Other Masters' Quotations

[Ashok]

This world has always produced amazing philosophers, saints, preachers etc. and it is always delight to read their best creations.

[Ashok]

Friendliness
 
Friendship is a relationship. You can be in relationship with a few people. Friendliness is a quality not a relationship. It has nothing to do with anybody else; it is basically your inner quality. You can be friendly even when you are alone. You cannot be in friendship when you are alone - the other is needed - but friendliness is a kind of fragrance. A flower opens in the jungle; nobody passes by - still it is fragrant. It does not matter whether anybody comes to know of it or not, it is its quality. Nobody may ever come to know about it, but that does not matter. The flower is rejoicing.

Friendship can exist only between one man and another man or at the most between a man and an animal - a horse, a dog. But friendliness can exist even with a rock, with a river, with a mountain, with a cloud, with a far-away star. Friendliness is unlimited because it is not dependent on the other; it is absolutely your own flowering.

So, be friendly, just friendly to all that exists. And in that friendliness you will find all that is worth finding. In friendliness you will find the ultimate friend.

-Osho

[Ashok]

Comparison

Comparison is a disease, one of the greatest diseases. We are taught from the very beginning to compare. Your mother starts comparing you with other children. Your father compares. The teacher says, “Look at Johnny, how well he is doing, and you are not doing good at all!”

From the very beginning you are being told to compare yourself with others. This is the greatest disease; it is like a cancer that goes on destroying your very soul. Each individual is unique, and comparison is not possible. I am just myself and you are just yourself. There is nobody else in the world to be compared with. Do you compare a marigold with a roseflower? You don’t compare. Do you compare a mango with an apple? You don’t compare. You know they are different - comparison is not possible.

Man is not a species. Each man is unique. There has never been any individual like you before and there will never be again. You are utterly unique. This is your privilege, your prerogative, life’s blessing - that it has made you unique.
 
-Osho

[Ashok]

Pleasing
 
Stop fulfilling expectations of others, because that is the only way you can commit suicide. You are not here to fulfill anybody´s expectations and nobody else is here to fulfill your expectations. Never become a victim of others´ expectations and don´t make anybody a victim of your expectations.

This is what I call individuality. Respect your own individuality and respect others´ individuality. Never interfere in anybody´s life and don´t allow anybody to interfere in your life. Only then one day you can grow into spirituality.

Otherwise, ninety-nine percent of people simply commit suicide. Their whole life is nothing but a slow suicide. Fulfilling this expectation, that expectation... some day it was the father, some day it was the mother, some day it was the wife, husband, then come children - they also expect. Then the society, the priest and the politician. All around everybody is expecting. And poor you there, just a poor human being - and the whole world expecting you to do this and that. And you can´t fulfill all of their expectations, because they are contradictory.

You have gone mad fulfilling everybody´s expectations. And you have not fulfilled anybody´s. Nobody is happy. You are lost, wvasted, and nobody is happy. People who are not happy with themselves cannot be happy. Whatsoever you do, they will find ways to be unhappy with you, because they cannot be happy.

Happiness is an art that one has to learn. It has nothing to do with your doing or not doing. Instead of pleasing, learn the art of happiness.

-Osho

[Ashok]

'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation, and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships and his daily life. These are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship.

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

[Ashok]

"Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man's pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity. Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution."

-Jiddu Krishnamurti

[Ashok]

And what is the purpose of life? Is it the freedom of life, the liberation of life from all things, the liberation that comes when you have gone through all experiences, and are, therefore, beyond all experience. And I want to show you that in order to fulfill life, as I have fulfilled life, you must welcome to your heart every experience, however unpleasent, however delightful, so as to make your life full as the rain-drop.


You are afraid of sorrow, thinking it something fearful, something of which you are ashamed. the experience of sorrow gives you strength, strength to sustain you in your struggle, which is also experience. Invite sorrow out of the abundance of your heart, and do not put it aside, for sorrow gives the perfume of understanding, is the creator of affection, and gives you immense sympathy with life.

J. Krishnamurthy

[Ashok]

1
 
All this, which is His creation, is under His dispensation, in His presence and is He.
In whatever state He keeps anyone at any time it is all for the good, for verily everything is ordained by Him, is of Him.
Relative happiness, which is happiness depending on anything, must end in grief. It is man’s duty to meditate on God, Who is peace itself. Without having recourse to that which aids the remembrance of God there can be no peace .Have you not seen what life in this world is? The one to be loved is God. In Him is everything --- Him you must try to find.

