Sri Sri Quotes & Sayings

Look at your mind dispassionately; this is enough to calm it. When it is quiet, you can go beyond it. Do not keep it busy all the time. Stop it - and just BE. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The language of the heart
Is the only language
That everybody can understand. — Sri Chinmoy

Arise, transcend Thyself, Thou art man and the whole nature of man Is to become more than himself. — Sri Aurobindo

Every second a seeker can start over,
For his life's mistakes
Are initial drafts
And not the final version. — Sri Chinmoy

If you play divine music, spiritual music, then you are bound to give and get satisfaction. — Sri Chinmoy

Keeping the mind happy makes work effortless. This is the skill for productivity! — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

What comes to me unmistakably is what I carefully or carelessly invite. — Sri Chinmoy

Yoga is a generic name for any discipline by which one attempts to pass out of the limits of one's ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness. — Sri Aurobindo

A gratitude-heart
Is to discover on earth
A Heaven-delivered rose — Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy was a once in a lifetime spiritual leader who touched the lives of millions of people through his teachings, art, athletics, and music. He was a student of peace and he embodied peace. Sri Chinmoy was a great man and his life's work significantly helped to build world harmony and will continue to do so. — Al Gore

When every action of yours is preceded by witnessing, then every move you make in this world becomes perfect and significant. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

People feel they are not participating in the decision-making process. Decisions are exclusive to those at the very top. You have grown up with crony capitalism and it creates ever more resentment. — Sri Mulyani Indrawati

There are four great events in history, the siege of Troy, the life and crucifixion of Christ , the exile of Krishna in Brindaban and the colloquy on the field of Kurukshetra. The siege of Troy created Hellas, the exile in Brindaban created devotional religion, (for before there was only meditation and worship), Christ from his cross humanized Europe, the colloquy at Kurukshetra will yet liberate humanity. — Sri Aurobindo

The criteria for success: you are free, you live in the present moment, you are useful to the people around you, and you feel love for all humanity. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life flows. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Whatever you put attention on will start manifesting in your life. Intention, attention, manifestation; that is how the universe works. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Drop all your botheration to me and be free of worry — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

After surviving the tsunami in Sri Lanka and facing that moment where I was not sure if I would live to see the next, I learned all that matters is now. — Rosie Fellner

There comes a time in the seeker's life when he discovers that he is at once the lover and the beloved. — Sri Chinmoy

If you are bombarded by so many thoughts in solitude, you are in ignorance. If you are calm even amidst a crowd then you are in knowledge. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

God loves only one philosophy,
And that is the Do-it-here-now philosophy. — Sri Chinmoy

Thy goal, the road thou choosest are thy fate. — Sri Aurobindo

The world badly needs more peaceful and loving men like Sri Chinmoy. I am a Muslim and he is serving all people of peace. Sri Chinmoy is doing so much for the world, for people of all faiths, because of his own peace and faith. — Muhammad Ali

Reliable numbers about the amount of dirty money around the world are difficult to come by. But according to an estimate by the nonprofit Global Financial Integrity group, $1 trillion vanishes from the developing world's economies every year. — Sri Mulyani Indrawati

That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Financial inclusion helps lift people out of poverty and can help speed economic development. It can draw more women into the mainstream of economic activity, harnessing their contributions to society. — Sri Mulyani Indrawati

The root of fear is the feeling of not being what you are. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Every person I've known has had an effect on me, as have people whom I've not met in the physical in this life, but whom I've met inwardly, teachers from other eras - Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramakrishna and Lao Tse. — Frederick Lenz

You are so used to the support of concepts that when your concepts leave you, although it is your true state, you get frightened and try to cling to them again. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The meditation that gives you immediate joy or continuous joy is the best meditation for you. Everyone will not have the same meditation. Your meditation will not suit me, my meditation will not suit you. You like a certain food, I don't like it. You are right in your own way I am right in my own way. But once you know what your best meditation is, please stick to it. — Sri Chinmoy

