Lal Krishna Advani On Swami Vivekananda

Lal Krishna Advani (Sindhi: لال ڪرشنا آڏواڻي, Hindi: लालकृष्ण आडवाणी) or L. K. Advani (born. 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician and a senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party. A detailed biography of Advani is available at Wikipedia. In this article our topic is Lal Krishna Advani's quotes and comments on Swami Vivekananda.

Lal Krishna Advani told—

Lal Krishna Advani
Image source: Wikimedia Commons (modified, image effect: filled light using Picasa)

The following excerpts have been collected from L. K. Advani's autobiographical book My Country My Life (see book details in the reference section below)—

①

“. . . The spectacular public response to my Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in September-October 1990 far exceeded my own expectations. Just as the struggle against the Emergency opened my eyes to the Indian people’s unfl inching faith in democracy, the Ayodhya movement opened my eyes to the deep-rooted infl uence of religion in the lives of Hindus of all castes and sects across the country. Recalling what Swami Vivekananda had said about the place of religion in India's national life, I realised that if this religiosity were to be channelled in a positive direction, it could unleash tremendous energy for national reconstruction. The Ayodhya movement also brought to the fore people’s revulsion for pseudo-secularism, as practised by the Congress party, communists and some other parties, and projected my party, the BJP, as a spirited champion of genuine secularism. . .”

②

L. K. Advani quoted the following words of Swami Vivekananda at the beginning of the third chapter My first twenty years in Sindh of My Country My Life—

Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones.

Screenshot showing Swami Vivekananda's quote
at the beginning og the third chapter
Fair use image

Editor's note:  The quote is a part of Swamiji's lecture The Real Nature of Man, you may read the lecture here.

③

“I recently came across a concise edition of Swamiji's* four-volume writings on the Bhagavad Gita. Titled The Charm and Power of the Gita, Swamiji in the book gives an example to illustrate the difference between the traditional orientation towards the Gita and the new man-making and nation-building orientation towards the Gita, which was imparted by Swami Vivekananda. 'In the past', Swamiji writes, 'people mostly read the Gita as a pious act, and for a little peace of mind. We never realized that this is a book of intense practicality. We never understood the practical application of the Gita’s teachings. If we had done so, we would not have had the thousand years of foreign invasions, internal caste conflicts, feudal oppression and mass poverty. We never took the Gita seriously; but now we have to. We need a philosophy that can help us build a new welfare society, based on human dignity, freedom and equality. This new orientation, this practical orientation was given to the Gita for the first time in the modern age by Swami Vivekananda.”

Editor's note: * Here "Swamiji" means Swami Ranganathananda, excerpt from the chapter: At the feet of Swami Ranganathananda

④

“A towering testimony to such perseverance was a project, which Eknathji had himself envisioned—to construct the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari. . . . . . This is the rock on which Swami Vivekananda meditated for three days in December 1892, during his extensive travels in South India. He would say later that he meditated about the past, present and future of India. The following year, on 11 September 1893, the meditation found its most eloquent expression in Swamiji's historic speech on universal brotherhood and inter-faith harmony at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.”

⑤

“. . . we wanted to counter communists' claim to be the sole champion of the poor. We wanted to demonstrated that the concept of 'socialism', like the concept of 'secularism', has Indian roots, and that only the Indian way of achieving economic and social justice would ultimately succeed. We wanted to reaffirm that all great thinkers and social reformers in the Hindu tradition, including Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi in the modern era, had been votaries of what can be termed as 'spiritual socialism'. . .”

⑥

“. . . It is appropriate for me to quote here what Swami Vivekananda said about the lesson of medieval iconoclasm of Indian history. 'Temple alter temple was broken down by the foreign conqueror, but no sooner had the wave passed than the spire of the temple rose up again. Some of these old temples of Southern India and those like Somnâth of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into the history of the race than any amount of books. Mark how these temples bear the marks of a hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually destroyed and continually springing up out of the ruins, rejuvenated and strong as ever! That is the national mind, that is the national life-current. Follow it and it leads to glory.'”

Editor's note: This quotation is taken from Swamiji's The Future of India lecture, you may read the original lecture here.

⑦

“. . . independent India is acutely conscious of the fact that it is the dreams of visionaries like Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Tagore and Gandhi that have inspired the nation during the freedom struggle and finally helped liberate it.”

⑧

L. K. Advani quotes the following words of Swami Vivekananda at the beginning of the seventeenth chapter Reminiscences and Reflections of his autobiography—

In religion lies the vitality of India, and so long as the Hindu race do not forget the great inheritance of their forefathers, there is no power on earth to destroy them. Nowadays everybody blames those who constantly look back to their past. It is said that so much looking back to the past is the cause of all India's woes. To me, on the contrary, it seems that the opposite is true. So long as they forgot the past, the Hindu nation remained in a state of stupor; and as soon as they have begun to look into their past, there is on every side a fresh manifestation of life. It is out of this past that the future has to be moulded; this past will become the future.

