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Swami Vivekananda – Wise Words and Insight

A collection of wise words and insight of Swami Vivekananda.

As the spider throws her web out of herself and draws it in, even so this universe is thrown out and drawn in by God.

By the establishment of truthfulness the Yogi gets the power of attaining for himself and others the fruits of work without the works. When this power of truth will be established with you, then even in dream you will never tell an untruth. You will be true in thought, word and deed. Whatever you say will be truth. You may say to a man, ‘Be blessed,’ and that man will be blessed. If a man is disease, and you say to him, ‘Be thou cured,’ and he will be cured immediately.

I will compare truth a corrosive substance of infinite power. It burns its way in wherever it falls – in soft substance at once, hard granite slowly, but I must.

Language is the vehicle of ideas. It is ideas that are of prime importance, language comes after.

We are like cattle driven to the slaughterhouse hastily nibbling a bite of grass on the roadside as they are driven along under the whip.

A tremendous stream is flowing towards the ocean carrying us all along with it; and though like straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the long run we are sure to join the ocean of life and bliss.

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.

Love and charity for the whole human race, that is the test of true religiousness.

Where it is dark night for the (sense-bound) world, the self controlled (man) is awake. It is daylight for him. . . . And where the world is awake, the sage sleeps.’ Where is the world awake? In the senses.

It is grand and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will, of mankind.

When man has been sufficiently buffeted by the world, he awakes to a desire for freedom; and searching for means of escape from the dreary round of earthly existence, he seeks knowledge, learns what he really is, and is free.

Teach yourselves, teach everyone his/her real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.  

Swami Vivekananda