Sri Ramakrishna Quotes and Sayings

• One can realize God if one feels intense dispassion for worldly things. A man with such dispassion feels that the world is like a forest on fire.
   

• What is wrong with image worship? The Vedanta says that Brahman manifests Itself where there is 'Existence, Light, and Love' Therefore nothing exists but Brahman.
   

• In the beginning of spiritual life one goes by a roundabout way. One has to suffer a great deal. But the path becomes very easy when ecstatic love is awakened in the heart. It is like going over the paddy-field after the harvest is over. You may then walk in any direction. Before the harvest you had to go along the winding balk,
  but now you can walk in any direction. There may be stubble in the field, but you will not be hurt by it if you walk with your shoes on. Just so, an aspirant does not suffer if he has discrimination, dispassion, and faith in the guru's words.
   

• Prema (love) is the rope by which you can tether God, as it were. Whenever you want to see Him you have merely to pull the rope. Whenever you call Him, He will appear before you.
   

• How can a devotee attain such love? First, the company of holy men. That awakens sraddha, faith in God. Then comes nishtha, single-minded devotion to the Ideal. In that stage the devotee does not like to hear anything but talk about God. He performs only those acts that please God. After nishtha comes bhakti, devotion to God; then comes bhava. Next mahabhava, then prema, and last of all the
  attainment of God Himself. Only for Isvarakotis, such as the Incarnations, is it possible to have mahabhava or prema.
   

• The darkness of the mind is destroyed only when a man stands little apart from. 'woman and gold' and, thus standing apart, practises a little austerity and spiritual discipline. Then only does the cloud of his ego and ignorance vanish. Then only does he attain the Knowledge of God. This 'woman and gold' is the only cloud that hides the Sun of Knowledge.
   

• Be firm in one ideal—either in God with form or in the formless God. Then alone will you realize God; otherwise not. With firm and unwavering belief the followers of God with form will realize Him, as will those who speak of Him as formless. You may eat a cake with icing either straight or sidewise; it will taste sweet either way.