Editor's note: This quote was a part of a letter written by Swami Vivekananda, may be read here.

⑨

“. . . considerable progress has indeed been achieved in the modern era, both during the freedom movement and the decades that followed. This is due to the efforts of many modern-day saints Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, Raja Ram Mohun Roy. . .”

⑩

“Today, when the country is celebrating its day of deliverance from foreign subjection, it is well for us to remember Swami Vivekananda and his conception of the future of our country. He believed that our culture is a rich mosaic containing Hindu, Muslim and other elements. He also believed that the Hindus and the Muslims have certain things to learn from each other, which would make them not merely better Hindus and better Muslims, but, what is more important, better men. Since man-making was his religion, he exhorted his countrymen to discard narrow loves and hates and grow into that wholeness which is perfection of character. In the same vein, he exhorted the Hindus to discard the sectional loyalties of caste and sect and grow into that fullness and wholeness expressive of the Divine in man. It is as an effective help to this religion of man-making that he upheld the modern theory and practice of democracy with its faith in freedom and equality and the sacredness of personality.”

See also

• ☞ Narendra Modi on Swami Vivekananda

References

1. L. K. Advani (2008). My Country My Life. Rupa & Company. ISBN 978-81-291-1363-4

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"Laws Of Life" by Swami Vivekananda

Introduction

☝ Note: This introduction section might be boring. You may skip this section and start reading from the "Laws of life" second below.

In this article we'll try to write on the laws of life mentioned by Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda has thousands of quotations and sayings, how can we conclude which is a "law of life" and which is a general quotation? For example, a quote like "All the powers in the universe are already ours. . . " or "Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. . " — these are definitely motivational words but not laws of life.

Here we'll include only those quotes where Swami Vivekananda directly stated those were "laws of life".

The law of Karma is the law of causation.

—Swami Vivekananda

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Laws of life

In the following quotes the phrase "law of life" is directly mentioned.

1. All hatred is "killing the self by the self"; therefore, love is the law of life.^[Source]
2. All love is expansions all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live. This is the secret of selfless love, selfless action and the rest.^[Source]
3. In the material physical world, expansion is life, and contraction is death. Whatever ceases to expand ceases to live. Translating this in the moral world we have: If one would expand, he must love, and when he ceases to love he dies. It is your nature; you must, because that is the only law of life. Therefore, we must love God for love's sake, so we must do our duty for duty's sake; we must work for work's sake without looking for any reward — know that you are purer and more perfect, know that this is the real temple of God.^[Source]
4. What is life but growth, i.e. expansion, i.e. love? Therefore all love is life, it is the only law of life; all selfishness is death, and this is true here or hereafter. It is life to do good, it is death not to do good to others. Ninety per cent of human brutes you see are dead, are ghosts — for none lives, my boys, but he who loves. Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think you will go mad — then pour the soul out at the feet of the Lord, and then will come power, help, and indomitable energy. Struggle, struggle, was my motto for the last ten years. Struggle, still say I. When it was all dark, I used to say, struggle; when light is breaking in, I still say, struggle. Be not afraid, my children. Look not up in that attitude of fear towards that infinite starry vault as if it would crush you. Wait! In a few hours more, the whole of it will be under your feet. Wait, money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.^[Source]

Laws of Karma

These are the laws of Karma mentioned by Swami Vivekananda—

1. Man is not bound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself. Our thoughts, our words and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw round ourselves, for good or for evil. Once we set in motion a certain power, we have to take the full consequences of it. This is the law of Karma.^[Source]
2. Nobody has ever seen anything produced out of nothing; if anything arises in the mind, that also must have been produced from something. When we speak of free will, we mean the will is not caused by anything. But that cannot be true, the will is caused; and since it is caused, it cannot be free -- it is bound by law. That I am willing to talk to you and you come to listen to me, that is law. Everything that I do or think or feel, every part of my conduct or behaviour, my every movement -- all is caused and therefore not free. This regulation of our life and mind -- that is the law of Karma.^[Source]
3. The law governing functions of the human mind is called the law of Karma.^[Source]
4. The law of Karma is that every action must be followed sooner or later by an effect.^[Source]
5. The law of Karma is the law of causation.^[Source]
6. The law of Karma means the law of causation, of inevitable cause and sequence. Wheresoever there is a cause, there an effect must be produced; this necessity cannot be resisted, and this law of Karma, according to our philosophy, is true throughout the whole universe.^[Source]
7. You are all bound by the law of Karma. . .^[Source]
8. You know it already that each one of us is the effect of the infinite past; the child is ushered into the world not as something flashing from the hands of nature, as poets delight so much to depict, but he has the burden of an infinite past; for good or evil he comes to work out his own past deeds. That makes the differentiation. This is the law of Karma. Each one of us is the maker of his own fate.^[Source]

