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About this quote

What does it mean?
No external authority can save you; God must be a personal fact in consciousness.
In plain terms
Find God yourself; no one can save you or tell you.
What can you take from it?
Discover God personally rather than relying on authority.

Where it applies

  • religious conversion
  • spiritual seeking
  • philosophical inquiry

Putting it to work

  • seek personal experience
  • question dogma
  • practice self-inquiry

Questions to consider

  • Do you trust external authority in faith?
  • How do you find God?

Another view

Some find guidance through shared religious traditions.

More from Swami Vivekananda

  1. Neither seek nor avoid; take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure; be unattached.

    Permalink to quote #114
  2. One who leans on others cannot serve the God of Truth.

    Permalink to quote #116
  3. Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never…

    Permalink to quote #113

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