16 Quotes by Swami Ramdas

What is Self-realization? It is giving up the pretension that you are not the Self, that you are a mere body. People say to me, 'You are God Himself.' I reply, 'You are also He.' 'We are not He'-they rejoin. What else is this, but that they simulate and, for some lila of their own, hide behind a mask their real and divine nature?

An active life is perfectly in keeping with Self-realization and divine service. What is needed is a total dedication of your entire life to Him. In all situations maintain a steady consciousness of Divinity within and about you. Do not harass your mind with thoughts of weakness. Infinite strength is within you. Drawing inspiration and power from this source, be cheerful and contented at all times. Let the Name of the Lord dwell ever in your mind!

God is an artist par excellence. He has painted the picturesque universe on the screen of His own immutable and glowing Spirit. So He is at once the painter and the painted. In the ultimate analysis, God and His lover, God and His devotee and servant, are He. The unmanifest--which is beyond all duality has become both. This secret few know.

God-vision is nothing but to realise and feel His presence within yourself and everywhere about you; because God is an all prevailing spirit, permeating the entire universe. The manifested worlds are not different from Him, since they are but His own expression in terms of name and form.

The whole universe is permeated through and through with God,” said Ramdas. “The visible and invisible worlds are all He— as manifest and unmanifest. There is nothing and none but He. All, all is He. Such is the truth. Where then is the idea of ‘I’ and ‘you’–‘mine’ and ‘yours’. All are He and His.

Worry comes in when any work, political or otherwise, is done with a selfish motive. The secret of liberation in action lies in doing all works without the ego-sense. Here what is demanded of us is perfect self-surrender through dedication of all our actions to the Master power that controls the universe.

Forget not the central truth that God is seated in your own heart. Don’t be disheartened by failures at initial stages. Cultivate the spirit of surrender to the workings of His will in you and outside you until you have completely surrendered up your ego-sense, and have known He is in all and He is all, and you and He are one.

Just as a flower gives out its fragrance to whomsoever approaches our uses it, so love from within us radiates towards everybody and manifests as spontaneous service.

Place yourself as an instrument in the hands of God, who does his own work in his own way.