Live by an Inner Scorecard
“The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. Instead, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use is polishing up the outside when there is no inside?” — Swami Vivekananda Truth. Justice. Kindness. Virtue. Education builds these traits in us. Sadly, we ignore them and chase extrinsic aspects like […]
The Root Cause of All Our Problems
“Tears and laughter are near kin. People so often run from one extreme to another. Let the mind be cheerful, but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction.” — Swami Vivekananda “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” […]
The Real Purpose of Education
“We want education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s feet.” — Swami Vivekananda The conventional educational system, while having its benefits, is not man-making, but based on negation, Swamiji says. The first thing a child learns is that his […]
Every Mistake Is a Chance To Grow
“Do not be miserable. Do not repent! What is done is done. If you burn yourself, [take the consequences] . . . We make mistakes; what of that?” — Swami Vivekananda Someone you trusted hurt you. Overconfidence in a situation led to a terrible loss for you. Or you did some questionable things about 10 […]
How To Become Truly Rich
“What is the use of such [intrinsic] knowledge? In the first place, knowledge itself is the highest reward, and secondly, there is also utility in it. It will take away all our misery. When, by analyzing his own mind, man comes face to face with something which is never destroyed, something which is, by its […]
Are You a Talker or a Doer?
“’This is said, and that is said…’‘What do you say, my friend?’‘I say nothing.’ [He quotes] everybody else’s thought; but he thinks nothing. If this is education, what is lunacy? Look at all the men who wrote! … Those modern writers, not two sentences their own. All quotations…” — Swami Vivekananda Albert Einstein once said: […]
How to Achieve Sattva
“Brightness in the face, undaunted enthusiasm in the heart, and tremendous activity – these result from Sattva; whereas idleness, inordinate attachment, and sleep are signs of Tamas.” — Swami Vivekananda When you work, when you love, when you do your duty, do it for the sake of it. Give it your best. Curb your expectations […]
The Will Is Everything
“Who can make us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark. Take the hand away and there is light; the light exists always for us.” — Swami Vivekananda In the movie Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne tries to justify why his father couldn’t save himself or his […]
How To Walk Away From Bad Decisions
“The greatest cause of sorrow is this: we take up something and put our whole energy on it—perhaps it is a failure and yet we cannot give it up. We know that it is hurting us, that any further clinging to it is simply bringing misery on us; still we cannot tear ourselves away from […]
Don’t Be Needed, Be Useful
“The watchword of all well-being is not ‘I’ but ‘thou’. Who cares whether there is a heaven or hell, who cares if there is a soul or not . . .? Here is the world, and it is full of misery. Go out into it as Buddha did, and struggle to lessen it or die […]