Inspirational Quotations by Swami Chinmayananda

Inspiring Quotes

The secret of success behind all men of achievement, lies in the faculty of applying their intellect in all their activities, without being mislead by any surging emotions or feelings. The secret of success in life lies in keeping the head above the storms of the heart.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Live morality before you talk of it.|Practise meditation before you preach it.|Taste goodness before you recommend it.|Gain bliss before you offer it to others.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Disappointment can come only to those who make appointments with the future.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Daily prayer and meditation are all wonderful therapeutic agencies in building up peace and happiness within an individual.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Faith is, ‘To believe what you do not see’, the reward of which is, ‘you see what you believed’.
—Swami Chinmayananda

A man-of-wisdom lives in the world, but he is never of the world.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Out of purity and silence come the words of power.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To give without sympathy is to build a temple without the idol and|it is as futile as painting a picture with black ink on a black-board.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The end of ego is the ‘Mystic Death’ of the mediator.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The heroism of the seeker is in rejecting the whisperings of mediate happiness and to live nobly fulfilling one’s larger duties.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Growing youth determined to reach their goal, sure of their dignity, consistent in their endeavors, proud of their cultural background – can alone bestow upon a growing country the status of a Nation.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Seek the Lord|In the smiles of your friends,|In the glow of angry eyes,|In the storms of passion.|He is everywhere, in everything.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Work without faith and prayer is like an artificial flower without fragrance.
—Swami Chinmayananda

This nobility in your heart must shine out in your actions, in your conduct, in your work. To be moody in and disgusted with the responsibilities, and to drag yourself through life, is a painful, unproductive existence.
—Swami Chinmayananda

A successful man is one who lays a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him
—Swami Chinmayananda

Love is a consistent passion to give, not a meek persistent hope to receive.|The only demand of life is the privilege to love all.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Yoga is skill in action.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To be patient means to suffer something that hinders or hurts us, and still retain our self-composure. How many difficulties, with their consequent unpleasantness and discord, could be smoothed over and almost entirely eliminated by patience. Patience always elevates and strengthens our character. We need it not only with others but also with ourselves.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Temper takes you to Trouble, Pride keeps you there.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The secret of action is to get established in equanimity, renouncing all egocentric attachments, and forgetting to worry over our successes and failures.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Everybody exists. It is only the few who live.|To live, you should have an ideal.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Sandalwood perfumes even the axe that hurls it down!|The more we rub sandalwood against a stone, the more its fragrance spreads.|Burn it, and it wafts its glory through the entire neighbourhood.|Such is the enchanting beauty of forgiveness in life.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Comfort – Comes as Guest, Lingers to become Host and stays to ENSLAVE us.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Let not your choice leave behind a sense of guilt.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The greatness in an ideology is not, in fact, in the ideology;|it is in the subject which lives that ideology.
—Swami Chinmayananda

History is full of instances, wherein, victory would have been to the vanquished, if only they had battled a little longer! We often fail for lack of perseverance in our efforts. We leave our work half done in our impatience. Every job demands its quota of efforts. Never give up too soon.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Introspect daily, detect diligently, negate ruthlessly.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Be a noble person in life. The tides of circumstances and the tussle of happenings may toss us hither and thither, may buffet us up and down, but stay noble in your thoughts and actions – you will be ever safe.
—Swami Chinmayananda

‘Moksha’ is not ‘Freedom from Action’ but, ‘Freedom in Action’.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Stop all your attachments to false values. In an ever changing world, there is nothing worthwhile for us to desire or weep for. Joys and sorrows are bound come in human life; they are just like the two sides of the same coin.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Substitute wisely, grow steadily and be free.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Silently hear everyone.|Accept what is good.|Reject and forget what is not.|This is intelligent living.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Success or achievement is not the final goal. It is the ‘spirit’ in which you act that puts the seal of beauty upon your life.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To forget oneself totally, one’s mind should keep awake at every moment. A mind that has forgotten the past and the future, that is awake to the now, to the present, expresses the highest concentration of intelligence. It is alert, it is watchful, it is inspired. The actions of a man who has such a mind are exceptionally creative and perfect. Verily to forget oneself totally, is to be in perfection.
—Swami Chinmayananda

