"We should yearn for the Divine Spirit with confidence and with a feeling of closeness as to a father and mother."
Sri Karunamayi
If even a single one of the senses is uncontrolled, all knowledge leaves a person just as water drains from a leaking water vessel. Manu Samhita, Verse II.99
"Fasting is possible. You can stay without food for a week or ten days. Feasting is also possible. You simply go and eat all you want. Many people are really fast when they end their fast. They are fast in getting to the refrigerator." Swami Satchidananda on the need to follow the "middle path"
A deeply devout man lived down in a valley. He had absolute faith that God would always look after him. One day a great storm came. It rained for days, and the valley flooded. The waters submerged the first floor of his home. As he looked out from the second floor, a rescue boat came by. "Come. We will save you," the rescuers cried. "Thank you," the man replied, "but God will save me. You go help the others in need." They tried to convince him to join them, but finally gave up and left. The flood continued, submerging the entire house. The man took refuge on the roof. A helicopter flew over. "Come. The dam has broken upstream. We will save you," the rescuers cried. "Thank you, no," the man calmly replied. "I know beyond any doubt that God will save me." They tried and tried to convince him. But he remained. The waters continued to rise, and the man drowned. He soared into the inner worlds in his soul body and found himself face to face with God. "I trusted you," he cried. "Why didn't you save me?" God answered, "I sent you a boat and a helicopter. What more did you want?"
Life is like photography. You use the negatives to develop. Swami Beyondananda
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) quoting from the Bhagavad Gita as he watched the mushroom cloud of the first atomic bomb rise in the New Mexico, USA desert on July 16, 1945
There once was a salesman who knocked on the door of a Buddhist monk and tried to sell him a vacuum cleaner. The Buddhist monk thought about it for a minute and said, "OK, I'll take one–but no attachments."
Mahatma Gandhi visited London in 1932. He toured the city wearing traditional dhoti and khadi shawl. People who met him were shocked with his "barbaric" attire, and he was the subject of ridicule–notably by Churchill himself. On one occasion Gandhi accepted an invitation to tea from King George V, "Emperor of India." When asked afterwards if he felt underdressed, Gandhi replied, "His Majesty had enough clothes on for both of us."
Those who have worldly desires suffer from restlessness even in the solitude of the forest. Those who have disciplined their senses, they practice austerities even while living in a crowded home.
Hitopadesha, Chapter 4