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The human soul is on its journey from the law to love, from discipline to liberation, from the moral plane to the spiritual. Buddha preached the discipline of self-restraint and moral life; it is a complete acceptance of law. But this bondage of law cannot be an end by itself; by mastering it thoroughly we acquire the means of getting beyond it. It is going back to Brahma, to the infinite love, which is manifesting itself through the finite forms of law.

Rabindranath Tagore#12

SpiritualityLoveDisciplineLaw

About this quote

What does it mean?
The soul moves from strict law to spiritual love; discipline is a means to reach higher freedom.
In plain terms
Discipline leads to spiritual freedom and love.
What can you take from it?
Use discipline to reach higher freedom.

Where it applies

  • religious study
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • master self-restraint
  • seek spiritual meaning

Questions to consider

  • Is your discipline an end or a means?
  • How do you move beyond rules?

Another view

Some find law itself sufficient without seeking beyond.

More from Rabindranath Tagore

  1. The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have …

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  2. Want of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the perfection of consciousness. We do not love because we do not comprehend, or rather we do not comprehe…

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit - the spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history.

    Permalink to quote #10

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