Rhythm

O Thou Almighty Deity,
Help me to keep my body and mind
Harmonious and tranquil.
Grant unto me a courage
That never yields to weakness.
A joyousness that never 
Gives way to sadness,
Make my heart invincible
To the attacks of the world,
And may I turn to Thee
At all times for help and guidance.

We must always maintain our balance, harmony and rhythm of life. This helps us to maintain the spiritual sanctity.
- Swami Paramananda

Love is the light of the Soul,
In which all that is perceived is truth -
Also the fire of the Spirit by which all that is base
Is transformed into good.
- N Sri Ram.

Love will arise like the sun at dawn, when the heart opens itself, free of all rigidities and self-centredness.
- N Sri Ram.

The Quality of Soul

The truth to which we aspire must include every truth we perceive; it must expand, rise and be susceptible to transmutation, as our perceptions and experience increase.
- N Sri Ram.

The deep appeal of religion lies in a nature of truth which strikes its roots in that aspect of man's being which responds, not with calculations or hesitation, but completely, with the utmost voluntariness and immediacy.
- N Sri Ram.

No man can attain his goal without practicing the higher principles of life. No man can be truly happy who is selfish. What possible use is outer light if there is darkness inside? Happiness is a quality of the soul. It enters the soul which has tasted God-consciousness. God is ever cheerful. Life is given us to work out our freedom and lasting happiness.

Prayer -
O Thou Giver of all joy,
May I not be unworthy of Thy gifts,
But may I radiate happiness and cheer
In every hour of my daily life.
Help me to realize that when I am sad,
It is because I am separated from Thee.
All my sadness and sorrow
Will vanish when I seek Thee with open heart.
- Swami Paramananda.

Freedom!

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali - Verse 35)



Though now million voices through thy
                   mouth sonorous shout,
Though millions hands hold thy
                   trenchant sword-blades out,
Yet with all this power now,
                   Mother, wherefore powerless thous?
Holder thou of myriad might,
                   I salute thee, saviour bright,
Thou who dost all foes afright,
Mother, Hail!
- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Anandamath, Part 1, Chapter 6. Song sang by Bhavan in the story)



Real freedom is freedom from all forms of self-centredness, from the grooves in which one ordinarily travels, from conventions by which one is bound, in short, freedom from the limitations of the self protecting self which feels insecure outside its walls.
- N Sri Ram.


Freedom is self-determination, not a reaction compelled or mechanical. He who is a slave to his passions, who is driven by habits of thoughts, emotion or action set up or contracted in ignorance, is not a free man.
-N Sri Ram.


The emancipation of our physical nature is in attaining health, of our social being in attaining goodness, and of our self in attaining freedom in love.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Action, humility and offering

The unseen dark plays on his flute,
And the rhythm of light,
Eddies into the stars and suns,
Into thoughts and reams.
- Rabindranath Tagor



सत्त्वत्संजायेते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च
प्रमाद्मोहो तमसो भवतोज्ञानमेव च
sattvat sanjayte gyanam  rajaso lobha eva cha
pramada mohau tamaso  bhavato agyanam eva cha
(Bhagavat Gita - Chapter 14, Verse 17)

Explanation - 
sattva - from the mode of goodness;
sanjayte - develops;
gyanam - knowledge;
rajasah - from the mode of passion;
lobhah - greed;
eva - certainly;
cha - also;
pramada - madness;
mohau - and illusion;
tamasah - from the mode of ignorance;
bhavatah - develops;
agyanam - nonsense;
eva - certainly
cha - also.

From the mode of goodness (sattva), real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion (tamas), greed develops, and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion.

Life is nothing but an action every moment being alive. Once man ceases to act, he is is no more alive. This action can be qualified as to be done in the below two attitudes - 

Sattva - This is the mode of doing an activity in devotion, totally not attached with the outcome. Here the activity is the path to wisdom. It is not a means to a goal. Rather it is done for its own sake. The doer offers his time, energy, and skills to the activity itself. The idea is to know, to be; not to have. It is being in the appreciation that the results are not just a function of the individual deeds. But rather, there is a bigger scheme of things, which is hidden, unknown and totally un-controllable from the perspective of the doer. There is no certainty of the result or life per-se. Rather what is in control is the process of entering into the action, and the attitude man develops for the action. That attitude is termed here as Sattva. It is the attitude of considering activity as a sacred journey, where the person venerates each moment in the activity, and offers his total being in the activity as such. 

