Quotes by Sri Swami Satchidananda
1. The human body is a temple, keep it strong and supple.
2. Love for the sake of love, because loving makes you happy.
3. The sun is always shining whether the clouds are there or not.
4. To have maximum and endless joy learn to be non-attached.
5. The entire nature is ready to guide you, if you really look for guidance.
6. Nothing is impossible for a one-pointed mind.
7. An action becomes perfect when it brings some benefit to someone and no harm
to anyone.
8. Let total love, universal love, emanate from within.
9. If you are contented your daily needs will be met.
10. If there is heaven in your mind you see heaven everywhere.
11. Be married to your peace and joy
12. Every failure is a stepping stone for your further success.
13. Have an easeful body, peaceful mind and a useful life.
14. We are all one.
15. Think you are happy and you are happy.
16. All you have to do is be.
17. Everything on this earth has a purpose.
18. Don’t ever, ever put yourself down.
19. It’s all for fun. Just watch and enjoy the show.
20. No one ever gives you happiness, but only reflects your own inner happiness.
21. Accomplishing small things will improve your self-confidence.
22. Find the peace within first and then express it.
23. The greatest victory you can win is victory over your own mind.
24. Do your best and leave the rest.
25. True love knows no bargains. It is one-way traffic, giving, giving, giving.
26. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others.
27. Obstacles draw out our inner capabilities.
28. In the universal plan, we’re all just doing our part.
29. Faith and fear do not go together.
30. Keep harmony in your house as your top priority.
31. Take it easy but don’t be lazy.
32. Know your own strength and avoid disturbances to your peace of mind.
33. The simple way to always be happy is to accept everything.
34. You are never alone; God is nearer than your own heart.
35. The more you give, the more you get. That’s nature’s law.
36. You are not the body, not the mind. You are the knower.
37. There is always a positive way of looking at things.
38. Ask advice from your own pure Self.
39. Keep up your physical and mental purity so can recognize your inner light.
40. The only requirement to see your true Self is a clean, peaceful mind.
41. The cause of your suffering is your wrong approach to things.
42. You are your own friend and your own enemy
43. Stay away from anything that disturbs your peace of mind.
44. Let people see something beautiful in you. Let them see the light in you.
45. Follow the Yoga principles and you will never know unhappiness
46. Keep the lake of the mind always calm and clean.
47. Bear insult, bear injury. This is the greatest Yoga.
48. You are already enlightened.
49. You can become the master of your own mind.
50. By sincere prayer you put yourself in a receptive mood.
51. The dedicated enjoy supreme peace, therefore live only to serve.
52. Breath is life. Let every breath bring fresh energy into your system.
Longer Quotes
1. The human body is a temple, keep it strong and supple.
“You can make every act of yours holy. Feel that your body is a divine temple,
and that God is dwelling within you. When you eat something, feel it is the
divine within you that is accepting it, so you are eating for the sake of God.
When you bathe yourself, feel that you are cleaning the temple of God. When
you put some unwanted thing in you, think, ‘I am polluting the temple of God,
so I should not do that.’ Even if you think something bad, you will feel: ‘Oh, the
God within is watching me, how can I be thinking like this?’ By continuously
keeping the mind on God in this way, every action becomes holy.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
2. Love for the sake of love, because loving makes you happy.
“Love everyone and everything. By loving everything, you are really loving yourself.
Everything is nothing but the expression of yourself. If you stand in front of a mirror,
you love that reflection. You smile at it and it smiles at you. In the same way, the whole
world is your projection. You love because you are made of love, because loving makes
you happy; not because you have to love. The scriptures say to love your neighbor as
yourself. That means you have to see your Self in the other person. Real love is possible
only when you see everything as your own expression. When we go beyond the name
and form, you will find that the essence is the same.” ~Swami Satchidananda
3. The sun is always shining whether the clouds are there or not.
“It is the nature of the mind to constantly change. You should learn how to surf on the
waves of the mind, rather than being tossed and beaten by them. Always affirm that
you are not going to be the slave of the mind; you are going to be the master. Exercise
your mastery. If something terrible comes, you think, ‘I can’t stand it another minute.’
