Illusion is the cover of things; reality is the depth of things. The body is the illusion; the soul is the reality. The flower is the illusion; the fragrance is the reality. The fragrance is the spirit of the flower; it persists.

Man is not made by God as the wood is cut by the carpenter; for the carpenter and the wood are different, while God and man are the same. Man is made of the substance of God; man is in God, and all that is in God is in man.

Belief cannot be taught; it cannot be learned; it is the grace of God. To affirm a belief is one thing; to realize belief is another.

The aim of the mystic is to stretch his range of consciousness as widely as possible, so that he may touch the highest pride and the deepest humility. The only fall for a mystic is to fall beneath the level of his ideal.

A man who has no imagination stands on the earth, he has no wings; he cannot fly.

When we are face to face with truth, the point of view of Krishna, Buddha, Christ, or any other Prophet, is the same. When we look at life from the top of the mountain, there is no limitation; there is the same immensity.

To every question that arises in the heart of the mystic, he finds the answer in the life before him.

The false shows itself; all that is true proves itself.

That which is not beautiful in its effect cannot be real beauty.

It is those who have touched the inner beauty who are able to appreciate beauty in all its forms.

The beauty which the knower knows and the lover appreciates, the mystic worships.

The difference between spirit and soul is like that of the sun and the ray. The ray is the ray of the sun, but at the same time the sun is the sun, and the ray is the ray.

God is the essence of beauty; it is His love of beauty which has caused Him to express His own beauty in manifestation.

Beauty is God's desire fulfilled in the objective world.

Beauty is the depth of the soul; its expression in whatever form is the sign of the soul's unfoldment, when an individual becomes a person, the beauty hidden in the individual, which is divine, develops; and that development of beauty is personality.

Beauty is hidden in every soul, however wicked; and our trust and confidence in the beauty of the soul helps to draw out that hidden beauty which must shine out one day.

Most unbelievers have a very near horizon, like birds in a covered cage which do not know that there is anything beyond.

The wonderful thing is that the soul already knows to some extent that there is something behind the veil, the veil of perplexity, that there is something to be sought for in the highest spheres of life, that there is some beauty to be seen, that there is Someone to be known who is knowable.

This desire, this longing is not acquired; it is a dim knowledge of the soul which it has in itself. Therefore, disbelief in God is nothing but a condition brought about by the vapors arising from this material life and covering like clouds the light of the soul which is its life.

If this world offers to a person all it possesses, even then the soul is not satisfied, for its satisfaction lies in its higher aspiration, and it is this higher aspiration which leads to God.

If the mind did not stand as a hindrance to the intuition, every person would be intuitive, for intuition is more natural and more easy than the reasoning of the mind.

What comes from without is not intuition; intuition is something which rises from one's own heart and brings a sense of satisfaction, of ease, and of happiness.

The life of man, however great and spiritual, has its limitations. Before the conditions of life the greatest man on earth, the most powerful soul, will for a moment seem helpless; but it is not the beginning that counts; it is the end.

It is the last note that a great soul strikes, which proves that soul to be real and true.

There can be no better sign of spiritual development than control over passion and anger. If one can control these, one can control life.

The secret of seeking the will of God lies in cultivating the faculty of sensing harmony; for harmony is beauty and beauty is harmony, and the lover of beauty in his further progress becomes the seeker of harmony; and by trying always to maintain harmony, man will tune his heart to the will of God.

If it were not for pain, one would not enjoy the experience of joy. It is pain which helps one to experience joy, for everything is distinguished by its opposite.

If it were not for pain, life would be most uninteresting, for it is by pain that the heart is penetrated.

Since the nature of life is action and reaction, every outer experience has a reaction within, and every inner experience has its reaction in the outer life.

In the spheres of conscience the soul of man and the Spirit of God meet and become one.

To a soul which is wide awake, the Judgment Day does not come after death. For that soul every day is a Judgment Day.

Every step forward gives a certain amount of freedom of action, and as one goes further and further on the path of truth the freedom becomes greater at every step.

The more one regards the feelings of others, the more harmony one can create.

The heart in its depth is linked up with the divine Mind, so in the depths of the heart there is greater justice than on the surface.

Inspiration comes when knowledge and the inner light, falling on one's own conception of things, come together in the conscience, which is the court of God, where He Himself sits on the throne of justice.

Happiness is our birthright; in our happiness is the happiness of God.

Thought has its birth and death like a living being, and the life of a thought is incomparably longer than that of a living being in the physical body.

The mind is a world, a world that man makes and in which he will make his life in the hereafter, as a spider lives in the web it has woven.

To what does the love of God lead? It leads to that peace and stillness which can be seen in the life of the tree; it flowers and bears fruit for others and expects no return.

Verily, he who pursues the world will inherit the world; but the soul who pursues God will attain in the end to the presence of God.

A material person has a silent craving in his heart to probe the depths of the spiritual ideal which he disowns.

