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It is always for greater joy that you give up the lesser. This is practical religion-the attainment of freedom, renunciation. Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher. Renounce! Renounce! Sacrifice! Give up! Not for zero. Not for nothing. But to get the higher.

Swami Vivekananda

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Swami Vivekananda
Age: 39 †
Born: 1863
Born: January 12
Died: 1902
Died: July 4
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Narendra Nath Datta
Vivekananda
Swamy Vivekananda
Narendranath Datta
Freedom
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Lesser
Always
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More quotes by Swami Vivekananda

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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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Every one wants to command, and no one wants to obey and this is owing to the absence of that wonderful brahmacharya system of yore. First, learn to obey. The command will come by itself. Always first learn to be a servant, and then you will be fit to be a master.
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My son, hold fast! Do not care for anybody to help you. Is not the Lord infinitely greater than all human help? Be holy--trust in the Lord, depend on him always, and you are on the right track. Nothing can prevail against you.
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Ordinary love is mere animal attraction. Otherwise why is the distinction between the sexes? If one kneels before an image, it is dreadful idolatry but if one kneels before husband or wife, it is quite permissible!
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The nearer we are to God, the less we will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from God, the more will long faces come. The more we know God, the more misery vanishes.
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Hold on to your own ideal. . . . Above all, never attempt to guide or rule others, or, as the Yankees say, boss others. Be the servant of all.
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That is good. It is a law of nature. That is the way with all founders of religion. Without persecution superior ideas cannot penetrate into the heart of society.
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The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot.
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According to the law of nature, wherever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and the decaying. Nature favours the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest. The final result of such conflict between the priestly and the other classes has been mentioned already.
Swami Vivekananda
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Live for an ideal and leave no place in the mind for anything else.
Swami Vivekananda
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You have the right to work, but do not become so degenerate as to look for results. Work incessantly, but see something behind the work. Even good deeds can find a man in great bondage. Therefore be not bound by good deeds or by desires for name and fame.
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Perfection is always infinite.
Swami Vivekananda
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Brave, bold people, these are what we want.
Swami Vivekananda
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I have come to deal with principles. I have only to preach that God comes again and again, and that He came in India as Krishna, Rama, and Buddha, and that He will come again. It can almost be demonstrated that after each 500 years the world sinks, and a tremendous spiritual wave comes, and on the top of the wave is a Christ.
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Only man makes Karma.
Swami Vivekananda
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In the English character, the give and take policy, the business principle of the trader, is principally inherent.
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He who wants to become a Bhakta must be strong, must be healthy.
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Thoughts are living things - they travel far.
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The Absolute God of the universe, the creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe, is impersonal principle.
Swami Vivekananda
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How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.
Swami Vivekananda