The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - 8

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• To love God, one must be born with good tendencies.

 

• No salvation is possible for a man as long as he has desire,

as long as he hankers for worldly things.

 

• When God incarnates Himself on earth, He attracts people

through the help of Yogamaya, His Divine Power. People become

spellbound.

 

• Bondage is of the mind, and freedom also is of the mind.

 

• One must inherit good tendencies to realize God.

 

• Don't find fault with anyone, not even with an insect. As you

pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not find fault

with anyone.

 

• Satisfy God and everyone will be satisfied. If He is pleased,

the world is pleased.

 

• One should learn the essence of the scriptures from the

teacher or from a sadhu.

 

• One should learn the essence of the scriptures from the guru

and then practise sadhana.

 

• The essence of the Vedanta is that Brahman alone is real and

the world illusory.

 

• The essence of the Gita is renunciation.

 

• God has made different religions to suit different aspirants,

times, and countries.

 

• One can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-

hearted devotion.

 

• God has been described in the Vedas as both with attributes

and without.

 

• Bad people may abuse you very much and speak ill of you; but

you must bear with them all if you sincerely seek God.

 

• Wicked men have the nature of tigers and bears. They will

pursue you to do you an injury.

 

• One must be careful about these few things. First, an

influential man who has much money and many men under his control.

He can injure you if he wants; you must be careful while talking to

him; perhaps you may have to approve what he says. Second, a dog.

When it chases you or barks at you, you must stand still, talk to it

gently, and pacify it. Third, a bull. If it runs after you with

lowered horns, you must calm it with a gentle voice. Fourth, a

drunkard. If you arouse his anger, he will abuse you, naming fourteen

generations of your family. You should say to him: 'Hello uncle! How

are you?' Then he will be mightily pleased and sit by you and smoke.

 

• The companionship of a holy man is greatly needed now and

then. It enables one to discriminate between the Real and the unreal.

 

• I ask people to renounce mentally. I do not ask them to give

up the world. If one lives in the world unattached and seeks God with

sincerity, then one is able to attain Him.

 

• A man should practise spiritual discipline and pray to God

with a longing heart for love at His Lotus Feet. He should direct his

mind to God alone, withdrawing it from the various objects of the

world.

 

• 'I' and 'mine' - that is ignorance. True knowledge makes one

feel: 'O God, You alone do everything'.

 

• God alone, and no one else, is your own.

 

• Knowledge of God - there are two indications of such

knowledge. First, longing, that is to say, love for God. Second, the

awakening of the Kundalini.

 

• When the Kundalini is awakened, one develops feeling,

devotion, and love for God. This is the path of devotion.

 

• The path of karma (religious rites and rituals) is very

difficult. Through it, one obtains occult powers.

 

• How long must a man continue formal worship? As long as he

has not developed love for God's Lotus Feet, as long as he does not

shed tears and his hair does not stand on end when he repeats God's

name.

 

• You practise japa and austerities, no doubt, but they all

leak out through the holes of your desires. If there are no desires,

the mind naturally looks up toward God.

 

• Yoga is not possible if there is the slightest obstacle.

 

• You must surrender the fruit of your action to God. You must

not seek any result for yourself.

 

• The desire for bhakti cannot be called a desire. You may

desire bhakti and pray for it. Practise the tamas of bhakti and force

your demand upon the Divine Mother.

 

• It is the will of the Great Enchantress (Divine Mother) that

many should remain entangled in the world.

 

• Only one or two in a hundred thousand get liberation. The

rest are entangled through the will of the Divine Mother.

 

• Don't forget yourself because of what you hear from your

flatterers. Flatterers gather around a worldly man.

 

• Worldly men are slaves of three things: they are slaves of

their wives, slaves of their money, slaves of their masters.

 

• If you realize God, you will get everything else. First God,

then charity, doing good to others, doing good to the world, and

redeeming people.

 

• One cannot develop love of God or obtain the vision of Him

without work. Work means meditation, worship and the like. The

chanting of God's name and glories is work too. You may also include

charity, sacrifice, and so on.

 

• One cannot get true feeling about God from the study of books.

 

• To attain God, a man must have certain favourable conditions:

the company of holy men, discrimination, and the blessings of a real

teacher.

 

• Whether a man should be a householder or a monk depends on

the will of Rama. Surrender everything to God and do your duties in

the world.

 

• There exists an Ocean of Consciousness without limit. From It

come all things of the relative plane, and in It they merge again.

 

• Everything is God's lila, His sportive pleasure.

 

• You cannot preach unless God reveals Himself to you and gives

you the command to preach.

 

• After the birth of one or two children, husband and wife

should live as brother and sister and talk only of God. Then the

minds of both will be drawn to God, and the wife will be a help to

the husband on the path of spirituality. None can taste divine bliss

without giving up his animal feeling.

 

• If a householder is a genuine devotee, he performs his duties

without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to God - his

gain or loss, his pleasure or pain.

 

• If a householder gives in charity in a spirit of detachment,

he is really doing good to himself and not to others. It is God alone

that he serves - God , who dwells in all beings; and when he serves

God, he is really doing good to himself and not to others.

 

• Through selfless work without attachment, he does good to

himself. This is called karma yoga. This too is a way to realize God.

But it is very difficult, and not suited to the Kaliyuga.

 

• The love that you see in parents is God's love: He has given

it to them to preserve His creation. The compassion that you see in

the kindhearted is God's compassion: He has given it to them to

protect the helpless.

 

• First realize God, then think of the creation and other

things. If you know one you know all.

 

• God cannot be realized by a mind that is hypocritical,

calculating, or argumentative. One must have faith and sincerity. To

the sincere, God is very near; but He is far, far away from the

hypocrite.

 

• All sins vanish if one only remembers God.