Laws of nature

These are the laws of nature mentioned by Swami Vivekananda—

1. If a stone falls, it has been thrown by a devil or a ghost, says the ignorant man, but the scientific man says it is the law of nature, the law of gravitation.^[Source]
2. It is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as the field is ready the seed must come, as soon as the soul wants religion, the transmitter of religious force must come. "The seeking sinner meeteth the seeking Saviour." When the power that attracts in the receiving soul is full and ripe, the power which answers to that attraction must come.^[Source]
3. It is not the law of nature to be always taking gifts with outstretched hands like beggars. To give and take is the law of nature.^[Source]
4. See how, from nebulae, the sun, moon, and stars are produced; then they dissolve and go back to nebulae. The same is being done everywhere. The plant takes material from the earth, dissolves, and gives it back. Every form in this world is taken out of surrounding atoms and goes back to these atoms. It cannot be that the same law acts differently in different places. Law is uniform. Nothing is more certain than that. If this is the law of nature, it also applies to thought. Thought will dissolve and go back to its origin. Whether we will it or not, we shall have to return to our origin which is called God or Absolute. We all came from God, and we are all bound to go back to God.^[Source]
5. The present is determined by our past actions, and the future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to birth and death to death. But here is another question: Is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on the foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions — a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect; a little moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's cry? The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of Nature.^[Source]
6. Uniformity is the rigorous law of nature; what once happened can happen always.^[Source]

Laws of the universe

In the following quotes Swamiji did not mention the phrase "law of life", but these are "laws of the universe"—

1. If conformity is the law of the universe, every part of the universe must have been built on the same plan as the whole. . .^[Source]
2. Interdependence is the law of the whole universe.^[Source]
3. Self-sacrifice, not self-assertion, is the law of the highest universe.^[Source]

See also

1. Swami Vivekananda Quotes Mega Collection

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Ramana Maharshi On Swami Vivekananda

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Ramana Maharshi (Tamil: இரமண மகரிசி, 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian philosopher and spiritual leader. He is considered as as one of the most popular and influential religious leaders of modern times.

Our this article's topic is Ramana Maharshi's quotes and comments on Swami Vivekananda.

In his youth Ramana Maharshi used to read many books and religious scriptures. At this time a major influence on his life was the literary works, specially the Yoga related books of Swami Vivekananda.

Ramana Maharshi himself wrote—

How did it all begin? When I was eighteen I read a lot of books by Swami Vivekananda and Swami Rama Tirtha. This reading generated a desire in me that I should also become a sannyasin, like the authors of these books. Their writings also implanted in me the ideal of plain living, high thinking, and a life dedicated to spiritual matters. Somehow, my desire to become a sannyasin was never fulfilled, but the ideal of a dedicated life made a deeper and deeper impression on my mind.^[1]

Ramana Maharshi also told—

Vivekananda was ripe. He was anxious to realize. He must have completed the preliminary in his past births.^[2]

References

1. From a Great Darkness, Ramana Maharshi - A Selection of Stories, Maharshi, Ramana
2. Advaita Vedanta - A living experience, Ananda, Nityamukta

Article too short

This article is too short at this moment. You may help us to expand the article. Do you know any more Ramana Maharshi quote or comment on Swami Vivekananda. If you do, please provide us the information. You may post in the comment section below or email admin@swamivivekanandaquotes.org

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We Are Responsible For What We Are

Swami Vivekananda suggested— "Blame neither man, nor God, nor anyone in the world. When you find yourselves suffering, blame yourselves, and try to do better."^[Source] He also told— "Each one of us reaps what we ourselves have sown. These miseries under which we suffer, these bondages under which we struggle, have been caused by ourselves, and none else in the universe is to blame. God is the least to blame for it."^[Source]

In this article you'll find a collection of Swami Vivekananda's quotes where he stated/explained— we are responsible for what we are.

We are responsible for what we are. . .

Image source: Wikimedia Commons (modified)