But if you just hold on a little longer, it passes. Sometimes black clouds come, but the
sun is always shining behind them. Don’t give up. If you give up and run somewhere
else, there will be a difficult situation to face there too. Wherever you go, your own
mind goes with you.” ~Swami Satchidananda
4. To have maximum and endless joy learn to be non-attached.
“How can you maintain your happiness and joy always? Ask yourself why you are
unhappy. Every time you are unhappy over something, the first thing to do is to
analyze the cause. You will always find there is attachment in some area. If you don’t
want to be unhappy, you will come to the conclusion, ‘Oh, I should not be attached to
that. When I am attached, I feel unhappy.’ You may ask, ‘But what about people?’ You
can be friendly, you can love them, but you should not be attached to them. There is a
difference between attachment and love. Love means that you think of others and put
their benefit first. Attachment means thinking of your benefit first.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
5. The entire nature is ready to guide you, if you really look for guidance.
“Nothing happens without a reason. The reason is to teach you some lesson. There’s
always a good lesson in whatever happens to you, even in the midst of your losses. I
don’t mean only in material losses; it’s that way even with losses of your near and
dear. You can get back on the right track; get up and walk. If you don’t feel strong
enough, you can ask for guidance.The whole world is a university, and we are all
here learning. Every individual should think, “I am the only student. Everyone and
everything are my professors.” All others are simply helping you to educate you, to
pass through each level. You should learn to understand and accept that.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
6. Nothing is impossible for a one-pointed mind.
“When the mind is concentrated, it gains more strength. If you gather all the thought
forms and concentrate on one idea or object, the mind will reveal the inner secret of
that idea. That’s what inventors do. They are deeply concentrated, their minds are
one-pointed, so nature reveals its secrets to them. Because these individuals’ minds
were one-pointed, they could penetrate the secret of the atom. That control is
possible. Slowly train the mind in such a way that it is always under your control,
and, whenever you want, you will be able to make it still. With that you can gain
anything you want in this world. There is nothing in this world that a one-pointed
mind cannot gain.” ~Swami Satchidananda
7. An action becomes perfect when it brings some benefit to someone and no harm
to anyone.
“Yoga is perfection in action. If the result of that action brings benefit to all people
concerned—to the person who does that action and to the person who enjoys the
benefit of it, without bringing harm to anybody—then it’s a yogic action. If it’s going
to bring harm even to one person, or if it’s going to build up tension in your own
mind, it’s not yogic. When you do something and expect a reward as a result of that
action, then, even before you start doing it, you build up tension. Instead, if the
mind is kept free from any expectation whatsoever and if your action is done just for
the sake of others, then that action is yogic.” ~Swami Satchidananda
8. Let total love, universal love, emanate from within.
“The more you think of your problems the deeper you’ll go into them. It’s as if you are
meditating on them, which is like pouring gasoline onto a fire. If you pour love on hate,
that’s like pouring water onto fire. Put in new, constructive ideas, and let those ideas
take the place of the mental fixations. That’s the spiritual way, the yogic approach. If
you hate somebody, instead of trying to find ways to get out of that hatred, just ignore
it and try to love. Think of love, love, love and the hatred will go away, automatically.
With regular practice of both physical and mental Yoga, you can easily overcome
challenges in life, instead of worrying about them and constantly thinking about them.”
~Swami Satchidananda
9. If you are content your daily needs will be met.
“In Yoga, all that we want is a balanced and contented mind; it’s not how much you
have that is going to make you happy. The more you run after things, the more they go
away. If you are contented, things come to you by themselves, even if you don’t want
them. Have a trial week without wanting. Stop wanting anything. See how many things
come to you. Because everything and everybody likes to be with a contented person. If
you are happy, everything comes. You should bring out the fragrance of happiness.
When there is nice fragrance, when there is honey in you, you don’t have to advertise
for the bees to come to you. They just come.” ~Swami Satchidananda
10. If there is heaven in your mind, you see heaven everywhere.
“One brother says, ‘Whenever I come back to my home, I feel that I am in heaven.’ If
you ask another brother, he may say the opposite: ‘Whenever I come home, I feel I am
in hell.’ Why should the same house seem like hell and heaven to two different people?