1. the Hindole Raga is heard only at dawn in the spring, to evoke the mood of universal love; 2. Deepaka Raga is played during the evening in summer, to arouse compassion; 3. Megha Raga is a melody for midday in the rainy season, to summon courage; 4. Bhairava Raga is played in the mornings of August, September, October, to achieve tranquillity; 5. Sri Raga is reserved for autumn twilights, to attain pure love; 6. Malkounsa Raga is heard at midnights in winter, for valor. — Paramahansa Yogananda

The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the door of the spirit. — Sri Aurobindo

Man's eternal question is:'Who is God?'God's immediate answer is:'My child, who else is God, if not you? — Sri Chinmoy

Religions, creeds and forms are only a characteristic outward sign of the spiritual impulsion and religion itself is the intensive action by which it tries to find its inward force. Its expansive movement comes in the thought which it throws out on life, the ideals which open up new horizons and which the intellect accepts and life labours to assimilate. — Sri Aurobindo

I'm a Canadian citizen. But I always want to feel at home in Sri Lanka. I'm a member of both countries. — Michael Ondaatje

What you call the psychic being is the mind of the vital. The heart is the seat of this mind. And this mind is the essence of the senses. It receives things from outside, acts upon things that are outside - knows, gives consent, takes interest in them. But this mind cannot be the Ishwara, but it is the knower, the giver of the consent. — Sri Aurobindo

You are all that you are longing for. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

A healthy mind always likes to adore others, elevate them. An unhealthy mind likes to pull everything down. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The great are strongest when they stand alone, A God-given might of being is their force. — Sri Aurobindo

The inner light actually comes from the soul; it is already inside us. The moment we can have free access to our soul, we will see that this light is coming to the fore to permeate our whole outer existence. — Sri Chinmoy

By your stumbling, the world is perfected. — Sri Aurobindo

The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die ... but the forms are dissolved. — Sri Aurobindo

Forgiveness is praised by the Christian and the Vaishnava, but for me, I ask, "What have I to forgive and whom?" — Sri Aurobindo

To play with baubles is our ambition, not to deal with grave questions in a spirit of serious energy. But while we are playing with baubles, with our Legislative Councils, our Simultaneous Examinations, our ingenious schemes for separating the judicial from the executive functions, while we, I say, are finessing about trifles, the waters of the great deep are being stirred and that surging chaos of the primitive man over which our civilised societies are superimposed on a thin crust of convention, is being strangely and ominously agitated. — Sri Aurobindo

Our usual attitude is of 'I am this'. Separate consistently and perseveringly the 'I am' from 'this' or 'that', and try to feel what is means to be, just to be, without being 'this' or 'that'. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

If the inner world is inundated with peace, then the nightmare of world war cannot even come into being. — Sri Chinmoy

If you have true gratitude, it will express itself automatically. It will be visible in your eyes, around your being, in your aura. It is like the fragrance of a flower. In most cases if there is a beautiful flower, the fragrance will be there naturally. The flower and its fragrance cannot be separated. — Sri Chinmoy

Either by silencing the mind or by opening the heart, today's man can become tomorrow's God, tomorrow's Divinity. And embodied Divinity soon becomes revealed Immortality. — Sri Chinmoy

Move your personal investments and retirement funds to socially responsible investment (SRI) funds that support only those corporations that uphold higher standards of behavior. Returns on SRI funds are usually equal to, if not better than, many of the well-known traditional mutual funds. — Simon Mainwaring

Life is more than matter. If it were just matter, there would be no need for comfort. Matter does not feel comfort or discomfort, beauty or ugliness, love or compassion, joy or sorrow. Will a chair ever feel sorry or happy? No, matter does not have these finer values. They belong to the realm of the spirit. But life is also more than spirit. If it were just spirit, there would be no need for water, food, or rest. Human life is a combination of both matter and spirit. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Reality is neither subjective nor objective, neither mind nor matter, neither time nor space. These divisions need somebody to happen to, a conscious separate center. But reality is all and nothing, the totality and the exclusion, the fullness and the emptiness, fully consistent, absolutely paradoxical. You cannot speak about it, you can only lose yourself in it. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Suffering is a product of limited knowledge. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

