Swami Vivekananda: Quotes about God

“The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , World , Religion , Feeling

“We believe that every being is divine, is God. Every soul is a sun covered over with clouds of ignorance; the difference between soul and soul is owing to the difference in density of these layers of clouds.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Soul , Sun

“Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God, this is the secret of greatness.”

Swami Vivekananda

Call to the Nation
Context: Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God, this is the secret of greatness. If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological Gods, and in all the Gods which foreigners have now and again introduced into your midst, and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you.

God , Secret , Faith

“He is present in every being! These are all in manifold forms of him. There is no other God to seek for! He alone is worshipping God, who serves all beings!”

Swami Vivekananda

As quoted in Vivekananda : The Yogas and Other Works (1953), p. 173; also at "The Story Of Swami Vivekananda: Mission Impossible" at MyLifeYoga (10 December 2011) http://mylifeyoga.com/2011/12/10/the-story-of-swami-vivekananda-mission-impossibl/
Context: After so much austerity I have known that the highest truth is this: He is present in every being! These are all in manifold forms of him. There is no other God to seek for! He alone is worshipping God, who serves all beings!

God

“I do not care to know your various theories about God.”

Swami Vivekananda

Call to the Nation
Context: Buddha is the only prophet who said, I do not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use of discussing all the subtle doctrines about the soul? Do good and be good.

God

“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God

“Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done.' We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.”

Swami Vivekananda

God , Dreams , Feeling

“Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book!”

Swami Vivekananda

Source: Raja-Yoga

Men , God , Books , Knowledge

“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Heart

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him — that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God

“Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.”

Swami Vivekananda

God

“Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

Life , God , Feeling , Christ

“As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Fear

“Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone can you do any true work. No eyes can see the real forces; we can only see the results. Put out self, forget it; just let God work, it is His business.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Business , Forgetting

“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.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Understanding , Nature , Knowledge

“Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Truth , Soul , Success

“God is merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom
Variant: God is merciful to those whom He sees struggling heart and soul for realization. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.

God , Soul , Heart

“Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are …but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom
Variant: Pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are... but unless you realize the Truth, there is no freedom.

God , World , Freedom , Time

“There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.”

Swami Vivekananda

Pearls of Wisdom

God , Hope , Sense

“Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth - sinners! It is a sin to call man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, lions! and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal.”

Swami Vivekananda

Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta, 1985, Vol I. p. 11. Quoted from Goel, S. R. (1996). History of Hindu-Christian encounters, AD 304 to 1996. Chapter 13 ISBN 9788185990354

God , Children , Soul , Nature