It’s in their thoughts and attitudes. According to their mind and their approach to the
world, things seem good or bad. There’s nothing good or bad outside, it’s according to
your approach that you see the world the way you do. When I say approach, I mean
according to the coloring of our minds. If you can keep control over the mind, wherever
you are will be a heaven.” ~Swami Satchidananda
11. Be married to your peace and joy.
“Relationships need not be difficult. If you don’t have any selfish purpose, then you
don’t expect anything and you don’t lose anything. You aren’t attached to that
relationship. Realize that you don’t have to have a relationship to be happy. You are
already married to your peace and joy. But you don’t appreciate that. That means you
don’t realize your own true nature, which is happiness. The minute you realize that you
are always happy, that you are always peaceful whether you have a relationship or not,
that you have a permanent relationship within, then you no longer worry about an
outside relationship. If it comes, fine, if it doesn’t come, wonderful. You don’t depend
on anything or anyone for your happiness.” ~Swami Satchidananda
12. Every failure is a stepping stone for your future success.
“Making mistakes is part of learning so, when you make a mistake, don’t get upset.
Learn from your mistakes, and then don’t repeat them. You are free to make another
kind of mistake, but not the same mistake. Every mistake, every failure is a stepping
stone for future success. You have to fail. Look at Olympic champions, great runners.
Did they run out of the womb at birth? They couldn’t even move their bodies much.
How long did it take for those future champions to be able to stand? How many times
did they fall? That is the process of learning. Don’t be afraid of falling. Let every failure
help you to learn a little better for your future success.” ~Swami Satchidananda
13. Have an easeful body, peaceful mind and a useful life.
“Keep yourself healthy, happy and thus holy. Or, in other words, be easeful physically,
be peaceful mentally and then be useful in your life. And to accomplish this all you
have to do is just to be vigilant constantly and to stay away, to renounce, to reject
whatever it is that would come in the way and disturb your ease of the body, peace of
the mind. It’s not that you’re going to acquire that ease and peace newly. It is there
already. If you could only take good care of it and see that you don’t disturb it, it
remains. When you’re easeful and peaceful, then you can be useful. Otherwise, you
may even harm rather than help the situation.” ~Swami Satchidananda
14. We are all one.
“Yoga means to unite, to come together. The moment we think of coming together we
really become yogis, so let our entire lives be based on this coming together, being
together, becoming together. We should realize that oneness that is already within us.
We are already one, but, unfortunately, nobody has ever answered exactly why we are
separate. Different saints have explained the cause of separation in many ways: It is due
to ignorance, to illusion or to life in the material world. There are many answers to why
we feel separate from each other, but, probably, the true answer will come to us only
after we realize our oneness. In that oneness, you find peace within and without.”
~Swami Satchidananda
15. Think you are happy and you are happy.
“Think well, you will be well. Think ill, you’ll be ill. Think happy, you will be happy.
As you think, so you become. It’s all your thought. Sometimes you might not be
thinking ill of yourself, but you are thinking ill of others. Whether it is about you or
somebody else, that is what you are thinking. When you think of that, you will become
that and you will be hurting yourself. You can meditate on a monkey. What will you
become? Monkey. So, even to practice Yoga, you should know what to think in order to
make yourself comfortable and happy. Throughout your life, you should always think
well. Train your eyes to see the bright side of everything.” ~Swami Satchidananda
16. All you have to do is be.
“To enjoy life to the fullest, just be. If something comes, let it come. If it goes, let it go.
Enjoy the coming. Enjoy the going. The only way to enjoy is to just be what you are.
You’re not going to enjoy by getting things. If you are going to enjoy by getting things,
you are going to be depressed by losing things. True joy doesn’t come from anywhere.
Nothing brings you joy. No person brings you joy. You yourself are joyful always. So
enjoy that. Depend on nothing, because nothing from outside can make you joyful. Just
be good and do good. Then God will be happy with you, and you’ll find real peace and
joy in your life.” ~Swami Satchidananda
17. Everything on this earth has a purpose.
“God has a purpose for you. If the purpose is over, not even an ounce of breath will be
wasted on you. So the fact that you are still alive means that God wants you to live, to
do some of God’s work. Everything on this earth has a purpose and that purpose is to
be useful and bring some benefit to somebody. It is for that purpose that you are eating;
it is for that purpose you are breathing. When you go to sleep, think, ‘By sleeping, I will
be rested enough to get up early in the morning to serve others.’ Living this way, your
mind is always free from all kinds of anxieties, worries, fears and hatred.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
18. Don’t ever, ever put yourself down.
“Self-judgment and negativity will affect your heart, your mind and your personality.
Analyze: ‘Is it helpful for me to have these negative thoughts? Is it constructive or
destructive? I become what I think. If my thoughts are like this, what will I become?’