For those who do not have faith in God, fear is a way to protect them. But if faith is strong, there is no anxiety about something in danger. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow. — Sri Aurobindo

See the possibility that people and things can change at any time and don't hold on to judgements. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Yukteswar showed no special consideration to those who happened to be powerful or accomplished; neither did he slight others for their poverty or illiteracy. He would listen respectfully to words of truth from a child, and openly ignore a conceited pundit. — Paramahansa Yogananda

For what the Spirit sees becomes a truth
And what the soul imagines is made a world — Sri Aurobindo

I love to travel with my family or my two best friends because I completely trust them. I forced my two best friends into learning to scuba dive with me in Sri Lanka - it was amazing but also hideous because we were learning in very difficult seas. — Julia Sawalha

If you are passionate, be passionate about the highest, the most wonderful, and the most beautiful. Be passionate about this entire creation for everything is so beautiful. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Your world is very small. Your world is bundle of your experiences. Have you observed this? — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Paternalistic regulations often prohibit women from holding jobs in certain industries: In the Russian Federation, women cannot drive trucks in the agriculture sector; in Belarus, they cannot be carpenters; in Kazakhstan, they cannot be welders. — Sri Mulyani Indrawati

He is the wise man who has by perfect living gained the instinct of rightness by which he guides himself, whether in thought or action, who has found that centre of balance which is always over his point of contact with circumstances. He is the man whom Nature pours the riches of all her instincts. — Nilakanta Sri Ram

Meditation is silence, energising and fulfilling. Silent is the eloquent expression of the inexpressible. — Sri Chinmoy

We communicate much more through our presence than the words. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Lanka is a small island, and the war affected everybody. Everybody knew somebody who was killing or being killed. — Ru Freeman

Whatever is needed for you and your body will be taken care of, when you know this the lack will disappear from your life. When you realise ISHA permeates your everything you relax and are at ease - that is when things happen. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Love.. is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Keeping the mind open to new ideas, not being too anxious about success, putting 100% effort and meditation is the formula for entrepreneurs. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The world is like a sheet of paper on which something is typed. The reading and the meaning will vary with the reader, but the paper is the common factor, always present, rarely perceived. When the ribbon is removed, typing leaves no trace on the paper. So is my mind - the impressions keep on coming, but no trace is left. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Stormy life can be braved
Only by the heart's
Sunny meditations. — Sri Chinmoy

What comes from outside, one mistakes it as coming from inside. So many thoughts etc. move about outside in the universal - these manifest inside you. All these you must push away as foreign to you and the inside must be made peaceful, calm and quiet; then it will start descending from above. — Sri Aurobindo

The mind exists in two states: as water and as honey. The water vibrates at the least disturbance, while the honey, however disturbed, returns quickly to immobility. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Why do we need money beyond a point? If we are free of ill health, enmity, and debt, is that not enough? Too much money only leads to less peace. — Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

Celebration happens when the mind unites with the spirit. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Your love is unique. Let love remain love, don't give it any name. The love that is defined by a relationship is limited. The love that is beyond relationships, that is true love — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

You are not the body. You are the immensity and infinity of consciousness. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Peace is something spontaneous; it is something that unites us. Peace is something that we have to spread. But unless and until we have peace deep within us, we can never hope to have peace in the outer world. — Sri Chinmoy

When I say 'I am', I do not mean a separate entity with a body as its nucleus, I mean the totality of being, the ocean of consciousness, the entire universe of all that is known. I have nothing to desire for I am complete forever — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Arjuna asked Sri Krishna, "In this chaotic condition of my mind, what is my duty? I surrender myself to you, great Master. Please tell me."
The answer of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is, "You understand nothing. You draw conclusions without proper understanding of the structure of life and your relationship to people or things in general. It is a very sorry state. How can you draw conclusions without proper premises? If you draw a conclusion based on a wrong premise, the conclusion is also wrong. Therefore, all that you have been told up to this time is without any foundation because you do not know either yourself or the world. — Swami Krishnananda