More important than What is Behind you and what is Ahead of you is what is In you.|Seek it. Centred in it, act and live.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Religion must not be considered true because it is necessary, but necessary because it is true.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Brood less, smile more and serve all.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Charity is an attempt wherein I try to expand and bring into the ambit of my life, all others around me and grow to consider the other man’s needs and requirements as important as my own personal needs. To live seeking an identity thus, with at least those who are immediately around me, is to live away from the suffocating selfishness and the throttling grip of my body-consciousness.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Efficiency is the capacity to bring proficiency into expression.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Wisdom is the assimilated knowledge in us, gained from an intelligent estimation and close study of our own direct and indirect experience in the world.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Prosperity is like wine, which goes to the head, and makes man forget his Creator.|Adversity, on the contrary, sobers him and reminds him of God and his Glory.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Character is formed from the repeated choice of thoughts and action.|Make the right choice – You shall have a firm and noble character.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The highest form of Grace is silence.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Our present work may be great or small.|Yet, the important thing is to do it well.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To see the one in the many|Is the casual vision of knowledge.|To see the many in the one,|Is the mission wisdom.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Flood your mind with love. Look into the eyes of the other and embrace the person with whom you have quarreled.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Not to do what you feel like doing is freedom.
—Swami Chinmayananda

You are successful and creative only when you see an opportunity in every difficulty.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Spiritual unfoldment cannot take place merely because of an intellectual appreciation of the theory of perfection. Evolution takes place only when a corresponding change in the subjective life is accomplished.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Man is the roof and crown of creation. He may be tossed about by uncertain storms of life, but the solution to it lies in his own efforts in finding an ideal, and then raising his personality, from the level of petty emotions, to the loftier heights of the chosen ideal.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Mind alone is maya at play.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To assume differences in the world, is to belie this great Oneness in life.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To say, ‘LORD IS’ is Gyanam. But ‘THE LORD IS I’ is Vigyanam.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Mind at rest is the Temple of Joy. So long as it is gurgling with its desires, passions and attachments in its stormy surface, the signature of joy gets ruffled out.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To define God is to defile God.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Do the best and leave the rest.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Words are not necessary. Both will have their eyes flooded, and the joy of tears will wash away all quarrels.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Love is the heart of all religions; the theme of all classical works of art and literature; the song of all devotees. Scientists know only what love does, not what love is. Love is to human hearts what the sun is to flowers.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To do your job even if circumstances are not conducive,|s our gift to Him-who is the sole Lord of all circumstances.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Know what to Do.|Do it Yourself.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Work is love made visible. To bring into vivid expression your love for others|is work – to drag yourself through each day’s schedule, morose, unhappy,|miserable, is labor. Work alone brings achievement, never labor.|Grow up to be a man of sheer achievements through loving work.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The cultured give happiness wherever they go. The uncultured whenever they go.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Hindu culture is essentially based upon the sacrifice implied in duty, and not upon acquisition, which is implied in rights.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Happiness depends on what you can give, Not on what you can get.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Spirituality is neither the privilege of the poor nor the luxury of the rich. It is the choice of the wise man.
—Swami Chinmayananda

There is no companion like solitude.|One who knows how to tune himself to the inner silence,|even in the midst of the din and roar of the marketplace,|enjoys a most recreative solitude.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To give love is true freedom; to demand love is pure slavery.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To remember the ever present Divine at all times, even while acting in the world, is the most positive practice for a seeker who is striving to evolve. He will thereby transform his inner personality from its present condition, to a state of harmony and efficiency.
—Swami Chinmayananda

What you have is all His Gift to you.|What you do with what you have is your Gift to Him … .
—Swami Chinmayananda

Bhakti is the attitude of the mind, and jnana is the attitude of the intellect;|both flow towards the Lord.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Strange! Wealth estranges us all. It is all very strange, the money psychology! When you have not got any, you will pant to get some! When you get some, you grow jealous of others who have more, and feel conceited among those who have less.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The God-Man functions as a true ‘sportsman’ in his playfield,|where the very enjoyment is in the sport and not in the score.
—Swami Chinmayananda

There is nothing, at any time, in any circumstance, to worry over ‘why this to me’ ?
—Swami Chinmayananda