There is nothing in this world which does not speak. Every thing and every being is continually calling out its nature, its character, and its secret; and the more the inner sense is open, the more capable it becomes of hearing the voice of all things.

When once the inner sense has broken the walls around it, it breathes the freedom and happiness which is the soul's own property, and which the soul then attains.

The sign of the enlightened soul is readiness to understand.

The soul comes to a stage of realization where the whole of life becomes to him one sublime vision of the immanence of God.

The brain may be said to be the seat of the intelligence, and the heart to be the throne of wisdom.

Wisdom may be called spiritual knowledge.

The real place where the heavens are made is within man. The soul is the ray of that sun which is the infinite Spirit.

The soul is the action of the heavenly Sun. It manifests and returns, as man exhales and inhales.

God is love; so God is beyond the law, for love is above the law.

If we come to any solution of our ever-rising questions, it is never by studying the law that we find satisfaction, but by diving deep into love and letting love inspire us.

If one has learned while on earth how to create joy and happiness for oneself and others, in the other world that joy and happiness will surround one; and if one has sown the seeds of poison, one must reap those fruits there. Thus one sees that justice is the nature of life.

The Judgment Day is every day, and one realizes this as one's sight becomes more keen. Every hour, every moment in life has its judgment.

What connection has the soul which has passed from the earth with those still on this plane? The connection of the heart still keeps intact, and it remains unbroken as long as the link of sympathy is there.

To create happiness for oneself and others is the whole philosophy of religion.

What is Sufism? It is wisdom. To learn wisdom at every step on the path of life is the only work of the Sufi.

The one who is the slave of conventionality is a captive; the one who is the master of conventionality is the possessor of that kingdom which is mentioned in the Bible: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom of the earth."

As soon as a person begins to regard the pleasure and displeasure of God in the feelings of every person he meets, he can only be refined, whatever his position in life.

The human soul is by nature perfect, but the life of limitation on earth brings imperfection to it.

The sense of shame is a channel which leads to that goal which is called Perfection.

Beauty, in all its aspects, is beyond price.

Often the sense of shame works like a sharp knife upon a feeling heart, but it only makes it like a cut diamond: for by it we come to the realization that what is most precious in life is feeling.

The heights of every civilization show the fineness of human feeling, which is the highest of all aspects of culture.

What the moon seems to give as light, is not its own; it is the light of the sun. So it is with the divine messengers of all times.

When a soul arrives at its full bloom, it begins to show the color and spread the fragrance of the divine Spirit of God.

The one who does not seek God, at the end of the journey of illusion has a great disappointment; for throughout his whole journey he has not found the perfection of love, beauty, and goodness on the earth, and he does not believe in, or expect to find, such an ideal in heaven.

Every soul seeks for happiness, and after running after all the objects which for the moment seem to give happiness, it finds out that nowhere is there perfect happiness except in God.

All souls in the world are receptacles of the message of God; not only human beings, but even the lower creation convey the message of the One and Only Being.

No sooner has the heart become living than the law of justice manifests.

God is both Judge and Forgiver. He forgives even more than He judges; for justice comes from His intelligence, but forgiveness comes from His divine love.

When God's divine love rises as a wave, it washes away the sins of the whole life in a moment, for law has no power to stand before love; the stream of love sweeps it away.

The very thought of the love of God fills the heart with joy and relieves it of its burden.

The kingship of God manifests in the blossoming of every soul.

The finest things are to be felt; words cannot express them. Noise only spoils their beauty and robs them of preciousness.

The attitude of looking at everything with a smile is the sign of the saintly soul.

As the sunshine from without lightens the whole world, so the sunshine from within, if it were raised up, would illuminate the whole life, in spite of all seeming wrongs and all limitations.

Fear is a shadow cast upon the light of the soul; the shadow of something the soul does not know, which is strange to the soul.

Fear comes from ignorance. For instance, the soul is frightened on entering the body of matter; also, the soul does not know death, and so it is afraid.

The illuminated soul finds its way through darkness both within and without.

In spite of all his limitation, a wonderful power is hidden in man's soul. What makes man helpless is ignorance of his free will. Free will is the basis of the whole life.

Free will is the mighty power, the God-power hidden in man, and it is ignorance which keeps man from his divine heritage.

Many seem wide awake to the life without, but asleep to the life within; and although the chamber of the heart is continually visited by the hosts of heaven, they do not know their heart, for they are not there.

Man can only be really happy when he connects his soul with the spheres of heaven.

The more closely a person is drawn to heaven, the more the things of earth lose their color and taste.

The religions have always taught self-denial, but the soul which naturally rises to heaven does not need to practice renunciation.

The moment the soul compares its own limitation with the perfection of God it has begun to progress.

At the cost of happiness of heaven, the soul comes to the great fulfillment of life, which even angels are not blessed with; for manifestation in human form is the utmost boundary of manifestation, the furthest that any soul can go.

Every difficulty in life is owing to man's limitation which covers the divine spark in him until in time it becomes obscured from his view, and this culminates in the tragedy of life.

