The great spiritual guru, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), was a Hindu wandering monk credited with bringing Asian culture and philosophy to America.
His mission was to introduce spiritual consciousness and culture to America, to bring together the East and the West, the religious and scientific minds of the world.
A pupil of the great mystic Ramakrishna, Vivekananda promoted pacifism, human brotherhood and the idea of Oneness of existence, which can be found in the Vedantic teachings.
He suggested rising above the physical world in order to contemplate the Absolute, and was deeply saddened by human suffering both in the East and the West.
Through contemplation of God, he tried to set people’s minds towards bettering their lives and acting in humanity’s best interest. Mahatma Gandhi said that, after reading Vivekananda’s works, his love for their native India “grew a thousand-fold.”
His thoughts on religion, individual moral imperatives and separating the material from the spiritual are considered deeply poetic and often quoted even more than a hundred years after his untimely death at the age of 39.
Religion
“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!”
The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.
By the study of different religions we find that in essence they are one.
The Hindu monk insisted that strong faith came from the inside. Loving and understanding yourself is a pathway to finding and loving God, whichever God you are looking for.
Thoughts
We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark”
If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience.
You have the power to show a better world into existence, and sometimes our fear or insecurities make us hide that power from ourselves and others. Don’t say that it is dark, when it is only the “hands” of your mind that are preventing your eyes from seeing.
Love
“He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
Truer words have not been spoken. Love yourself, the people around you and the whole world, and you will be fulfilled and happy.
Money and Helping Others
“If money can help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.”
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.
Altruism was an important concept for the “wandering monk,” and it is one that is maybe forgotten in today’s world. Material wealth means little if it is not shared with those who have nothing – selfishness makes the soul poor.
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