When you realize that, you won’t want to do it anymore. That’s why, at least for your
own sake, if not for the sake of others, you shouldn’t develop any negative thoughts
about yourself or about anybody else. No one interested in his or her own welfare,
physical and mental, should invite negative thoughts. Begin to love yourself. Find love
within yourself. Because everything begins at home. If you have love, you can give love
to others.” ~Swami Satchidananda
19. It’s all for fun. Just watch and enjoy the show.
“Jivanmuktas are souls liberated from the bondage of the mind. To those souls,
everything is fun, everything is a show, nothing is a surprise. The nature of the mind is
to be restless. The mind is like a screen—it reflects all kinds of images. When you go to a
cinema, you see many kinds of shows: good, bad, violent, silly. You watch everything.
It’s fun. The same way, you should watch your own mind putting on a show and have
fun watching it. Sometimes you might forget this and take the life seriously. You have
to step back from the mind and watch it. Be the witness always and you will have fun
and always enjoy the show.” ~Swami Satchidananda
20. No one ever gives you happiness, but only reflects your own inner happiness.
“Ultimately, we’re all looking for happiness. But it’s not something that has to be
brought in from outside. Happiness is already within you, and is to be experienced.
No one can bring you happiness, they only reflect your own inner happiness. If you
want to experience the joy within, liberate yourself from your own self-made
bondage. Nobody on earth is interested in binding you. Even if someone were
interested, nobody could do that. It’s completely in your hands to be bound or to be
free. If you think that you are bound, you are bound. If you think that you are free right
this moment, and that from time immemorial you have never been bound, then you are
free.” ~Swami Satchidananda
21. Accomplishing small things will improve your self-confidence.
“You know what’s wrong but maybe you don’t have the willpower to stay away from
that. How can you develop the will? By discipline and regular practice. You develop
that by doing little things. Don’t start with a big job that you can’t easily do; if you fail,
you’ll lose confidence. Accomplishing small things will improve your self-confidence.
Then one day, even the biggest thing will be the easiest for you. Will means application
and training of the mind. Making the mind work in a positive way. It’s achieved slowly.
It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, I’m not made for that. It’s too much for me. Not everyone can do
that.’ Such excuses are self-delusion. Without will, we cannot achieve anything.”
~Swami Satchidananda
22. Find the peace within first and then express it.
“Yoga believes in transforming the individual even before it thinks of the world.
Perhaps you are thinking: ‘Oh, I must transform the world. I must find peace in the
world.’ In finding the peace, you lose your peace. How many people fight in the name
of peace? By fighting they disturb the little peace that is already there. You can’t bring
peace to others unless you first have peace yourself. So, if you are really interested in
helping the world, find peace within yourself. Then you are really contributing
something to the world, so that it can find it’s own peace. Otherwise you will just be
talking and talking about peace. By transforming yourself, you transform your part of
the world.” ~Swami Satchidananda
23. The greatest victory you can win is the victory over your own mind.
“You don’t have to be a slave to your body, mind and senses. The Yoga practices enable
you to develop the willpower to resist the whims and fancies of the lower mind.
Somebody said that the greatest victory in the entire world is not by winning wars and
other things. The greatest victory is the victory over your own mind. So work toward
that. It may take some time, but perseverance brings perfection. And remember
Patanjali’s words: ‘Practice becomes well-grounded when done for a long time, without
break and with great interest.’ With zeal, one can achieve anything one wants. Nothing
is impossible. The mind is a fantastic machine. It has the capability of achieving
anything it wants.” ~Swami Satchidananda
24. Do your best and leave the rest.
“Let us just do our duty and leave the rest to nature. Let whatever you do be for the
benefit of others. If you can, do something. If you cannot, accept it. Somebody else will
do it; it’s not that you have to do it all yourself. You didn’t create the world and you’re
not going to save it. Honestly try to do your part, but know that you aren’t the end-all.
If a thing is meant to happen, it will happen. Start it and if it has to happen through
you, more energy will come to you. If not, you will very soon know that you are not to
do that. Accept it. Do your best, and leave the rest.” ~Swami Satchidananda
25. True love knows no bargains. It is one-way traffic, giving, giving, giving.
“Just let your nature be giving and loving. That’s divine love, an outpouring with no
expectation for anything back. Love knows no bargain, it only gives and gives and gives.
