Swami Vivekananda Quotes About Worship

• This is the gist of all worship: to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva. And if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste or creed or race or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples

  Swami Vivekananda

  Men, Thinking, Race

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”, p.50, editionNEXT.com

• Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Philosophy, Book, Psychics

  Swami Vivekananda (2012). “Raja Yoga (Annotated Edition)”, p.120, Jazzybee Verlag

• If I, as an Oriental have to worship Jesus of Nazareth, there is only one way, that is, to worship him as God and nothing else.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Jesus, Way, Nazareth

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1557, Manonmani Publishers

• When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Thinking, Worship, Whole Life

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.35, Advaita Ashrama

• Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit, the culmination spirit.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Foundation, Spirit, Worship

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

• Jesus Christ was God - the Personal God become man. He has manifested Himself many times in different forms and these alone are what you can worship. God in His absolute nature is not to be worshipped. Worshipping such God would be nonsense. We have to worship Jesus Christ, the human manifestation, as God. You cannot worship anything higher than the manifestation of God. The sooner you give up the worship of God separate from Christ, the better for you.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Jesus, Giving Up, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (1964). “Complete Works”

• True religion is not talk, or doctrines, or theories, nor is it sectarianism. It is the relation between soul and God. Religion does not consist in erecting temples, or building churches, or attending public worship. It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in lectures, or in organizations. Religion consists in realization. We must realize God, feel God, see God, talk to God. That is religion.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Book, Organization, Soul

• Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspirational, Motivational, Divinity

  Swami Vivekananda, Ann Myren (1993). “Living at the Source: Yoga Teachings of Vivekananda”, Shambhala Publications

• Music is the highest art and to those who understand, is the highest worship

  Swami Vivekananda

  Art, Worship, Music Is

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

• Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Worship, Devotion, Form

  Swami Vivekananda (1990). “Awakened India”

• Be Grateful to the Man you help, think of Him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow men?

  Swami Vivekananda

  Grateful, Men, Thinking

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.76, Manonmani Publishers

• For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote - this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race - "everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything." All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virât? When we have worshiped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Motivational, Mother, Sleep

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Vivekananda Reader”, p.263, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

• TO worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Giving, Rewards, Sake

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Love and Devotion”, p.72, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

• Let the churches preach doctrines, theories, philosophies to their hearts' content, but when it comes to worship, the real practical part of religion, it should be as Jesus says, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret".

  Swami Vivekananda

  Jesus, Philosophy, Real

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: Art of living”, p.39, editionNEXT.com

• There is no God separate from you, no God higher than you, the real "you." All the gods are little beings to you, all the ideas of God and Father in heaven are but your own reflection. God Himself is your image. “God created man after His own image." That is wrong. Man creates God after his own image. That is right. Throughout the universe we are creating gods after our own image. We create the god and fall down at his feet and worship him; and when this dream comes, we love it !

  Swami Vivekananda

  Dream, Father, Real

  "The Complete Works of the Swami Vivekananda".

• There is another way in which this idea of mercy and selfless charity can be put into practice; that is, by looking upon work as "worship" in case we believe in a Personal God. Here we give up all the fruits our work unto the Lord, and worshipping Him thus, we have no right to expect anything from man kind for the work we do.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Giving Up, Believe, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.27, Advaita Ashrama

• God is true. The universe is a dream. Blessed am I that I know this moment that I have been and shall be free all eternity; ... that I know that I am worshiping only myself; that no nature, no delusion, had any hold on me. Vanish nature from me, vanish these gods; vanish worship; ... vanish superstitions, for I know myself. I am the Infinite. All these - Mrs. So-and-so, Mr. So-and-so, responsibility, happiness, misery - have vanished. I am the Infinite. How can there be death for me, or birth? Whom shall I fear? I am the One. Shall I be afraid of myself? Who is to be afraid of whom?

  Swami Vivekananda

  Motivational, Dream, Blessed

• As to the so-called Hindu idolatry - first go and learn the forms they are going through, and where it is that the worshippers are really worshipping, whether in the temple, in the image, or in the temple of their own bodies. First know for certain what they are doing - which more than ninety per cent of the revilers are thoroughly ignorant of - and then it will explain itself in the light of the Vedantic philosophy.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Philosophy, Light, Ignorant

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1740, Manonmani Publishers

• This external worship of images has, however, been described in all our Shastras as the lowest of all the low forms of worship. But that does not mean that it is a wrong thing to do.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mean, Doe, Idol Worship

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

• He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the All-merciful. "Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life." Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. "He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life."

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mother, Art, Father

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Swami Vivekanand's Chicago Speech: Swami Vivekananda’s Speech At World Parliament Of Religion, Chicago”, p.12, editionNEXT.com

• [Not parroting.] My old Master used to say, "It is all very good to teach the parrot to say, 'Lord, Lord, Lord' all the time; but let the cat come and take hold of its neck, it forgets all about it" [You may] pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are, [but] unless you realise the soul there is no freedom. Not talking, theorising, argumentation, but realisation. That I call practical religion.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Cat, Talking, Soul

• Despite the many iniquities that have found entrance into the practices of image-worship as it is in vogue now, I do not condemn it. Ay, where would I have been if I had not been blessed with the dust of the holy feet of that orthodox, image-worshipping Brahmin!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Blessed, Dust, Practice

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

• Those reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry - to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same?"

  Swami Vivekananda

  Brother, Idol Worship, Helping

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1354, Manonmani Publishers

• The first angle is, love questions not. It is not a beggar. ... When love asks nothing, [when it] gives everything. This is the real spiritual worship, the worship through love. Whether God is merciful is no longer questioned. He is God; He is my love. Whether God is omnipotent and almighty, limited or unlimited , is no longer questioned.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Spiritual, Real, Love Is

  "The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda".

• One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean anything horrible. It is not the mother of harlots.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mother, Mean, India

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Chicago Addresses”, p.20, Advaita Ashrama

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