2
 
If anything is to be had — whatsoever, in whatever way — it must be had of Him alone.
Man’s bounden duty as a human being is to seek refuge at His Feet.
Days glide on; already you have let so many go by; anchored in patience endeavour to pass the few remaining.


3
 
Every moment belongs to God; Endeavour to keep your mind dedicated to His Feet. God, the Ocean -of Mercy, who ever blesses the world, pours out His grace at all times. It is incumbent on man to consider every­thing that happens to be for the best: ‘For the best’ denoting what is most helpful towards the realization of the Divine, the realization of the fullness of Bliss.


4

The ceaseless,  never-ending current of divine Mercy and Compassion ever flows forth; in that current one should bathe.

 
5

Who are the truly wealthy? Those who are possessed of the Supreme Treasure —they alone are really rich and live in abundance. Poor and destitute must be called the man in whose heart the remembrance of God abides not. To depend solely on Him is man’s one and only duty.

 
6

Verily, abounding sorrow is the essential characteristic of life in this world. Fix your mind on God.


7

The sovereign and universal remedy is the contemplation of the One. To think only of Him and to serve Him at all times is essential for every human being.
 

8

Let His Name be ever with you; imper­ceptibly, relentlessly time is creeping away.

 
9

To concentrate only on Him, the remem­brance of Whom brings release from all anxiety, is meet and right. At all times, endeavour to sustain the con­templation of God and the flow of His Name. By virtue of his Name all disease becomes ease.

10

Without the repetition of the Name and the remembrance of God, there is no hope of peace on earth. Let duty come first and foremost.

In Rama , who is the. dispeller of all sorrow, there is arama  — rest and ease; where Rama is  not, there is vyarama  — discomfort and disease.

[Ashok]

The below article is available on internet and is reproduced as such with its source link highlighted at the end of this post.
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Quotes Shirdi Sai Baba

I am writing some quotes by Shirdi Sai Baba. Quotes, a couple of lines, if given full attention and brooded over, can bring about miraculous change in our lives, the way we think and the way we act. Before the quotes I have copy pasted few lines of question and answer with J. Krishnamurti. Why? Because if we read the quotes and Sai SatCharitra and any books and stories of Shirdi Sai Baba, the way J. Krishnamurti has suggested, it can bring about lot more change in our lives on whole.

Ruben: How would you recommend your books to be read, and in what order?

Krishnamurti: Do not read them like a novel. Read slowly as if your life was in every word and every sentence. Start with the last one and then if there is an interest go backwards through the first one.

Ruben: Should we read all your books?

Krishnamurti: If you take a train in San Francisco to go to Los Angeles... would you get off in Santa Barabara?

Quotes Shirdi Sai Baba

* He should subdue his ego and offer it at my feet. He who conducts himself in this manner, in life, will not only get from me full assistance in whatever he do, but I shall toil for him in every way.

* Listening to my stories, narrating them to others, contemplating on them will propagate love and devotion for me, which will destroy ignorance, instantly.

* Wherever ever there is Faith and Devotion together, I remain enslaved forever. Have no doubts about this, but otherwise, I always remain unattainable.

* When herd with virtuousness and a good feeling, these stories will generate devotion in the listener’s minds ; self experience and bliss will then follow most naturally and a state of perpetual joy will thus be attained.

* The devotee will have self realization, which will bring in tune, both, his jeeva (Atman) and Shiva(Brahma); he will comprehend the incomprehensible, which is without attributes, and the supreme spirit shall reveal itself.

* Such is the reward, the fruit of my stories. What else would one want? This is the ultimeate objective of Shrutis (Vedas) and so, by attaining this the devotee will be enriched.

* Where contentiousness prevails, ignorance and Maya abound. There is no thought of deliverance and the mind is continually engaged in malicious, misconceived speculation. Such one is not worthy of self-knowledge. He is engulfed by ignorance alone. He can enjoy happiness neither on earth nor in heaven. Everywhere and at all times he is unhappy.

* Unless there is some relationship or connection, nobody goes anywhere. If any men or creatures come to you, do not discourteously drive them away, but receive them well and treat them with due respect. Shri Hari (God) will be certainly pleased if you give water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, clothes to the naked and your verandah to strangers for sitting and resting. If anybody wants any money from you and you are not inclined to give, do not give, but do not bark at him like a dog.

* Let the world go topsy-turvy, you remain where you are. Look on calmly at the show of all things passing before you. Demolish the wall of difference that separates you from Me; and then the road for our meeting will be clear and open. The sense of differentiation, as I and Thou, is the barrier that keeps away the disciple from his Master, and unless that is destroyed the state of Union or At-One-ment is not possible.