Tamas - This is the mode of doing an activity in order to have something, to attain a goal. It is done from the level of a child who badly is attached towards having something, or somebody. Work is a means to have, devour, snatch, attain, win over the other - either a thing or a person. Here work is done in fear, anxiety, stress and profound greed. The process of doing the activity might be rigorous or superficial. That is not the point. But the attitude of the doer is the subject of discussion. For the doer, it is about his ego, his attachment, greed and the deep passion to Have. This is madness or illusion, as is expressed in the above verse. The truth is that results might come, or might not. And even if results are produced as expected, it is immaterial in the bigger scheme of things. The doer has to eventually forgo anything external that he abounds, sooner or later. This mode is totally removed from the attitude of being a part of a big scheme of things. There is no humility. And worst of all it is grounded in the passion to have. This leads the person to anger, destruction and pain, when he is not able to have his subject of attachment. 

One can see that even if one has enough money and adequate arrangements for sense gratification, there is neither happiness or peace of mind. That is not possible, because one is situated in the mode of passion. If one wants happiness at all, his money will not help him; he has to elevate himself to the mode of goodness by practicing Sattva. When one is engaged in the mode of passion, not only is he mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome. He has to devise so many plans and schemes to acquire enough money to maintain his status quo. This is all miserable. In the mode of ignorance, they take shelter of intoxication, and thus they sink further into ignorance.

Humility is not mere consciousness of our littleness, which might be only a feeling of disappointment at not being as important as we would wish to be, nor is it self-depreciation. Rather it is the eradication of all self-conceit, so that we become sweet and beautiful, have an openness of mind and heart, and feeling a really deep respect for another, whoever he may be, based on the recognition of his Godhead.

- N Sri Ram.

(Hence, humility is the starting point to really know some one else. It is the foundation of being receptive, understanding and loving to the other. It is the genesis of expanding out of the pigeonhole of one's own small self, and reaching out to the open universe. It adds newer dimensions to one's self. It makes man grow)

Religion lies in a state of mind and heart in which there is action, unreserved and complete, which action is a giving of itself by a nature which then manifests itself.

- N Sri Ram

Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls

For thy neck with my tears of sorrow.

The stars have wrought their anklets

Of light to deck thy feet,

But mine will hang upon thy breast.

Wealth and fame come from thee

And it is for thee to give or withold them.

But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own,

And when I bring it to thee,

As my offering thou rewardest me

With thy grace.

- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 83)

Thy Mighty Sword

Let my love, like sunlight,
Surround you and yet give you
Illumined freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore


Shutting out all external sense objects,
Keeping the eyes and vision concentrated
Between the two eyebrows,
Suspending the inward and outward breaths,
Within the nostrils,
And thus controlling
The mind, senses and intelligence,
The transcendentalist
Aiming at liberation becomes free
From desire, fear and anger.
One who is always in this state
Is certainly liberated.
- Bhagavat Gita (Chapter 5, Verse 27)

In the above verse, Krishna speaks puts forth the idea that forms, sound, tastes, smells and touches constantly bring their objects to agitate the mind, but one gets agitated by them only when one identifies oneself with the mental conditions. If we, there, shut out the external object - bot by physical methods such as plugging the ears, but by a discreet intellectual detachment from our mental reactions to the external world of  objects - we shall discover in ourselves, the necessary tranquillity to start meditation. The idea is being like the lotus untouched by the marsh in the pond - constantly radiating its fragrance and radiance around.

Keeping vision concentrated between the two eyebrows symbolizes the idea of maintaining the equipoise in pleasure and pain, fixed on to the Path.

There is an intimate relationship between desire, fear and anger. Desire is that pattern of thought in which the mind runs constantly towards a given object with an anxious expectation of procuring and possessing it. In the words of Erich Fromm, this is an orientation of the man towards the mode of "Having". Here man identifies himself with what he has, what he possesses. Where there is desire, there we come to experience fear. And it is very well known that when we desire a thing so much as to live ever in fear of losing it, maddening anger can exhibit itself at any moment against any threat of an obstacle between ourselves and our object of desire. When these three emotions - desire, fear and anger - are controlled, we have controlled almost all mad impulse of our intellect.

He who has thus freed himself from desire, fear and anger, who has controlled his senses, mind and intellect, in his all-consuming ambition for liberation, and who has quietened the flow of his breath, such an individual could remain in the contemplation of Truth, without contact with the external world, his eyes fixed steadily and held in an upward gaze. Krishna says: "such a man of meditation is verify free for ever".

