Inspiring quotes from hinduism and other sources

Never miss first opportunity . .


A young man wished to marry the farmer's beautiful daughter. He went to
the farmer to ask his permission. The farmer looked him over and said,
"Son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls,
one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you
can marry my daughter."

The young man stood in the pasture awaiting the first bull. The barn door
opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull
he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better
choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass
through the pasture out the back gate. The barn door opened again.
Unbelievable. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life.

It stood pawing the ground, grunting, slinging slobber as it eyed him.
Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this
one. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out
the back gate.

The door opened a third time. A smile came across his
face. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This
one was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just
right and jumped at just the exact moment. He grabbed... but the bull had
no tail!

Life is full of opportunities. Some will be easy to take
advantage of, some will be difficult. But once we let them pass (often
in hopes of something better), those opportunities may never again be
available. So always grab the first opportunity . . .

 

"Serve the poor and remember God. You become one with Christ."

Neem Karoli Baba

 

Surround me with your loving arms...hold me in your heart.
Let me know that I am loved
and that I can love.
Show me that no matter where I go
That I come and go in You.
I am never out of your loving presence.
That you are the smile behind the smile,
the touch behind the touch
The kiss behind the kiss...
You are the constant presence that I forget until I remember
and when I remember my Self, I remember You.
I sing your Name. What else can I think of? You ARE Love.
And I AM You.- Krishna Das

 

Prayer for Autumn Days

God of the seasons, there is a time for everything; there is a time for dying and a time for rising. We need courage to enter into the transformation process.

God of autumn, the trees are saying goodbye to their green, letting go of what has been. We, too, have our moments of surrender, with all their insecurity and risk. Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves lying in colored patterns on the ground, our lives have their own patterns. As we see the patterns of our own growth, may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights, there is always the dimension of mystery and wonder in our lives. We always need to recognize your power-filled presence. May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender. We must wait for harvest in faith and hope. Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south for another season, your wisdom enables us to know what needs to be left behind and what needs to be carried into the future. We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers touched with frost and windows wearing white designs, may your love keep our hearts from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life, you believe in us, you enrich us, you entrust us with the freedom to choose life. For all this, we are grateful.

- Author Unknown

 

'the holy land is everywhere' Black Elk

 

BG 6:20-23: In the stage of perfection called trance, or samadhi, one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This perfection is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.


A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami, Bhagavad-Gita As It Is

 

From ch.1 'Avadhut Gita'

Trans. Hari Prasad Shastri


1.How can I salute the Self, which is indestructible, which is all Bliss, which in Itself and by Itself pervades everything, and which is inseparable from Itself?

3. I alone am, ever free from all taint. The world exists like a mirage within me. To whom shall I bow?

4. Verily the one Self is all, free from differentiation and non-differentiation. Neither can it be said, “It is” nor “It is not.” What a great mystery.

5. This is the whole substance of Vedanta; this is the essence of all knowledge, theoretical and intuitional. I am the Atman, by nature impersonal and all-pervasive.

6. That God who is the Self in all, impersonal and changeless, like unto space, by nature purity itself, verily, verily, that I am.

7. I am pure knowledge, imperishable, infinite. I know neither joy nor pain; whom can they touch?

8. The actions of the mind, good and evil, the actions of the body, good and evil, the actions of the voice, good and evil, exist not in me (Atman). I am the nectar which is knowledge absolute; beyond the range of the senses I am.

9. The mind is as space, embracing all. I am beyond mind. In Reality the mind has no independent existence.

10. How can it be said that the Self is manifest? How can it be said that the self is limited? I alone am existence; all this objective world am I. More subtle than space itself am I.

11. Know the Self to be infinite consciousness, self-evident, beyond destruction, enlightening all bodies equally, ever shining. In It is neither day nor night.

12. Know Atman to be one, ever the same, changeless. How canst though say: “I am the meditator, and this is the object of meditation?” How can perfection be divided?

13. Thou, O Atman, wast never born, nor didst thou ever die. The body was never thine. The Shruti (revealed Scriptures) has often said: “This is all Brahman.”