Spirituality is a harmonious blend of outer silence and inner celebration; and also inner silence and outer celebration! — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When people lose faith in the natural goodness of the human character, the lack of trust in spiritual goodness, that is one reason why corruption has become so widespread today. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I'm just so grateful for the 10 years that I had in Sri Lanka when it was in the middle of a war and I was getting shot at, because now and again I remember glimpses of those times, and I just go, 'Wow, I'll never, ever see that again in my life. And I'm never gonna feel that, and I'm never gonna feel for a human being like that.' — M.I.A.

When attention is given to the spiritual aspect of one's life, it brings a sense of belongingness, and responsibility, compassion and caring for the whole of humanity. — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The directions for meditation that Sri Krishna gives are very exacting. He tells Arjuna exactly how to get past all the things that cause suffering and transient pleasure to something that is perpetual ecstasy. His directions are that exact. — Frederick Lenz

How beautiful to look at When my prayer Lights a candle of hope In my heart. — Sri Chinmoy

To free our body from fear what we need is the glorious experience of the soul. — Sri Chinmoy

When you judge others, look at yourself - You too have flaws and the divine nature has accepted you with all your flaws. It doesn't judge you. Who are you to judge? — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Do not cherish suffering. Don't act like a fool. Don't think that your suffering is going to accelerate your spiritual progress. — Sri Chinmoy

You must realize first of all that you are the proof of everything, including yourself. None can prove your existence, because his existence must be confirmed by you first. Your being and knowing you owe nobody. Remember, you are entirely on your own. You do not come from somewhere, you do not go anywhere. You are timeless being and awareness. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Multiplicity without strife is joy. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I've noticed that the more flooding there is, the more bullshit gets talked. I mean it was very noticeable in the Asian tsumai. It happened around Christmas-New Year. The Muslims of Sri Lanka said 'We knew this would happen because the Christians were using alcohol for their Christmas celebrations.' The Buddhists said 'We knew this would happen because of the horrible Muslim slaughter practices.' It's amazing to see how apocalypse or catastrophe makes people behave primitively. — Christopher Hitchens

Life is effort. So says the body. Life is blessing. So says the soul. — Sri Chinmoy

I make a distinction between Buddhism with a Capital 'B' and buddhism with a small 'b'. Sri Lanka has the former, in which the state uses Buddhism as an instrument of power, so there are even Buddhists monks who say the Tamils should be eliminated. Thai Buddhists are not perfect either. Some Thai Buddhist monks have compromised with the kind and possess cars and other luxuries. In many Buddhist countries, the emphasis is on being goody-goody, which is not good enough. I am for buddhism with a small 'b' which is non-violent, practical and aims to eliminate the cause of suffering.. — Sulak Sivaraksa

It is only through meditation that we can get lasting peace, divine peace. If we meditate soulfully in the morning and receive peace for only one minute, that one minute of peace will permeate our whole day. And when we have a meditation of the highest order, then we really get abiding peace, light and delight. We need meditation because we want to grow in light and fulfill ourselves in light. If this is our aspiration, if this is our thirst, then meditation is the only way. — Sri Chinmoy

Let us serve the world soulfully. The pay we will receive for our service will be in the currency of gratitude, God's gratitude, God the only gratitude. — Sri Chinmoy

The seers of ancient India had, in their experiments and efforts at spiritual training and the conquest of the body, perfected a discovery which in its importance to the future of human knowledge dwarfs the divinations of Newton and Galileo , even the discovery of the inductive and experimental method in Science was not more momentous ... — Sri Aurobindo

Be universal in your love. You will see the universe to be the picture of your own being. — Sri Chinmoy

There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and dificult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers. — Sri Aurobindo