Not only human beings, but animals, birds, insects, trees, and plants all have a spiritual attainment. No creature that has ever been on earth will be deprived entirely of spiritual bliss.

There is nothing in this world without purpose, and, though the place of one in the scheme of life may seem different from that of another, yet in the sum total of things we and the lower creation, together with the jinns and angels, have our purpose; that purpose is the realization of truth, and it comes to all in the form of bliss.

Wisdom is love, and love is true wisdom. The cold-hearted man is never wise, and the truly warm-hearted person is never foolish, for love comes from wisdom and wisdom from love.

One must not make even principles so set that one cannot alter them.

Every soul inclined to serve has a scope for service on every plane, and the one who is able to serve here is able to serve even more on the higher planes.

Self-pity is the worst poverty. When a person says, "I am to be pitied," before he says anything more he has diminished himself by half; and what is said further diminishes him totally.

Out of the heart that is happy springs a fountain that pours water from above and in time brings flowers and fruit.

A person need not be unworldly in order to become spiritual. We may live in the world and yet not be of the world.

Spirituality is in no way a hindrance to worldly progress. A worldly success when gained through the power of spirituality has a stronger foundation.

Virtue forced upon oneself or upon another is not a virtue; it loses its beauty. There must be willingness; virtue should not be forced.

The true ego does not know sorrow; its true being is happiness, for the real ego is God and God is happiness.

Once a soul has awakened to the continual music of life, that soul will consider it to be its responsibility, its duty, to play its part in the outer life, even if it be contrary to its inner condition at the moment.

The knowers of truth close their lips, for they can neither say one thing nor another from the point of view of absolute truth.

The seas and rivers and streams have many names, but they all contain water; and religions have various names, but they all contain the same truth expressed in different forms at different times.

It is the love element developing in the animals which brings them together in flocks and herds.

We must not observe only a principle, but we must consult our own ideals in everything we do.

I think the knower of the truth will find truth in the symbols of the Roman Catholic Church, and will find the same truth in the absence of symbols in the Protestant Church.

If the soul were awakened to feel what the birds feel when singing in the forest at dawn, man would know that their prayer is even more exalting than his own, for it is more natural.

Trees are more holy and spiritual than some men. Their purpose is to give some contribution to life and they are continually busy fulfilling their purpose. They feel that joy and satisfaction which man cannot feel until he attains to their stage of stillness and peace.

Where there is form there is shadow; so where there is human love there is jealousy.

Tolerance is the sign of an evolved soul. A soul gives the proof of its evolution in the degree of tolerance it shows.

Death does not belong to the soul, so it does not belong to the person. Death comes to what the person knows, not to the person himself.

There is no scripture in which contradiction does not exist. It is the contradiction which makes the music of the message.

None of the great ones have called themselves Masters, nor have they ever considered themselves to be such. What they have known in their lives is their privilege in opening their heart wider and wider to reflect the Light of the Master, who is God Himself.

All faces are His faces, and from all lips it is His word that comes. But those who can respond to Him become as His appointed servants.

God has chosen all, for all souls are near and dear to the Creator.

The greater a person is in spiritual advancement, the more unassuming he becomes.

The Great Ones are initiated by God Himself, and they prove their initiations not by their claims, but in their works.

Everything has its purpose, but knowledge of the purpose makes us able to use it to the best advantage.

Beauty is created out of variety.

Truth is the heritage of man; the human soul, whether in the East or West, possesses the truth.

All souls in the world are receptacles of the message of God; and not only human beings but even the lower creation, all objects and all conditions, convey to us the message of the one and only Being.

There is nothing in the world which is not the instrument of God.

Evil and ugliness exist in man's limited conception. In God's great Being they have no existence.

Evil is only the shadow of goodness; as the shadow is non-existent, so is evil.

It is the knowledge of the purpose of life which gives man the strength with which to stand in the midst of the opposing forces of life.

God knows Himself by His manifestation. Manifestation is the self of God, but a self which is limited, a self which makes Him know that He is perfect when He compares His own Being with this limited self which we call nature. Therefore, the purpose of the whole of creation is the realization that God Himself gains by discovering His own perfection through His manifestation.

Merit is not creative; merit is something which is possessed. Therefore, attributes are not important; the importance is in the possessor of the attribute.

We are too limited to see the justice of the Perfect One.

We often suffer because we do not understand. Understanding is a great thing; once we understand, we can tolerate.

The soul of every individual is God, but man has a mind and a body which contain God according to the accommodation.

The water of the ocean is ever pure in spite of all that may be thrown into it, so the Pure One consumes all impurities and turns them into purity.

The soul is the divine breath. It purifies, revivifies, and heals the instrument through which it functions.

The soul is on a continual journey: on whatever plane, it journeys all the time, and on this journey it has a purpose to accomplish.

Nothing that the human heart has once desired remains unfulfilled; if it is not fulfilled here, it is accomplished in the hereafter.

