GREAT QUOTES - FROM - SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA

GREAT QUOTES

FROM

SWAMI CHINMAYANANDA

Swami Chinmayananda (8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993) was an Indian spiritual leader and teacher born in Kerala; he was the force behind the formation of the Chinmaya Mission in 1953 to spread the message of Vedanta. The organization has over 300 centres in India and internationally.

He was a disciple of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, who founded the Divine Life Society. He was later advised by Swami Sivananda to study under Tapovan Maharaj in Uttarkashi in the Himalayas.

I find a beautiful narration of his having the Darshan of Ramana Maharshi – as below :

“At the Ashram I was told that the Maharshi was in the hall and anybody was free to walk in and see him. As I entered, I saw on the couch an elderly man, wearing but a loincloth, reclining against a round bolster. I sat down at the very foot of the couch. The Maharshi suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight into mine: I looked into his. A mere look, that was all. I felt that the Maharshi was, in that split moment, looking deep into me – and I was sure that he saw all my shallowness, confusions, faithlessness, imperfections, and fears. I cannot explain what happened in that one split moment. I felt opened, cleaned, healed, and emptied! A whirl of confusions: my atheism dropping away, but scepticism flooding in to question, wonder, and search. My reason gave me strength and I said to myself, ‘It is all mesmerism, my own foolishness.’ Thus assuring myself, I got up and walked away.

But the boy who left the hall was not the boy who had gone in some ten minutes before. After my college days, my political work, and after my years of stay at Uttarkashi at the feet of my master, Tapovanam I knew that what I gained on the Ganges banks was that which had been given to me years before by the saint of Tiruvannamalai on that hot summer day – by a mere look."

Swami Chinmayananda died on 3^rd, August, 1993 in San Diego, California at the age of 77. His mortal remains were placed in a Samadhi on 19 August 1993, at the Sidhbari Ashram in the Himalayas.

Below are some of his most beautiful Quotes : 

Ø  The faculty of discrimination, this power of judgment, this ability to discern what is right and what is wrong, what is to be done and what is not to be done, is the function of the intellect. The dignity and culture of mankind lie in the exercise of this faculty and when this wondrous equipment is left neglected, man is bound to deteriorate to the status of an animal and suffer the consequences thereof.

Ø  Determination should not turn into arrogance and resolution into obstinacy. Often they do...... Love is the antidote.

Ø  We choose our Joys and Sorrows...  Long before we experience them.

Ø  In order to turn the mind towards higher contemplation and realization of the divine Self, a sense of detachment from the fascination for the world and its avenues of enjoyment is imperative.   Such detachment has to be cultivated at the mental level. It cannot be obtained by mere physical retirement from the world but by maintaining a proper relationship with it.

Ø  If you are Good, He comes to protect.

Ø  No growth is possible unless there is a willingness to drop out of our previous conditions and accept the ampler status of the new conditions.    If the bud is not ready to end its present state, how can it grow and unfold itself to become flower?

Ø  Spiritual living is the Science that teaches us how to repair our broken hearts and draw the music out of them.

Ø  Let not your choice leave behind a sense of guilt..... Try to be good, never mind if you fail....  Every good thought sent out rebounds with a hundred times its force upon the sender himself.

Ø  In spite of all our best efforts, we may slip now and then. But that need not worry us. We are imperfect ones trying our best to gain perfection. Let every slip in us be an education for us.  Let us grow and expand, ultimately to improve, to shine out.

Ø  Life is spent in "meeting challenges". To meet them efficiently is the game....Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Meet them we must; there is no choice....If you meet them with courage and faith in yourself, you win....If you neglect to be dynamic and diligent all the time, if you sulk and try to avoid them they will roll on with merciless aggressiveness and crush you in blind fury......This is the law of life.

Ø  The quality of our actions and reactions depends upon our vision of life....A narrow vision is divisive. A broad vision is expansive.....But the Supreme Vision is all-inclusive.

Ø  A strong mind is cultivated by living moral values. All outer actions start gathering a dazzling polish, once your mental values change. A morally strong person spends less of his mental powers in facing the day to day problems of life....Moral values and ethical principles adopted and accepted by you must be lived fearlessly, even in the face of death....Never compromise, under any amount of pressure. You will find God's help coming to you, to pull you out from even the direst situation.

Ø  When Time employs you, you become a slave; but if you intelligently employ Time, you become the master of Time, and Time becomes your slave!....Make a very tight programme for each day and religiously keep it up. Make a general programme for a week, then for a month. .....Diligently whip yourself to be totally faithful to your own programme. 

Ø  The cultured give happiness wherever they go....The uncultured whenever they go.

Ø  "Be ruthlessly discriminative.
Let not the heart wander away without the intellect, its Master.".....However,..He also says,.."In life, to handle yourself use your head...  But to handle others, use your heart."

Ø  Introspect Daily...   Detect Diligently...   Negate Ruthlessly...   Substitute Wisely...   Grow Steadily...... and BE FREE!

Ø  The Eternal Law provides each one of us with a circumstance in life and an occasion to enjoy or suffer strictly according to and in continuation of our past. ...Nothing happens in fits and starts. There are no accidents in the Eternal Law. 