I thought I should ask of thee -
But I dared not -
The rose wreath thou hadst on thy neck.
Thus I waited for the morning,
When thou didst depart,
To find a few fragments on the bed.
And like a beggar I searched in the dawn
Only for a stray petal or two.

Ah me, what is it I find?
What token left of they love?
It is no flower, no spices,
No vase of perfumed water.
It is thy mighty sword,
Flashing as a flame,
Heavy as a bolt of thunder.
The young light of morning
Comes through the window
And spreads itself upon thy bed.
The morning bird twitters and asks,
"Woman, what hast thou got?"
No, it is no flower, nor spices,
Nor vase of perfumed water -
it is thy dreadful sword.

I sit and muse in wonder,
What gift is this of thine.
I can find no place where to hide it.
I am ashamed to wear it,
Frail as I am,
And it hurts me
When I press it to my bosom.
Yet shall I bear in my heart
This honour of the burden of pain,
This gift of thine.

From now there shall be
No fear left for me in this world,
And thou shalst be victorious in all my strife.
Thou hast left death for my companion
And I shall crown him with life.
Thy sword is with me to cut asunder my bonds,
And there shall be no fear left for me in the world.

From now I leave off all petty decorations.
Lord of my heart,
No more shall there be for me
Waiting and weeping in corners,
No more coyness and sweetness of demeanour.
Thou has given me thy sword of adornment.
No more doll's decorations for me!
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali - Verse 52)

The aim of all meditation, whether so stated or not, must be to bring about an inner feeling of peace and serenity, of genuine friendliness to others and a consciousness of one's true relation to life in every form.

- N Sri Ram.

The true self determination takes its rise from a dimensionless point. It is not to be confused with any personal reaction. To arise and take place, it needs a heart and mind emptied of all predilections and prejudices.

- N Sri Ram.

Subtle Spiritual Nature

The Sorrow that has lost its memory is like the dumb dark hours that have no bird songs but only the circket's chirp.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Forget yourself, and think of the stars, the boundless expanse of the sky, the fair flowers in the field, the wonderful truths you can comprehend, the sympathy, the encouragement you can give to someone in need, in short, almost anything except yourselff and your wants.
- N Sri Ram.

When not tainted by the slightest touch of self-seeking, the giving of oneself, which is experienced as devotion, as love, and other feelings difficult to name because of their subtle spiritual nature, is reflected in all external relations and acts.
- N Sri Ram.

Thy gifts to us mortals fulfill all our needs
And yet run back to thee undeminished.

The river has its everyday work
To do and hastens through fields and hamlets;
Yet its incessant stream winds
Towards the washing of thy feet.

The flower sweetens the air
With its perfume;
Yet its last service is to
Offer itself to thee.

Thy worship does not
Impoverish the world.

From the words of poet
Men take what meanings please them;
Yet their last meaning points to thee.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali -Verse 75)

Deity of the ruined temple

The worm things its strange and foolish that man does not eat his books.
- Rabindranath Tagore


That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all living entities, though they are divided into innumerable forms, you should understand to be in the mode of goodness.
- Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 18, Verse 20)


Deity of the ruined temple!
The broken strings of Vina
Sing no more your praise.
The bells in the evening proclaim
Not your time of worship.
The air is still and silent about you.

In your desolate dwelling
Comes the vagrant spring breeze.
It brings the tiding of flowers -
The flowers that for your worship
Are offered no more.

Your worshiper of old wanders
Ever longing for favor still refused.
In the eventide, when fires and shadows
Mingle with the gloom of dust,
He wearily comes back
To the ruined temple
With hunger in his heart.

Many a festival day comes to you
In silence, deity of the ruined temple.
Many a night of worship
Goes away with lamp unlit.

Many new images are built
By masters of cunning art
And carried to the holy stream
Of oblivion when their time is come.

Only the deity of the ruined temple remains
Un-worshiped in deathless neglect.
-Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali, Verse 88)


From the One Reality,
Which is neither Spirit nor Matter
But both,
Life issues,
And issuing flows endlessly in streams,
Branching more and more into innumerable single lives,
Each specialized in its way,
Thus manifesting an infinite diversity
Of effects, qualities and capabilities.
This process reaching its limit,
The differentiated lives,
Turn back to unite,
Thus to re-become the Unity they ever were.
- N Sri Ram.


