This is a small collection of Quotes of Vemana, the Telugu
poet-philosopher. These teachings primarily focus on family life.
When a mean person gets shelter in the house, the
householders will get into trouble. It is like a fly entering your stomach and
stirring the guts causing discomfort.
Presence of a virtuous person in the family makes it famous
and great. It is like having a sandalwood tree in a big forest whereby the
entire forest smells like sandalwood.
What is the use of following the rituals and customs without
inner purity? What is the use of making special dishes in unclean vessels? What
use is the worship of Shiva without purity of mind and devotion?
What good is it to bathe in water, to offer treasures and to
pay obeisance to gods, when the mind is filled with impurity of hypocrisy.
Bodies are transient, virtue is eternal, all the virtue we
perform is alone the thing that cannot be ruined. These brutes of men though
they see and hear cannot understand.
That light like the morning star that dwells in the heart of every man is our refuge.
Observance of ritual devoid of purity of heart is worthless.