What A Hostile Herd Means
“The poor world, how often it has been cheated! The more the sansār, that is, the worldly aspect of life, looks at any growing movement with the eyes of suspicion, or, even better still, presents it to a semi-hostile front, so much the better it is for the movement. If there is any truth this […]
The Calm And The Storm
“The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He has learned the secret of restraint; he has controlled himself.” — Swami Vivekananda A popular image of the sattvik […]
Always Study Philosophy
“‘Fools alone say that work and philosophy are different, not the learned.’ The learned know that, though apparently different from each other, they at last lead to the same goal of human perfection.” — Swami Vivekananda Rajat Gupta was the first foreign-born Managing Director of McKinsey & Company. He was a board member of Fortune […]
Train Your Mind To Become Steady
“What is practice? The attempt to restrain the mind in the Chitta form, to prevent it from going out into waves.” — Swami Vivekananda When you started learning how to drive or how to use Excel, you probably felt incompetent. But the more you practiced, the better you got. Until you got to the point […]
Give This Moment Your All
“The secret to work is this: Let the end and the means be joined into one. 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
How To Do Your Duty
“Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is continuous friction otherwise.” — Swami Vivekananda Can you do your duty as a parent if you don’t love your child? Can you do your duty as an author if you don’t love writing? Can you make an […]
The Underrated Trait That Makes Life Enjoyable
“How do we know that the mind has become concentrated? Because the idea of time will vanish. The more time passes unnoticed, the more concentrated we are.” – Swami Vivekananda Open Instagram and before you know it, an hour has gone by. Watch one episode on Netflix and before you know it, you’ve watched four. […]
Resistance Weakens Willpower, Acceptance Strengthens It
“Will is not strengthened by change. It is weakened and enslaved by it. But we must always be absorbing. Will grows stronger by absorption.” — Swami Vivekananda Your team gets a new manager. Your best friend since childhood moves to a different state. The weather turns unexpectedly hot or cold. Such events are enough to […]
It’s All In The Small Things
“If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances… Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, […]
Ignore The Unqualified Critic
“If you read the Vedas, you will find this word always repeated – ‘fearlessness’ – fear nothing. Fear is a sign of weakness. A man must go about his duties without taking notice of the sneers and the ridicule of the world.” — Swami Vivekananda How should I overcome my fear of trying something new? […]