The desire of the soul is the wish of God.

The source of the soul is perfect, and so is the goal.

No soul perishes; the soul was not born to perish.

The one who loves fairness blows the spark of justice into a flame, in the light of which life becomes clear to him.

The one who judges himself learns justice, not he who is occupied in judging others.

There comes a stage in life, the stage of life's culmination, when man has nothing to say against anyone unless it be against himself; and it is from this point that he begins to see the divine justice hidden behind manifestation.

The wise see in every form the divine form; in every heart they see the divine light shining.

When we judge others, we are certainly judging the Artist who has created them. If we realized this, it would not be difficult to feel the presence of God everywhere.

When we go more deeply into the phenomena of life, we shall come to a place where the whole nature of Being will unveil itself, and we shall be able to say, "There is nothing but God."

Noisiness comes from restlessness, and restlessness is the destructive rhythm.

Those who have made any success in life, in whatever direction, have done so by their quiet working.

Enthusiasm is a great thing in life. It is creative, but too much of it sometimes spoils things.

When one devotes one's time and thought to trying to know what one need not know, one loses the opportunity which life offers of discovering the nature and secret of the soul, in which lies the fulfillment of the purpose of life.

Life's mysteries apart, the fewer words used in the little things of everyday life, the more profitable it is.

People think that many words express things better. They do not know that most often all the words spoken are so many veils wrapped around the idea.

He who holds himself close to heaven is guided from heaven. He who disconnects himself from the heavenly spheres is like the damaged fruit fallen from the tree.

He who clings to the light from heaven has a light to warn and guard him at every step, according to his desire for guidance.

The angelic souls who are in direct touch with the spirit of God, and who have no knowledge of the false world which is full of illusion, who live and know not death, whose lives are happiness, whose food is divine light, make around the divine Spirit an aura which is called the highest heaven.

Death is the removal of a cover, after which many things will be known to the soul in regard to its own life and in regard to the whole world which have hitherto been hidden.

Innocence is the natural condition of the soul and the lack of innocence is a foreign element which the soul acquires after coming on earth.

Death for the spiritual souls is only a gate through which they enter into that sphere which every soul knows to be its home.

Souls which have become conscious of the angelic spheres, even in the smallest degree, hear the calling of that sphere; and the discomfort they have in this world is that of homesickness caused by the call of the angelic spheres.

Intelligence is the light of life, the life of life, and the essence of the whole Being.

Rhythm cannot exist without tone, nor tone without rhythm. They are interdependent for their existence, and it is the same with time and space.

The mystic contemplates the Being of God, and so raises his consciousness above the limitations of time and space and liberates his soul by lifting it to the divine spheres.

The blessing of life is in the consciousness of the blessing.

Man will find in the end of his search along the spiritual line, that all beings including trees and plants, rocks and mountains, oceans and rivers, are prayerful; and that all attain to that spiritual summit which is the real longing of every soul.

Only when man learns to serve and do his duty without the thought of appreciation, only then will he attain.

Self-denial which comes as a result of helplessness and culminates in dissatisfaction cannot be a virtue.

The soul's happiness is in itself; nothing can make the soul fully happy but self-realization. The life which everyone knows is this momentary period of the soul's captivity.

Spirit is matter, and matter is spirit. The denseness of spirit is matter, and the fineness of matter is spirit.

According to the width of his motive man's vision is wide, and according to the power of his motive man's strength is great.

Such souls as are conscious of their relation to God as being that of a child and his parents, are especially cared for. They are always guided, because they ask for guidance.

There is nothing in this world which is devoid of form except God, who is formless.

The limitless God cannot be made intelligible to the limited self unless He is first made limited. This limited ideal becomes like an instrument, a medium of God who is perfect and who is limitless.

What is religion? In the outer sense of the word, a form given for the worship of God, a law given to the community that it may live harmoniously. And what does religion mean in the inner sense of the word? It means a staircase made for the soul to climb to that plane where truth is realized.

Many do good, but how few do it wisely! To do good wisely is the work of the sage.

The one who lives in his mind is conscious of the mind; the one who lives in his soul is conscious of the soul.

Truth is unlimited and incomparable; therefore, truth alone knows, enjoys, and realizes its own existence.

The soul is light, the mind is light, and the body is light-light of different grades; and it is this relation which connects man with the planets and stars.

The infinite God is the self of God, and all that has manifested under name and form is the outer aspect of God.

All men who join in prayers may not be as sincere as the birds in the forest, for not one among these says its prayers without sincerity.

Spirituality is attained by all beings; not only by man but by beasts and birds, for they each have their religion, their principles, their law, and their morals.

The pride that says, "I am so spiritual," is not spiritual pride; it is earthly pride. For where there is spirituality there is no proud claim.

Spiritual realization can be attained in one moment in rare cases, but generally a considerable time of preparation is needed.

Fineness of nature is the sign of the intelligent. Fineness can be acquired by love of refinement.

