what we are, and will make us what we are going to
be. It is the power of the ideal that has enshrouded us, and is felt
in our joys or sorrows, in our great acts or mean doings, in our
virtues and vices.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5322-1

... Keep it [your soul] then in patience, in love, in gentleness, in
kindness . . . For these are indeed the fruits of the spirit . . . And
remember, a kindness sometimes consists in denying as well as granting
those activities in associations with thy fellow man.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5081-1

Then what are you grumbling about because you dislike your mother?
She dislikes you as much, but change this into love. Be kind, be
gentle, be patient, be longsuffering, for if thy God was not
longsuffering with thee, what chance would you have?

Edgar Cayce Reading 5749-3

In materiality we find some advance faster, some grow stronger, some
become weaklings. Until there is redemption through the acceptance of
the law (or love of God, as manifested through the Channel or the
Way), there can be little or no development in a material or spiritual
plane. But all must pass under the rod, even as He--who entered into
materiality.

Edgar Cayce Reading 930-2

Any choice made by an individual is to be worked at.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2828-4

[Karmic conditions] can be met most in Him who, taking away the law of
cause and effect by fulfilling the law, establishes the law of grace.
Thus the needs for the entity to lean upon the arm of Him who is the
law, and the truth and the light.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3395-2

. . "Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter
in." Unless you can be just as forgiving, unless you can find it just
as easy to forget slights and slurs and things that would make afraid
those who would judge others. For with what measure ye mete, it is
measured to thee again. Even as He, the Master gave, the faults ye
find in others are reflected in thine own mirror of life. And as He
gave, "Cast the beam out of thine eye that ye may see to take the mote
from thy brother's eye."

Edgar Cayce Reading 1175-1

For perfect love casteth out fear, and fear can only be from the
material things that soon must fade away.
And thus hold to the higher thought of eternity. For life is a
continual experience.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1567-2

Then all of these influences astrological (as known or called) from
without, bear witness--or are as innate influences upon our activity,
our sojourn through any given experience. Not because we were born
with the sun in this sign or that, nor because Jupiter or Mercury or
Saturn or Uranus or Mars was rising or setting, but rather:
Because we were made for the purpose of being companions with Him, a
little lower than the angels who behold His face ever yet as heirs, as
joint heirs with Him who is the Savior, the Way, then we have brought
these about because of our activities through our experiences in those
realms! Hence they bear witness by being in certain
positions--because of our activity, our sojourn in those environs, in
relationships to the universal forces of activity.
Hence they bear witness of certain urges in us, not beyond our will
but controlled by our will!

Edgar Cayce Reading 459-1

. . for he that seeks the Lord must believe that He is, would they
find Him; for one doubting has already builded that barrier that
prevents the proper understanding, whether as to physical, mental or
spiritual attributes, or spiritual aid, or mental aid, or physical
aid; for that in faith sought for shall be thine, even as was given,
"Be my people and I will be your God."

Edgar Cayce Reading 2803-2

. . justifying of self is blaming someone else.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5081-1

More individuals become so anxious about their own troubles, and yet
helping others is the best way to rid yourself of your own troubles.
For what is the pattern? He gave up Heaven and entered physical being
that ye might have access to the Father.

Edgar Cayce Reading 470-37

Think on This ... . . don't get mad and don't cuss a body out
mentally or in voice. This brings more poisons than may be created by
even taking foods that aren't good.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3292-1

You only fail if you quit trying. The trying is oft counted for
righteousness. Remember as He has given, "I do not condemn thee." Go
be patient, be kind, and the Lord be with thee!

Edgar Cayce Reading 906-3

For mind is the builder and that which we think upon may become crimes
or miracles. For thoughts are things and as their currents run
through the environs of an entity's experience these become barriers
or steppingstones, dependent upon the manner in which these are laid
as it were. For as the mental dwells upon these thoughts, so does it
give strength, power to things that do not appear. And thus does
indeed there become that as is so oft given, that faith is the
evidence of things not seen.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2448-3

Make haste slowly, for one can easily become discouraged. One can
become overenthusiastic. One can become in such a manner of policy as
to let the little ends slip without proper consideration, as to their
meaning with the whole undertaking.

Edgar Cayce Reading 308-8

Do not worry as to whether you are fat or thin. Worry rather as to
whether you use your body, mentally and physically, as an expression
of thy ideal.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1977-1

For, as has been given, it is not all of life to live, nor yet all of
death to die. For life and death are one, and only those who will
consider the experience as one may come to understand or comprehend
what peace indeed means.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3333-1

And when ye trust in Him, ye are sure--and need never be afraid of the
material things. For, does He not feed the birds of the air? Does He
not give the color to the lily, the incense to the violet? How much
more is that as may be in His very presence, if ye apply self to
become worthy of acceptance in His home.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3384-2

For all healing, mental or material, is attuning
each atom of the body, each reflex of the brain forces, to the
awareness of the divine that lies within each atom, each cell of the
body.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3183-1

And the abilities are here to accomplish whatever the entity would
choose to set its mind to, so long as the entity trusts not in the
might of self, but in His grace, His power, His might. Be mindful
ever of that, in thy understanding in thy own wisdom, much may be
accomplished; but be rather thou the channel through which He, God,
the Father, may manifest His power--in whatever may be the chosen
activity of the entity.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1183-3

Never so act, in any manner, in any inclination, that there may ever be an experience of regret within self. Let the moves and the discourteousness, the unkindness, all come from the other. Better to be abased . . . and have the peace within!
. . . act ever in the way ye would like to be acted toward. No matter what others say or even do, do as ye would be done by; and then the peace that has been promised is indeed thine own.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1957-1

. . do not be afraid of giving self in a service--if the ideal is correct. If it is for selfish motives, for aggrandizement, for obtaining a hold to be used in an underhand manner, beware. If it is that the glory of truth may be made manifest, spend it all--whether self, mind, body, or the worldly means--whether in labor or in the coin of the realm.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2540-1

When fear of the future occurs, or fear of the past, or fear of what others will say--put all such away with this prayer--not merely by mouth, not merely by thought, but in body, in mind and in soul say: "Here am I, Lord--Thine! Keep me in the way Thou would have me go, rather than in that I might choose."

wonderful buddha saying...

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. ( Buddha )