If in this hell of a world...

If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true. This I have learnt after suffering all my life. All else is mere moonshine.

Swami Vivekananda in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda. Written in Bengali from Benares on February 18, 1902. Complete Works, 5.177.

Plunder and fight as you may...

Plunder and fight as you may, the enjoyment that you seek can be found only in peace; and peace is only in the renunciation of sensual pleasures. Enjoyment lies not in physical development but in the culture of the mind and the intellect.

From "The East and the West," originally written in Bengali. Complete Works, 5.534.

"It is much easier to refrain from error - in speech or in activity - than to seek forgiveness for ..."

It is much easier to refrain from error - in speech or in activity - than to seek forgiveness for the word quickly spoken.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1669-1

Vivekananda's Quote from Thousand Island Park retreat

Bless others when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing you; they can only hurt themselves. Go where people hate you, let them thrash the ego out of you, and you will get nearer to God.

Swami Vivekananda at a retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA. June 25, 1895. Complete Works, 7.15.

Vivekananda on Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga

It is a most difficult thing to give up is the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that: one way is called neti neti ("not this, not this"), the other is called iti iti ("this, this"). The former is the negative, the latter is the positive way.

The negative way is the most difficult. It is only possible to people of the very highest, exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and say, "No, I will not have this," and the mind and body obey their will, and they come out successful. But such people are rare.

The vast majority choose the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached.

The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of Jñāna Yoga, the second is that of Karma Yoga.

Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896. Complete Works, 1.97.

Holy Mother and the Calf

RECORDED BY SURENDRANATH SIRCAR

Very early one morning a calf was pitifully crying in the outer courtyard of the Mother's house at Jayrambati. The calf was kept separated from its mother for the purpose of milking the cow. On hearing its cry the Mother rushed out, saying, "I am coming, child, I am coming. I shall release you just now." Coming to the courtyard, she freed the calf. I was wonderstruck on seeing this revelation of the compassion of the Divine Mother towards all beings. Alas! Only such an anguished cry can bring about the release of the soul.

The Gospel of the Holy Mother, p.235