It is sure to be dark if you close your eyes.
—Swami Chinmayananda

To listen is not merely to hear.|We in life, hear but very rarely do we know how to listen.|To Listen is to hear, with an intellectual alertness and attention of awareness.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Some act till they meet obstacles, others act inspite of obstacles and conquer them; but some act not fearing the possibility of some obstacles, that might arise enroute.
—Swami Chinmayananda

We like someone because…,|we love someone in spite of … .
—Swami Chinmayananda

The average man looks up at night|and sees thousands and thousands, of twinkling stars,|Each different from the others.|But a man of wisdom and achievement,|Perceives the one light,|Behind the dark dome of the night-sky,|Whose incandescence peeps at us,|Through all the holes in the night-dome!.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Unless we have a definite faith in the goal of our existence, and unless we believe, work for, and actually come to experience the goal positively as an existent factor, there is no hope of any plan becoming successful.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Alert and vigilant living itself is a ‘Sadhana’ in the true sense.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Universe is a cosmos and not a chaos. There exists a mental affinity; a scientific law;|a rhythm of mental relationship in which the entire living world is held together, in one web of love.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Everyone points to the other man, who, according to him, is happier. But the only one, who has the courage to declare that he is truly happy, is he who has relinquished all his passions and hungers from within.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Every body dies, nobody dies.
—Swami Chinmayananda

He who submits to discipline is a DISCIPLE.
—Swami Chinmayananda

There is no destiny beyond and above ourselves; we are ourselves the architects of our future.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Mind can make a hell of heaven.|Or a heaven of hell.
—Swami Chinmayananda

In life, the glory lies not in the quarry, but in the chase.|The success is not in the trophy won,|but in the race run … .
—Swami Chinmayananda

The real men of achievement are people|who have the heroism to fuel more and more enthusiasm in their work,|when they face more and more difficulties.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Become quietly effective.|Don’t expect them, to fully understand you.|They won’t: So ?|Demonstrate with results|What they would not understand with words .
—Swami Chinmayananda

He who depends on chances and situations to be happy, is a Sansari.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Without devotion, knowledge is tasteless. Without knowledge, devotion is mere empty idol worship.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Don’t die while living, live after you are dead.
—Swami Chinmayananda

In all worthwhile undertakings, There will be risks of failure, of disappointments, of even disaster. To face them all with inner poise and firm faith is to discover the glory of final victory.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Sin is never in action, it is always in reaction.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Be strict and intelligently critical about yourself and your own weakness and follies. But, cushion your words and attitudes with Love. Love is the greatest persuasive power we know in life.
—Swami Chinmayananda

When the time of judgement comes,|we shall not be asked what we have read,|but what we have done.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Never complain, about the number of hours you have put in to do a job. Your nobility must estimate how much of you was put into each hour of your daily work.
—Swami Chinmayananda

When opportunity knocks,|We are either out or sleeping in.
—Swami Chinmayananda

If I rest, I rust.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Appreciating the mind as ‘ALL SILENCE’, ‘I AM’ is meditation.
—Swami Chinmayananda

All disturbances and challenges rise not only from our relationship with others,|but in our attitude to all other things and beings.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Plan out your work, then work out your plan.|The former without the latter is a sheer waste.|The latter without the former is mere unproductive confusion.
—Swami Chinmayananda

One single ideal can transform a listless soul|into a towering leader of men.
—Swami Chinmayananda

‘Surrender inspite of Freedom’ is the way of wisemen.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Grace is only to be found by effort, although it is here and now.
—Swami Chinmayananda

A Conquest, without facing dangers is as dull as Victory without a shining glory. A game without a prize.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.
—Swami Chinmayananda

The greatness is not what we do but, unavoidably, it is always in how we do what we do.
—Swami Chinmayananda

Related Authors

• Sri Aurobindo Indian Hindu Nationalist
• Paramahansa Yogananda Indian Hindu Mystic
• Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu Mystic
• Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Indian Hindu Philosopher
• Ramana Maharshi Indian Hindu Mystic
• Sathya Sai Baba Indian Hindu Religious Leader
• B. K. S. Iyengar Indian Hindu Yoga Teacher
• Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Indian Hindu Religious Leader
• Nisargadatta Maharaj Indian Hindu Religious Leader
• Sivaya Subramuniyaswami American Hindu Teacher