All virtues are really forms of perfection
Which is a blossoming form of the one Divine Seed
Which holds within itself
All that is pure, wonderful and sublime to man.
- N Sri Ram.

The Greatest Service

The greatest service one can render to his fellow beings is to spread an understanding of those fundamental truths with regard to life, which can lift them out of their problems and ignorance, and bring them to a condition of tranquility and happiness they had not experienced before.
- N Sri Ram.

We have to learn to interpret the truths of physical Nature in a manner which constitutes them a mirror for viewing the many aspected mystery of the Spirit.
-N Sri Ram.

Art thou abroad on this stormy night on the journey of love, my friend?
The sky groans like one in despari.

I have no sleep to-night.
Ever and again I open my door
And look out on the darkness, my friend!

I can see nothing before me,
I wonder where lies thy path!

By what dim shore of the ink-black river,
By what far edge of frowning forest,
Through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading hty course
To come to me, my friend?
 Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjai, Verse 23)

The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires of longings, O son of Kunti, and because of this the embodied living entity is bound to material fruitive actions.
- Bhagavat Git (Chapter 14, Verse 7)

The child ever dwells in the mysteries of ageless time, unobscured by the dust of history.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Worthy of simple gifts

The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive greate satisfction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.
- Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 10, Verse 9)

In this verse, Me/I/My refer to the ideal Archetype. It is the perfect aspect possible - the impersonal goodness - for the ongoing optimal evolution of mankind. It stands for the Truth, the Dharma.



He who does good, comes to the temple gate, he who loves reaches the shrine.
- Rabindranath Tagore.


A rhythm of harmony in oneself and an outward-turned sensitiveness is the foundation for Yoga, in which there is union between the knower and the known in a state of harmony comprehending both.
- N Sri Ram.


Every formulation by a pure consciousness, in a state of harmony within itself, is an expression of an aspect of Truth, being a creation of the Spirit, a portion of its life.
- N. Sri Ram.


My desires are many
And my cry is pitiful,
But ever didst thou save me
By hard refusals;
And this strong mercy
Has been wrought into my life
Through and through.

Day by day thou art making me worthy
Of the simple, great gifts
That thou gavest to me uasked -
This sky and the light,
This body and the life and the mind -
saving me from perils of overmuch desire.

There are times when I languidly linger
And times when I languidly linger
And times when I awaken and hurry
In search of my goal;
But cruelly thou hidest thyself from before me.

Day by day thou art
Making me worthy of thy full acceptance
By refusing me ever and anon,
Saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali - Verse 14)

Simplicity, Steadfastness and Freedom

In the deep shadows of the rainy July,
With secret steps,
Thou walkest,
Silent as night,
Eluding all watchers.

Today the morning has closed its eyes,
Heedless of the insistent calls of the loud east wind,
And a thick veil has been drawn over
The ever-wakeful blue sky.

The woodlands have hushed their songs,
And doors are all shut at every house.
Thou art the solitary wayfarer
In this deserted street.
Oh my only friend,
My best beloved,
The gates are open in my house -
Do not pass by like a dream.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 22)

Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils, and thus controlling the mind, sense and intelligence, the transcendentalist aiming at liberation becomes free from desire, fear and anger. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated.
The idea is about being steadfast on to the "Brahman". It is about keeping eyes and vision concentrated at the Brahman, going inwards, with complete mindfulness. It is not about suppression or repression. Rather it is about choosing what is essential and eternal and what is non-essential and ephemeral. It is about raising one's senses and nurturing to enable them to see the Brahman in the Prakriti, i.e. being able to see the invisible Archetype beyond the visible sensibilities. It is about having a steadfast sail erected onto the boat of mind, lost amidst the gushing and restless waves of the ocean of distraction of the finite, to be able to direct the boat to the infinite - The Truth - The Brahman.
- Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 5, Verse 28)

Freedom from sense of possession, whether with regard to things, persons, one's country, race or religion or even one's real or imagined virtues, calls for aripe understanding. Such freedom makes life simple, without superfluities, and streamlined in a manner which manifests the real beauty and nature of the indwelling Spirit.
- N Sri Ram

Simplicity lies in a direct and uncomplicated approach both to persons and things, so that we see them and meet them as they are. It is only simple mind which can understand and resolve complexities.
- N Sri Ram.

The earth's sacrificial fire flames up in her trees, scattering sparks in flowers.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Action in the Stillness of Knowing.

The sea smites his own barren breast because he has no flowers to offer to the moon.
- Rabindranath Tagore.