Ø  The Principle is simple -  You can never solve a problem as long as you are in the problem...  Get out of it!

Ø  See Positive, Seek Positive, Stay Positive.....  Every day may not be good...   but there's something good in every day....   Every person may not be good...   but there is something good in every person.

Ø  Satsang is not mere company of the wise. The walls of the temple know no God; the desks of the assembly hall know no Government; the mala knows no japa; the cow of hermitage knows no vedanta. But a Mumukshu gains in spirituality every moment of his stay in his Guru's presence. How?....   He watches every action of his Guru, hears every word He utters, and comes to know every thought He thinks. In short, the development of the disciple depends upon his capacity to tune himself to his Guru. The tuning to the wise is Satsang....   Remember! Not even Shri Adi Shankaracharya's rudraksha mala had any development but remained ever a mala only, although it did stay always next to heart of the world-teacher all the time!!

Ø  Man's control of nature external is called civilisation....His control of nature internal is called culture.

Ø  Act efficiently whenever you work. Then you grow , and your community grows with you. Refuse to burden yourself with worries and anxieties for the results of action, even while you are performing the action. ...   Remember, the results of actions depends upon the very quality of your actions. 

Ø  Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect....  It means that you've decided to look beyond imperfections.

Ø  When we act, the glory of our action is dependent upon, not the environment, not where you work and how you work, but it is the intention or motive, behind the work that lends enchantment to the very work.

Ø  "Efficiency" is the capacity in an individual to funnel out his available "Competency" into the field of action. The intelligent preparedness is called "competency", to be expressed as "efficiency". The vital artery carrying the competency into the work is our mind. Therefore mental discipline is the secret of all efficiency, the conduit of poised competency.

Ø  Efficiency is the capacity to bring proficiency into expression.

Ø  What comes to you unasked is what comes from Him. ....   Serve all, at all times, in all ways. But let not your goodness be a liability on you. Don't allow others to play pranks on you because of your goodness. Be fully conscious of the weaknesses and goodness. Love them! Serve them!

Ø  By telling a lie, you create two personalities,...   one weakening the other, with no gain whatsoever.

Ø  To relax ourselves for an hour in a quiet corner, and to compose ourselves to the serene silence within, is to open one's pores to the dynamic touch of creative life.... This is meditation - this is the highest form of prayer too. 

Ø  When the intention is noble, the act is also noble, whatever be the act.

Ø  The will to face up the challenges that one comes across in the world is born out of one’s own courage of conviction. Everyone of us has ideas of our own, but only a few of us live up to them. At the mere suggestion of a challenge to those ideals, we readily tend to fall a victim to it and become ready to compromise with our ideals. This is Dishonest Living - Asathyam!

Ø  This supreme essence born as a mass of beauty, music and joy, dazzling in wisdom, noisy with laughter, ever a master of circumstances, a king of events, frisking about in life's melancholy contentions, meeting challenges with daring and confidence, at once a hero and a child all rolled in one - this is the perfect god-man, the eternal child of Vrindavan. 

Ø  It is not necessary to give up the objects outwardly. Letting go mentally of your dependency on the object, the clinging attitude, is sufficient to create a feeling of completeness within yourself and within the moment....   Simply have the attitude:   "I don't have to have IT in order to be the WHOLE. I can Let go and still be full and complete”

Ø  Life has two movements: Forward and Lateral, like a car on the road. The petrol will push the vehicle merely forward. The lateral movements are controlled by the driver. This forward dash in space is called destiny and the lateral movement is self effort. If the driver is drunk, the forward movement of the car shall reach the gutters on the side in a tragic crash. But if the driver is intelligent, careful at every yard of the vehicle's movement, he can take us to our destination safely....   Don't sleep on the steering wheel of your life.

Ø  Talk Less...   Think More...   Act Wisely 

Ø  Avoid COMPARISON TRIPS.... What you have now is His thoughtful gift....   STOP crying for what you have not... You don't really need them.... When needed they will be given.

Ø  The suffering of each depends, not upon the factual happenings,...   but upon the texture of each one's mind.

Ø  A perfect man's mind ... It reflects everything, rejects nothing.... It receives everything but keeps nothing.... Like a mirror.

Ø  History is full of instances, wherein, victory would have been to the vanquished, if only they had battled a little longer! We often fail for lack of perseverance in our efforts. We leave our work half done in our impatience. Every job demands its quota of efforts. Never give up too soon.

Ø  Flood your mind with love. Look into the eyes of the other and embrace the person with whom you have quarreled. Words are not necessary. Both will have their eyes flooded, and the joy of tears will wash away all quarrels.

Ø  Success or achievement is not the final goal. It is the 'spirit' in which you act that puts the seal of beauty upon your life.

Ø  Nature specializes in a kind of paradox ...  Nature destroys and her destructions are always constructive destructions. ... The bud is destroyed when the flower blooms,... and the flower fades when the fruit emerges,...   and the fruit decays when seeds are scattered ...   Seeds decay when plants sprout....   This process of Constructive Destruction is Shiva, the Annihilator.

=With Pranams to the Master &

Greetings to all his Disciples & Fans

(v.vijayamohan)