Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda: All Volumes (PCS786)

by Vivekananda

By law is meant the tendency of a series to repeat itself.

We are the Self, eternally at rest and at peace.

There are some persons who can bury themselves for days, and yet live without breathing.

Pranayama

Chapter IV. The Psychic Prana

Chapter VI. Pratyahara And Dharana

the mind cannot be controlled after a whole day’s hard work.

So long as there is desire, no real happiness can come.

First, there is the external vibration; second, the nerve motion that carries it to the mind; third, the reaction from the mind, along with which flashes the knowledge of the object which was the external cause of these different changes from the ethereal vibrations to the mental reactions.

There is no difference now between us and those who have no religion, because we have no experience.

Never producing pain by thought, word, and deed, in any living being, is what is called Ahimsâ, non-injury. There is no virtue higher than non-injury.

There is no happiness higher than what a man obtains by this attitude of non-offensiveness, to all creation.

Relating facts as they are —

Worship of God is by praise, by thought, by devotion.

“We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds.”

lotus of the heart,

centre of the head,

Limited to one spot, making that spot the base, a particular kind o...

If the mind can be fixed on the centre for twelve seconds it will be a Dharana, twelve such Dharanas will be a Dhyana, and twelve such Dhyanas will be a Samadhi.

“He who hates none, who is the friend of all, who is merciful to all, who has nothing of his own, who is free from egoism, who is even-minded in pain and pleasure, who is forbearing, who is always satisfied, who works always in Yoga, whose self has become controlled, whose will is firm, whose mind and intellect are given up unto Me, such a one is My beloved Bhakta. From whom comes no disturbance, who cannot be disturbed by others, who is free from joy, anger, fear, and anxiety, such a one is My beloved. He who does not depend on anything, who is pure and active, who does not care whether good comes or evil, and never becomes miserable, who has given up all efforts for himself; who is the same in praise or in blame, with a silent, thoughtful mind, blessed with what little comes in his way, homeless, for the whole world is his home, and who is steady in his ideas, such a one is My beloved Bhakta.” Such alone become Yogis.

that we are the outcome and manifestation of an absolute condition, back of our present relative condition, and are going forward, to return to that absolute.

Thought is a force, as is gravitation or repulsion.

The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the instrument his hands; it is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind. It is only when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent.

The bottom of the lake is our own true Self;

the lake is the Chitta and the waves the Vrittis.

the mind is in three states, one of which is darkness, called Tamas, found in brutes and idio...

Sattva, serenity, calmness, in which the waves cease, and the water of the mind-lake becomes clear. It is not inactive, but rather intensely active. It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be active.

The calm man is the one who has control over the mind waves.

Activity is the manifestation of inferior strength, calmness, of the superior.

because no impure man will ever have the power to reach the truths of religion. Therefore

you must first see that the man is pure, and that he has no selfish motive; that he has no thirst for gain or fame. Secondly, he must show that he is superconscious. He must give us something that we cannot get from our senses, and which is for the benefit of the world. Thirdly, we must see that it does not contradict other truths; if it contradicts other scientific truths reject it at once. Fourthly, the man should never be singular; he should only represent what all men can attain.

A word is uttered, and we do not wait to consider its meaning; we jump to a conclusion immediately. It is the sign of weakness of the Chitta.

The weaker the man, the less he has of restraint.

Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions. Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character.

my own experience. I see it myself, and it immediately throws my Chitta into a wave, taking the form of anger.

To deny them, and not allow the mind to come to a wave form with regard to them, is renunciation; to control the twofold motive powers arising from my own experience

It is effulgent, pure, and perfect.

The possession of what are called occult powers is only intensifying the world, and in the end, intensifying suffering.

The method is to meditate on the mind itself, and whenever thought comes, to strike it down, allowing no thought to come into the mind, thus making it an entire vacuum. When we can really do this, that very moment we shall attain liberation.

But when you have destroyed all these tendencies, almost destroyed the mind, then the Samadhi becomes seedless; there are no more seeds in the mind out of which to manufacture again and again this plant of life, this ceaseless round of birth and death.

He will know that he neither came nor went, it was nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected upon the soul.

The form of the light reflected by the glass upon the wall moves, and the wall foolishly thinks it is moving. So with all of us; it is the Chitta constantly moving making itself into various forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All these delusions will vanish.

It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has to be called forth by another knowledge.

The first is that in thinking of the limited, the mind must think of the unlimited;

Every idea that you have in the mind has a counterpart in a word; the word and the thought are inseparable.

The external part of one and the same thing is what we call word, and the internal part is what we call thought. No man can, by analysis, separate thought from word.

that the sum-total of impressions lives in the mind.

When this universe is destroyed, all the massive vibrations disappear; the sun, moon, stars, and earth, melt down; but the vibrations remain in the atoms.

It is the greatest stimulus that can be given to the spiritual Samskaras.

For instance, if a man does evil to us, instantly we want to react evil, and every reaction of evil shows that we are not able to hold the Chitta down; it comes out in waves towards the object, and we lose our power.