Swami Vivekananda told—

• Ay, my friends, I must tell you a few harsh truths. I read in the newspaper how, when one of our fellows is murdered or ill-treated by an Englishman, howls go up all over the country; I read and I weep, and the next moment comes to my mind the question: Who is responsible for it all? As a Vedantist I cannot but put that question to myself. The Hindu is a man of introspection; he wants to see things in and through himself, through the subjective vision. I, therefore, ask myself: Who is responsible? And the answer comes every time: Not the English; no, they are not responsible; it is we who are responsible for all our misery and all our degradation, and we alone are responsible.^[Source]
• We are responsible, and how do we come to mischief? [You may say], "I was born poor and miserable. I remember the hard struggle all my life." Philosophers say that you are to blame. You do not mean to say that all this sprang up without any cause whatever? You are a rational being. Your life is not without cause, and you are the cause. You manufacture your own life all the time. ... You make and mould your own life. You are responsible for yourself. Do not lay the blame upon anybody, any Satan. You will only get punished a little more. ...^[Source]
• We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.^[Source]
• We, we, and none else, are responsible for what we suffer. We are the effects, and we are the causes. We are free therefore. If I am unhappy, it has been of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be happy if I will. If I am impure, that is also of my own making, and that very thing shows that I can be pure if I will. The human will stands beyond all circumstance. Before it — the strong, gigantic, infinite will and freedom in man — all the powers, even of nature, must bow down, succumb, and become its servants. This is the result of the law of Karma.^[Source]
• What we think, that our body becomes. Everything is manufactured by thought, and thus we are the manufacturers of our own lives. We alone are responsible for whatever we do. It is foolish to cry out: "Why am I unhappy?" I made my own unhappiness. It is not the fault of the Lord at all.
  Someone takes advantage of the light of the sun to break into your house and rob you. And then when he is caught by the policeman, he may cry: "Oh sun, why did you make me steal?" It was not the sun's fault at all, because there are thousands of other people who did much good to their fellow beings under the light of the same sun. The sun did not tell this man to go about stealing and robbing.
  Each one of us reaps what we ourselves have sown. These miseries under which we suffer, these bondages under which we struggle, have been caused by ourselves, and none else in the universe is to blame. God is the least to blame for it.^[Source]
• Who is responsible for every action you do, every breath you take, and every thought you think? Isn't it you yourself?^[Source]

See also

• ☞  Swami Vivekananda suggests not to blame anyone

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Swami Vivekananda's The Frog In The Well Story

Swami Vivekananda, like his Master Ramakrishna, used to tell many stories in his lectures and discourses to explain religious and philosophical concepts and doctrines. The frog in the well or The story of two frogs is such a story. Most probably Swami Vivekananda was not the original author of the story, but he told this story several times in his lectures and discourses.

☞ In this article you'll find—

• Swami Vivekananda original story "Frog in the well" and its versions.
• Newspaper coverages and Swami Vivekananda's quotes related to the story.

Why we disagree?

Swami Vivekananda told this story at the Parliament of the World's Religions on 15 September 1893. It was his second lecture at the Parliament. He told—^[Source]

I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has just finished say, "Let us cease from abusing each other," and he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance.

But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.

"Where are you from?"

"I am from the sea."

"The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?"
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

"The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.

"My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?”

Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?"

"What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"

"Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out."

That has been the difficulty all the while.

I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.

[Note: You may download a copy of swami Vivekananda's lecture at the Parliament of the World's Religions from the "Books" page of this website]

Version 01

It is the same story, from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 7, Conversations And Dialogues—^[Source]

A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted that it had eyes, and that it every day cleansed the waters of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it, with an energy that would give credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat -- perhaps as much so as myself. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea, came and fell into the well. "`Whence are you from?'

Nothing can be bigger than my well;
there can be nothing bigger than this;
this fellow is a liar, so turn him out
 Image source: Wikimedia Commons

"`I am from the sea.'
"`The sea? How big is that? Is it as big as my well?' and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other. "`My friend,' says the frog of the sea, `how do you compare the sea with your little well?' "`Then the frog took another leap and asked; `Is your sea so big?' "`What nonsense you speak to compare the sea with your well.'
"`Well, then,' said the frog of the well, `nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out.' "That has been the difficulty all the while.
"I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well, and thinking that the world is my well. The Christian sits in his little well and the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his well and thinks the whole world that. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish that purpose."

Newspaper reports

Swami Vivekananda told this story in many of his lectures.

①

Des Moines, United States, November 1893

He told the story at Des Moines, United States in November 1893. The original lecture has not been found, but a  newspaper report on the lecture was published in the Daily Iowa Capitol, on 28 November 1893. There it was reported—

The speaker was not favorably impressed with the efforts to make Hindu converts--perverts he calls them--to Christianity, nor the converse. All religions being true, such perversions serve no good end. The Hindu religion the speaker claimed is not disposed to antagonize any belief; it absorbs them. As for tolerating different beliefs, the language of the Hindu has no word corresponding with the English word "intolerance". That language had a word for religion and one for sect. The former embraced all beliefs. The conception of the latter the speaker illustrated by telling the story of the frog, who had no idea there was any world outside the well in which he had always lived.

②

Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 15 April 1894

Swami Vivekananda's lecture delivered at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts on 15 April 1894, was reported in the Smith College Monthly in May (1894).

On Sunday, April 15, Swami Vivekananda, the Hindoo monk whose scholarly exposition of Brahmanism caused such favorable comment at the Congress of Religions, spoke at Vespers. --We say much of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, but few understand the meaning of these words. True brotherhood is possible only when the soul draws so near to the All Father that jealousies and petty claims of superiority must vanish because we are so much above them. We must take care lest we become like the frog of the well in the old Hindoo story, who, having lived for a long time in a small place, at last denied the existence of a larger space.

Swami Vivekananda's suggestion

In a letter written to Swami Ramakrishnananda (Shashi) in 1895, Swamiji suggested—^[Source]

Try to give up ceremonials. They are not meant for Sannyasins; and one must work only so long as one does not attain to illumination .... I have nothing to do with sectarianism. Or party-forming and playing the frog-in-the-well, whatever else I may do....

