Swami Vivekananda Quotes About Desire

• So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspirational, Motivational, Long

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge”, p.130, editionNEXT.com

• This world is not for cowards. Do not try to fly. Look not for success or failure. Join yourself to the perfectly unselfish will and work on. Know that the mind which is born to succeed joins itself to a determined will and perseveres. You have the right to work, but do not become so degenerate as to look for results. Work incessantly, but see something behind the work. Even good deeds can find a man in great bondage. Therefore be not bound by good deeds or by desire for name and fame. Those who know this secret pass beyond this round of birth and death and become immortal.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Patience, Perseverance, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Work and Its Secret”, p.12, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

• One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, Passion, Joy

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2384, Manonmani Publishers

• Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3821, Manonmani Publishers

• "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all good things will be added unto you." Follow God and you shall have whatever you desire.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Jesus, Desire, Kingdoms

  Vivekananda (Swami) (1925). “Epistles”

• Renunciation - non-resistance - non-destructiveness - are the ideals to be attained through less and less worldliness, less and less resistance, less and less destructiveness. Keep the ideal in view and work towards it. None can live in the world without resistance, without destruction, without desire. The world has not come to that state yet when the ideal can be realised in society.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Views, Desire, World

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2100, Manonmani Publishers

• The secret of karma yoga which is to perform actions without any fruitive desires is taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Karma, Yoga, Secret

• We get caught. How? Not by what we give but by what we expect. We get misery in return for our love: not from the fact that we love but from the fact that we want love in return. There is no misery where there is no want. Desire, want, is the father of all misery. Desires are bound by the laws of success and failure. Desires must bring misery.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Father, Law, Giving

  Swami Vivekananda (2017). “Vedanta: Voice of Freedom”, p.194, Vedanta Society of St. Louis

• Let us work without desire for name or fame or rule over others. Let us be free from the triple bonds of lust, greed of gain, and anger. And this truth is with us!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Anger, Names, Greed

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

• 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.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, Long, Desire

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Raja Yoga: Conquering the Internal Nature”, p.53, Advaita Ashrama

• There is implanted in every man, naturally, a strong desire for progress.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Strong, Men, Progress

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1845, Manonmani Publishers

• Superstitions are all materialism, because they are all based on the consciousness of body, body, body. No spirit there. Spirit has no superstitions - it is beyond the vain desires of the body.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Desire, Body, Superstitions

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3600, Manonmani Publishers

• Seek no praise, no reward, for anything you do. No sooner do we perform a good action than we begin to desire credit for it. No sooner do we give money to some charity than we want to see our names blazoned in the papers. Misery must come as the result of such desires.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Names, Giving, Desire

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.61, Advaita Ashrama

• Realisation of love can never come so long as there is the least desire in the heart, or what Shri Ramakrishna used to say, attachment for Kâma-Kânchana (sense-pleasure and wealth). In the perfect realisation of love, even the consciousness of one's own body does not exist. Also, the supreme Jnana is to realise the oneness everywhere, to see one's own self as the Self in everything. That too cannot come so long as there is the least consciousness of the ego (Aham).

  Swami Vivekananda

  Heart, Oneness, Attachment

• 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. The animal has its happiness in the senses, the man in his intellect, and the god in spiritual contemplation. It is only to the soul that has attained to this contemplative state that the world really becomes beautiful. To him who desires nothing, and does not mix himself up with them, the manifold changes of nature are one panorama of beauty and sublimity.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Beautiful, Spiritual, Real

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Raja Yoga: Conquering the Internal Nature”, p.53, Advaita Ashrama

• Each atom is trying to fly off from its centre. In the internal world, each thought is trying to go beyond control. Again each particle in the external world is checked by another force, the centripetal, and drawn towards the centre. Similarly in the thought - world the controlling power is checking all these outgoing desires.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Desire, Trying, Atoms

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

• [The seers call him wise] whose every attempt is free, without any desire for gain, without any selfishness.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Wise, Desire, Selfishness

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.432, Manonmani Publishers

• It is the witness alone that can work without any desire, without any idea of going to heaven, without any idea of blame, without any idea of praise. The witness alone enjoys, and none else.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Ideas, Heaven, Desire

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1316, Manonmani Publishers

• Do not desire, for what you desire you get, and with it comes terrible bondage. It is nothing but bringing "noses on us," as in the case of the man who had three boons to ask. We never get freedom until we are self-contained. "Self is the Saviour of self, none else."

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Self, Desire

  Swami Vivekananda (1953). “Complete Works”

• We must always remember that God is Love. "A fool indeed is he who, living on the banks of the Ganga, seeks to dig a little well for water. A fool indeed is the man who, living near a mine of diamonds, spends his life in searching for beads of glass." God is that mine of diamonds. We are fools indeed to give up God for legends of ghosts or flying hobgoblins. It is a disease, a morbid desire.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Giving Up, Men, Glasses

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: Art of living”, p.41, editionNEXT.com

• We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Angel, Men, Heaven

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2581, Manonmani Publishers

• Work done for the Self gives no bondage. Neither desire pleasure nor fear pain from work. It is the mind and body that work, not I. Tell yourself this unceasingly and realise it. Try not to know that you work.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Pain, Self, Giving

  Swami Vivekananda (1953). “Complete Works”

• Chastity, non-injury, forgiving even the greatest enemy, truth, faith in the Lord, these are all different Vrittis. Be not afraid if you are not perfect in all of these; work, they will come. He who has given up all attachment, all fear, and all anger, he whose whole soul has gone unto the Lord, he who has taken refuge in the Lord, whose heart has become purified, with whatsoever desire he comes to the Lord, He will grant that to him. Therefore worship Him through knowledge, love, or renunciation.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Anger, Taken, Heart

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Raja Yoga: Conquering the Internal Nature”, p.59, Advaita Ashrama

• Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Roots, Desire, Four

• To the person who desires nothing and does not get entangled in desires, the manifold changes of nature are one panorama of beauty and sublimity.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Desire, Doe, Panorama

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