Huston Smith

 

"Never during its pilgrimage is the human spirit completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman, the god-within... underlying its whirlpool of transient feelings, emotions, and delusions is the self-luminous, abiding point of the transpersonal god. As the sun lights the world even when cloud-covered, “the Immutable is never seen but is the Witness; it is never heard but is the Hearer; it is never thought but is the Thinker; it is never known but is the Knower. There is no other witness but This, no other knower but This." from the Upanishad"

Ramana Maharshi

The truth of oneself alone is worthy to be scrutinized and known. Taking it as the target of one's attention, one should keenly know it in the Heart. This knowledge of oneself will be revealed only to the consciousness which is silent, clear and free from the activity of the agitated and suffering mind. Know that the consciousness which always shines in the Heart as the formless Self 'I', and which is known by one's being still without thinking about anything as existent or non-existent, alone is the perfect reality.

Swami Vivekananda

 The divinity inside man unconsciously asserts itself. Unfailingly it detects fraud and hypocrisy, and unerringly feels the warmth of truth, the light of spirituality and the holiness of purity.

by S. Radhakrishnan

 The word Atman (Soul) means the “breath of life”. Atman is the principle of man’s life, the Soul that pervades his being, his breath, his intellect and transcends them. Atman is what remains when everything that is not the self is eliminated. It is the unborn and immortal element in man, which is not to be confused with body, mind or intellect.

Shriram Sharma Acharya

 The universe is founded in consciousness and guided by it. The final reality is Universal Consciousness. The Supreme Consciousness is Omnipresent. Its evolutionary powers pervade the entire Universe. All processes of Nature are governed by the laws of this Absolute Force

Hymns to Agni from the Rig Veda

 “The preoccupation of the Mystics was with self-knowledge and a profounder world-knowledge; they found out that in man there was a deeper self and inner being behind the surface of the outward physical man, which it was his highest business to discover and know. “Know thyself” was their great precept, just as in India to know the Self, the Atman became the great spiritual need, the highest thing for the human being”

The Divine Mother

 

The Divine Mother is the Kundalini (“coiled up” power) sleeping in us; without worshiping Her we can never know ourselves. All-merciful, all-powerful, omnipresent are attributes of Divine Mother.

She is the sum total of the energy in the Universe. Every manifestation of power in the Universe is “Mother”. She is Life, She is Intelligence, She is Love. She is in the Universe yet separate from it.

She is a person and can be seen and known (as Shri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her). Established in the idea of Mother, we can do anything. She quickly answers prayer.

Paul Brunton

Deep down within the heart there is a stillness which is healing, a trust in the universal laws which is unwavering, and a strength which is rock-like. But because it is so deep we need both patience and perseverance when digging for it.

The Doctrine of the Mystics

 For the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in our nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of mind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given to us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light, drinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of maim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and parts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being for an easy and victorious ascension.

Papaji

 Happiness is permanent. It is always there. What comes and goes is unhappiness. If you identify with what comes and goes, you will be unhappy. If you identify with what is permanent and always there, you are happiness itself