Vedanta Society of New York--Service---the second of the four watchwords of Vedanta

--The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 137 - 138


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"Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then, through His Grace, one realizes Him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to Him as I am talking to you." --The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 109

"I tell you the truth: there is nothing wrong in your being in the world. But you must direct your mind toward God; otherwise you will not succeed. Do your duty with one hand and with the other hold to God. After the duty is over, you will hold to God with both hands." --Ibid., p. 137-38

"Remember that daya, compassion, and maya, attachment are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of 'my-ness' toward one's relatives. It is the love one feels for one's parents, one's brother, one's sister, one's wife and children. Compassion is the love one feels for all beings of the world. It is an attitude of equality.
If you see anywhere an instance of compassion, .... know that it is due to the grace of God. Through compassion one serves all beings. Maya also comes from God. Through maya God makes one serve one's relatives. But one thing should be remembered: maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the world, whereas daya makes our heart pure and gradually unties our bonds." --Ibid., p. 161

".... they should try to perform their duties in a detached way. Before you break the jack-fruit open, rub your hands with oil, so that the sticky milk will not smear them. The maidservant in a rich man's house performs all her duties, but her mind dwells in her home in the country. This is an example of doing duty in a detached way. You should renounce the world only in the mind. " --Ibid., p. 215

"It is God Himself who has kept you in the world to set an example to men. You may resolve in your mind a thousand times to renounce the world, but you will not succeed. God has given you such a nature that you must perform your worldly duties. Krishna said to Arjuna: 'What do you mean, you will not fight? By your mere will you cannot desist from fighting. Your very nature will make you fight." --Ibid, p. 255

"You must be firm in one ideal. Dive deep. Otherwise you cannot get the gems at the bottom of the ocean. You cannot pick up the gems if you only float on the surface." --Ibid., p. 624

"If the many and the One be indeed the same Reality, then it is not all modes of worship alone, but equally all modes of work, all modes of struggle, all modes of creation, which are paths of realization. No distinction, henceforth, between sacred and secular. To labour is to pray. To conquer is to renounce. Life is itself a religion..... To him (Swami Vivekananda), the workshop, the study, the farmyard, and the field are as true and fit scenes for the meeting of God with man as the cell of the monk or the door of the temple." --The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. I, p. XV, Introduction

"That is the one cause of misery: we are attached, we are being caught. Therefore says the Gita: Work constantly; work but be not attached; be not caught. Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul might yarn for it, however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want. The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life." --Ibid, Vol. II, p. 5

"So work, says the Vedanta, putting God in everything, and knowing Him to be in everything. Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as God Himself, and knowing that this is all we have to do, and this is all we should ask for. God is in everything, where else shall we go to find Him? He is already in every work, in every thought, in every feeling. Thus knowing, we must work - this is the only way, there is none other." --Ibid, Vol. II, p. 150

"Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest. Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be obedient and eternally faithful to the cause of truth, humanity and your country and you will move the world. Remember it is the person, the life which is the secret of power - nothing else." --Ibid., Vol. V, p. 108

"Was it ever in the history of the world that any great work was done by the rich? It is the heart and the brain that do it ever and ever and not the purse." --Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 302

"Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone. Let it be so great, so strong, that there may not be nothing else left in the mind; no place for anything else, no time for anything else.... Hold on to the ideal. March on! Do not look back upon little mistakes and things. In this battlefield of ours, the dust of mistakes must be raised. Those who are so thin-skinned that they cannot bear the dust, let them get out of the ranks." --Ibid., Vol. V, p. 251-253

"Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking.... Fill the brain therefore with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work." --Ibid., Vol. II, p. 86

"...must give up, once for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." --Ibid. Vol. I, p. 177

"One must work as the dictate comes from within and then if it is right and good, society is bound to veer round, perhaps centuries after one is dead and gone. We must plunge heart and soul and body into the work. And until we be ready to sacrifice everything else to one idea and to one idea alone, we never never will see the light." --Ibid., Vol. VI, p. 301-302

"In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter. Make no conditions, and none will be imposed. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us." --Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 5

"We must love and work. Give up the world and all worldly things.... Day and night think of God and think of nothing else as far as possible. The daily necessary thoughts can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see Him in all. Talk of God to others; this is most beneficial." --Ibid., Vol. VII, p. 9

"The only true duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God. All our duties are His. Blessed are we that we are ordered out here. We serve our time; whether we do it ill or well, who knows? If we do it well, we do not get the fruits. If we do it ill, neither do we get the care. Be at rest, be free, and work." --Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 103

"Look upon every man, woman, and every one as God. You cannot help any one, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children, blessed you are, do not think too much yourselves. Blessed you are that that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship." --Ibid., Vol. III, p. 246