Without a sense of values, which is a knowledge of the way in which life finds its fulfilment, there can be no true wisdom.
- N Sri Ram


Unity is the deepest underlying fact of all. When from that Unity there goes forth the Word or impulse which is bodied in the manifested universe, it seems as if the Unity is lost, but in reality it is only hidden.
- N Sri Ram.


No more noisy, loud words for me -
Such is my master's will.
Henceforth I deal in whispers.
The speech of my heart
Will be carried on in
Murmurings of a song.

Men hasten to the King's market.
All the buyers and sellers are there.
But I have my untimely leave
In the middle of the day,
In the thick of work.

Let then the flowers
Come out in my garden,
Though it is not their time
And let the midday bees
strike up their lazy hum.

Full many an hour have I spent
In the strife of the good and the evil,
But now it is the pleasure of my playmate
Of the empty days to draw my heart on to him;
And I know not why is this sudden call
To what useless inconsequence.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 89)


...That is the historical lesson; and what is the lesson of the allegory? Conflict, evidently, between the lower manas, and the unfolding mind symbolized by Arjuna, and Kama, the passionate nature symbolized by the relatives, headed by Duryodhana embodying all the ties of the past. Arjuna stands for the lower manas, unilluminated, doubtful, wavering, questioning, vacillating, unsure of itself, always asking questions, and when answered, not understanding the answer, always puzzled as to what is really the best.
The Teacher comes down heavily: "Nor this world, not that beyond, nor happiness, is there for the doubting self." A self that is ever doubting and cannot make up its mind; who, the moment a question is decided, sees all the arguments on the other side and wants to begin over again to go through the whole, makes no progress. It is the exaggeration of the virtue of caution and prudence, the exaggeration of the a virtue which turns into a vice.
Better act and make a mistake, and thus learn to do better in the future than ever hesitate to act at all. For the paralysing doubt prevents you from gaining the lessons which experience alone can teach. This hesitation comes out strongly in all Arjuna's arguments. The urging to decisiveness comes out strongly in the words of the Teacher.
...Then comes the vision of the Supreme, that which alone takes away the taste for the pleasures yielded by the objects around us; only the Supreme is seen, when the fuller life suffuses the lesser, does the attractiveness of the life and the senses depart (ii, 59). Then manas arises triumphant, illuminated, with the light of the Self, clear, radiant, decided; the delusion is destroyed, and the warrior is the conqueror of his foes.
...In the battle he must plunge alone; by his strong right arm, by his own unflinching will, by unwavering courage, that battle must be fought to the bitter end. He feels himself utterly isolated. And in that isolation, that loneliness, it is that he must find the Self. There, in the midst of the struggle, when all are against him, the glory of the Self shines forth upon him, and he knows verily that he is not alone; in spite of the wounds, the blood from which was blinding him, in spite of the dinted armour, the soiled garments, and the broken weapons, the warrior soul stands undaunted to the end.
...The self without, must vanish before the Self within is realized. That is the experience of every warrior soul. that is the experience that everyone must pass through as he treads the path that leads to the Supreme; only  in that uttermost loneliness of desolation can Arjuna, or any other, find the Self.
Fear you not, then, you would-be warriors, when friends blame and turn aside; fear you not even when elders condemn, when youngsters despise, when equals scorn; go undaunted, unflinching, for the Self is within you.
You may make many mistakes, for the Self is embodied - mistakes belong to the body; and remember that they are the body, not the Spirit within, and, by the suffering which follows those very mistakes, the grosser matter is burned up and the Self becomes more manifest. Go on fighting, struggling, full of courage, with brave and undaunted heart, and, at the end of your battle on Kurukshetra, for you too shall dawn the Self in his majesty, destroyed shall be your delusions also, and you shall see your Lord as he is.
- Annie Besant (Hints on the study of the Bhagavadgita)

Whirl of this fearful joy

Is it beyond thee to be glad
With the gladness of this rhythm?
To be tossed and lost and broken
In the Whirl of this fearful joy?

All things rush on,
They stop not,
They look not behind,
No power can hold them back,
They rush on.

Keeping steps with that
Restless, rapid music,
Seasons come dancing and pass away -
Colors, tunes, and perfumes
Pour in endless cascades
In the abounding joy
That scatters and gives up
And dies every moment.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali - Verse 70)

The Reality which, according to those who can speak of it, is indescribable, one and complete and unchanging, cannot be unrelated to the changes in the realm of diversity. The worlds of form and consciousness are but a mirror for its reflections.
- N Sri Ram.