That’s what is called universal love. If you love just for the joy of loving, it won’t fall
away. You can love anybody and everybody with that pure love. But if you love only
waiting for some love in return, in time you will surely be disappointed. Learn to love
without trying to always make some kind of bargain out of it. Learn to love all
humanity, nature, animals and plants. Then you won’t have to do anything. Just by
being yourself you will be loving and serving one and all.” ~Swami Satchidananda
26. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others.
“What is the sign of a healthy person? You are relaxed everywhere—always at ease and
in peace, within and without. A healthy person hates no one, dislikes nothing. Total
love, universal love emanates from within. There is no tension anywhere, no stress or
friction. These are the signs of real health. A person who is healthy doesn’t hurt anyone.
Not only are you unafraid, but you see that others are not afraid of you. The “others”
include animals, plants, everything. A healthy person emits always and only a loving
and pure vibration. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to
others. That means our minds should be well-balanced under all conditions. That is
Yoga.” ~Swami Satchidananda
27. Obstacles draw out our inner capabilities.
“The world has been created for you to make use of and to grow. You can’t run away.
You will face the same problems wherever you go. Even if you’re running, you’re not
escaping. The same kind of challenge will come there also, in a little different form.
Why? Because difficulties come to make us strong. Wherever we go in the cosmos,
we’re going to be cooked by our experiences. So we should accept this until we are
roasted well. Life is an obstacle race, and a challenge has been presented to you. Giving
up is easy. Instead, try to face any challenge with all your heart and strength. You can’t
run away. Find the ways and means to do it.” ~Swami Satchidananda
28. In the universal plan, we’re all just doing our part.
“Every job is equally important. There’s no superior or inferior work. You can perform
any work with joy if you know that every job is equally good. You lose the joy of doing
things when you don’t understand the importance of them, when you compare your
work with someone else’s work. There’s no blue collar work or white collar work. If you
want to see it that way, your legs are doing blue collar work. Your head is doing white
collar work. Your blue collar workers have to take the white collar worker wherever it
wants to go. We are the ones who create all this superiority/inferiority. The world
needs everything. Every action is equally good. Do your part with joy.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
29. Faith and fear do not go together.
“Fear isn’t going to help you in any way. Fear makes the mind lose all its strength.
Remember, even to have fear, you must have faith in your fear. You have faith in your
fear, and that’s why you are afraid. But you should know that fear isn’t going to bring
you any benefit. Faith and fear don’t go together. Either you have faith, or you have
fear. You know that you’re alive now. Why don’t you enjoy the now, rather than worry
about the future? Enjoy both getting and losing. So, if you know the ultimate truth,
there’s no reason to fear. Don’t let that fear come near you at any time. Learn to live in
the golden present.” ~Swami Satchidananda
30. Keep harmony in your house as your top priority.
“Real spiritual experience brings harmony. What’s the use of those other experiences if
you can’t live comfortably, harmoniously, lovingly with ten people? Everybody should
love you. To me that’s what you call spiritual experience. Keep that in mind: ‘I will live
a life that will make everybody love me. Nobody should look at me with even a little
dismay.’ Only if you can do that, are you growing spiritually. Prove you’re becoming a
beautiful person. Don’t argue; instead, let your family see that you are being helped by what
you are doing. Prove the benefit of your practice by your own example. As a spiritual person,
you should see that there is harmony present in the family in all situations.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
31. Take it easy, but don’t be lazy.
“As far as possible, live simply and lead a natural life. Don’t tax your brain, don’t tax
your mind and don’t tax your system by overloading and overstressing. Take it easy,
but not lazy. Yoga is something very easy, quite enjoyable. If anybody says, ‘Oh, I am
trying hard to become a yogi,’ I say that person will never become a yogi. One can
never become a yogi by trying hard; that is the exact opposite of Yoga. Yoga should be a
joyful celebration. It’s very important to find the golden medium. Use your common
sense. There’s no hard-and-fast rule about these things. If there is one common rule for
all practices, it’s this: go to your capacity, but never overdo.” ~Swami Satchidananda
32. Know your own strength and avoid disturbances to your peace of mind.
“If you lose your peace, you won’t be able to help anyone else, let alone yourself. A
spiritual seeker is like a tender young tree that needs a fence to protect it while it’s
growing. It’s easily disturbed and affected. If the farmer removes the fence, the cattle
will come and chew the plant up After it has grown, it becomes a strong tree, offering
fruits and shade for all and nothing can disturb it. As a young plant, you need
discipline for your own protection; as a grown tree, you are free to protect others. Know
your own strength now and avoid disturbances. Choose your company wisely. After all,
what is the most precious thing? Peace of mind.” ~Swami Satchidananda
33. The simple way to always be happy is to accept everything.
“Pleasure, accept it. Pain, accept it. Profit, accept it. Loss, accept it. By accepting
everything, the great benefit is: You don’t disturb your peace. You are always happy.