In the heart of man the whole universe is reflected; and as the whole universe is reflected in it, man may be called the heart of the universe.

Subtlety produces beauty; it is subtlety which is the curl of the Beloved.

In order to acquire spiritual knowledge, in order to receive inspiration, in order to prepare one's heart for the inner revelation, one must try to make one's mentality pliable, like water rather than like a rock.

Once peace is made within, one will have gained sufficient strength and power to use in the struggle of life, both within and without.

Life is a continual battle. Man's constant struggle with outer things gives a chance to the foes who exist in his own being.

The first thing necessary is to make peace for the time being with the outside world, in order to prepare for the warfare which is to be fought within.

The one who is able to keep his equilibrium without being annoyed, without being troubled, gains that mastery which is needed in the evolution of life.

The heart when it is not living and making its life a life of love, feels out of place; and all the discomfort of life comes from this.

Nothing, however good it appears, is a virtue unless it is willingly done, because even in the willingness of making a sacrifice one experiences the breath of freedom.

When a person is absorbed in self, he has no time to build his character; but when he forgets himself, he collects all that is good and beautiful. This is the key to the whole of life, both to worldly success and to spiritual attainment.

Peace is not a knowledge, peace is not a power, peace is not a happiness; yet peace is all these. Besides, peace is productive of happiness, peace inspires one with knowledge of the seen and unseen, and in peace is to be found the Divine Presence.

God is happiness, the soul is happiness, and spirituality is happiness. So there is no place for sadness in the kingdom of God.

That which deprives man of happiness deprives him of God.

The light which comes from the soul, rises through the heart, and manifests outwardly in man's smile, is indeed the light from heaven. In that light many flowers grow and many fruits ripen.

We help God to forgive us by forgiving ourselves.

He who realizes the relation of friendship between one soul and another -- the tenderness, delicacy, and sacredness of this relationship -- he is living, and in this way he will one day communicate with God.

The same bridge which connects two souls in the world, when stretched becomes the path to God.

Nirvana is as a star in our hearts which we develop; and as we develop it, it becomes brilliant. Its brilliance consumes all the wrong of life until nothing is left but that purity which is the divine light.

It must be remembered as the first principle of life, that manifestation was destined for keener observation of life within and without.

The soul is happy by nature; the soul is happiness itself. It becomes unhappy when something is the matter with its vehicle, its instrument, its tool through which it experiences life. Care of the body, therefore, is the first and the most important principle of religion.

The purpose of the whole of creation is fulfilled in the attainment of that perfection which is for a human being to attain. The saints, seers, sages, prophets, and masters of humanity have all been human beings, and they have shown divine perfection in fulfilling the purpose of being human.

The teaching of Jesus Christ has as its central theme unfoldment towards a realization of immortality.

Vanity in its proper place is a great virtue; when not in its proper place it is a great sin.

Every person has his life designed beforehand; and the light of the purpose that he is born to accomplish in life has already been kindled in his soul.

Is not man the creator of sin? If he creates it, he can also destroy it; and if he cannot destroy it, his elder brother can.

In metaphysical terms the impression of sin may be called an illness -- a mental, not a physical illness. And as the doctor is able to cure physical illness, so the doctor of the soul is able to heal spiritually.

In reality no sin, no virtue can be engraved upon the soul; it can only cover the soul. The soul in its essence is divine intelligence, and how can divine intelligence be impressed with either virtue or sin?

When the object, the purpose for which a soul was born upon earth is fulfilled, then there is nothing to hold it, and the soul is naturally drawn back to its source and goal.

God Himself sees through the eye of man, thus the eye is a road between man and God.

Man has neither been created to be as spiritual as an angel, nor has he been made to be as material as an animal; and when he strikes the happy medium he will certainly tread the path which leads straight to the goal.

Man is good by nature. Goodness is his real self; badness is only a cloud. But clouds are ever floating; they are sometimes here and sometimes there, and if we trust in the goodness of man, the clouds will disappear. Our very trust will disperse them.

The sun shines on all the trees; it does not make distinctions between this tree and that, but in accordance with their absorption of the light falling upon them and their response to the sun they receive its light.

Remember that very often a disciple is an inspiration for the master, because it is not the master who teaches, it is God Himself.

The master is only the medium; and as great as is the response of the disciple, so strongly does it attract the message of God.

The further we go, the more our disputes and arguments cease. They fade away until there is no color left in them; and when all the color has gone, the white light comes which is the light of God.

The one who serves, however humbly, has the privilege of serving God.

Cheerfulness is life, sadness is death. Life attracts, death repulses.

Do not let your own mind be impressed by the depression of your friend. If you do, you will have taken the germ of his disease.

It is harmony, established with everyone one meets in life, which tunes one's soul with the Infinite.

The man conscious of his duties and obligations to his friends is more righteous than he who sits alone in the solitude.

The condition of God and His true lover is that either the Beloved lives or the lover, not both.

