Be sure and sincere that you are crying for God only and nothing else

Honesty is the gateway to success; it is indeed fifty per cent of success.

Learning is not necessary, no need to be learned. All that you have to do is to be sure and sincere that you are crying for God only and nothing else.

Let the aim of life be clear in your mind, first. I repeat, your aim should be nothing other than the Ultimate Reality.

- Swami Krishnananda

In the thick darkness of the senses, the light of the soul emerges

When God comes, the soul awakes, but the senses sleep.

Midnight is the birth of great masters - Christ or Krishna, as the case may be. Midnight is the utter negation of sense activity and physical consciousness - everything pertaining to that state of affairs. It is in the thick darkness of the senses that the light of the soul emerges and birth takes place of eternity in time.

-Swami Krishnananda

Intensity of feeling in prayer

Prayer can draw in grace by a spiritual attunement of one's being in the intensity of feeling, which is the motive power behind prayer. Feelings that rise from the deepest recesses of one's heart can produce immediate results, because of their proximity to reality.

- Swami Krishnananda

The soul cannot be satisfied with anything but God

The soul is sustained by God, by the Supreme Being, by God Himself. The body can be sustained by a cup of tea and food, but the food of the soul is God Himself; it cannot be satisfied with anything less. It wants only that. And so it goes on crying, and until that is got it won't become quiet.

And though body can be satisfied with little things, the soul cannot be satisfied with anything but God. Only when it comes in contact with God, it loses itself. And when it has contacted Him and has realized it, it feels happy then and, only then.

- Swami Krishnananda

The more you are personal, the more you are grief-stricken

In your sleep your personality goes completely, and you become impersonal. There is, however, a seed of personality potentially present even in sleep, on account of which you wake up the next morning. For all practical purposes your personality is wiped off, and so it is that you are very happy in sleep, indicating thereby that impersonality is the source of happiness, that personality is the source of sorrow. The more you are personal, the more you are grief-stricken. The more you become impersonal, the more you become happy.

-Swami Krishnananda

A socially great man is not a really great man

A human being, every human being knows that he is finite, but he creates circumstances in society to remove the consciousness of finitude by somehow or other creating an atmosphere of bigness, importance. 'I am a socially recognized person; the whole world knows me.' If this idea enters the head, you feel somehow that the finitude has expanded into the world area. It has not really expanded; it has only conceptually expanded. So, a socially great man is not a really great man. He is a small man only, but people say 'Very good! Very good!' But one day they say 'Down!', and put him down."

- Swami Krishnananda

No loss of effort

In the spiritual path, there is no loss of effort. Every single effort that you put forth in that direction, even if it is minimal, will be a credit balance in your spiritual bank account. Even one penny, if you put it in the bank, it is a credit for you, though it is only a penny. And many pennies will make pounds. So, go slowly, little by little. Many drops make the ocean; effort is necessary.

- Swami Krishnananda

To know the truth, remove the idea that you are somewhere

You are always thinking you are somewhere, in some place. You have to remove that idea. There is a peculiar habit of the mind asserting itself as located in some place, in a particular form, in a particular condition, etc. This must be removed so that you may know the truth.

-Swami Krishnananda