Ramakrishna quotes - page 2

As a boy holding to a post or a pillar whirls about it with headlong speed without any fear or falling, so perform your worldly duties, fixing your hold firmly upon God, and you will be free from danger. (Ramakrishna)
Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny. View quote
Ramakrishna
Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection. View quote
Ramakrishna
Do yourself what you wish others to do. View quote
Ramakrishna
If a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can reach Thee, through Thy grace, by any path. View quote
Ramakrishna
As a toy fruit or a toy elephant reminds one of the real fruit and the living animal, so do the images that are worshipped remind one of the God who is formless and eternal. View quote
Ramakrishna
It is very pleasant to scratch an itching ring-worm, but the sensation one gets afterwards is very painful and intolerable. In the same way the pleasures of this world are very attractive in the beginning, but their consequences are terrible to contemplate and hard to endure. View quote
Ramakrishna
If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that. View quote
Ramakrishna
As a piece of rope, when burnt, retains its form, but cannot serve to bind, so is the ego which is burnt by the fire of supreme Knowledge. View quote
Ramakrishna
A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him. View quote
Ramakrishna
Many people think they cannot have knowledge or understanding of God without reading books. But hearing is better than reading, and seeing is better than hearing. Hearing about Benares is different from reading about it; but seeing Benares is different from either hearing or reading. (Ramakrishna)
One cannot be spiritual as long as one has shame, hatred, or fear. View quote
Ramakrishna
If a white cloth is stained even with a small spot, the stain appears very ugly indeed. So the smallest fault of a holy man becomes painfully prominent. View quote
Ramakrishna
The sun can give heat and light to the whole world, but he cannot do so when the clouds shut out his rays. Similarly as long as egotism veils the heart, God cannot shine upon it. View quote
Ramakrishna
When the fruit appears the blossom drops off. Love of God is the fruit, and rituals are the blossom. View quote
Ramakrishna
Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action. View quote
Ramakrishna
Knowledge leads to unity, but Ignorance to diversity. So long as God seems to be outside and far away, there is ignorance. But when God is realised within, that is true knowledge. View quote
Ramakrishna
If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him. View quote
Ramakrishna
He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life. View quote
Ramakrishna
The vanities of all others may gradually die out, but the vanity of a saint regarding his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away. View quote
Ramakrishna
That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge. (Ramakrishna)
Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic. View quote
Ramakrishna
Honour both spirit and form, the sentiment within as well as the symbol without. View quote
Ramakrishna
As the shell, the pith and the kernel of the fruit are all produced form one parent seed of the tree, so from the one Lord is produced the whole of creation, animate and inanimate, spiritual and material. View quote
Ramakrishna
If one has faith one has everything. View quote
Ramakrishna