Meditation and Soul of Man - Swamiji

Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative
state of mind is declared by the Yogis to be the highest state in
which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object,
it gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old
Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it
takes the colour of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches ...
it has to take its colour. That is the difficulty. That constitutes
the bondage. The colour is so strong, the crystal forgets itself and
identifies itself with the colour. Suppose a red flower is near the
crystal and the crystal takes the colour and forgets itself, thinks it
is red. We have taken the colour of the body and have forgotten what
we are. All the difficulties that follow come from that one dead body.
All our fears, all worries, anxieties, troubles, mistakes, weakness,
evil, are front that one great blunder — that we are bodies. This is
the ordinary person. It is the person taking the colour of the flower
near to it. We are no more bodies than the crystal is the red flower.

The practice of meditation is pursued. The crystal knows what it is,
takes its own colour.

Excerpt from CW. Vol 4

What good is it, if we acknowledge in our prayers that God is the
Father of us all, and in our daily lives do not treat every man as our
brother? Books are only made so that they may point the way to a
higher life; but no good results unless the path is trodden with
unflinching steps! Every human personality may be compared to a glass
globe. There is the same pure white light — an emission of the divine
Being — in the centre of each, but the glass being of different
colours and thickness, the rays assume diverse aspects in the
transmission. The equality and beauty of each central flame is the
same, and the apparent inequality is only in the imperfection of the
temporal instrument of its expression. As we rise higher and higher in
the scale of being, the medium becomes more and more translucent.

Swamiji on Non Attachment

You who have read the Gitâ see all through the book that the one
idea is non-attachment. Remain unattached. The heart's love is due to only
One. To whom? To Him who never changeth. Who is that One? It is God. Do not
make the mistake of giving the heart to anything that is changing, because
that is misery. You may give it to a man; but if he dies, misery is the
result. You may give it to a friend, but he may tomorrow become your enemy.
If you give it to your husband, he may one day quarrel with you. You may
give it to your wife, and she may die the day after tomorrow. Now, this is
the way the world is going on. So says Krishna in the Gita: The Lord is the
only One who never changes. His love never fails. Wherever we are and
whatever we do, He is ever and ever the same merciful, the same loving
heart. He never changes, He is never angry, whatever we do. How can God be
angry with us? Your babe does many mischievous things: are you angry with
that babe? Does not God know what we are going to be? He knows we are all
going to be perfect, sooner or later. He has patience, infinite patience. We
must love Him, and everyone that lives — only in and through Him. This is
the keynote. You must love the wife, but not for the wife's sake. "Never, O
Beloved, is the husband loved on account of the husband, but because the
Lord is in the husband."

- Volume 4/Lectures and Discourses/The Great Teachers of the World

Swami Vivekananda on Divine Mother

The Divine Mother is the power of all causation. She energizes every
cause unmistakably to produce the effect. Her will is the only law,
and as She cannot make a mistake, nature's laws--Her will--can never
be changed. She is the life of the law of karma, or causation. She is
the fructifier of every action. Under Her guidance we are
manufacturing our lives through our deeds or karma.

From notes discovered among Swami Vivekananda's papers. He evidently
intended to write a book and jotted down these points for the work.
Complete Works, 5:434.

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Whether a man calls on God or not, if he does not marry, he is
already half liberated. When the mind happens to be a little attracted
to God he will progress by leaps and bounds. P. 400 The Gospel of The
Holy Mother

The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Far better is it to work than to let the mind loose to indulge in riotous thinking. If the mind is allowed a little laxity, it will create such a turmoil. P. 397 The Gospel of The Holy Mother

Excerpt from Bhakti Yoga - Swami Vivekananda

The mind should always go towards God. No
other things have any right to withhold it. It should continuously think of
God, though this is a very hard task; yet it can be done by persistent
practice.  What  we are now is the result of our past practice. Again,
practice makes us what we shall be. So practice the other way; one sort of
turning round has brought us this way, turn the other way and get out of it
as soon as you can. Thinking of the senses has brought us down here — to cry
one moment, to rejoice the next, to be at the mercy of every breeze, slave
to everything. This is shameful, and yet we call ourselves spirits. Go the
other way, think of God; let the mind not think of any physical or mental
enjoyment, but of God alone. When it tries to think of anything else, give
it a good blow, so that it may turn round and think of God. As oil poured
from one vessel to another falls in an unbroken line, as chimes coming from
a distance fall upon the ear as one continuous sound, so should the mind
flow towards God in one continuous stream. We should not only impose this
practice on the mind, but the senses too should be employed. Instead of
hearing foolish things, we must hear about God; instead of talking foolish
words, we must talk of God. Instead of reading foolish books, we must read
good ones which tell of God.