This ego - the less there is of it, the nearer I am to that which I really am: the universal body.
Swami VivekanandaI have long given up the idea of a little house on the Ganges, as I have not the money.
Swami VivekanandaThink of a space in your heart, and in the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think of that a flame is burning. Think of that flame as your own soul and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon that in the heart.
Swami VivekanandaThank God for giving you this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world.
Swami VivekanandaSeek no praise, no reward, for anything you do. No sooner do we perform a good action than we begin to desire credit for it. No sooner do we give money to some charity than we want to see our names blazoned in the papers. Misery must come as the result of such desires.
Swami VivekanandaMan stands in materialism; you and I are materialists. Our talking about God and Spirit is good; but it is simply the vogue in our society to talk thus: we have learnt it parrot-like and repeat it. So we have to take ourselves where we are as materialists, and must take the help of matter and go on slowly until we become real spiritualists, and feel ourselves spirits, understand the spirit, and find that this world which we call the infinite is but a gross external form of that world which is behind.
Swami Vivekananda