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“Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”
Emerging in every generation, they have bulwarked their land against the fate of Babylon and Egypt.
find my earliest memories covering the anachronistic features of a previous incarnation. Clear recollections came to me of a distant life, a yogi{3} amidst the Himalayan snows.
The helpless humiliations of infancy are not banished from my mind.
Among the inward confusion of tongues, my ear gradually accustomed itself to the circumambient Bengali syllables of my people.
Many yogis are known to have retained their self-consciousness without interruption by the dramatic transition to and from “life” and “death.”
he whispered to Father some sage counsel, garnered no doubt from the ages.
With the immemorial gesture of vanquished husbands, he opened his wallet.
Shunning all luxuries, he would cling to one old pair of shoes until they were useless.
“Why be elated by material profit?” Father replied. “The one who pursues a goal of evenmindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed
by loss. He knows that man arrives penniless in this world, and departs without a single rupee.”
“Your father and myself live together as man and wife only once a year, for the purpose of having children.”
I must know this great Lahiri Mahasaya, who is able to materialize himself at will in order to intercede for you!
“I mean a pension of fathomless peace—a reward for many years of deep meditation.
The subtle unity of the phenomenal world is not hidden from true yogis.
Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of one’s thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience. It pulverizes the stoutest ego.
Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God!
He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained!
Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!”
Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.
Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire.
Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched.”
“Extravagance
will buy you discomfort.”
Is the whole world going to change for you?
Man may be compelled to exterminate harmful creatures. He is not under similar compulsion to feel anger or animosity. All forms of life have equal right to the air of maya.
man’s body is precious. It has the highest evolutionary value because of unique brain and spinal centers.
But the Vedas teach that wanton loss of a human body is a serious transgression against the karmic law.”
“In shallow men
the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.”
“So long as you breathe the free air of earth, you are under obligation to render grateful service.
“A girl must have proved very troublesome to his peace of mind in his early life,” my guru answered causticly. “Otherwise he would have denounced, not woman, but some imperfection in his own self-control.”
“Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger than the thunder, where principles are at stake.”
“The muscles relax during sleep, but the
heart, lungs, and circulatory system
are constantly at work; they get no rest. In superconsciousness, the internal organs remain in a state of suspended animation...
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Wrath springs only from thwarted desires.
I do not expect anything from others, so their actions cannot be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would not use you for my own ends;
Like a prodigal child, I had run away from my macrocosmic home and imprisoned myself in a narrow microcosm.
The soul must stretch over the cosmogonic abysses, while the body performs its daily duties.
“How quickly we weary of earthly pleasures! Desire for material things is endless; man is never satisfied completely, and pursues one goal after another. The ‘something else’ he seeks is the Lord, who alone can grant lasting joy.
“Outward longings drive
us from the Eden within; they offer false pleasures which only impers...
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Also, in meditation one finds His instant guidance, His adequate response to every difficulty.”
“Human life is beset with sorrow until we know how to tune in with the Divine Will, whose ‘right course’ is often baffling to the egoistic intelligence. God bears the burden of the cosmos; He alone can give unerring counsel.”
“Divine contemplation must not be made an excuse for material carelessness.
Thoughts are no more than very gentle vibrations moving in the ether.
Just as a sensitized radio picks up a desired musical number out of thousands of other programs from every direction, so my guru had been able to catch the thought of the
half-witted man who hankered for a cauliflower, out of the countless thoughts of broadcastin...
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By his powerful will, Master was also a human broadcasting station, and had successfully directed the peasant to reverse his steps and go to ...
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