Sri Ramakrishna Quotes and Sayings

• The vision of God is the only goal of human life.
   

• He who has realized God knows that God Himself has become the
  world and all living beings. When you feed your child, you should feel that you are feeding God. You should look on your father and mother as veritable manifestations of God and the Divine Mother, and serve them as such.
   

• It is extremely difficult to practise spiritual discipline and at the same
  time lead a householder's life. There are many handicaps: disease, grief, poverty, misunderstanding with one's wife, and disobedient, stupid, and stubborn children. I don't have to give you a list of them.
  "But still there is a way out. One should pray to God, going now and then into solitude, and make efforts to realize Him."
   

• Whenever you have leisure, go into solitude for a day or two. At that time don't have any relations with the outside world and don't hold
  any conversation with worldly people on worldly affairs. You must live either in solitude or in the company of holy men.
   

• Live in the world as the mud fish lives in the mud. One develops love of God by going away from the world into solitude, now and then, and meditating on God. After that one can live in the world unattached. The mud is there, and the fish has to live in it, but its body is not stained by the mud. Such a man can lead the life of a householder in a spirit of detachment.
   

• It is not so harmful for a householder who follows the path of knowledge to enjoy conjugal happiness with his own wife now and then. He may satisfy his sexual impulse like any other natural impulse. Yes, you may enjoy a sweetmeat once in a while.
   

• Dive deep. Learn to love God. Plunge into divine love.
   

• Can one find God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may feel at the most that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man unless he himself dives deep. Only after such a plunge, after the revelation of God through His grace, is one's doubt destroyed. You. may read scriptures by the thousands and recite thousands of texts; but unless you plunge into God with yearning of heart, you will not comprehend Him. By mere scholarship you may fool man, but not God.
   

• Scriptures and books—what can one achieve with these alone? Nothing can be realized without His grace. Strive with a longing heart for His grace. Through His grace you will see Him and He will talk to you.