"What God's Will gives He takes, and is contented. Pain follows pleasure, He is not troubled; Gain follows loss, He is indifferent: Of whom should he be jealous? He acts, and is not bound by his action.... His every action Is worship of Brahman. --The Bhagavad Gita, IV-22,23, fr., The Song of God, pp. 52-53

"Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits. Be even-tempered in success and failure; for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga." (The Bhagavad-Gita, II-48) --Ibid., p. 40

"Do your duty, always; but without attachment. That is how a man reaches the ultimate Truth; by working without anxiety about results."(The Bhagavad-Gita, III-19) --Ibid., p. 46-47

"We had associated yoga with everything except what Sri Krishna meant it to be---with changing one's external dress or appearance, with pranayama, with miracles, etc. In all these, we had neglected the fundamental buddhi-yoga, emphasis on work efficiency and character efficiency, renunciation of the ego through detachment, and service of fellow human beings. It was ... misuse and abuse of a great philosophy...." --Eternal Values for a Changing Society, by Swami Ranganathananda, Vol. IV, pp. 394 - 395,

"Out of mutual trust only can human excellence be unfolded. Excellence in work, excellence in inter-human relationship, excellence when none is watching you --- all these will come only when all slavery is removed from the mind, and man experiences true freedom and dignity. But this sense of freedom, dignity, and worth becomes completely lost if only one pursuit dominates the mind of men, namely, how to make money and more money. So, moneymaking and profit and pleasure, as an overall pursuit, has destroyed every type of human excellence in our society.... Freedom is a mental attitude which is to be cultivated.... true freedom is a spiritual development that has to come from within.... you will always find that excellence is a byproduct of a sense of freedom, self respect, and dignity. Destroy these, and all excellence will vanish." --Ibid., pp. 612-613

"M: "Sir, may I make an effort to earn more money?"
Master: "It is permissible to do so to maintain a religious family. You may try to increase your income, but in an honest way. The goal of life is not the earning of money, but the service of God. Money is not harmful if it is devoted to the service of God." --The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, , pp. 114

"You see, he alone is a true man who has made money his servant. But those who do not know the use of money are not men even though they have human forms. They may have human bodies, but they behave like animals." --Ibid., p. 37

"You no doubt need money for your worldly life; but don't worry too much about it. The wise course is to accept what comes of its own accord. Don't take too much trouble to save money. Those who surrender their heart and souls to God, those who are devoted to Him and have taken refuge in Him, do not worry much about money. As they earn, so they spend. The money comes in one way and goes out the other. This is what Gita describes as 'accepting what comes of its own accord'." Ibid., p. 506

"Money enables a man to get food and drink, build a house, worship the Deity, serve devotees and holy men, and help the poor when he happens to meet them. These are the good use of money. Money is not meant for luxuries or creature comforts or for buying a position in society." --Ibid., p. 285

"Men can hardly earn money through honest means, and even this contaminates their mind very much.... Money is such a thing that one develops an attachment for it, if one is associated with it for long!.... Money will find its way somehow to grip you unawares by the neck as it were." --The Gospel of The Holy Mother, p. 237

"Fortune is like a flirt; she cares not for him who wants her, but she is at the feet of him who does not care for her. Money comes and showers itself upon one who does not care for it; so does fame come in abundance until it is a trouble and a burden. They always come to the master. The slave never gets anything. The master is he who can live in spite of them, whose life does not depend upon the little, foolish things of the world." --The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. V, 251

"Men run after a few dollars and do not think anything of cheating a fellow-being to get those dollars; but if they would restrain themselves, in a few years they would develop such characters as would bring them millions of dollars - if they wanted them. Then their will would govern the universe. But we are all such fools!" --Ibid., Vol. V, p. 239

"Laksmi, or the goddess of Fortune, comes only to the industrious lion among men; it is only weaklings that say that we have to take what fate brings unto us; forsake this dependence on fate and express your manliness through the strength of self-reliance; what harm is there if no results come after you put forth your endeavour?.... It is, verily, only through hard work that we accomplish what are to be achieved, not through vain day-dreamings; no deer are going to oblige a lion and enter into its mouth while (it is lazily) asleep!" --Eternal Values for a Changing Society, by Swami Ranganathananda, Vol. I, p. 371

"How can we find joy in work? By working for oneself? No; it is not possible to find that continuous joy in work through selfish motivations. Frustration and ennui are the end of all selfish motivations. Frustrations and nervous breakdowns are the end of a self-centered life. The first advice of modern psychiatry to such people is to get out of this prison of self-centredness and to find a genuine interest in other people. Everyone has to learn the lesson some day that the best way to be happy is to strive to make others happy. So wherever you find frustration, you will always discover that the person concerned had been too self-centered and the only hope for him is through learning to take interest in other people, to find joy in the joy of other people. This is the royal path that makes for health, for strength, for efficiency. This great truth---universal and human---we should apply to the world and to our life in it." --Ibid.,Vol. IV, pp. 150-151

