Teachings from the Kathamrita of Sri Ramakrishna

Below are 25 teachings from the Kathamrita of Sri Ramakrishna

1. The goal of human life is to realize God.
2. Lust and greed are maya.
3. Practising truthfulness is the austerity in this Kali Yuga.
4. The scripture, the devotee, and God – are all one.
5. All troubles will cease when the ‘I’ dies.
6. I am the instrument and you are the operator.
7. Not I, not I, but thou, thou.
8. As many faiths, so many paths.
9. Tie nondual knowledge in the corner of your cloth and then do whatever you like.
10. Be a devotee, but don’t be foolish.
11. God is the wish-fulfilling tree.
12. Brahman and its power are identical.
13. The essence of Vedanta is: Brahman is real and the world is impermanent.
14. The essence of the Gita is this: Renounce, renounce.
15. The attached mind is like a box of wet matches.
16. God without form and with form – a both are true.
17. As is a person’s feeling of love, so is one’s gain.
18. Meditate in your mind, in the forest, or in the corner of your room.
19. Dive deep.
20. Satchidananda alone is the guru.
21. Please God, then everyone will be pleased.
22. God has become everything, but he is manifested to the utmost in human beings.
23. It is petty to limit God.
24. True religion is the union of the mind and speech.
25. Let there be no theft [hypocrisy] in the chamber of your heart, that is, shun hypocrisy.

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There is another benefit from holy company. It helps one cultivate discrimination between the Real and the unreal. God alone is the Real, that is to say, the Eternal Substance, and the world is unreal, that is to say, transitory. As soon as a man finds his mind wandering away to the unreal, he should apply discrimination. The moment an elephant stretches out its trunk to eat a plaintain-tree in a neighbour’s garden, it gets a blow from the iron goad of the driver.  (Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna 97)

You see this world? Have you seen innumerable crab eggs floating in the Ganges during the rainy season? As many eggs so many worlds. They are numberless. Who are you to do good to the world? You better try to help yourself. God dwells in every being. Be blessed by serving Him in all beings. The owner of the world will look after his own affairs. You look to your own path. (Sri Ramakrishna to Krishnadas Pal (a national leader and the editor of Hindu Patriot))