Disciples should be careful in their daily lives. If they perform wrong or bad actions, the effect might accrue to the guru. That is why proper precaution is taken by the guru–preceptor in choosing disciples. The scriptures say that spiritual wisdom should only be provided to very qualified seekers or disciples. Gurus do not bestow Self-knowledge and spiritual wisdom on everybody; they carefully select students.

How long do we wish to continue this drama, this play of karma, this play of emotion, anger, jealousy, fear, frustration, and worry? We choose whether we want to continue the drama a little longer. Gurudev liked to use the expression, “The world is the play of kiss and kick.” This world is full of suffering, but little pleasure. A little sweetness, lots of sourness. Gurudev used to call it a “sugar-coated bitter tablet.”

Gandhi has sound economic and cultural reasons for encouraging the revival of cottage industries, but he does not counsel a fanatical repudiation of all modern progress. Machinery, trains, automobiles, the telegraph have played important parts in his own colossal life! Fifty years of public service, in prison and out, wrestling daily with practical details and harsh realities in the political world, have only increased his balance, open-mindedness, sanity, and humorous appreciation of the quaint human spectacle.

After realization, whether a jnani takes another body is up to them, because he or she has no remaining karma. First, seekers must decide whether they want realization. Then they must ask themselves why they want to be realized. Realization means to be free. Free from what? Free from all suffering: duhkha nivritti. If someone is free from all suffering, what happens? Eternal bliss. If the goal is to achieve eternal bliss by being free from suffering, whether a realized one returns or not, if they are in a state of bliss, does it matter if they stay or leave?

God is the ocean, creation is the wave, and we are like bubbles in the waves. Ultimately, what is the difference between the ocean, the waves, and the bubble? The ocean is vast and the waves are small. The waves are born on the lap of the ocean and merge in the ocean. In the waves many ripples and bubbles are created, and inside the bubbles there is a little air, in the film of water. So if God is the ocean, the ocean is nothing but water. Waves are the creation; they are nothing but water. The small bubbles are also water. God, creation, and the individual are all essentially one, just like the forms of water in the ocean.

A smooth life is not a victorious life.

Cultivate purity and love in every breath.

Merging in pure Voidness is called Samadhi.

Come to the guru with the attitude to learn.

The entire universe is God's cosmic motion picture...

From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.

Smiling away your troubles requires a clear conscience that harbors no insincerity.

If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny.

The soul is beyond the five gross elements. Soul is the controller and conductor of everything.

Breath and mind are correlated. When the restlessness of the prana disappears, life becomes divine.

Fear was given to man as a cautionary device to spare him pain; it is not meant to be cultivated and abused.

True penance is to endure the dualities in life like heat, cold, pleasure, pain, loss, and gain, praise and censure.

Calmness and completeness are one and the same thing. If you are experiencing incompleteness, then you cannot be calm.

Success should be measured by the yardstick of happiness; by your ability to remain in peaceful harmony with cosmic laws.

We do not always see the things that are nearest to us. We pass by riches that lie close at hand and chase after rainbows.

Life is to grow in knowledge, love, and perfection. Be perfect through sincere effort. Rest not until you attain that state of perfection.

When this love becomes developed in man it makes him able to understand the real position of his own Self as well as of others surrounding him.

Be in the world. Those whom you see are not different from you. We all are one, but playing different parts. Do not forget that it is just a play.