* This Brahmin can bring lacs of men onto the white path and take them to their destination.

Source: http://alpesh-mynotebook.blogspot.com/2007/03/quotes-shirdi-sai-baba.html

[Ashok]

11)
It is possible to practise God’s Name under the most adverse circumstances.. He causes everything to happen and is there­fore ever near.


12)
When you leave everything to Rim Who is the Fountain of Peace, and then only may you hope for peace.

13)
When the mind centres on what gives peace and one’s gaze dwells on what promotes it, when One’s ears listen to what fills the heart with peace and at all times there is a response from Him Who is peace itself, then only can there be promise of peace.

14)
It is desire that causes sorrow; but the will to realize God is itself felicity. Be certain that He will cleanse and comfort you and take you into His arms

Sorrow comes in order to lead you to happiness. At all times hold him in remembrance. .


15)
Your body, which is part of and depending on this illusory world, is on the other hand the expression of a hidden inner process. You are yourself the many, appearing in various aspects, forms and modes. Each one of them exists in fact to fulfill a particular need. Yours is the give and take of the universe, yours the need, and yet you your­self are the fulfillment that hidden inner process is generated by you.

[Ashok]

16)
You are imperfect, something is lacking in you, this is why you feel the desire for
fulfillment. ‘Body’ [ the Bengali word for ‘body’ is ‘sharir’ and the verb shora means to move on , to slip away.] signifies— that which slips away, which is continually changing. If there is no want, no desire, then this kind of body that is ever in the process of perishing does not persist. Thus, after God-realization one can no - longer speak of such a body for the Self stands revealed.

17)
The sense of want arises spontaneously —it is the Divine that awakens it. To lose all is to gain all. He is merciful and compassionate. Whatever He does at any moment is all-beneficent, though certainly painful at times. When He manifests Himself as all-loss, there is hope that He may also manifest Himself as all-gain. To pine for the One Who helps towards the light of Truth is salutary, for it kindles the awareness of Truth. Verily, He is everywhere at all times. The endeavour to awaken to his real nature is man’s duty as a human being.

18)
In the field of His play even getting means losing. This is but the nature of its movement. Think of Him Who cannot be lost. Meditate on Him alone, on Him, the Fountain of Goodness. Pray to Him; depend on Him. Try to give more time to japa and meditation. Surrender your mind at His Feet. Endeavour to sustain japa and meditation without a break.

19)
Human-birth — does it not ordinarily mean experiencing desire, passion, grief, suffering, old age, disease, happiness, pain and so on? Yet it is man’s duty to bear in mind that he exists for God alone— for His service and for the realization of Him.
To say, “I do not know, I do not understand” is only ignorance. It is this veil of ignorance that causes agony and misfortune.

[Ashok]

 
(What follows below are answers given by Ramana at various times to devotee's questions, strung together and brought into flowing English for ease of comprehension.)

           
There is no greater mystery than this, that being the reality yourself, you seek to gain reality.

You think there is something binding your reality and that something must be destroyed before the reality is freed. This is ridiculous.

A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your efforts. What is there to realize? The real is always as it is.

You have realized the unreal, in other words, you regard the unreal as that which is real. Give up this attitude and you will attain wisdom.

There is nothing new nor anything you do not already have which needs to be gained. The feeling that you have not yet realized is the sole obstruction to realization.

In fact, you are already free. If it were not so, the realization would be new. If it has not existed so far, it must take place hereafter. What comes will also go, what can be gained can also be lost.

If realization is not eternal it is not worth having. Therefore what you seek is not that which must happen afresh. It is only that which is eternal, but not now known due to obstruction.

Remove the obstruction. That which is eternal is not known to be so because of ignorance. Ignorance is the obstruction. Get over the ignorance and all will be well.

The ignorance is identical with the 'I-thought'. Find its source and it will vanish. Then the Self alone will shine as it always has, in the stillness of being.
 

[Ashok]

"If you really want to know yourself, you will search out your heart and your mind to know their full content and when there is the intention to know, you will know. Then you can follow, without condemnation or justification, every movement of thought and every feeling as it arises; by following every thought and every feeling as it arises you bring about tranquility which is not compelled, not regimented, but which is the outcome of having no problem, no contradiction. It is like the pool that becomes peaceful, quiet, any evening when there is no wind; when the mind is still, then that which is immeasurable comes into being."