GEMS from Bhagvan Sri Ramana Maharshi

The means prescribed for securing the spiritual end,

such as

charity, penance, sacrifice, dharma (virtuous conduct), yoga, bhakti (devotion)

and the end itself described variously as Heaven, the Supreme Object, Peace, Truth, Grace, the Quiescent State, Deathless Death, True Knowledge, renunciation, Moksha (Liberation) and Bliss

are all nothing but being free from the obsession that the body is the Self.

Give up regarding yourself as this despicable body and realize your Real Nature, which is one of Eternal Bliss.

Seeking to know thyself while still anxious about the welfare of the body, is like attempting to cross a stream with the aid of a crocodile for a raft.

Not desiring the non-Self is dispassion (vairagya).

Inhering in the Self is Jnana.

Both are the same.

Ayaz ❤ ( from: For You: A Collection of Prayer Poems

 

I am beginning to understand that I cannot see You with my eyesBut only with ... my heartFor so long I have beenTrying to catch a glimpse of YouStaring madly Into the middle distanceNow effortlessly in moments You are here My heart empties Into You And I am no more. "

YOGANANDA

 

Zen Master Kusan Sunim

 

"If you're going to live like a human being, first of all, you have to know the basic value of a human being. If you realize that you are Pure Gold, you won't go chasing after such dust as materialism. You won’t be dragged about by materialism, and you won't march around this insignificant planet like you're really something."

 Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.

The more you develop flowerlike divine qualities, the more God will reveal to you His secret omnipresence in your soul.

Do you realize that within you, in your soul, is a superb guarden? a wondrous guarded of thoughts, fragrant with love, goodness, understanding, and peace, and more beautiful than any earthly flowers that grow. You cultivated a fragrant blossom whenever someone in anger misunderstood you and you continuously gave love to him. Isn't the aroma of that love and understanding more lasting than that of any rose ? So always think of your mind as a guarden, and keep it beautiful and fragrant with divine thoughts, let it not become a mud pond, rank with malodorous hateful moods.

If you cultivate the heavenly scented blossom of peace and love, the bee of Christ consciousness will steel into your garden. As the bee seeks out only those flowers that are sweet with honey,so God comes only when your life is sweet with honeyed thoughts. Resolve that in your garden of good soul qualities you will not allow the evil stinkweed of anger to grow. The more you develop flower like divine qualities, the more God will reveal to you His secret omnipresence in your soul......

Sri Ramakrishna used to say:

"The body of a devotee is the playground of consciousness. When the 'sadhaka' carries on his Japa with faith, love and patience, his psychological system becomes a 'divine body.' Heaven, as it were, descends into that body."

The Kena Upanishad points this out when it says: "One attains immortality when the Self is known in every piece of cognition." [2.4]

-The Vedanta Kesari

Swami Vivekananda

 

After every happiness comes misery; they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor misery. Both make us forget our true nature; both are chains-one iron, one gold; behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These are states, and states must ever change; but the nature of the Atman is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have not to get it, we have it; only wash away the dross and see it.

Frederick Lenz

''As the kundalini energy increases, as the energy of the psyche becomes more pronounced, which it does as thought becomes eclipsed by silence, all the variant mind states burn away. The mystical kundalini is an intense transformative energy which, when used, allows a person to make tremendous spiritual leaps in a short period of time. It is the essential energy of existence. It is the hidden ingredient in life. It is what makes it all work. ''

Sri Yukteswar Autobiography of A Yogi

 

“So long as the soul of man is encased in one, two, or three body-containers, sealed tightly with the corks of ignorance and desires, he cannot merge with the sea of Spirit.

When the gross physical receptacle is destroyed by the hammer of death, the other two coverings—astral and causal—still remain to prevent the soul from consciously joining the Omnipresent Life.

When desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its power disintegrates the two remaining vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at last; it is one with the Measureless Amplitude.”

AVATAR MEHER BABA [LISTEN, HUMANITY. By Meher Baba.

The heart without love is entombed in unending darkness and suffering, but the heart that is restless with love is on its way to realization of the unfading light that shines on the unfathomable sweetness of life divine.

Pure love is matchless in majesty; it has no parallel in power, and there is no darkness it cannot dispel.

It is the undying flame that has set all life aglow, yet it must be kindled and rekindled in the abysmal darkness of selfish thoughts, selfish words, and selfish deeds.

As it is fired anew it bursts out in magnificent light to serve as a beacon for those who still grope in the darkness of selfishness, be that darkness deep blue or all black.