Quotes of great Saints

Quotes of Swami Chinmayananda on devotees:

The devotees can be classified into four categories

1. In the first type, the devotee perceives God in all living and non-living things. Such devotee is considered to be greatest of all devotees. He feels that atma exists in everything similar to his own. At the same time he also feels, that all the atmas, get merged in to Paramatman. Hence he sees no difference in anything.
2. In the second type, the person bows (prays) to God, moves with his friends and relatives with love and affection. At the same time he treats his enemies in same manner as others. This type of devotee is secondary.
3. In the third type, devotee believes that God exists only in idols and prays Him only. He does not treat and serve others. This type is inferior to first two types.
4. Last type of devotee bows and worships only in the temples. He cannot tolerate other worshipers and different paths of worship and so on. He is unable to grasp the fact that God is omni-present (present everywhere). He is most inferior of all devotees.

Quotes of Swami Shivananda (of Divine life society):

1. In this world, love is the supreme force. Self-confidence is even more supreme. Develop self-confidence.
2. Being a loving and caring person is Dharma. Forgiving and forgetting the mistakes, done to us is Dharma. Uttering soothing words to sufferers is Dharma.
3. Some people use the difficulty of others to torture them (others). But a time will come that they will repent for their actions.
4. Don’t presume that God is outside. Pray to Him by keeping Him in your heart.
5. There are no right or wrong deeds in this world. Your own thought is responsible for analyzing them.
6. No one has a real enemy outside himself. His own ego, greed, anger, evil thought, selfishness and jealousy are his own enemies.
7. You do your duty truthfully then automatically your rights will come to you.
8. Your thoughts alone are responsible for creating a hell for you. So think of God always.
9. In this world nothing is certain but death is certain.
10. Make full effort after making firm decisions and with full determination. At the end you will succeed fully.
11. Concentrate fully on the work at hand. Live the day with discipline. Forget about the past as you cannot change what has happened. As far as tomorrow is concerned it is still far off. Live in the present then future will take care of itself.

Quotes of Ramakrishna Paramhansa:

When a person wants to drink water from a shallow pond, he has to take water with his hands slowly without disturbing the mud at the bottom. Otherwise the water will become muddy and unfit for drinking. Similarly, if you want to progress in spiritual path i.e. have divine vision, you must have faith in your Guru, perform step by step sadhanas. Arguing about vedas, puranas and engaging in useless discussions will only confuse you and ultimately you will achieve nothing.

Quotes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:

A doctor does not reveal the type of decease as far as possible to the patient. He bans the tasty food and makes patient take bitter medicine and prescribes food which patient may not like. When the patient gets relief, he realizes the greatness of what doctor has done for his (patient’s) benefit. Similarly a true Guru treats his disciple with strictness and makes him work hard. Finally when the disciple attains knowledge (gyan), he realizes that the Guru made him undergo hardship only to make him attain knowledge.