A Unified Vedantic Platform from Ramakrishna Math & Mission
VedantaGuru
A Unified Vedantic Platform from Ramakrishna Math & Mission
Therefore, young men … raise once more that mighty banner of Advaita, for on no other ground can you have that wonderful love until you see that the same Lord is present everywhere. Unfurl that banner of love! “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.”
There are three things which are rare indeed and are due to the grace of God – namely, a human birth, the longing for Liberation, and the protecting care of a perfected sage.
— Vivekachudamani 3, Sri Shankaracharya
Carry the light and the life of the Vedanta to every door, and rouse up the divinity that is hidden within every soul.
Being devoted completely to the lotus-feet of the Master, become released soon from the transmigratory process. Thus, through the discipline of sense and mind-control, you will behold the Deity that resides in your heart.
— Bhaja Govindam 31, Sri Shankaracharya
The … abstract Advaita must become living — poetic — in everyday life … and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. That is my life’s work.
— Swami Vivekananda
Vedanta
Introduction to Vedanta
Vedanta According to Vivekananda
The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukti — freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery.
But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times.
The essence of the knowledge of the Vedas was called by the name Vedanta, which comprises the Upanishads.
— Swami Vivekananda, Paper on Hinduism, read at the Parliament of Religions, 19 September 1893
The Vedanta, therefore, as a religion must be intensely practical. We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives. And not only this, the fictitious differentiation between religion and the life of the world must vanish, for the Vedanta teaches oneness—one life throughout. The ideals of religion must cover the whole field of life, they must enter into all our thoughts, and more and more into practice.
— Swami Vivekananda, Practical Vedanta, delivered in London, 10 November 1896
The ideal aimed at in Vedanta is to attain to a state that is beyond all birth and death, from which there is no falling off, a state of freedom. Freedom or liberation can come only by dissociating ourselves from our body and mind, in other words, from our false personalities. Absolute detachment from material objects is real freedom. Dependence on anything other than one's true Self is bondage and misery. The perfected soul depends on his Self alone, not on others, and enjoys the bliss of the Self. He is called an atmarama — one who revels in his Self.
“In order to be religious, what is essential is the development of a new power of perception, whereby we come to know the universe not as material and mental, but as spiritual. Intellect is not that power. Therefore intellectualism does not help us spiritually.”
“Vedanta says: Do not stagnate. That is the only warning it gives to man; do not convert a wayside rest and sleep into death, but recoup and move on. Let the current of water flow; stagnant water is unhealthy; flowing water is pure and healthy.”
“The good and the bad, the elevating and the demeaning, float past you in the stream of the mind. You are the consciousness sitting on the banks of the river of the mind watching.”
Vedantic SelectionsSwami Ashokananda
Vedantic SelectionsSwami Ranganathananda
Vedantic SelectionsSwami Sarvapriyananda
Arise, Awake: Discover Your Inner StrengthVivekananda House, Chennai
