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Swami Suddhananda Quotes and Teachings

These are the quotes and teachings of a person named Swami Suddhananda. Nothing is much know about the Swami. As the teachings contain depth and meaning, I have collected them and are sharing it with the readers.

The test of the role that the mind plays in every little action lies in the recognition of the experience the person opens up to himself and surrenders himself totally and unconditionally to love. The test of true love lies in the fact that it is unresponsive to the voice of the mind, dictates of time, and pressures of the world around. This state of surrender to love and awakening to the nature of ones ‘self’ never suffers change.

Every little thing – living or non-living – goes into making the creation complete as long as each thing ‘is’. But the moment it ceases to exist, its absence does not affect the creation at all!


To see the Nature or the creation in its perfect mood as it is, one does not have to be a spectator, but be a part of the grand spectacle of creation. To fall within its vastness in which one is already included and then to glide along even though stationary is to fall into the rhythm that neither pushes nor leaves anything behind.

When you lose yourself in every experience it is bondage. If you find yourself in every experience it is freedom!

Iswara is not the name for a form. It is the name for all the forms.

Body demands only food and would be satisfied with any food. The mind would want varieties of food.

Everything in the universe is as divine as anything else. The flower in the plant is as divine as the statue in the temple. When you go to the temple what can you offer God? What is that you have which God does not have? Give yourself. Look at the world as a whole and not like how the four blind men saw the elephant.

If you want to worship God in one form, see him in one form. If you want to worship him without any form, worship him without any form. Worship God in any form you like, the mother, the father or, baby Krishna. God will never be offended. Only the dogs fight over the bone, the bone never joins the fight.

Natural happenings have no motive or attribute. It is man’s understanding, interpretation and conditioning that makes something ‘good or bad’,’ right or wrong’, ’beautiful or ugly’.

Man in his capacity as a thinker thinks and analyses about everything except his ‘self’. In creation nothing can be created or destroyed. Man refuses to accept that he also is a part of creation who cannot be created or destroyed.

No teacher can give you something that you are not. No teacher can make you something that you are not. No scripture can teach you something that you are not.

There are two ways of finding strength – either you discover the strength in yourself, the security and immortality in yourself or discover the source of all that you aspire for and IT will lead you to discover the same.

To love someone for what he or she is, first I must love myself. My love must begin with who I am. When I know that I am a lovable Self, then I automatically can understand that the same self is everywhere and in everybody. Then loving other people becomes natural and spontaneous.

When you say the ‘I am the physical body’ you are swallowing up the identities of three billion or more individual cells. These little cells cannot believe they are part of a macrocosm, the human body. They have their own life span of a few seconds, in which they are born, grow and die. In the same way it is difficult for a man to comprehend the Totality, Ishwara, the Macrocosm.

Which is better? Form or formless? A stone may not be mountain but a statue can be carved out of it.

A handful of water is not a river, but it is enough to quench the thirst. A little fire can cook your food. 

Limitations become glorious in All pervasive Consciousness. I Am! But a thought through the body makes the world real and accessible. Formless or Form. Both have their beauty!

Contemplation on the Infinite cannot be difficult because Infinite exits at all times, in all places. There is no time when it is not – there is no place where it is not. Yet it seems difficult because the individual tries to reach that Consciousness with a thought. Man himself is the Consciousness and this indeed is the greatest contemplation.

The forms that the space occupies may vary in sizes and shapes, but in the space itself there is no variation because it is formless. Thoughts may go on varying between people, and within the same individual also. But, the Principle of Consciousness, which illumines every thing, remains the same and is changeless.

The understanding of God's presence everywhere, leads to an automatic surrender of oneself that is Bhakthi.

Many people come and tell him that they don't believe in god because there is so much of disease, injustice etc, and what kind of god would allow so much of suffering. "So I tell them, don't worry if you don't believe in God because I'm not god's agent. If he exists, our disbelief is not going to make him disappear and if he doesn't exist, our belief is not going to create him. The existence of anything is independent of our belief or disbelief, so let us not talk about it."

Swami Suddhananda on Luxury and Necessity

A necessity is something without which man cannot live. Today we have succeeded in making every luxury a necessity. The right thinking is to identify how many necessities can be converted into luxuries. A luxury is something for which we should have the freedom to be with or without. If we know our true nature, the “I” – then, living itself becomes a luxury, because we gain freedom to live with or without the body and the mind.

Thoughts on True Religion by Swami Suddhananda

The realm of true religion encompasses all, without divisions either as religious or secular. This begins where all names, forms, symbol, and thoughts including the sense of individual- the ‘I’ completely disappear. Therefore to be religious is to be secular, and to be secular is to be deeply religious. No God is superior or inferior. No man is greater or lesser. A blade of grass is as significant as a star and a star is as insignificant as a blade of grass. All pervasive Truth ignores none and embraces all.

Swami Suddhananda on Source of Happiness

Every time we enjoy a moment of happiness, it is ‘being’ with ourselves. But not knowing that ‘I am the source of Happiness’, we look, for it everywhere else – in objects, emotions, relationships, wealth, power, name. This search is never ending. What a wonderful life man will have if, while tasting, touching, seeing, experiencing knows ‘I am the source of Bliss, Happiness itself’. There is no more ‘search’ for Happiness. Life becomes a luxury of the highest order and every experience is a bonus.

Swami Suddhananda on Death and Immortality

While the language of death is heard all around, with death and mortality being an obvious phenomenon, the language of Immortality is rarely heard. Even if it is, it is confined within the walls of caves, distant monasteries, or isolated mountains. Hence the desperate attempt by humanity to live as long as possible. Extending life seems to be more exotic than immortality. The ultimate science of life questions the individual himself and provides him with the ultimate answer, the Happiness, the Immortality that is within himself. When Immortality becomes a reality, mortality becomes an exotic myth to be lived and never to be frightened of!