Swami Vivekananda Quotes About Hinduism

• The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspiring, Inspiration, Successful

• I am a Hindu, I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Believe, Acceptance, Tolerance

  Opening Welcome Address at the World Parliament of Religions, delivered 11 September 1893

• There is this difference between the love taught by Christianity and that taught by Hinduism: Christianity teaches us to love our neighbours as we should wish them to love us; Hinduism asks us to love them as ourselves, in fact to see ourselves in them.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Differences, Wish, Taught

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2601, Manonmani Publishers

• Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done.' We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Dream, Giving Up, Let It Go

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3177, Manonmani Publishers

• One point of difference between Hinduism and other religions is that in Hinduism we pass from truth to truth-from a lower truth to a higher truth-and never from error to truth.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Errors, Differences, Hinduism

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2597, Manonmani Publishers

• The Hindus have cultivated the power of analysis and abstraction. No nation has yet produced a grammar like that of Panini.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Analysis, Hinduism, Grammar

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2599, Manonmani Publishers

• Hinduism threw away Buddhism after taking its sap. The attempt of all the Southern Acharyas was to effect a reconciliation between the two. Shankaracharya's teaching shows the influence of Buddhism. His disciples perverted his teaching and carried it to such an extreme point that some of the later reformers were right in calling the Acharya's followers "crypto-buddhists".

  Swami Vivekananda

  Buddhist, Teaching, Buddhism

  Swami Vivekananda (1951). “Complete Works”

• Gita and Ganga constitute the essence of Hinduism; one its theory and the other its practice.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Essence, Practice, Gita

• The older I grow, the more I see behind the idea of the Hindus that man is the greatest of all beings.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Ideas, Hinduism

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2056, Manonmani Publishers

• Modern Hinduism, modern Jainism, and Buddhism branched off at the same time. For some period, each seemed to have wanted to outdo the others in grotesqueness and humbuggism.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Buddhism, Hinduism, Modern

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2614, Manonmani Publishers

• The present Hindu society is organised only for spiritual men, and hopelessly crushes out everybody else. Why? Where shall they go who want to enjoy the world a little with its frivolities? Just as our religion takes in all, so should our society. This is to be worked out by first understanding the true principles of our religion and then applying them to society. This is the slow but sure work to be done.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Crush, Spiritual, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1993, Manonmani Publishers

• The three essentials of Hinduism are belief in God, in the Vedas as revelation, in the doctrine of Karma and transmigration.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Karma, Vedas, Essentials

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2597, Manonmani Publishers

• In everything, there are two kinds of development-analytical and synthetical. In the former the Hindus excel other nations. In the latter they are nil.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Two, Development, Kind

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2599, Manonmani Publishers

• That the Hindus, absorbed in the ideal, lacked in realistic observation is evident from this. Take painting and sculpture. What do you see in the Hindu paintings? All sorts of grotesque and unnatural figures. What do you see in a Hindu temple? A Chaturbhanga Narayana or some such thing. But take into consideration any Italian picture or Grecian statue-what a study of nature you find in them! A gentleman for twenty years sat burning a candle in his hand, in order to paint a lady carrying a candle in her hand.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Italian, Hands, Order

• Chemistry ceases to improve when one element is found from which all others are deductible. Physics ceases to progress when one force is found of which all others are manifestations. So religion ceases to progress when unity is reached, which is the case with Hinduism.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Unity, Progress, Elements

• Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Believe, Hinduism

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2610, Manonmani Publishers

• The fault with all religions like Christianity is that they have one set of rules for all. But Hindu religion is suited to all grades of religious aspiration and progress. It contains all the ideals in their perfect form. For example, the ideal of Shanta or blessedness is to be found in Vasishtha; that of love in Krishna; that of duty in Rama and Sita; and that of intellect in Shukadeva. Study the characters of these and of other ideal men. Adopt one which suits you best.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Religious, Character, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2614, Manonmani Publishers

• All sectarian religions take for granted that all men are equal. This is not warranted by science. There is more difference between minds than between bodies. One fundamental doctrine of Hinduism is that all men are different, there being unity in variety. Even for a drunkard, there are some Mantras-even for a man going to a prostitute!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Differences, Unity

  Swami Vivekananda (1963). “Complete Works”

• Too early religious advancement of the Hindus and that superfineness in everything which made them cling to higher alternatives, have reduced them to what they are. The Hindus have to learn a little bit of materialism from the West and teach them a little bit of spirituality.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Religious, Advancement, Alternatives

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2608, Manonmani Publishers

• Individuality in universality is the plan of creation. Each cell has its part in bringing about consciousness. Man is individual and at the same time universal. It is while realising our individual nature that we realise even our national and universal nature. Each is an infinite circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere. By practice one can feel universal Selfhood which is the essence of Hinduism. He who sees in every being his own Self is a Pandita (sage).

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Practice, Circles

• There have been two lines of progress in this world-political and religious. In the former the Greeks are everything, the modern political institutions being only the development of the Grecian; in the latter the Hindus are everything.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Religious, Two, Political

  Swami Vivekananda (2003). “Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India”

• Hindus believe in God positively. Buddhism does not try to know whether He is or not.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Believe, Buddhism, Trying

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2610, Manonmani Publishers

• Present-day Hinduism and Buddhism were growths from the same branch. Buddhism degenerated, and Shankara lopped it off!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Buddhism, Growth, Branches

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2613, Manonmani Publishers

• The Hindus progressed in the subjective sciences.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Hinduism, Subjective

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2600, Manonmani Publishers

• I believe that the Hindu faith has developed the spiritual in its devotees at the expense of the material, and I think that in the Western world the contrary is true. By uniting the materialism of the West with the spiritualism of the East I believe much can be accomplished. It may be that in the attempt the Hindu faith will lose much of its individuality.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Spiritual, Believe, Thinking

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3224, Manonmani Publishers

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