Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Self
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You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
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External nature is only internal nature writ large.
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In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.
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If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
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The Vedanta teaches that Nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and after having once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality.
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All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
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As body, mind, or soul, you are a dream; you really are Being, Consciousness, Bliss (satchidananda). You are the God of this universe.
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As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to protect it, to keep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become separate.
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First get rid of the delusion 'I am the body,' then only will we want real knowledge.
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Hold to the idea, 'I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act,' and each day the identification of yourself with thoughts and feelings will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself.
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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 born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.
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Stand as a rock; you are indestructible. You are the Self (atman), the God of the universe.
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Stand upon the Self, only then can we truly love the world. Take a very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.
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The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.
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The important thing is: how much less you think of the body, of yourself as matter-as dead, dull, insentient matter; how much more you think of yourself as shining immortal being.
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The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal.
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There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe. Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself:. Burst your own cocoon and come out as the beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will see Truth.
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There is one thing to be remembered: that the assertion-I am God-cannot be made with regard to the sense-world.
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This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself.
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Understanding human nature is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing it can we know God. It is also a fact that the knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and only by knowing God can we understand human nature.