Thursday, October 19, 2017

A few quotes of Swami Vivekananda


(1863-1902)

Swami Vivekananda  was an Indian monk who introduced Indian philosophy of Vedanta and yoga to the western world. Inspire yourself from some of his quotes:-

- All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes  and  cry that it is dark.

- That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.

- Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is reached.

- You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

- Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison.

- Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals. Place them day and night before you and out of that will come great work.

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

-  Do not lower your goals to the level of your abilities. Instead, raise  your abilities to the height of your goals.

- Purity, patience and perseverance are the three essentials to success and above all love.

-  Strength is life, weakness is death. Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, hate is death.

-  Never lose faith in yourself; you can do anything in the universe.

-  Society does not go down because of the activities of criminals, but because of the inactivity of the good people.

- Do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you must, in a long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you, completing the circle. 

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

- Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

There are many more inspirational quotes on the web. Find time to read and inspire yourself. 
Thank you. Have a great inspired life. Namaste.


Saturday, October 7, 2017

Kindness





Do you want to be healthy? Do you want to be happy? Do you want to live a stress free life? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then I have a secret for you. The secret is just loosen yourself in the service of others. Believe me, our problems begin when we start living a selfish life. One should start doing random acts of kindness. The happiness which we receive in this manner,  cannot be described in words. Let me quote a couplet written by a greatest poet, saint, reformer and philosopher GoswamiTulsidas of India -

दया धर्म का मूल है, पाप मूल अभिमान ।
तुलसी दया न छांड़िए, जब तक घट में प्राण॥
(For Hindi speaking audience)

Transliteration of the above couplet :-

dayaa dharam kaa mool hai, paap mool abhimaan.
Tulsi daya na chandiye, jab tak ghat mein praan.

The meaning of these lines is:

Kindness (compassion, mercy) is the root of  dharm*, pride (arrogance) is the root of sin
Tulsi says as long as we have life in this body, we should not leave kindness.

Kindness has more power than violence. Let us all be kind to ourselves and to the people around us. This way, violence cannot exist in the society. Let us remind ourselves some quotes on kindness which can be  found on the web also -

- Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and 
  the blind can see  - Mark Twain

- Always be a little kinder than necessary.

- One kind word can change someone's entire day.
(I would like to change "entire day" to "entire life")

- Kindness is free. Sprinkle that stuff everywhere.

- Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile - Albert Einstein

- No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted - Aesop

- Kindness is free, let us pass it on.

- If you can be one thing, be kind

Do you t know that there is a world kindness day? I only learnt it while writing this blog.

Let us all develop this divine quality of kindness. Let us touch lives of many people with our acts of kindness.

I would like to end this post with these lines which I received from a friend of mine -

Learn to:
Love without condition
Talk without bad intention
Give without any reason, and most of all
Care for people without any expectations.

Namaste  

* dharm - I did not find the exact English translation of the word 'dharm'. Dharm tells us how should we act towards living beings. Dharm teaches us what is the right thing for us to do and what is wrong. Dharm teaches us that we should follow truth and non-violence.