All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of love you bear for your self, all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. Deny yourself nothing -- glue your self infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of self-love and inner awareness as the keys to realizing one's true potential.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's quote suggests that everything one needs for fulfillment is already within, and it urges individuals to approach themselves with love and respect. It highlights that self-condemnation and distrust hinder personal growth, while the quest for pleasure often indicates a desire for deeper self-acceptance. By cultivating a profound love for oneself and embracing both infinity and eternity, a person can transcend limitations and understand their true essence beyond material needs.
Themes
Self-LoveInner-AwarenessPersonal-GrowthSelf-AcceptanceWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on self-improvement, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of self-love.
More from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
All quotes →Even faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with improving others until we see ourselves as we are/ and have changed. There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Learn to live without self concern. _x000D_ _x000D_ For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. _x000D_ _x000D_ Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, _x000D_ _x000D_ you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Similar quotes
There is no avoidance in delay.
AeschylusRead
It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.
Abraham MaslowRead
Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.
David ByrneRead
It is well worth the efforts of a lifetime to have attained knowledge which justifies an attack on the root of all evil ... which asserts that because forms of evil have always existed in society, therefore they must always exist.
Elizabeth BlackwellRead
Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.
Mother TeresaRead
Redemption basically is about holistic health, if you want to translate it into modern parlance. What I suggest - based on the Christian tradition but not often preached - is that you can't enter into the fullness of the Pascal mystery of the redemption unless there is a radical transformation of motivation within you.
Thomas KeatingRead