"We need to understand today the place of this philosophy of service in the human society. From ancient times, man has been confronted with the problems of how to deal with his neighbour, with his fellow human beings. The problem of inter-human relationship is a continuing problem in human society. Man has found two broad answers to this question; one answer is to 'exploit' the other man for one's own advantage; and the other answer is to 'serve' the other man, so that he and I can prosper together. These are the two answers. But, unfortunately, the second answer has not found any widespread response from the hearts of men and women...the first is easy and natural.... As an ego centred in the organic system, man is impelled to seek only his own organic satisfactions and organic survival. And he is driven to exploit others in search of these... We coolly exploit the misery of other people." --Ibid., p. 193

"We profess the highest philosophy and we indulge in low behavior. Why? Swami Vivekananda diagnosed this as lack of will power to carry idea into practice. Ideas became short-circuited; practice never got sustenance from the lofty idea. So, on one side was practice untouched by the blessings of idea, and on the other side was idea waiting to express, but unable to express, in action and behavior, and, therefore, becoming sterile. An idea which does not find expression in practice tends to become sterile. It then becomes an enemy and not a friend, however lofty it may be." --The Message of the Upanishads, by Swami Ranganathananda, p. 128

"A sculptor decides to make a figure of a horse. The idea of this horse---the form of it which he sees in his imagination---is inspired by Sattwa. Now he gets a lump of clay. This clay represents the power of Tamas---its formlessness is an obstacle which has to be overcome. Perhaps, also, there is an element of tamas in the sculptor's own mind. He may think: "This is going to be a lot of trouble. It's too difficult. I'm tired. Why should I make the effort?" But here the forces of Rajas comes to his aid. Rajas, in this instance, represents the sculptor's will to conquer his own lethargy and the difficulties of his medium; it represents, also, the muscular exertion which he puts forth in order to complete his work. If a sufficient amount of rajas is generated, the obstacle of tamas will be overcome and the ideal form of sattwa will be embodied in a tangible clay object. From this example, it should be obvious that all three gunas are necessary for an act of creation. Sattwa alone would be mere undirected energy, rajas without tamas would be like a lever without a fulcrum." --How to Know God, by Swami Prabhavananda, pp. 37-38,

"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. Life is and must be accompanied by evil. A little evil is the source of life. A little wickedness that is in the world is very good. For when the balance is regained, the world will end, because sameness and destruction are one.... To regain the balance, we must counteract Tamas by Rajas; then conquer Rajas by Sattwa, the calm beautiful state that will grow and grow until all else is gone.... Make the heart like an ocean, go beyond all the trifles of world, be mad with joy even at evil; see the world as a picture and then enjoy its beauty, knowing that nothing affects you." --The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 7, pp. 11-13

"Believe, therefore, in yourselves. The secret of Advaita is: Believe in yourselves first, and then believe in anything else.... Believe, therefore, in yourselves, and if you want material wealth, work it out; it will come to you. If you want to be intellectual, work it out in the intellectual plane, and intellectual giants you shall be. And if you want to attain freedom, work it out in the spiritual plane, and free you shall be and shall enter into Nirvana, the Eternal Bliss. But one defect which lay in the Advaita was its being worked out so long on spiritual plane only, and nowhere else; now the time has come when you have to make it practical. It shall no more be a Rahasya, a secret, it shall no more live with monks in caves and forests, and in the Himalayas; it must come down to the daily, everyday life of the people; it shall be worked out in the palace of the king, in the cave of the recluse; it shall be worked out in the cottage of the poor, by the beggar in the street, everywhere; any where it can be worked out. Therefore do not fear whether you are a woman or a Shudra, for this religion is so great, says Lord Krishna, that even a little of it brings a great amount of good.... do not sit idle, awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached...Let us bring it down from heaven unto the earth." --Ibid., Vol. 3, pp. 426-428

"Self-dedication does not depend on the particular work you do, but on the spirit in which all work, of whatever kind it may be is done. Any work done well and carefully as a sacrifice to the Divine, without desire or egoism, with equality of mind and calm tranquillity in good or bad fortune, for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of any personal gain, reward or result, with the consciousness that it is the Divine Power to which all work belongs, is a means of self-dedication through Karma. All work done for Divine, from poetry and art and music to carpentry or baking or sweeping a room, should be made perfect even in its smallest external detail as well as in the spirit in which it is done; for only then it is an altogether fit offering." --Letters on Yoga, by Sri Aurobindo, pp. 531, 678,