• True happiness consists in killing

selfishness.
• The man who realises, “I am He”, though
clad in rags, is happy.
• That man alone who is the lord of his mind can
be happy and none else.
• Everything in the universe is struggling to
complete a circle, to return to its source, to return
to its only real source, Atman.
The search for happiness is a struggle to find the
balance, to restore the equilibrium.
Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free
and is the proof that we have come from perfection.
• Happiness is only found in the spirit.

• ‘This whole universe is my body; all health,

all happiness is mine, because all is in the
universe.’
• Hold your mind free. All this that you see, the pains and miseries, are
but the necessary conditions of this world; poverty and wealth and
happiness are but momentary, they do not belong to our real
nature at all.
• Become a True Optimist
Control Everything
Vedanta philosophy……………takes things as
they are. It admits that this world is a mixture of
good and evil, happiness and misery, and that to
increase the one, must necessity increase the
other. There will never be a perfectly good or bad
world, because the very idea is a contradiction in
terms………….It does not say that this world is all
evil or all good. It says that our evil is of no less
value than our good, and our good of no more
value than our evil. They are bound together……
………but beyond and behind all these
manifestations, the Vedanta finds out that Unity. It
says, “Give up what is evil and give up what is
good”. What remains then? Behind good and evil
stands something which is yours, the real you……
………and it is that which is manifesting itself
as good and bad. Know that first, and then and
then alone you will be true optimist, and not
before; for then you will be able to control
everything. Control these manifestations and you
will be at liberty to manifest the real “you”. First be
master of yourself.
• Happiness and misery are only in the senses,
they cannot touch our real Self.
• Happiness belongs to him who knows this
oneness, who knows he is one with this universe.
• There is no happiness higher than what a man
obtains by this attitude of non-offensiveness, to
all creation.
• Man has his happiness in his intellect.
• DO NOT IDENTIFY YOUSELF WITH
ANYTHING. Hold your mind free. All this
 that you see, the pains and miseries, are but
the necessary conditions of this world;
poverty and wealth and happiness are but
momentary; they do not belong to our real
nature at all.
• Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and
happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that
pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the miseries we have
in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the
ideal to strive for. After a time man finds that it is not
happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is going,
and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and
that he learns as much from evil as from
good.......................Good and evil have an equal share in
moulding character, and in some instances misery is a greater
teacher than happiness. In studying the great characters the world
has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority of cases, it would be
found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was
poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought
out their inner fire more than praise.
• After every happiness comes misery; they
may be far apart or near. The more advanced
the soul, the more quickly does one follow
the other. What we want is neither happiness
nor misery. Both make us forget our true
nature; both are chains--one iron, one gold;
behind both is the Atman, who knows
neither happiness nor misery. These are
states, and states must ever change; but the
nature of the Atman is bliss, peace,
unchanging. We have not to get it, we have
it; only wash away the dross and see it.
• Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is
the trinity of bondage.
• Desire, want, is the father of all misery.
Desires are bound by the laws of success
and failure. Desires must bring misery. The
great secret of true success, of true
happiness, is this: the person who asks for
no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is
the most successful.
• The animal has its happiness in the senses,
the human beings in their intellect, and the
gods in spiritual contemplation. It is only to
the soul that has attained to this
contemplative state that the world really
becomes beautiful.
• The meditative state is the highest state of
existence. So long as there is desire, no real
happiness can come. It is only the
contemplative, witness-like study of
objects that brings to us real enjoyment and
happiness.
• When I Asked God for Strength
He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face
When I asked God for intelligence
He Gave Me Puzzles to Solve.
When I Asked God for Happiness
He Showed Me Some Unhappy People
When I Asked God for Wealth
He Showed Me How to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Favors
He Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Peace
He Showed Me How to Help Others
God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted
He Gave Me Everything I Needed