Whether a person feels attracted to God now or not, there will come a day when he will be attracted; for every soul has to return to God.

Ignorance of the self gives the fear of death. The more one learns of the true self, the less one fears death; for it is only a door through which one passes from one phase of life to another, and the other phase is much better.

Humor is the sign of light from above. When that light touches the mind, it tickles it, and it is the tickling of the mind that produces humor.

Renunciation is not something which we must torture ourselves to learn. It is in us, but it is buried and it can only be dug up by our love.

When the sun is clouded, the light does not reach the earth; and so it is with the soul, which is divine and full of light. If it is thickly covered with clouds, then man does not receive the light which is in the soul itself.

What is rooted out in the quest of truth is ignorance. When it is entirely removed from one's heart, man's outlook becomes wide, as wide as the eye of God.

Man meets with hardships in life; sometimes they seem too hard for him to stand. But often such experiences become like higher initiations in the life of the traveller on the path.

Sadness comes from limitation in different forms, from lack of perception, from lack of power over oneself and over conditions, and from lack of that substance which is happiness itself and which is love.

The nature of love is as the nature of water in the depth of the earth. If we do not dig deep enough, we find mud, not water; but when we dig deep, we find pure water.

If there is any death, it is stillness and inactivity; and then the impulse of life comes, which breaks through the cloud of mortality and makes the soul see the daylight after the darkness of the night. And what does the soul see in this bright daylight? It sees itself living as before, having the same name and form, and yet progressing.

Every soul is striving to attain God; God not as a Judge nor as a King, but as a Beloved. And every soul seeks God, the God of love, in the form which it is capable of imagining.

The soul manifests in the world in order that it may experience the different phases of manifestation, and yet not lose its way but regain its original freedom, in addition to the experience and knowledge it has gained in this world.

In order to be, one must pass through a stage of being nothing.

When illumination comes, it seems to bring annihilation; but it is not annihilation, in reality it is exaltation.

Happiness cannot come by merely believing in God. Believing is a process. By this process the God within is awakened and made living; it is the living in God which gives happiness.

It is not only the link of love and sympathy, but also the belief in the hereafter to the extent of conviction, that lifts those on earth to know about their beloved ones who have passed over to the other side.

The soul's sustenance is the knowledge of God; it is by this knowledge that the soul lives the eternal life.

Man has the key of life in his own hands, if he only knew it.

Man is always journeying towards the truth. He is seeking, seeking; for in his heart is the love of that which is real.

There is no such thing as mortality except the illusion, and the impression of that illusion which man keeps before his eyes as fear during his lifetime, and still as an impression after he has passed from this earth.

The soul is life, it never touches death; death is its illusion.

To the one who realizes ultimate truth, time and space are of little importance; he rises above them.

The further one goes on the spiritual path, the more will one have to learn to play a part.

The spiritual man learns to answer the question of every soul on its own plane of evolution.

It is the ignorant soul, ignorant of its source and goal, that dreads leaving the sphere to which it has become attached. It is the soul that knows not what is beyond, that is afraid of being lifted up above the ground its feet are touching.

One's duty is to do now what can be done now. Nothing that one really values should one put off till tomorrow.

Souls when they start from the angelic heavens are vibrations. They have no earthly harps; they are the harps themselves.

There cannot be perfection where there is duality. God alone is perfect.

The whole interest in life is in journeying towards perfection. If man were born perfect, there would be no joy in life.

In order to attain to God-consciousness, the first condition is to make God a reality so that He is no longer only an imagination.

The soul which develops its personality is like the fine flower with its color, fragrance, and delicacy.

The essence of spirituality and mysticism is readiness to serve the person next to us.

The question, "What is the purpose of manifestation?", may be answered in one word: satisfaction, the satisfaction of God.

Nothing in the world could give man the strength that is needed to live a life on the earth, if there were no blessing from heaven reaching him from time to time, and of which he is so little aware.

The work of the spiritual man is to forget his false self and to realize the true self, which is God; and to realize that this true self is in his brother also.

It is not true that Adam was put out of the Garden of Eden. He only turned his back upon it; and so he became an exile from heaven.

Every soul is born with the capacity by which it can draw all the spiritual bliss and ecstasy which is needed for its evolution.

Every thing and being is placed in its own place, and each is busy carrying out the work which has to be done in the whole scheme of nature.

Nirvana is not an intellectual realization; it is life.

There are blessed souls living on the earth today to whom sacrifice gives no pain but only pleasure. In seeing another eat, their hunger is satisfied; renunciation is to them a joy, for they have gone through the cross and risen above it.

The better the instrument, the greater the satisfaction of the soul.

Truth cannot be put into words. It must be seen in the light of our own intuition.

That which is acquired cannot be truth. Truth is that which is discovered.

The art of personality is not a qualification; it is the purpose for which man was created. Through this art man not only satisfies himself but also pleases God.

When the soul has once fought its battle with the things that make it fear and tremble and shrink, it has conquered life and become the master of life. It has inherited the kingdom which is its own.

