15 Quotes by Swami Vivekananda, the Great Hindu Monk from India

Today is 124^th Anniversary of the epic speech made at the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago by an unknown Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda from India. This speech took America by storm and made Swami Vivekananda the darling of the US and the world. A Glimpse of his famous speech and his beautiful quotes are produced below. 

What a speech! Makes us speechless! What a great voice! What a great personality behind! The greatest truth in his quotes! Vivekananda; An epitome of pure truth India has ever produced!

11th of Sept. 1893;…..

“Sisters and brothers of the America…...I thank you in the name of…..I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of  all classes and sects,……..I am proud to belong to  a religion which has taught the world both the tolerations  and universal acceptance……We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions to be true…….I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the world,……different streams having their sources in different places…leading to sea…..wonderful doctrine preached  in Gita….whosoever comes to me through whatever form, I reach him…..”

And his greatest quotes:

1.     Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.

2.      Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.

3.      We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet.

4.      So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.

5.      Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.

6.      If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, … and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.

7.      Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.

8.      The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new Gospel.

9.      Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all, love.

10.   Religion is realization; not talk, not doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes.

11.   Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.

12.   Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.

13.   They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.

14.   This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.

15.  It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.

(Image Source: http://chicago-speech-of-vivekananda.soft112.com/)

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