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What Is Samadhi? — According To Swami Vivekananda

Samadhi (Sanskrit: समाधि) is an intense concentrated state of mind achieved through meditation. In Hindu Raja Yoga this is regarded as the final stage.¹ Samadhi is a very important part or idea of Hinduism, Vedanta, Buddhism and Jainism.

In this website we are preparing to create a series of articles on Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on Samadhi. This is the first article of the series and here the topic is— definition of Samadhi, according to Swami Vivekananda.

Samadhi is. . .

Swami Vivekananda defined "Samadhi" as—

• All are parts of the same ocean of Prana, they differ only in their rate of vibration. If I can bring myself to the quick vibration, this plane will immediately change for me: I shall not see you any more; you vanish and they appear. Some of you, perhaps, know this to be true. All this bringing of the mind into a higher state of vibration is included in one word in Yoga — Samadhi. All these states of higher vibration, superconscious vibrations of the mind, are grouped in that one word, Samadhi, and the lower states of Samadhi give us visions of these beings. The highest grade of Samadhi is when we see the real thing, when we see the material out of which the whole of these grades of beings are composed, and that one lump of clay being known, we know all the clay in the universe.^[Source]
• Concentration is Samādhi, and that is Yoga proper; that is the principal theme of this science, and it is the highest means. The preceding ones are only secondary, and we cannot attain to the highest through them. Samadhi is the means through which we can gain anything and everything, mental, moral, or spiritual.^[Source]
• In order to reach the superconscious state in a scientific manner it is necessary to pass through the various steps of Raja-Yoga I have been teaching. After Pratyâhâra and Dhâranâ, we come to Dhyâna, meditation. When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point. This state is called Dhyana. When one has so intensified the power of Dhyana as to be able to reject the external part of perception and remain meditating only on the internal part, the meaning, that state is called Samadhi.^[Source]
• . . . It is the highest and last stage of Yoga. Samadhi is perfect absorption of thought into the Supreme Spirit, when one realises, "I and my Father are one."^[Source]
• Samadhi is the means through which we can gain anything and everything, mental, moral, or spiritual.(comment on Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms)^[Source]
• सर्वार्थतैकाग्रतयोः क्षयोदयौ चित्तस्य समाधि-परिणामः ॥११॥ 11. Taking in all sorts of objects, and concentrating upon one object, these two powers being destroyed and manifested respectively, the Chitta gets the modification called Samadhi. (comment on Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms)^[Source]
• When the mind goes beyond this line of self-consciousness, it is called Samadhi or superconsciousness.^[Source]

A Hymn of Samadhi

In the poem The Hymn of Samadhi (original Bengali title: নাহি সূর্য নাহি জ্যোতি) Swamiji narrated the experiences of Samadhi—

English

Lo! The sun is not, nor the comely moon,
All light extinct; in the great void of space
Floats shadow-like the image-universe.

In the void of mind involute, there floats
The fleeting universe, rises and floats,
Sinks again, ceaseless, in the current "I".

Slowly, slowly, the shadow-multitude
Entered the primal womb, and flowed ceaseless,
The only current, the "I am", "I am".

Lo! 'Tis stopped, ev'n that current flows no more,
Void merged into void — beyond speech and mind!
Whose heart understands, he verily does.

Bengali

নাহি সূর্য, নাহি জ্যোতিঃ, নাহি শশাঙ্ক সুন্দর,
ভাসে ব্যোমে ছায়াসম ছবি বিশ্ব চরাচর ।।
অস্ফুট মন-আকাশে, জগতসংসার ভাসে,
ওঠে ভাসে ডোবে পুনঃ অহং-স্রোতে নিরন্তর ।।
ধীরে ধীরে ছায়াদল, মহালয়ে প্রবেশিল,
বহে মাত্র 'আমি' 'আমি'-এই ধারা অনুক্ষণ ।।
সে ধারাও বদ্ধ হ'ল, শূন্যে শূন্য মিলাইল,
'অবাঙ‍্মনসোগোচরম্', বোঝে—প্রাণ বোঝে যার ।।

Editor's note: This is undoubtedly an excellent narration of Samadhi (Swamiji himself experienced Samadhi more than once, if time permits we'll write an article on Swamiji's Samdhi experiences). Here please concentrate on "শূন্যে শূন্য মিলাইল/Void merged into void" — it seems impossible to think something like "void merged into view". First, it is very difficult to think about absolute void. We may think about a large empty room or sky, but that is not absolute void, and then this first void gets merged into a second void — this might be the experience of Samadhi.

Suggested reading

• ✔ Swami Vivekananda on Nirvikalpa Samadhi

Footnotes

1. Samadhi is the final stage of Raja Yoga (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi). There are different types of Samadhi, such as Savikalpa Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, but we'll discuss these in separate articles.

