Ramakrishna Jayanti 2022: Best Quotes by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for spiritual awakening

Famous spiritual leader and saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born on 18 February 1836 at Kamarpukur village in Hooghly district of West Bengal.

According to Hindu lunar calendar, it was Dwitiya, Phalguna, Shukla Paksha, Vikram Samvat 1892 when Ramakrishna was born. Each year, the birth anniversary of Ramakrishna is celebrated as per Hindu lunar calendar across all Ramakrishna Maths.

Ramakrishna Jayanti falls on March 4, this year.

On the occasion of his birth anniversary, here are some of the best quotes by the spiritual leader.

• He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life.
• You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.
• One cannot have the vision of God as long as one has these three – shame, hatred, and fear.
• Pure knowledge and pure love are one and the same thing. Both lead the aspirants to the same goal. The path of love is much easier.
• Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.
• Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.
• One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.
• The Man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself.
• God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.
• If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.
• Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.
• The winds of God’s grace are always blowing, it is for us to raise our sails.
• Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.
• God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.
• That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge.
• When divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.
• Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.
• Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body, as the tenant pays house-rent for the use of the house.