There is not a question of cultivating and practicing virtues, when the ground is clear, and there is purity in the soil; for then the Divine Seed, which is ever present, flowers as a free expression of one's pure, original, unmodified nature.
- N Sri Ram.

In the shady depth of life are the lonely nests of memories that shrink from words
- Rabindranath Tagore

The great plan you cannot change;
The opportunity is given to you to cooperate;
But, if driven by your past to cooperation and resisting the present by egoism,
By thinking yourself the actor instead of yielding yourself as a tool
In the great Dramatist's hand, you say,
'I will not fight; I will not do my duty; I will not perform my task;'
Then, although you are forced int unwilling obedience,
you will be utterly destroyed.
For your present choice is then to fail in your duty,
And that inner choice determines the present.
In any case the plan shall be triumphant,
and the egoism in which you took refuge shall destroy you.

Thus to Arjuna was made the Great Unveiling,
And his attitude to the world is changed.
He understands now
What history means.
He realizes the unchanging plan,
and the part in it of the individual selves
Who have made themselves worthy to cooperate with the Lord.
He knows now that Sri Krishna is Time -
Time made manifest to destroy these peoples.
Because the time has come when for good of all humanity,
These obstructive objects must be swept away, 'through fight'.
'Be thou the outward cause' (xi, 33),
The sword, the tool.
- Annie Besant (Hints on the study of the Bhgavad Gita)

Let only that little be left of me

Let only that little be left of me
Whereby I may name thee my all.

Let only that little be left of my will
Whereby I may feel thee on every side,
And come to thee in everything,
And offer to thee my love every moment.

Let only that little be left of me
Whereby I may never hide thee.

Let only that little of my fetters
Be left whereby I am bound with they will,
And thy purpose is carried out in my life
And that is the fetter of thy love.

- Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali, Verse 34)


...It was a delightful part of the jungle where the robbers brought Kalyani. But it was dark, and there were no eyes trained enough to appreciate its physical beauty. Like the nobility of a poor man's heart, the forest was beautiful sans appreciation. The entire country side was starving, yet were flowers whose fragrance lightened the darkness...
- Bankim Chandra Chatterji (Anandmath, Part1 Canto 3)


Although one may range the whole world, and have all its satisfactions and pleasures, one cannot be truly free unless one is free within oneself.
- N. Sri Ram.


To live creatively is not merely to create something out of an occasional stirring in oneself, but to re-create or regenerate ourselves so that we may be able to create out of an unfailing current in ourselves.
- N. Sri Ram.


In love all contradictions of existence merge themselves and are lost.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Giving and Openness

Arjuna had to understand that forms lose life, but that the Spirit dieth never, and that when the work of the form is over, it is well that it should be shattered into pieces; that only when the Spirit shapes for itself new forms, can larger unfolding take place. He who hesitates to destroy the form when its work is done knows not the power of the Life, that is the builder, and shall continue to build in days to come.
- Annie Besant - Hints on the Study of the Bhagavad Gita.

When the voice of the Silent touches touches my words, I know Him. And therefore I know myself.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Virtue lies in the nature and form of the most beautiful action possible in any given circumstances, and the most conducive to the fundamental good of all.
- N Sri. Ram.

It is extraordinary fact that the most beautiful qualities which can exist in a human being, such as simplicity, humility, selflessness and so on merge into an inner condition of grace and complete openness, unwarped by anything that happens to the exterior being.
- N. Sri. Ram

Given an attitude of openness, we can help others and ourselves. Without understanding, our best efforts to help will only hinder. Understanding cannot be achieved except with a sympathetic reception of the other man's feelings, from which arise his point of view.
- N Sri. Ram

I had gone a-begging from door to door in the village path,
Then thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream
And I wondered who was this King of all kings!
My hopes rose high and methought my evil days were at an end,
And I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust.
The chariot stopped where I stood.
Thy glance fell on me and thou camest down with a smile.
I felt that the luck of my life had come at last.
Then of a sudden thou didst hold out thy right hand and say,
"What has thou to give to me?"
Ah, what a kingly jest was it to open thy palm to a beggar to beg!
I was confused and stood undecided,
And then from my wallet I slowly took out the least little grain of corn and gave it to thee.
But how great my surprise when at the day's end I emptied my bag on the floor
To find a least little grain of gold.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali Verse 50)