The man who has proved in his life to be the friend of every person he meets, in the end will prove to be the friend of God.

The perfection of friendship, in which lies all spiritual perfection, comes when the soul is so developed that there is no one whom it cannot bear. When it has reached this state, it has certainly passed into the ranks of those initiates whose names are written in the spiritual records.

Nature in its different aspects is the materialization of that light which is called the divine Spirit.

In prayer the repetition of thanksgiving brings to our soul our own voice, and that voice echoes before the God who is within.

The angels were made to sing the praises of the Lord; the jinns to imagine, to dream, to meditate; but man is created to show humanity in his character.

It is not what Christ taught that makes his devotees love him. They dispute over these things in vain. It is what he himself was that is loved and admired by them.

Man may have rank and position and a thousand qualifications, he may possess all the goods of the earth, but if he lacks the art of personality he is poor indeed. It is in this art that man shows the nobility which belongs to the kingdom of God.

A person, however learned and qualified in his life's work, in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant.

Throughout the whole journey on the spiritual path, the main thing that has to be accomplished is the forgetting of the false ego.

True freedom is within oneself. When the soul is free, there is nothing in this world that binds us; everywhere we find freedom, both in heaven and on earth.

As the heart expands, so the horizon becomes wider, and one finds greater and greater scope in which to build the kingdom of God.

Joy is not something brought from outside. It belongs to us, but it manifests to us as the result of certain actions.

Life is an opportunity, and the more one realizes this, the more one will make the best of the opportunity which life offers.

The essence of life is hope. If we hope to be better, we shall become better.

You are love. You come from love. You are made by love. You cannot cease to love.

The whole manifestation is the manifestation of love. God Himself is love. So the love which comes from the source, returns to the source; and in this the purpose of life is accomplished.

You may go to the most exalted place, a place blessed with peace and rest; but if you take sadness and unrest with you, you will find them there.

God's message does not come only in words. What comes in words is small compared with the radiance the message brings to all things and all beings. It comes in the form of a sacrament, as bread and wine; and bread and wine symbolize life and love.

Renounce the good of the world; renounce the good of heaven; renounce your highest ideal. Then renounce your renunciation.

The way to perfection is not limited. No one can make a rule that you can only pass by this way and none other.

Beauty is the watchword of the seeker.

Patience is a process through which a soul goes in order to become precious.

By self-realization a man becomes larger than the universe. The world in which he lives becomes as a drop in the ocean of his heart.

In our sorrow is God's sorrow, for if God cannot sympathize, man is greater than God.

Part of our sorrow and our joy comes from life; part we make for ourselves. Life cannot give us joy if we will not earn it.

The God-ideal is the flower of the human race, and this flower blooms in the realization of God.

The mind is a world, a world that man makes; and in it he will live in the hereafter, as a spider lives in the web it has woven.

The further on the path of life's mystery a person travels, the finer he will have to become in order to perceive and to express the mystery of life.

The prophetic soul is like a fruit that is on the ground but still connected with the branch. The branch has bent and the fruit has touched the earth, but it has not lost connection with the stem.

The further we advance, the more difficult and more important our part in the symphony of life becomes; and the more conscious we become of this responsibility, the more efficient we become in accomplishing our task.

With all the arguments for and against the divinity of Christ, no sincere believer in God can deny that God reflected Himself through the personality of the Master.

The prophetic soul must, of necessity, rise so high that it can hear the voice of God, and at the same time it must bend so low that it can hear the softest whisper of the beings on earth.

Even the presence of the prophet is the answer to every question. Without speaking one word, the prophet gives the answer. The prophet is only the medium between God and man; therefore, the answer is from God. It is not that the prophet answers the question because he reads the mind; it is the mind of the one who asks the question which strikes, on the inner plane, the divine bell which is the heart of the prophet.

The moment a person rises above his mind and awakens in the light of the soul, he becomes spiritual.

There are many facts, but only one truth. Facts can be put into words, but not the truth.

The mystic seeks God both within and without; he recognizes God both in unity and in variety.

As one evolves spiritually one rises above the tendency to intolerance, for the reason that one begins to see God besides seeing oneself and another person, and so one unites oneself with the other person in God.

The souls of all are from one and the same source, but a soul which is unveiled shines out. Love and light come continually from such souls. We need no proof of it, for it is living; all else is dead in comparison.

It is death that dies, not life.

The soul covers its own truth with a thousand veils from its own eyes.

The ideal must not be turned into the idol.

The soul has not come on earth to die the death of helplessness, nor continually to suffer pain and misery. The purpose of the soul is that for which the whole of creation has been striving, and it is the fulfillment of that purpose which is called God-consciousness.

Evil is an ever-floating thing -- sometimes here, sometimes there. So evil in man is just a cloud; it comes and goes; and if we trust in his goodness, the clouds will disappear.

Man's sacred duty is to strive to attain to that perfect consciousness which is his true religion.