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Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra — Hear Ye Children Of Immortal Bliss

शृण्वन्तु बिश्वे अमृतस्य पुत्रा

आ ये धामानि दिब्यानि तस्थुः 

Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra

Aa Ye Dhamani Dibyani Tasthu

✍ Word meaning

शृण्वन्तु/Shrinwantu= Listen/hear, बिश्वे/Vishwe= in the world, अमृतस्य/Amritasya= of immortality, पुत्रा/Putra= Children

(see comment section below) — Shvetashvatara Upanishad, Chapter II, Verse 5

We find the verse "Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra" in Shvetashvatara Upanishad, Chapter II, Verse 5. It may be translated as "Listen, O the children of immortality the world over. . ." or "Hark yea on the earth, the children of immortality" or "Hear ye children of immortality or immortal bliss". 

In the Vedic (actually Vedantic) tradition, it was believed, it is not man but it is his body that dies, man never dies. He is immortal, he is the "son of immortality".  We find the same idea in Bhagavad Gita too.

☞ On one hand the entire world claims that a man has no place in this universe. He is a helpless, powerless creature. He has miseries, diseases, he has anxieties and finally he has death. He is nothing — he is simply nothing.
☞On the other hand the Upanishads of ancient India glorifies human being as "children of immortality".

Our this website is dedicated to Swami Vivekananda and his thoughts. Here in this article you'll find Swami Vivekananda's quotes and views on the verse "Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra".

Swami Vivekananda told

Basic image source: Wikimedia Commons

• "Children of immortal bliss" — what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name — heirs of immortal bliss — yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth — sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.^[Source]
• "Hear, ye children of immortality, all those that reside in this plane and all those that reside in the heavens above, I have found the secret", says the great sage. "I have found Him who is beyond all darkness. Through His mercy alone we cross this ocean of life."^[Source]
• I see before me, as it were, that in some of those forest retreats this question is being, discussed by those ancient sages of India; and in one of them, where even the oldest and the holiest fail to reach the solutions a young man stands up in the midst of them, and declares, "Hear, ye children of immortality, hear, who live in the highest places, I have found the way. By knowing Him who is beyond darkness we can go beyond death."^[Source]
• Is there no hope? Is there no escape? — was the cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: "Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion: knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again."^[Source]
• Man wants truth, wants to experience truth for himself; when he has grasped it, realised it, felt it within his heart of hearts, then alone, declare the Vedas, would all doubts vanish, all darkness be scattered, and all crookedness be made straight. "Ye children of immortality, even those who live in the highest sphere, the way is found; there is a way out of all this darkness, and that is by perceiving Him who is beyond all darkness; there is no other way."^[Source]
• Tell each and all that infinite power resides within them, that they are sharers of immortal Bliss. Thus rouse up the Rajas within them -- make them fit for the struggle for existence, and then speak to them about salvation. First make the people of the country stand on their legs by rousing their inner power, first let them learn to have good food and clothes and plenty of enjoyment -- then tell them how to be free from this bondage of enjoyment.^[Source]
• The powers of creation, preservation, and destruction of the Universe, and the attributes, such as omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, make God of gods. "Hear ye children of Immortality! Hear ye Devas who live in higher spheres!" (Shvetashvatara, II.5). "I have found out a ray beyond all darkness, beyond all doubt. I have found the Ancient One" (ibid. III.8). The way to this is contained in the Upanishads.^[Source]
• This national ship of ours, ye children of the Immortals, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilisation and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures. For scores of shining centuries this national ship of ours has been ferrying across the ocean of life, and has taken millions of souls to the other shore, beyond all misery. But today it may have sprung a leak and got damaged, through your own fault or whatever cause it matters not. What would you, who have placed yourselves in it, do now? Would you go about cursing it and quarrelling among yourselves! Would you not all unite together and put your best efforts to stop the holes? Let us all gladly give our hearts' blood to do this; and if we fail in the attempt, let us all sink and die together, with blessings and not curses on our lips.^[Source]

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Swami Vivekananda On Children

In this article you'll find Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on children. Please note, here we'll include only those quotes which are directly related to children. That means in this article you'll not find quotes like—

✘ "Do you think these Sannyasin children of Shri Ramakrishna are born simply to sit under trees lighting Dhuni - fires?. . ."
✘ "Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heart stops and the brain reels and you. . ."

