Vedic-Hindu Spirituality quotations
This Vedic - Hindu Spirituality & Mysticism quotations page is one of a series of seven pages on our site that consider the extensive! range of deep! agreement about important aspects of spirituality and spiritual mysticism between several major World Religions.
Sets of quotations and quotes that seem to recognise a pronounced emphasis on such aspects of Spirituality and Mysticism as a Disdain for Materialism, a Distrust of the Intellect, a Preference for Divine Inspiration, Charity, Purity of Heart, Humility and Meekness from each of these major World Religions ( Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh, Taoist and Vedic or Hindu ) can be accessed through our series of "Central" Spiritual Insights pages.
Please be prepared for some "soul-force" that might be held to reside within many of these quotations!!!
Disdain for Material Things
Which is as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end; that is declared to be "good" pleasure, born from the serenity of one's own mind. That which is like nectar in the beginning from the connection of the sense-object with the senses, but is as poison in the end, is held to be of "passion".Bhagavad Gita 18:37-38
Distrust of Intellect
"The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve". "That self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be gained. The Self chooses him (his body) as his own". But he who has not first turned away from his wickedness, who is not tranquil, and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self (even) by knowledge.Katha Upanishad 1.2.22-24
Spiritual Insights are possible!
Perseverance in (seeking to gain) the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, and perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth: This is called knowledge : all that is contrary to this is ignorance.Bhagavad Gita 13:11
Charity
He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.Bhagavad Gita 11:55
Purity of Heart
And whenever the mind unsteady and restless strays away from the Spirit, let him ever and forever lead it again to the Spirit.Thus joy supreme comes to the Yogi whose heart is still, whose passions are peace, who is pure from sin, who is one with Brahman, with God.
The Yogi who pure from sin ever prays in this harmony of soul soon feels the joy of Eternity, the infinite joy of union with God.
Bhagavad Gita 6:26-28
Humility
He who hates no single being, is friendly and compassionate, free from self-regard and vanity, the same in good and evil, patient; Contented, ever devout, subdued in soul, firm in purpose, fixed on Me in heart and mind, and who worships Me, is dear to Me.Bhagavad Gita 12:13-14
Meekness
He whom the world troubles not, and who troubles not the world, who is free from the emotions of joy, wrath, and fear, is dear to Me. The man who is guileless, pure, upright, unconcerned, free from distress of mind, who renounces every enterprise and worships Me, is dear to Me. He who has neither delight nor aversion, who neither mourns nor desires, who renounces good and evil fortune, and worships Me, is dear to Me. He who is the same to friend and foe, and also in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, who is wholly free from attatchment; To whom praise and blame are equal, who is silent, content with every fortune, home-renouncing, steadfast in mind, and worships Me, that man is dear to Me.Bhagavad Gita 12:15-19
Communion with God
Devout men (Yogins) who are intent (thereon) see this (spirit) seated in themselves; but the senseless, whose minds are unformed, see it not.Bhagavad Gita15:11?
Hinduism or Vedanta is another of the World Faiths which imputes a multi-faceted character to human "existential being".
In the Bhagavad Gita we read ~
Arjuna spoke.
But by what is a man impelled, O Varshneya! when he commits sin even against his will, as if compelled by force?
The Holy One spoke.
It is lust: it is wrath, born from the "passion" mode: know that this, all-devouring, all-defiling, is here our foe.
Bhagavad Gita 3: 36-37
and again ~
... the pleasures that come from the world bear in them sorrows to come. They come and they go, they are transient: not in them do the wise find joy.
But he who on this earth, before his departure, can endure the storms of desire and wrath, this man is a Yogi, this man has joy.
He has inner joy, he has inner gladness, and he has found inner Light. This Yogi attains the Nirvana of Brahman: he is one with God and goes unto God.
Holy men reach the Nirvana of Brahman: their sins are no more, their doubts are gone, their soul is in harmony, their joy is in the good of all.
Because the peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.
Bhagavad Gita 5: 22-26
A certain difficulty for people brought up in monotheistic faith based cultures, in relation to Hinduism and Vedic-Hindu doctrine, lies in the view that Vedic philosophy speaks of Mystical Union as being with "The Atman which is Brahman".
The relationships between Atman ~ being the "Self" ~ and Brahman ~ being the "World Soul" ~ are central to the religiously inspired world view of most Hindus:-
The Self which is free from sin, free from old age, from
death and from grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires
nothing but what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but
what it ought to imagine, that it is which we must search out,
that it is which we must try to understand. He who has searched
out that Self and understands it, obtains all worlds and all
desires.
All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that (visible world) as beginning, ending, and breathing in it (the Brahman)...
...He is my self within the heart, smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a corn of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a canary seed or the kernel of a canary seed. He is also myself within the heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven, greater than all these worlds.
Khândogya-Upanishad 8.7.1
All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that (visible world) as beginning, ending, and breathing in it (the Brahman)...