That’s what real Yoga is. That is what real spiritual attainment is. That’s what you call
enlightenment. So, learn to accept things. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t think of
doing something, wanting to get something. It’s better not to have any wants, but if you
still want it, okay. Have your wants under one condition: the wants should be approved
by the Higher Power. If you get it, all right, it was approved. If you don’t get it, all right,
it was disapproved. There’s no harm in that kind of want.” ~Swami Satchidananda
34. You are never alone; God is nearer than your own heart.
“Long ago I used to feel lonely until I realized that there’s a Beloved who is always in
me, with me, next to me, closer than my heart. Since then, I have found that I’m never
alone. If you depend on anything or anybody outside you to be a companion, it’s
impossible to have that companion always with you. Even if another person wants to be
with you always, he or she cannot. Your own spirit, your own Self or the God within
you is always there. The moment you realize that, you will never feel lonely. The
outside company is fine, but don’t depend on it. Be independent of everything. If it
comes, fine. If it goes, wonderful.” ~Swami Satchidananda
35. The more you give, the more you get. That’s nature’s law.
“If you are a good channel, you won’t keep anything for yourself except what you need,
and you will pass along the rest. Then more things will come to you. It’s like a fountain
that you have drawn forth. The more you draw, the more it comes. You never feel the
want. Sometimes you will get so much that you will be tired of giving. But at no point
should you try to stop it from flowing through you. If you stop the flow, you’ll notice
that it gets stagnant. And, if you try to imprison anything or cling to it, it will hesitate to
come. Things love to move freely. So let everything flow to you and through you.”
~Swami Satchidananda
36. You are not the body, not the mind. You are the knower.
“Imagine, you say, ‘My mind is totally upset today. Yesterday I was all peaceful, happy.
Today, I am disturbed.’ What’s the common thing behind these statements? The
common factor is that you know. You know that you’re disturbed; you know you’re not
disturbed. The true you is that which knows everything, while the superficial you, is the
mind. Although your mind is disturbed in some way today, the knower of your mind is
not disturbed. Your mind was happy yesterday, and now, today, your mind is not
happy. You might say, ‘I am my body, my mind, my intelligence, my ego.’ Of course
you seem to have those things. But, who are you in reality? You are the knower.”
~Swami Satchidananda
37. There is always a positive way of looking at things.
“Think in a positive way. Bring out the good qualities, the positive side in you
and the negative will get cured by itself. Convince your conscious mind, and let
the conviction sink into the subconscious mind. You can even make a recording
of your own and play it while you sleep. It will slowly sink into your
subconscious mind. Negative thoughts have gone into the subconscious, and you
need to replace them with positive thoughts. Put reminders everywhere until the
negativity is completely rooted out. The yogic way is to put a new, opposite
thought into the mind so that the undesirable thought will be squeezed out. And
if you can’t do it all by yourself, get help from others.” ~Swami Satchidananda
38. Ask advice from your own pure Self.
“Your conscience is the part of God in you, the Guru within. Ask advice from your
pure Self. It’s not necessary always to get advice from someone outside. The
conscience is constantly giving us advice, but sometimes you don’t listen to it. You
may not even want to listen. Someone else can only help you for a while. You
should learn to ask that buddy within. Sometimes you might feel a conflict: ‘I don’t
know which is the Self and which is the ego.’ Ultimately, you have to develop the
capacity to discriminate within yourself. That’s why meditation is so important. Until
you become established in that, at least in meditation you should be able to hear your