 

"The Refuge

'Life is like a flooded river carrying with it in its mad rush all manner of struggling beings, men, women, children, and animals as well as all manner of trees and wreckage, carrying them all down towards the sea of death. Things seem permanent becasue they are floating along with us, but all alike are rushing towards the end and not one of them can help us. Father, mother, friends, relations, not all of them can save us, for all are in the same flood. Only by reaching the bank can safety be obtained. And the bank of this river is God, call Him by whatever name you will. Neither is the bank far away. Hidden in our own heart, seated in the very midst of our being, is the Deathless, unchanging One, shining with brightness as of a million suns. None can describe Him, nor ever will, but He is there and He mayy, as the Gita says, be known and seen and entered into by those who strive to do so.

'This is no fancy of Poets, no myth or legend of long ago, no dream of white-haired old men. It is the living truth, truer than all sciences and all history. It is knowledge of this truth that has given birth to all religions and it is forgetfulness of it that has led to their corruption and death. It may be seen and experienced by us too, not in some heaven after death but here and now in this life. Therefore, as the Upanishad says: "Arise, awke and seek out the Great Ones, They who will teach you the way to the Goal." '- The Search for Truth--Sri Krishnaprem"

- Yogi Sri Krishnaprem- Dilip Kumar Roy

 

"one must seek the shortest way and the fastest means to get back home - to turn the spark within into a blaze, to be merged in and to identify with that greater fire which ignited the spark" Nityananda.

 

A classic from my Guru...

Don't tell your God how great your troubles are. Tell your troubles how great your God is.

 

"Don't try to see God...act in such a way that God sees you."


Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

 

Amen!

 

God sees us anyway, no matter what you do.

 

I agree, Bill. Also, the entire Hindu spiritual pursuit is directed towards seeing god, though not necessarily with our own eyes.

 

I know what you're saying here - we have to see, by His grace - We learn to see with Divine eyes. The Divine Vision.

 

Bhagavad Gita Ch.11 vs.8. Trans. Sri Aurobindo.


What thou hast to see, this thy human eye cannot grasp; but there is a divine eye (an inmost seeing) and that eye I now give to thee. Behold Me in My divine Yoga.

"For the human eye can see only the outward appearances of things or make out of them separate symbol forms, each of them significant of only a few aspects of the eternal Mystery."

Sri Aurobindo.

 

John ch6. vs.46
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

 

Quotes from:

The Nectar of Devotion, a summary study of Srila Rupa Goswami's Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.


from: Chapter One--Characteristics of Pure Devotional Service

"There are five kinds of liberation, namely to become one with the Lord, to live with the Supreme Lord on the same planet, to have the same features as the Lord, to enjoy the same opulences as the Lord and to live as a companion of the Lord. A devotee, what to speak of rejecting material sense gratification, does not even want any of the five kinds of liberation. He is satisfied simply by discharging loving service to the Lord. That is the characteristic of pure devotion." (italics mine)​

from: Chapter Seventeen--Ecstatic Love​

"By the process of executing regulated devotional service, one is actually elevated onto the transcendental stage, beyond the material modes of nature. At that time one's heart becomes illuminated like the sun. The sun is far above the planetary systems, and there is no possibility of its being covered by any kind of cloud; similarly, when a devotee is purified like the sun, from his pure heart there is a diffusion of ecstatic love which is more glorious than the sunshine. Only at that time is the attachment to Krsna perfect. Spontaneously,the devotee becomes eager to serve the Lord in his ecstatic love. At this stage the devotee is on the platform of uttama-adhikari, perfect devotion. Such a devotee has no agitation from material affections and is interested only in the service of Radha and Krsna."​

 

The logical conclusion would be that the Gopikas were not devotees, for the wanted to live as the Lord's companion and wept when he went away. The same can be said for Uddhavaji or Yashoda maa.

After all serving the lord is not by rubbing his feet or feeding him or anything like that. Service of the lord is selfless performance of one's duty, which does not require physical proximity with his avatar. Therefore, even though they could continue serving him, they desired to be near him always.

 

Well said bhaskar, but serving lord's feet is also service. When we think of our selves as the servants(dasya bhakti) , then it is not different from serving God by Karma Yoga. Sigh, it would be great if these yogas were simple!, I mean, they look very simple, but they are very hard to practice- to control oneself in all situations, to go with one's wisdom rather than one's hankerings, one's likes/dislikes, that is very hard to do. Its very hard to do a good job with out the desire for a good result for yourself. I mean , even in sangha seva... lets say you do something good for your community, no matter how small or big, when you do that, there is this feeling of guilt that you are only doing it to reach your goals- good recommendations, something to put on your resume...or at a higher level to gain appreciation... what i am thinking right now is where do you draw the line?