Excerpt from CW

So what does it mean . . . ? You say, "Lord, give me my bread, my money! Heal my diseases! Do this and that!" Every time you say that, you are hypnotising yourselves with the idea, "I am matter, and this matter is the goal." Every time you try to fulfil a material desire, you tell yourselves that you are [the] body, that you are not spirit. . . .

Thank God, this is a dream! Thank God, for it will vanish! Thank God, there is death, glorious death, because it ends all this delusion, this dream, this fleshiness, this anguish. No dream can be eternal; it must end sooner or later. There is none who can keep his dream for ever. I thank God that it is so! Yet this form of worship is all right. Go on! To pray for something is better than nothing. These are the stages through which we pass. These are the first lessons. Gradually, the mind begins to think of something higher than the senses, the body, the enjoyments of this world.

Vol 6 : Formal Worship

Sri Ramakrishna on duties

Question: "But how can we persuade our minds to renounce?"

Sri Ramakrishna: "You are a goswami. It is your duty to officiate as priest in the temple. You cannot renounce the world; otherwise, who would look after the temple and its services? You have to renounce mentally. It is God Himself who has kept you in the world to set an example to men. You may resolve in your mind a thousand times to renounce the world, but you will not succeed. God has given you such a nature that you must perform your worldly duties. Krishna said to Arjuna: 'What do you mean, you will not fight? By your mere will you cannot desist from fighting. Your very nature will make you fight.'"

P. 255 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Anecdote in Ramakrishna's life

"There is a charming anecdote in the life of Ramakrishna of one of the wandering monks who used to visit the temple at Dakshineswar on the Ganges, where he lived. He used to come out of his cell twice a day and sit on the edge of the Ganges as though he were a spectator in the theater, and clap his hands and say, "Bravo! Excellent!" as though the whole universe were an enormous theatrical performance."
-- Christopher Isherwood, James J. Berg, and Claude Summers (2007), Isherwood on Writing: The Lectures in California, Univ Of Minnesota Press, p.65 ISBN 978-0816646937

master oogway on destiny

one often meets one's destiny on the path taken to avoid it. -- Master Oogway

Edgar Cayce Reading 2683-1

. . each soul has a mission in the earth, and is in expression a manifestation of the thought of God, of the First Cause. Thus all stand upon an equal basis before Him.
Then, ye have no right to condemn self or to judge others.
Let all be done rather, then, as an appreciation of the love, the thought as may be expressed in appreciation to that Creative Force called God.
And the greater lessons may be learned from His manifested activity in the earth through Christ Jesus.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2683-1

A Letter of Swami Ramakrishnananda

Thiruvalikeni [Triplicane, Chennai]
14.08.1904

Dear friend Chokkalingam Pillai,

I was glad to go through your letter describing your mental state. It is extremely good that you want to become a genuine Yogi. But even before you try to become a Yogi, it is absolutely necessary to do certain things. Is it possible to build a house before the construction of the foundation? First, you have to do your duty to your soul, and to your wife and children, if you have any. You have to do your duty to your relations, friends and neighbours. You have to be charitable, honest in earning wealth and truthful. Not only that; your soul and body itself should have intense devotion and love for God. You have to continue like this till you acquire all the virtues mentioned above. You should certainly know that people do not have the right to enter the house of Yoga till the body and mind become extremely pure. Yoga is not controlling the breath, doing pranayama or practising certain special ‘postures’. Annihilating all the desires in the mind is yoga. Only pure-minded persons can throw out the results of evil desires from their mind. Therefore, my dear friend, you should always try to become pure-hearted by doing properly your duties to your parents, wife and children, friends and neighbours. First of all you should try to become an ideal householder. Only then you can truly become a Yogi. Otherwise, it will never be possible.

With loving blessings, your dear friend.

Ramakrishnananda

(Source : Vedanta Kesari, January 2009, p.37)