By making many sacrifices and practicing renunciation, by going through many tests and trials, man will attain to that consciousness which is God-consciousness, in which resides all perfection.

Balance is the key-note of spiritual attainment.

No sooner is the God-ideal brought to life, than the worshipper of God turns into truth.

The depth of every soul is good. It is only belief in this doctrine that gives us a reason for our belief in the goodness of God.

The man who shuts himself away from all men, however highly evolved he may be spiritually, will not be free in the higher spheres.

In order to fulfill the practical duties of life, it is not necessary to forget our ideal. We can hold the ideal in the tenderest spot of our heart, and yet fulfill our practical duties. The ideal is to illuminate our lives, not to paralyze our actions.

The disciple can be inspired, and the disciple can shut off his inspiration. If there is no response on the part of the disciple, then the inspiration of the master is shut off. Just like the clouds which cannot give rain when passing over the desert, but when they come to the forest they are attracted by the trees and the rain falls.

The soul in its manifestation on earth is not at all disconnected with the higher spheres. It lives in all spheres, though it is generally conscious on only one plane. Thus it becomes deprived of the heavenly bliss, and conscious of the troubles and limitations of life on the earth.

There are rays and there is light. If the rays are the source of the souls of living beings, then the light of the divine Sun is the spirit of the whole of Being.

When we develop our sense of beauty, then we are naturally critical of that which does not come up to our standard. But when we have passed this stage, in the next cycle divine compassion is developed in our nature and we become able to add all that is lacking, and so to compensate for that perfect beauty.

In the making of personality, God finishes His divine art.

As the source and goal of all creation are one, so the source and goal of all religion are one.

The law of God is endless and limitless as God Himself, and once the eye of the seeker penetrates through the veil that hangs before him, hiding the real law of life from his eyes, the mystery of the whole of life manifests to him; then happiness and peace become his own, for they are the birthright of every soul.

The soul longs for a keen perception. The absence of such fine perception causes depression and confusion, because the inner longing is to see.

There comes a stage in the evolution of an illuminated soul, when it begins to see the law hidden behind nature. To it the whole of life reveals its secret.

The wider the outlook, the less are one's troubles in life. If one fixes one's eyes on the horizon as far as one can see, one is saved from troubles and trials.

God is the horizon, and one can neither touch the horizon nor God. The horizon is as far as one can see and even further; and so is God.

When we find faults and see no excuses, we are blind to the Light which can free a person from his faults and give rise to that forgiveness which is the very essence of God, and which is to be found in the human heart.

Both life and death are contrary aspects of one thing, and that is change. Death is only passing from life on the earth to a still greater life.

The more you give of wealth such as spiritual wealth, the more it increases; what you have given you have not lost, you have gained it.

What is the soul? The soul is life; it never touches death. Death comes to something which the soul holds, not to itself.

There is no such thing as mortality except as an illusion, and the impression of that illusion, which man holds as fear.

Can a composer give a justification for every note written in his composition? He cannot; he can only say, "it is the stream which has risen out of my heart. I am not concerned with every single note. What I am concerned with is the effect which is produced by my composition."

Is law predominant, or love? Law is the habit; love is the being. Law is made; love was, is, and always will be.

Belief in the human soul is the bridge to belief in God.

By our trust in the divine beauty in every person we develop that beauty in ourselves.

Worry comes from self-pity. When the self is forgotten, there is no worry. Worry comes also from fear, and fear comes from the clouds of ignorance. Light breaks the clouds.

The soul takes with itself into the hereafter all that it has collected in the way of impressions.

The teaching of the prophets is the answer to the demands of individual and collective souls.

To weigh, to measure, to examine, to express an opinion on a great personality, one must first rise to the same development.

If there is any solution to our ever-rising questions, it is never by studying the law that we shall be satisfied. If anything will give us satisfaction, it is diving deep into love and letting love inspire us, and that will enable us to see the law.

Verily a deep-felt need is a prayer in itself.

There is no liberation unless one has an ideal before one. The ideal is a stepping-stone towards that attainment which is called liberation.

Love is the shower by which sin is purified; no stain remains. What is God? God is love. When His mercy, His compassion, His kindness are expressed through a God-realized personality, then the stains of sins, faults, and mistakes are washed away and the soul becomes clear.

Earthly pleasures are the shadows of happiness, because of their transitoriness. True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one's soul; and he who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him, whose source is not without, but within.

Failure does not matter in life. To a progressive person even a thousand failures do not matter. He keeps success before his view, and success is his even after a thousand failures. The greatest pity is when life comes to a standstill and does not move any farther; a sensible person prefers death to such a life.

Verily, truth is all the religion there is, and it is truth which will save. At every step towards the final goal man will be asked for a sacrifice, and that sacrifice will be a greater and greater one as he continues on the path. When there is nothing, whether mind, body, thought, feeling, or action, that he keeps back from sacrificing for others, then man proves his realization of divine truth.