Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
Swami VivekanandaBengali: , Shāmi Bibekānondo; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth12 January 1863
CountryIndia
Do not desire, for what you desire you get, and with it comes terrible bondage. It is nothing but bringing "noses on us," as in the case of the man who had three boons to ask. We never get freedom until we are self-contained. "Self is the Saviour of self, none else."
Cut the bondage of all worldly affections; go beyond laziness and all care as to what becomes of you.
A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. Shri Ramakrishna used to say that, to pick out one thorn which has stuck into the foot, another thorn is requisitioned, and when the thorn is taken out, both are thrown away. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, but after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered.
When the forces that hold it together go away, the body must fall.
We have to keep the body in good health; we have to take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do.
This idea of body is a simple superstition. It is superstition that makes us happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by ignorance that makes us feel heat and cold, pain and pleasure.
This body is a combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body, you another, and the sun another.
Thirst after body is the great bane of human life.
There is but one temple - the body. It is the only temple that ever existed.
There are the altars, but here is the greatest of altars, the living, conscious human body, and to worship at this altar is far higher than the worship of any dead symbols.
The root of evil is in the illusion that we are bodies. This, if any, is the original sin.
The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot.
The less the thought of the body, the better. For it is the body that drags us down.
The body must be properly taken care of. The people who torture their flesh are demoniacal.