Suggested article: This article was suggested by +Sri Mâ Satya

Swami Vivekananda on Children

• A child comes into the world crawling and without teeth, and the old man gets out without teeth and crawling. The extremes are alike, but the one has no experience of the life before him, while the other has gone through it all.^[Source]
• A child is born with certain tendencies. Whence do they come? No child is born with a tabula rasa — with a clean, blank page — of a mind. The page has been written on previously. The old Greek and Egyptian philosophers taught that no child came with a vacant mind. Each child comes with a hundred tendencies generated by past conscious actions. It did not acquire these in this life, and we are bound to admit that it must have had them in past lives.^[Source]
• All know their own Self, all know, "I am", even animals. All we know is the projection of the Self. Teach this to the children, they can grasp it.^[Source]
• Children are born optimists, but the rest of life is a continuous disillusionment; not one ideal can be fully attained, not one thirst can be quenched. So on they go trying to solve the riddle, and religion has taken up the task.^[Source]
• Do you think you can teach even a child? You cannot. The child teaches himself. Your duty is to afford opportunities and to remove obstacles.^[Source]
• Every child is a born optimist; he dreams golden dreams. In youth he becomes still more optimistic. It is hard for a young man to believe that there is such a thing as death, such a thing as defeat or degradation. Old age comes, and life is a mass of ruins. Dreams have vanished into the air, and the man becomes a pessimist.^[Source]
• Every child that is born sees the sky overhead very far away, but is that any reason why we should not look towards the sky? Would it mend matters to go towards superstition?^[Source]
• Impress upon your children that true religion is positive and not negative, that it does not consist in merely refraining from evil, but in a persistent performance of noble decals. True religion comes not front the teaching of men or the reading of books; it is the awakening of the spirit within us, consequent upon pure and heroic action.^[Source]
• It is good to be born a child, but bad to remain a child.^[Source]
• It is useless to tell children that this world is all good, all flowers, all milk and honey.^[Source]
• Let there be action without reaction; action is pleasant, all misery is reaction. The child puts its hand in the flame, that is pleasure; but when its system reacts, then comes the pain of burning. When we can stop that reaction, then we have nothing to fear. Control the brain and do not let it read the record; be the witness and do not react, only thus can you be happy. The happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves. Work of your own free will, not from duty. We have no duty. This world is just a gymnasium in which we play; our life is an eternal holiday.^[Source]
• Misery begins with the birth of the child. Weak and helpless, he enters the world. The first sign of life is weeping. Now, how could we be the cause of misery when we find it at the very beginning? We have caused it in the past.^[Source]
• The Chinese child is quite a philosopher and calmly goes to work at an age when your Indian boy can hardly crawl on all fours.^[Source]
• "The child is father of the man." Would it be right for an old man to say that childhood is a sin or youth a sin?^[Source]
• There is hardly a child, born in any country in the world, who has not been told, "Do not steal," "Do not tell a lie," but nobody tells the child how he can help doing them. Talking will not help him. Why should he not become a thief? We do not teach him how not to steal; we simply tell him, "Do not steal." Only when we teach him to control his mind do we really help him.^[Source]
• There is misery everywhere. The child is born with a cry upon its lips; it is its first utterance. This child becomes a man, and so well used to misery that the pang of the heart is hidden by a smile on the lips.^[Source]
• There is neither heaven nor hell nor this world; all three never really existed. Tell a child a lot of ghost stories, add let him go out into the street in the evening. There is a little stump of a tree. What does the child see? A ghost, with hands stretched out, ready to grab him.^[Source]
• We foolishly want to limit the whole universe with our present experience. Children think that the whole universe is full of children. Madmen think the whole universe a lunatic asylum, and so on.^[Source]
• You may read any amount of books.... Crowd into the child fifty thousand words a moment, teach him all the theories and philosophies.... There is only one science that will teach him facts, and that is psychology.... And the work begins with control of the breath.^[Source]

"If I had a child. . ." — Swami Vivekananda

Swamijit told—^[Source]

If I had a child I would from its very birth begin to tell it, "Thou art the Pure One". You have read in one of the Puranas that beautiful story of queen Madâlasâ, how as soon as she has a child she puts her baby with her own hands in the cradle, and how as the cradle rocks to and fro, she begins to sing, "Thou art the Pure One the Stainless, the Sinless, the Mighty One, the Great One." Ay, there is much in that. Feel that you are great and you become great.

In giving education to a child the law of growth has to be obeyed

Swamiji told—^[Source]

How many thousands of students I know who live upon the worst food possible, and live amidst the most horrible surroundings, what wonder that there are so many idiots, imbeciles and cowards among them. They die like flies. The education that is given is onesided, weakening, it is killing by inches. The children are made to cram too much of useless matter, and are incarcerated in school rooms fifty or seventy in each, five hours together. They are given bad food. It is forgotten that the future health of the man is in the child. It is forgotten that nature can never be cheated and things cannot be pushed too early. In giving education to a child the law of growth has to be obeyed. And we must learn to wait. Nothing is more important than that the child must have a strong and healthy body. The body is the first thing to attain to virtue. I know we are the poorest nation in the world, and we cannot afford to do much. We can only work on the lines of least resistance. We should see at least that our children are well fed. The machine of the child's body should never be exhausted. In Europe and America a man with crores of rupees sends his son if sickly, to the farmers, to till the ground. After three years he returns to the father healthy, rosy and strong. Then he is fit to be sent to school. We ought not for these reasons push the present system of education any further.

Why do we love children?

