Ramana Maharshi

“Your thinking that you have to make an effort to get rid of this dream of the waking state, and your making efforts to attain jnana (realization of Self) or real awakening, are all parts of the dream.”

From Swetasvatara Upanishad:

"Thou art the Primal Being.
Thou appearest as this universe
Of illusion and dream.
Thou art beyond time.
Indivisible, infinite, the Adorable One.
Let a man meditate on thee
Within his heart.
Let him consecrate himself to thee,
And thou, infinite Lord,
Wilt make thyself known to him."

Adyashanti

It doesn’t matter how profound a vision is or how wonderful the kriyas, or the kundalini, or the bliss. No matter how beautiful the spiritual experience is, it is only an experience, and experiences come and go. Freedom is found only in that which does not come and go. If it doesn’t come and go, that means that it’s present now. When you have a beautiful spiritual experience and then seem to lose it, ask yourself: What was present then that is still present now? Then you know where to put all of your attention, all of your dedication, and all of your heart. Don’t put it anywhere else. You are that permanence which contains all becoming and all be-going.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Innumerable are the ways that lead to God. There are the paths of jnana, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karmayoga, and bhaktiyoga.

                                         

— Open

Put simply, the soul through all sentient life evolves, and as it does so, the yearning for higher harmonies of unity and oneness, break unjust and misaligned realities down. Our heart felt yearning to be as-one with all of life, is the engine for this quantum shift to take place.

Unknown

— Eckhart Tolle

When you recognize the sacredness, the beauty, the incredible stillness and dignity in which a flower or a tree exists, you add something to the flower or the tree. Through your recognition, your awareness, nature too comes to know itself. It comes to know its own beauty and sacredness through you


                                                                    

Sri Yukteswar

Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.

                                                                    

- Dada Bhagwan

“If one realizes his own Self, then he himself is an Absolute Supreme Soul (Parmatma).”
- Dada Bhagwan

After Gnan Vidhi (Self Realization)

“What is the sign of having attained the Self Realization? Presence of awareness; constant awareness.”

~Dada Bhagwan
A conviction is established that “I am Pure Soul” and its awareness gets initiated.
Worries vanish because you obtain the right understanding of ‘Who the Real Doer is’ and thus you remain stable even in adverse circumstances.
The inner weaknesses of anger, greed, pride and deceit gradually decrease and one's experience of bliss of the Self increases.
Experience of eternal peace, happiness and harmony with all living being’s starts with the application of scientific concepts of Akram Vignan.
Self Realization brings love for all living beings, leading to the intent for world salvation.

There arises a feeling of oneness with everyone because the True Self (Soul) is the same in everyone.

  

                                             

- Sri Chinmoy, God-Life: is it a far cry?

Is the Presence of the Supreme in our minds and in our bodies the same thing as the soul?

The Presence of the Supreme is anywhere in the body, the vital and the mind. But it is the soul that is always conscious of the Presence of the Supreme. From time to time we are conscious of God’s Presence in the heart, but in the mind we very rarely feel it and even if we do, we doubt it. In the vital, even if we get some inner strength from God, we try to use it in a wrong way. We try to destroy the world in an aggressive manner. In the physical, we are so dull and inert that we do not feel the Presence of the Supreme. But when we go deep within, we see that His Presence is always in the physical, in the vital and in the mind. God’s Presence pervades our existence, but one part of our existence is more illumined than the rest, and that is the soul. The soul, being fully illumined and in constant touch with the Highest, feels the Presence of the Supreme all the time. If we make considerable progress in the spiritual life, our heart, like the soul, will become consciously and constantly aware of the Supreme’s Presence. Then gradually this awareness will dawn in the mind, the vital and the body.

THE HIGHEST PATH-Conscious Immortality

When a man surrenders himself as a slave to the divine Lord he realizes at the end that all his actions are the actions of God. He loses his mine-ness.

This is what is meant by ‘doing the will of God’. This is Siddhanta [the final view; the settled conclusion]. When a man realizes that he has lost his ahamkara (I-ness) and that he is not different from Isvara, he is a jnani. This is Vedanta.

But see! The goal is the same. There are two ways open to one: bhakti and jnana. A bhakta surrenders to God and rests secure in His protection. A jnani knows that there is nothing beside the Self and so remains happy.

One must adhere firmly to either of these courses. This path is the highest of all and suited only for advanced aspirants. Those who follow the other paths are not ripe for this until they become advanced on their own paths. [See Spiritual Instruction 2.2]

Thus it is really by the Grace, whether Guru, Self, etc. that they are brought to this highest path. Of course, they might have practiced the other paths in former existences and thus were born ripe for this one; others try the other ways and after progressing finally turn to Self-enquiry. But the last laps of all paths are the same — surrender of the ego.