own inner Self.” ~Swami Satchidananda
39. Keep up your physical and mental purity so can recognize your inner light.
“Eat clean food—the food that would come to you with loving vibrations. See the
proper sights, hear the proper sounds and think the proper ideas. Everything that goes
into you is your food. Food for the mind, food for the eyes, food for the ears, food for
the nose. Let those foods always be clean and not disturb your ease. Build the nerves
with pranayama, and build love with chants, psalms or mantras. You can use Yoga
practices to smooth any hectic day. When you get up, you should perform your
spiritual practices. Begin each day with the words of a great saint or prophet. Before
you practice, pray for help; use your mantra and have faith in your teacher.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
40. The only requirement to see your true Self is a clean, peaceful mind.
“The goal of human life is to know the Self and experience eternal happiness and
supreme peace. All the great sages who’ve realized this peace and joy have told us that
the moment you keep your mind calm and serene, you can enjoy supreme happiness. A
restless mind is an impure mind; an impure mind is a restless mind. If you could keep
the mind clean, it will find its calmness. The mind is nothing but a bunch of thoughts.
When the thoughts are clean, the mind is clean. When the thoughts are ugly with
jealousy, selfishness, hatred or vengeance, it’s a dirty mind that thinks and becomes
those thoughts. So take care to keep the mind clean.” ~Swami Satchidananda
41. The cause of your suffering is your wrong approach to things.
“When you understand the ups and downs of the world in the proper way, you’ll see
that it’s up to you to understand this and raise above it all. Then, you can ride over the
waves with skill. You’ll say, ‘Oh, these waves are the nature of the world; they won’t
defeat me.’ That’s the knowledge you want. Then, you won’t get upset over anything.
Sometimes you may think that someone else is making you suffer, or that not getting
what you wanted is making you miserable or only by acquiring things will you be
happy. No. Suffering is self-made. Nobody can make you suffer. It’s your own attitude,
your own ignorance. Sorrow is nothing but what you borrow. ~Swami Satchidananda
42. You are your own friend and your own enemy.
“The same mind can be a friend or an enemy. You should analyze it: ‘Will this vision,
desire or experience help me, or cause trouble?’ Use your own intelligence. If the
experience is likely to cause problems, then it’s a trick of the mind. Ignore it. But if the
mind brings you something useful, take it. One part of the mind is always sattvic
(balanced). That part always talks to the other parts saying, ‘Why do you keep swinging
back and forth between restlessness and dullness?’ The sattvic part doesn’t swing at all.
It’s always calm. Even if your life appears sometimes to be swinging, know that you’re
always united with the peaceful Self which isn’t affected by the swinging.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
43. Stay away from anything that disturbs your peace of mind.
“When something or someone wants to come to you, question yourself: ‘By keeping it
around me, will I lose my peace?’ If you think that, ‘Yes, it might disturb my peace,’
then tell it: ‘Sorry.’ Always think in terms of your peace. Which will give you
permanent peace and which will give you temporary peace and disturb it afterwards?
Ask that for everything. That’s what you call discrimination. That should be applied in
everything: eating, sleeping, drinking, talking, walking, doing—everything. The
pudding is very tasty. You feel like having some more. Question yourself: ‘Will this
affect my peace?’Apply this to everything. So that means you are constantly aware of
your peace. You are doing everything in terms of peace.” ~Swami Satchidananda
44. Let people see something beautiful in you. Let them see the light in you.
“All I teach is that you learn to be selfless. That is Karma Yoga, selfless service. When
you work for yourself, you develop anxiety, you develop worry and fear. When you
work for others there is joy. If the others need your service, it’s their business to take
care of you. Remember: If you decide to take care of yourself, you are the only person to
take care of you. If you let others take care of you, so many will do that. That’s the
secret. Your life can be a beautiful fruit for all humanity to enjoy. And when you shine
with peace and joy, you expose to that light not only yourself, but other people as well.”
~Swami Satchidananda
45. Follow the Yoga principles and you will never know unhappiness.
“Life isn’t about self-denial. It should be fun and joyful. You don’t have to deny your
senses. Give the senses the proper enjoyment, in the proper way, at the proper time. In
Yoga, you learn how to have limitations, to lead a balanced life so you can enjoy it and
always be happy. It takes time to learn self-discipline. Sometimes the mind overtakes
your efforts. But don’t be too tough with your mind or it will rebel even more. Be
gentle, be nice. For a little while, give the mind a little rope, but keep it within a limit.
Training the mind is like training a child. By following the principles of Yoga all
unwanted habits will fall away.” ~Swami Satchidananda
46. Keep the lake of the mind always calm and clean.
“Whenever your peace is disturbed, reflect and you will realize, ‘I wanted something,
so that want fell into my calm mind, as a stone falling into a lake, and it started creating
ripples.’ If you try every time to adjust the mind by fulfilling its wants, there’s no end.
