TO A BIOGRAPHER I see that you have persisted in giving a biography — is it really necessary or useful? The attempt is bound to be a failure, because neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see. You have given a sort of account of my political action, but the impression it makes on me and would make, I believe, on your public is that of a fiery idealist rushing furiously at an impossible aim (knocking his head against a stone wall, which is not a very sensible proceeding) without any grasp of realities and without any intelligible political method or plan of action. The

This morning I got a letter from a little girl who asks me, "What is consciousness? I asked my teachers, they answered me it was very hard to explain"! (Mother laughs) So she's asking me. And since she asked me, I've been looking at it. How can we express it? Do YOU know how it can be explained? Because the words we use are meaningless. Spontaneously, I'd say it's the fire or the breath that carries the whole world. It's the fire that makes everything live - that makes the chest breathe, that makes the sea heave ... That's not bad! What would YOU say? Here is what I found: it's the cause of existence - the cause and the effec

The Self is being, not a being. By Self is meant the conscious essential existence, one in all. The Self is essentially universal; the individualised self is only the universal experienced from or in an individual centre. If what you have realised is not felt to be one in all, then it is not the Atman; it is the central being not yet revealing its universal aspect as Atman. The self is felt either as universal, one in all, or as universalised individual the same in essence as others, extended everywhere from each being but centred here. Of course centre is a way of speaking, because no physical centre is usually felt – onl

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are only three Powers and Personalities of the One Cosmic Godhead. page 390 , Letters on Yoga , volume 22 , SABCL Brahma is the Power of the Divine that stands behind formation and the creation. page 391 , Letters on Yoga , volume 22 , SABCL

By black magic is meant the occultism of the adverse powers – the occultism of the divine Powers is quite different. One is based on unity, the other on division. page 483 , Letters on Yoga , volume 22 , SABCL

And what was Vivekananda? A radiant glance from the eye of Shiva; but behind him is the divine gaze from which he came and Shiva himself and Brahma and Vishnu and OM all-exceeding. page 98 −Thoughts and Aphorisms , The Hour Of God Volume-17 , SABCL

Advice to National College Students *I* HAVE been told that you wish me to speak a few words of advice to you. But in these days I feel that young men can very often give better advice than we older people can give. Nor must you ask me to express the feelings which your actions, the way in which you have shown your affection towards me, have given rise to in my breast. It is impossible to express them. You all know that I have resigned my post. In the meeting you held yesterday I see that you expressed sympathy with me in what you call my present troubles. I don't know whether I should call them troubles at all, for the experience that I am going

Veda and Vedanta are one side of the One Truth; Tantra with its emphasis on Shakti is another; in this yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not in the systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence, and carried to the fullest and highest significance. But Vedanta deals more with the principles and essentials of the divine knowledge and therefore much of its spiritual knowledge and experience has been taken bodily into the Arya. Tantra deals more with forms and processes and organised powers – all these could not be taken as they were, for the integral yoga needs to develop its own forms and processes; but the ascent of the consciousness through t

The peacock is the bird of Victory and Kartikeya the leader of the divine forces. page 393 , Letters on Yoga , volume 22 , SABCL

The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution. The Avatar is a special manifestation while for the rest of the time it is the Divine working within the ordinary human limits as a Vibhuti. page 401 - Letters on Yoga , volume 22 , SABCL