...He is my self within the heart, smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a corn of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a canary seed or the kernel of a canary seed. He is also myself within the heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven, greater than all these worlds.
Khândogya-Upanishad 3.14 1, 3
A Shankara quotation relating to metaphysics
and The Atman which is Brahman
"The entire universe is truly the Self. There exists nothing at all other than the Self. The enlightened person
sees everything in the world as his own Self, just as one views earthenware jars and pots as nothing but clay".
Whilst Indian metaphysics ( aka Vedic metaphysics / Hindu metaphysics ), doctrine and philosophy hold that Brahman "is" the "World-Soul" such relationships are placed within broader perspectives by Vedic Philosophy further holding that this World Soul should itself be regarded as being the Three-in-One God known as the Trimurti.
Brahma-the Creator, Vishnu-the Preserver, and Shiva-the Destroyer, are all perceived as being aspects or manifestations of the One-ness which is Brahman.
Notwithstanding the view that Mystical Union is with the Atman which is Brahman several very remarkable spiritual teachers and guides who have appeared from time to time across the ages are considered, by the Vedic-Hindu tradition, to have been incarnations of the Lord Vishnu!!!
This may effectively provide something of a bridge towards traditionally monotheistic cultures which view Mystical Union as being purely spiritual rather than with existence in ALL its manifestations.
A celebrated American Man of Letters named Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that:-
"...man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots,
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."
"Whatever concept one may hold, from a metaphysical point of view, concerning the freedom of the will, certainly its appearances, which are
human actions, like every other natural event, are determined by universal laws. However obscure their causes, history, which is concerned
with narrating these appearances, permits us to hope that if we attend to the play of freedom of the human will in the large, we may be able
to discern a regular movement in it, and that what seems complex and chaotic in the single individual may be seen from the standpoint
of the human race as a whole to be a steady and progressive though slow evolution of its original endowment."
Immanuel Kant
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)
Immanuel Kant
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)
Or to quote Emerson, from his famous Essay ~ History more fully:-
In old Rome the public roads beginning at the Forum
proceeded north, south, east, west, to the centre of every
province of the empire, making each market-town of Persia, Spain,
and Britain pervious to the soldiers of the capital: so out of
the human heart go, as it were, highways to the heart of every
object in nature, to reduce it under the dominion of man. A man
is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and
fruitage is the world. His faculties refer to natures out of him,
and predict the world he is to inhabit, as the fins of the fish
foreshow that water exists, or the wings of an eagle in the egg
presuppose air. He cannot live without a world.
In an essay entitled "The Over-Soul" Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that:-
"...The soul looketh steadily forwards, creating a world before her, leaving worlds behind her. She has no dates, nor rites, nor
persons, nor specialties, nor men. The soul knows only the soul; the web of events is the flowing robe in which she is
clothed. ..."
The following linked pages are intended to fully demonstrate a degree of Common Ground between the Inner-most Spiritual Teachings of several major World Religions on Charity, Purity of Heart, Humility, Meekness, A Disdain for Materialism (compared to the Spiritual), A Distrust of the Intellect (compared to Divine Inspiration) and A Yearning for Divine Edification (or A Thirst for Spiritual Enlightenment).
These quotations are presented on a series of very brief pages where each faith is considered individually.
That which is nearest is least observed. The Atman is the nearest
of the near, therefore a careless and unsteady mind gets no clue
to the Atman. But one who is alert, calm, self-restrained, and
discriminating, ignores the external world and, diving more and
more into the inner world, realizes the glory of the Atman and becomes great.
Vivekananda
Stand upon the Atman, then only can we truly love the world. Take a very, very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.
Vivekananda
This is the secret of spiritual life: to think that I am the Atman and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings - scenes on a canvas - of which I am the witness.
Vivekananda
Is Human Being more truly Metaphysical than Physical?
This 'knot of roots' insight features in:
Vivekananda
Stand upon the Atman, then only can we truly love the world. Take a very, very high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world.
Vivekananda
This is the secret of spiritual life: to think that I am the Atman and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings - scenes on a canvas - of which I am the witness.
Vivekananda
Is Human Being more truly Metaphysical than Physical?
Where this could, possibly, lead ...
This 'knot of roots' insight features in:
The following linked pages are intended to fully demonstrate a degree of Common Ground between the Inner-most Spiritual Teachings of several major World Religions on Charity, Purity of Heart, Humility, Meekness, A Disdain for Materialism (compared to the Spiritual), A Distrust of the Intellect (compared to Divine Inspiration) and A Yearning for Divine Edification (or A Thirst for Spiritual Enlightenment).
These quotations are presented on a series of very brief pages where each faith is considered individually.
We have seen it as worthwhile to add
another category of quotation ~ where recognition has been given to the possibility of Mystical Communion with God ~ as this
addition may rather directly tend the range of agreement about "Core Spiritual Truths" already demonstrated
towards actually becoming something of a proof of the Existence of the one God or Spirit which is the focus of Mystical
Faith.