Here is an interesting quote. Swamiji once mentioned a saying of Yajnavalkya—^[Source]

None loves the children for the children; but because one loves the Self, therefore one loves the children. . .

On Child Psychology

According to Swami Vivekananda—^[Source]

Each man in his childhood runs through the stages through which his race has come up; only the race took thousands of years to do it, while the child takes a few years. The child is first the old savage man — and he crushes a butterfly under his feet. The child is at first like the primitive ancestors of his race. As he grows, he passes through different stages until he reaches the development of his race. Only he does it swiftly and quickly.

We notice children are sometimes "instinctively afraid". Swamiji told while commenting on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra—^[Source]

We have seen that all our knowledge, whether we call it perception, or reason, or instinct, must come through that one channel called experience, and all that we now call instinct is the result of past experience, degenerated into instinct and that instinct regenerates into reason again. So on throughout the universe, and upon this has been built one of the chief arguments for reincarnation in India. The recurring experiences of various fears, in course of time, produce this clinging to life. That is why the child is instinctively afraid, because the past experience of pain is there in it.

"Where shall it fall?" — a story

From Jnana Yoga—^[Source]

In a certain school a number of little children were being examined. The examiner had foolishly put all sorts of difficult questions to the little children. Among others there was this question: "Why does not the earth fall ?" His intention was to bring out the idea of gravitation or some other intricate scientific truth from these children. Most of them could not even understand the question, and so they gave all sorts of wrong answers. But one bright little girl answered it with another question: "Where shall it fall?" The very question of the examiner was nonsense on the face of it. There is no up and down in the universe; the idea is only relative. So it is with regard to the soul; the very question of birth and death in regard to it is utter nonsense. Who goes and who comes? Where are you not? Where is the heaven that you are not in already? Omnipresent is the Self of man. Where is it to go? Where is it not to go? It is everywhere.

Image source

In the banner image above, the following images from Wikimedia Commons have been used: 1, 2, 3

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Swami Vivekananda On Brahmacharya — Powerpoint Presentation

In this website we are preparing a series of articles on Swami Vivekananda's quotations on different topics.  Now in this article we are going to make a powerpoint presentation on Swami Vivekananda's quotes on Brahmacharya. Hope you'll like this effort. Feel free to post your feedback in the comment section below.

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Image source: Wikimedia Commons

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Viewing and downloading notes

1. Click on the arrows to change slides.
2. Click on the gear icon to download the presentations in your preferred file format(s).

Swami Vivekananda on Brahmacharya

Main article

☞ This presentation is a part of Swami Vivekananda's quotes on Brahmacharya

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20 Beautiful Image Quotes Of Swami Vivekananda

In this website we have been preparing a series of articles on Swami Vivekananda's quotations. Please check the "contents" section of this website to read Swamiji's quotes on different topics. In this article we'll make a presentation of 20 image quotes of Swami Vivekananda.

Font used in these images: Aparajita, Font size: 26, Software used: Open Office.

①

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Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.

②

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"Arise, awake, sleep no more; within each of you there is the power to remove all wants and all miseries. Believe this, and that power will be manifested.

③

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Be brave and be sincere; then follow any path with devotion, and you must reach the Whole. Once lay hold of one link of the chain, and the whole chain must come by degrees.

④

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Be free; hope for nothing from anyone. I am sure if you look back upon your lives you will find that you were always vainly trying to get help from others which never came.

⑤

 

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Be not in despair; the way is very difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor; yet despair not, arise, awake, and find the ideal, the goal.

⑥

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Cowards only sin, brave men never, no, not even in mind.

⑦

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Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.

⑧

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Do not wait for anybody or anything. Do whatever you can. Build your hope on none.

⑨

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Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

⑩

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Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.

⑪

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Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.

⑫

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He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.

⑬

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If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. We must rouse India and the whole world. No cowardice. I will take no nay. Do you understand?

⑭

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My child, what I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made.

⑮

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Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.

⑯

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Nightmares always begin pleasantly — only at the worst point [the] dream is broken — so death breaks [the] dream of life.

⑰

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No need for looking behind. FORWARD! We want infinite energy, infinite zeal, infinite courage, and infinite patience, then only will great things achieved.

⑱

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Stand up and be strong! No fear. No superstition. Face the truth as it is! If death comes — that is the worst of our miseries — let it come! We are determined to die game.

⑲

Take courage and work on. Patience and steady work — this is the only way. Go on; remember — patience and purity and courage and steady work. . . . So long as you are pure, and true to your principles, you will never fail.

⑳

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The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

Want more?

Do you want to see more image quotes of Swami Vivekananda? Consider visiting daily quotes and its archive pages.

Editor's recommendation

Do you have few more minutes in hand? If you do, we recommend you to read the following article too—

1. Swami Vivekananda's Top 10 Most Famous Quotes

Basic image source

All the images used in this presentation are taken from Wikimedia Common, the site allows reusing and remixing images. Here is the source list—
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Portal

This article is a part of the following portal—

Portal:Image quote

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