Reading Archives (Author)

Slavery To The Senses

Swami Vivekananda

We are all slaves to our senses, slaves to our own minds, conscious and subconscious. The reason why a criminal is a criminal is not because he desires to be one, but because he has not his mind under...

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12K reads, 20 comments

Frying the Seeds of Anger

Swami Vivekananda

When I am angry, my whole mind becomes a huge wave of anger. I feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it; but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get d...

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25K reads, 21 comments

Be Not a Beggar

Swami Vivekananda

Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you — but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousandfold — but the atte...

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22K reads, 17 comments

The Secret Of Work

Swami Vivekananda

Whatever we do, we want a return. We are all traders. We are traders in life, we are traders in virtue, we are traders in religion. And alas! we are also traders in love. If you come to trade, if i...

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62K reads, 19 comments

The One Goal of All Nature

Swami Vivekananda

The grandest idea in Vedanta is that we may reach the same goal by different paths; and these paths I have generalised into four—viz., those of work, love, psychology and knowledge. But you must...

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19K reads, 6 comments

This World is Perfect

Swami Vivekananda

Is it not a blasphemy to say that the world needs our help? We cannot deny that there is much misery in it; to go out and help others is, therefore, the best thing we can do, although in the long run,...

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21K reads, 11 comments

Seat of Power

Swami Vivekananda

We know that the greatest power is lodged in the fine, not in the coarse. We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles well, and all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think the ...

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18K reads, 3 comments

Sip The Honey

Swami Vivekananda

If we examine our own lives, we find that the greatest cause of sorrow is this: we take up something, and put our whole energy on it -- perhaps it is a failure -- and yet we cannot give it up. We know...

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5K reads

Who Are You To Help

Swami Vivekananda

Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, "Here, my poor man," but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yoursel...

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5K reads

We Only Get What We Deserve

Swami Vivekananda

We must learn that nothing can happen to us, unless we make ourselves susceptible to it. I have just said, no disease can come to me until the body is ready; it does not depend alone on the germs, bu...

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13K reads

Unfurl Your Sails

Swami Vivekananda

The theory that advances the freedom of the human soul is the one theory that does not lay the blame of all our weaknesses upon somebody else. Men in general lay all the blame of life on their ...

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5K reads