Even if you say, ‘Oh, this will be the last desire, the last thing I want and then no more,’
how many times would you have said that? You thought that by fulfilling your desires,
by enjoying them, they can come to an end. It’s something like adding more fuel,
thinking that you can put out the fire. The more you enjoy them, the more you
reconfirm and renew the desires.“ ~Swami Satchidananda
47. Bear insult, bear injury. This is the greatest Yoga.
“Anyone can do asanas, pranayama, meditate. That’s not great Yoga. Don’t think, ‘Oh, I
can do headstand for a half an hour, hold my breath for a couple of minutes.’ A fish
goes underwater for a long time holding the breath. Real Yoga is: adapt, adjust,
accommodate. Wherever you are, adapt yourself to that situation. Adjust yourself.
Accommodate. Bear insult, bear injury. This is the greatest Yoga. That doesn’t mean that
I don’t ask you to do asana and pranayama. Do that. Maybe it will help you to strengthen
the mind in order to bear insult and injury, because you need a strong mind, an
understanding mind. The world gives you plenty of opportunities to watch, train and
strengthen your mind.” ~Swami Satchidananda
48. You are already enlightened.
“There’s enlightenment in us all. However, it’s covered over and sometimes forgotten.
The light is there already. You are not given the light by anyone—not even by a
spiritual teacher. You are that light. You are the image of God. Nobody has to give you
enlightenment. If somebody has to give you enlightenment, then, one day, you’ll lose it.
You’re already enlightened, but you don’t know that. Your mind doesn’t want to accept
that. If the mind accepts that, it loses its power. The mind doesn’t want to lose it’s
power. In a way, it’s a tug-of-war between you and your mind. The mind wants you to
be its slave. Through Yoga, you are learning to control the mind.” ~Swami
Satchidananda
49. You can become the master of your own mind.
“Once, a man was riding his camel through the desert on his way to sell his wares. He
was lost in his own thoughts, planning where to go, whom to see, what profit was to be
made. While he was busy planning, the camel was also lost in thought: ‘When is this
devil going to stop and give me food and water?’ In the same way, you may have your
plan for doing your Yoga practices regularly, but your mind may be plotting something
different. If you know that, you won’t be disheartened by this trick of the mind. You’ll
need confidence to learn to direct your mind where you want it to go in order to live a
yogic life.” ~Swami Satchidananda
50. By sincere prayer you put yourself in a receptive mood.
“Through prayer, you become a good receiver. You tune your heart radio. Prayer is a
form of tuning. Once you tune your heart through prayer, you get all the cosmic things.
Whatever you pray for, you get. Pray for peace, you are tuning your radio to the peace
station. Pray for beauty, you tune to the beauty station. A poet wrote: ‘More things are
wrought by prayer than the world dreams of.’ We don’t know the power of prayers.
Don’t we say, ‘You want it, you got it!’ It is literally true; if you really want it sincerely,
you get it. Real want, sincere want, honest want is prayer. Through that sincere prayer,
you tune your heart to the divine. ~Swami Satchidananda
51. The dedicated enjoy supreme peace, therefore live only to serve.
“The human tendency is to think, ‘Me first.’ But, living a life of dedication means
putting others first, and giving back more than we receive. A yogi always try to give
back more than what we take from nature, and that is called yagna. When you accept
something from somebody and then give the same thing back, it’s just business.
Suppose somebody gives you $50 and you give back the $50. That’s fair business. If you
don’t give it, you’re a thief. If you give the same amount, you’re a businessperson. But
nature expects you to become something greater: a dedicated person. A dedicated
person will always offer more. Such a person will always be filled with peace and joy.”
~Swami Satchidananda
52. Breath is life. Let every breath bring fresh energy into your system.
“You breathe, but do you know how to breathe properly? Even the little breath
you do take in, isn’t always taken consciously. It just happens to go in and out by
divine grace. But if you become conscious of the breathing, and make it a little
deeper, you can charge the whole body with fresh life. With a powerful, full
breath, you can take in seven times more oxygen. That means much greater
purification of the blood, as well as oxygenation of the entire body. Every cell in
your body is a living being by itself. If you know how to do proper breathing,
you can live long, with enough energy in your body to keep it in perfect health.”
~Swami Satchidananda