• THE HAPPIEST IS THE MAN WHO IS

NOT AT ALL SELFISH.
• Real happiness is not in the senses but
above the senses.
• All over the world it is the wise man who
enjoys the happiness of the world.
• Happiness is not in this heaven or in that
heaven, it is in the soul.
• Machines never made mankind happy and
never will make.
• Be the witness and do not react, only thus can
you be happy.
• Both attachment and detachment perfectly
developed make a man great and happy.
• Renounce and be happy.
• What is the world that is to be given up? It is
here. I am carrying it all with me. My own
 body. It is all for this body that I put my
hand voluntarily upon my fellow beings, just
to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure;
[all for this body] that I injure others and
make mistakes.
• In real meditation you forget the body. You
may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all.
You feel such pleasure in it. You become so
light. This perfect rest we will get in
meditation.
• Those who die, merely suffering the woes of
life like cats and dogs, are they human
beings? The worthy are those who, even
when agitated by the sharp interaction of
pleasure and pain, are discriminating and,
knowing them to be of an evanescent nature,
become passionately devoted to the Atman.
This is all the difference between human
beings and animals.
• Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge.
• Stand upon the Self, 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. It
is but baby’s play, and we know that, so cannot
be disturbed by it. If the mind is pleased with
praise, it will be displeased with blame. All
 pleasures of the senses or even of the mind are
evanescent, but within ourselves is the one true
unrelated pleasure, dependent upon nothing. It
is perfectly free, it is bliss. The more our bliss is
within, the more spiritual we are. The pleasure
of the Self is what the world calls religion.
• THE ENJOYMENT THAT YOU ARE
SEEKING IS ONLY IN THE PEACE; AND
PEACE, IN THE RENUNCIATION OF
PHYSICAL PLEASURE.
• All the misery we have is of our own choosing;
such is our nature. The old Chinaman, who
having been kept in prison for sixty years was
released on the coronation of a new emperor,
exclaimed, when he came out, that he could not
live; he must go back to his horrible dungeon
among the rats and mice; he could not bear the
light. So he asked them to kill him or send him
back to the prison, and he was sent back. Exactly
similar is the condition of all men. We run
headlong after all sorts of misery, and are
unwilling to be freed from them. Everyday we
run after pleasure, and before we reach it, we
find it is gone, it has slipped through our fingers.
Still we do not cease from our mean pursuit, but
on and on we go, blinded fools that we are.
• The more our bliss is within, the more
spiritual we are. Let us not depend upon the
world for pleasure.
• We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed.
We came to rule; we are being ruled. We
came to work; we are being worked. All the
time, we find that. And this comes into every
detail of our life.
• There is nothing beyond God, and the sense
enjoyments are simply something through
which we are passing now in the hope of
getting better things.
• Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or
heaven.
• Karma Yoga is a method of
purifying the mind through work. ...
All fear and all desire to enjoy here
or hereafter must be banished for
ever by the Karma Yogi. The karma
without desire of return will destroy
the selfishness, which is the
root of all bondage. The
watchword of the Karma Yogi is
"not I, but Thou," and no amount of
self-sacrifice is too much for such a
person.
• “Comfort” is no test of truth; on the
contrary, truth is often far from being
“comfortable.”
• “The earth is enjoyed by heroes”—this is the
unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I
have no fear.”
• Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or
heaven. Control the organs of the senses and
control the mind. Bear every misery without
even knowing that you are miserable. Think
of nothing but spiritual freedom.
• Renunciation is the very basis of our true
life. Every moment of goodness and real life
that we enjoy is when we do not think of
ourselves.
• Do not give up the world; live in the world,
imbibe its influences as much as you can;
but if it be for your own enjoyment’s sake,
work not at all.
• This life comes and goes------------wealth, fame,
enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better,
far better to die on the field of duty, preaching
the truth, than to die like a world worm.
Advance!
• We are here to know the truth, not for
enjoyment.
• He who chooses enjoyment misses his true end.
• Enjoyment lies not in physical development, but
in the culture of the mind and the intellect.
• Search for enjoyment is vain.
• The secret of life is not enjoyment, but
education through experience.
• Enjoyment, misery, luxury, wealth, power,
and poverty, even life itself, are all evanescent.
• ONLY THE FOOLS RUSH AFTER SENSE-ENJOYMENTS.
It is easy to live in the senses. It is easier to run in the old
groove, eating and drinking; but what these modern
philosophers want to tell you is to take these comfortable ideas
and put the stamp of religion on them. Such a doctrine is
dangerous. DEATH LIES IN THE SENSES. LIFE ON THE
PLANE OF THE SPIRIT IS THE ONLY LIFE, LIFE ON
ANY OTHER PLANE IS MERE DEATH; THE WHOLE
OF THIS LIFE CAN BE ONLY DESCRIBED AS A
GYMNASIUM. WE MUST GO BEYOND IT TO ENJOY
REAL LIFE.
• Happiness presents itself before man,
wearing the crown of sorrow on its head. He
who welcomes it must also welcome sorrow.
• Achieve happiness or achieve greatness.
• Knowledge and happiness lead to freedom.
• Fear ceases, and then alone come perfect
happiness and perfect love.
• Every act of love brings happiness.
• Always keep your mind joyful; if melancholy
thoughts come, kick them out.
• Mental pleasures are greatly superior to physical
joys.
• You have not caught my fire yet--
you do not understand me! You run
in the old ruts of sloth and
enjoyments. Down with all sloth,
down with all enjoyments here or
hereafter. Plunge into the fire and
bring the people towards the Lord.
That you may catch my fire, that
you may be intensely sincere, that
you may die the heroes' death on
the field of battle--is the constant
prayer of Vivekananda.
• This hideous world is Maya. Renounce and be happy.
Give up the idea of sex and possession. There is no
other bond.
•