Shri Vivekanand does not need any introduction. He was a saint, a sanyasi, a servant of people, an authority on Vedant (Hindu Philosophy). In his short earthly abode of thirty nine years (from 1863 to 1902), he gave this world substantial stirring. He leaped to fame after his address at Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893. He was a man of vast understanding of different culture.
Shri Vivekanand gave huge importance to the service of human kind। He equated service to humanity with the prayers rendered to the God. He felt the presence of supreme soul in each individual. Additionally, he was a devout patriot and felt pride in being Indian. He exhorted Indians to free themselves.
Here are some of his thoughts for the benefit of readers:-
Be positive; do not criticize others. Give your message, teach what you have to teach, and there stop.
Accept the beneficial and discard the pleasant.
Advance, forward, O ye brave souls, to set free those that are in fetters, to lessen the burden of of the miserable, and to illuminate the abysmal darkness of ignorant hearts.
Appreciation or no appreciation, sleep not, slacken not.
Avoid evil company, because the scars of old wounds are in you, and evil company is just the thing that is necessary to call them out।
Be brave and sincere: then follow any path with devotion, and you must reach the whole.
Be free, and then have any number of personalities you like. Then we will play like the actor who comes upon the stage and plays the part of a beggar.
Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God.
Be in the world, but not of it, like the lotus leaf whose roots are in the mud but which remains always pure.
Be not an imitation of Jesus, but be Jesus.
Be not disheartened. When good nectar is unattainable, it is no reason why we should eat poison.
Be not inflated with my success or yours. Great works are to be done: what is this small success in comparison with what is to come?
Bear with the various opinions of everybody, Patience, purity, and perseverance will prevail.
Begin with disbelief. Analyze, test, prove everything, and then take it.
Blame neither man, nor God, nor anyone in the world. When you find yourselves suffering, blame yourselves, and try to do better.
Bring all the forces of good together. Do not care under what banner you march. Do not care what be your colour – green, blue or red – but mix up all the colours and produce that intense glow of white, the colour of love.
Bring in the light; the darkness will vanish by itself.
Bring your own lotus to blossom; the bees will come of themselves.
Choose the highest ideal, and give your life up to that.
Conquer yourself, and the whole universe is yours.
Cultivate always, "Faith in Yourself".
Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.
Day and Night tell yourself, “I am He, I am He.”
Desire nothing, give up all desires and be perfectly satisfied.
Do not be dragged away out of this Indian life; do not for a moment think that it would be better for India if all the Indians dressed, ate and behaved like another race.
Do not care for anybody to help you. Is not the Lord infinitely greater than all human help?
Do not delay a moment. Leave nothing for tomorrow. Get ready for the final event, which may overtake you immediately, even now.
Do not desire anything. What makes us miserable? The cause of all miseries from which we suffer is desire.
Do not destroy. Iconoclastic reformers do no good to the world. Break not, pull not anything down, but build. Help, if you can; if you cannot, fold your hands and stand by and see things go on. Do not injure, if you cannot render help. Say not a word against any man's convictions so far as they are sincere.
Do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you, must, in the long run, come back to you.
Do not injure another. Love everyone as your own self, because the whole universe is One. In injuring another, I am injuring myself, in loving another, I am loving myself.
Do not pity anyone. Look upon all as your equal, cleanse yourself of the primal sin of inequality.
Do not say we are weak; we can do anything and everything. What can we not do? Everything can be done by us; we all have the same glorious soul, let us believe in it.
Do not spend your energy in talking, but meditate in silence; and do not let the rush of the outside world disturb you.
Don't nod assent like a fool to everything said. Don't put implicit faith, even if I declare something. First clearly grasp and then accept.
Every idea that strengthens you must be taken up and every thought that weakens you must be rejected.
Everyone should learn to obey before he can command.
Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work. Talk not about impurity, but say that we are pure.
First form character, first earn spirituality and results will come of themselves.
First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong my young friends; that is my advice to you.
Follow the heart. A pure heart sees beyond the intellect; it gets inspired; it knows things that reason can never know, and whenever there is conflict between the pure heart and the intellect, always side with the pure heart even if you think what your heart is doing is unreasonable.
Give up the burden of all deeds to the Lord; give all, both good and bad.
Go and tell all, “ In every one of you lies that Eternal power”, and try to wake it up.
Keep the motto before you - “ Elevation of masses without injuring their religion.”
Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in and in your own way absorb it; do not become others.
Let everyone is taught that the divine is within, and everyone will work out his own salvation.
Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter into their brains (children's brains) from very childhood.
Let us be brave. Know the Truth and practice the Truth. The goal may be distant, but awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached.
Make it a rule not to eat until you have practised (yoga); if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness.
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.
Read man, he is the living poem.
Say, “ The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother.”
See everything, do everything, but be not attached. As soon as extreme attachment comes, a man loses himself, he is no more master of himself, he is a slave.
Stand up and reason out, having no blind faith. Religion is a question of being and becoming, not of believing.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves.
Throw away everything, even your own salvation, and go and help others.
We must be as broad as the skies, as deep as the ocean; we must have the zeal of the fanatic, the depth of the mystic, and the width of the agnostic.
You must express your sympathy with people of all sects.
You must give your body, mind and speech to “ the welfare of the world”.
You should never try to follow another's path, for that is his way, not yours.
Source: Words of inspiration, published by Swami Lokeswarananda,
ISBN 81-85843-25-2
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