Water and a bubble on it are one and the same. The bubble has its birth in the water, floats on it, and is ultimately resolved into it. So also the Jivatman (individual soul) and the Paramatman (collective soul) are one and the same, the difference between them being only one of degree. For, one is finite and limited while the other is infinite; one is dependent while the other is independent.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
As the snake is separate from its slough, even so is the Spirit separate from the body.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Men are like pillow-cases. The colour of one may be red, that of another blue, and that of the third black; but all contain the same cotton within. So it is with man; one is beautiful, another is ugly, a third holy , and a fourth wicked; but the Divine Being dwells in them all.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
The relation of Brahman to Shakti is that of fire to its burning property.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
As a piece of rope, when burnt, retains its form, but cannot serve to bind, so is the ego which is burnt by the fire of supreme Knowledge.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true knowledge, all else is only a negation of knowledge.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Common men talk 'bagfuls' of religion but do not practise even a 'grain' of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
The spiritually minded belong to a caste of their own, beyond all social conventions.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within him.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Honour both spirit and form, the sentiment within as well as the symbol without.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Visit not miracle-mongers and those who exhibit occult powers. These men are stagglers from the path of Truth. Their minds have become entangled in psychic powers, which are like veritable meshes in the way of pilgrim to Brahman. Beware of these powers, and desire them not.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
One does not care for the cage when the bird has flown away from it. and when the bird of life flies away, no one cares for the body left behind.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
As one thinks, so does one become.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
It is very pleasant to scratch an itching ring-worm, but the sensation one gets afterwards is very painful and intolerable. In the same way the pleasures of this world are very attractive in the beginning, but their consequences are terrible to contemplate and hard to endure.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
To drink pure water from a shallow pond one should gently take the water from the surface without disturbing the pond in the least. If it is disturbed, the sediments rise up and make the whole water muddy. If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices, without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts, but the pure and pious hearts of holy men receive and reflect that light well.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
As long as I live, so long do I learn.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
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