Baba Premananda Bharati

“ There is nothing in Nature which is finite, not even a blade of grass, or the tiniest speck of earth.
All is infinite—all that you see around you, or perceive within you. There is no such word as finite in the dictionary of Nature, in the lexicon of Creation. All, all that looks ever so small and circumscribed to the fleshly eye of ignorance, is vast and endless to the eye of spiritual wisdom. All that to the physical sight is limited in shape and life is before the vision of the soulful student of Creation's mysterious laws limitless beyond grasp. ”

“ In the play ground of the forest, by the bank of the sportive river, 'neath the trees when the wing of songbirds stirs the leaves of sleeping roses, and the perfume of the lotus calls languorous love, where the sparkling stars are laughing and the moonbeams kills the darkness, in the sweet divine embracing where the the Twain in Bliss do meet—there am I.
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Therefore because thou art thus, not all the concentrated beauty of a whole universe can take from thee that which is thine, nor can the combined virtues of realm on realm hold to thee that which is not for thee. ”

“ Their home is wherever they live and rest, its roof is the high vault of Heaven with its azure canopy, Mother Earth the floor, the trees its walls; Nature's bowers are their boudoirs. All created beings are their family, the whole earth their country. And the whole earth is one large, beautiful garden, the richest and most beautiful garden of flowers and fruits and songbirds. But more beautiful than the garden are the divine men and women who sanctify its soil by their walking, at whose approach near them the trees worship them with showers of flowers and offers of their fruits as love-gifts. ”

“ If we but look upward, thou following me, and I, though loving thee much, yet yielding not to thy sweet persuasive pleadings and downward looking, who knows but we may heal those who, even like thee, do cry out against the non-adjustment of the body and the soul, who, even like thee, have known soul-hunger and soul-starvation, which disease driveth out of the body all its softness and smoothness, and even casteth a shadow on the soul which should never he shadowed, lest it loseth the sight of the home where light alone doth dwell and love alone doth reign. ”

“ Take a grain of earth, and try to trace its origin by the light of the discoveries made by sages who probed into the inmost depths of Nature with the needle of pure spiritual concentration, and you will find that that grain of earth has sprung from Water, Water from Fire, Fire from Air, Air from Ether, and Ether from Sound, Sound from Mind in its effort to cognize outside of it objects projecting from within itself, Mind from Ego, Ego from Consciousness, and Consciousness from the Infinite Love-ocean, the basic principle of Creation. ”

“ And the milk-maids, who in loving companionship oft with him roamed to the hillside where with the other boys he tended the cattle, would in fond love contemplate the Youth, knowing not what the potency was that drew them, forgetful of all duties, to His side.
And among themselves they would speak thus: "Oh, how sweet is the hillside, when Krishna is near, how sublime is His countenance and His eyes how beautiful with piercing love-light filled! Serene doth He stand, yet bewilderingly entrancing is the joy that comes to our souls by His glances that seek us in softness and kindness." ”

“ Because the whole universe, of which we are parts, has come out of that Eternal Abode of Happiness, called Bliss, where it had dwelt before creation, like a tree in a seed, and the memory of which dwells still in the inner consciousness of all created beings, though it has dropped out of their outer consciousness.
That abode of happiness is called the Abode of Absolute Love; the Hindoo calls it Krishna. The word Krishna, in Sanscrit, comes from the root "karsha"—to draw. Krishna means that which draws us to Itself; and what in the world draws us all more powerfully than Love? ”

“ List I fill your heart with love, with sunshine which freely I scatter to you; and I will bring there soft rains and the seed of love to life I will stir; and that which to your senses of infants doth reek of the charnel-house, a fertilizer shall become, for your love to grow and sprout, even as the creeping vine that drops and takes root wherever it falls.
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I am the swiftness in the sailing cloud, the flame struck from the flint. I am the fire housed in every star, the breath I am of every living thing. ”

“ Each Gopi saw only her own Krishna and was unconscious of any other, as she danced, absorbed in that Krishna, round and round, arms round necks, eyes into eyes, all-forgetting, the world forgot, round and round in the whirl of ecstasy, afloat on the waves of Love that is Bliss—round and round with that One Krishna, the All-in-All of the heart and existence—round and round, the lover and the loved, the little soul twining round the Great Soul, the Great Soul pouring Its Nectar into the little soul. ”

“ Those who once have looked upon Me, upon his brow I have placed a crown that readeth in blazing letters of light, a crown of love and wisdom and humbleness. He walketh even in lowliness and reacheth away from the earth and commandeth sublimity itself to kneel at his feet.
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O My jewels rare! Arise, survey the kingdom you may possess. Laws you may make, barriers break, tread on the stars, and the comets themselves will rush at your command. Know I have made you heir to all I have created, I, your Maker's Self, once walk a man and as a man all men I love. To know yourself, know Me. ”

“ O companion of my earthly Self's encasement of soft flesh, I love thee even as thou lovest me, and I do draw thee upward, even as thou dost drag me down. Dost thou not know that from earth thou hast come, hence to earth must go again; that thy natural tendencies are downward even unto the earth from which thou didst spring? Yet dost thou love that in me which soars even upward to the home from whence I came. A ray of eternal light am I, a glow of the warm of a spark of the central flame ”

“ It is life's one common object for us all—Pleasure. That is the one all-absorbing quest of humanity, nay, of all living creatures, of all creation. We are ever striving, all of us, every minute, to find that one blessing which ever eludes our grasp, ever misses our ken, ever deludes us like the will-o'-the-wisp—the one object of our desire, of predominant, spontaneous, practical, natural interest—Unmixed, Unbroken Happiness.
Not only is this quest for happiness ever present within mankind, but also in lower animals, and even in every phase of Nature, more or less pronounced or discernible. ”

“ Ye will not look upon Me as the pedestal upon which all things that are, are founded. Arid because of your blindness, for blind ye are, having eyes ye see not what I have given ye to see—because of your blindness, small are your hearts and cramped and will not expand in height and breadth, even to know the peace that dwells in My clear silence, nor the illumination that lives on My horizon. Nor will ye hear the joy of My greeting of wisdom that would sing to your souls of a love that withereth not, neither fadeth away, neither becometh ashes nor crumbleth to pieces. ”

“ I am the knower of all that is knowable, the wisdom of all that is wise. I am the creator of all created, for I am Love and Love is the mother of all.
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My Beloved, thee I embrace and hold. Bring thou the light, while I do shine thy way.
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Love maketh all things well and knoweth all things well. It is the rise of man; it knoweth the fall of the beast; it toucheth the opening flowers, its kiss falleth light on the lotus, it painteth the new East rainbow hues and wingeth the eaglet as it flieth. There are no foes, for I have made them all. ”

“ List I do thou even let the desires of thy heart lie dormant and do thou even seek My Love in this hour. Then thou shalt know the fatness of My love and when thou dost, then will the soul thou cravest to turn toward thee in the splendour of light beam full upon thee, even as thou wouldst have it Love, My own, the working of My love, is not always the working of that which thou canst only see a little way—for far even unto eternity do I lode and the links I rivet now are even the chain that stretches to the end of time everlasting. ”

“ So it is with Love. It is stirred to life by My breath, but watching too it takes for it to blossom and bear fruit. Bear love in your mind, when action you perform; bear love in your mind in duties or tasks. With eyes of pure love in all things look, even in yourselves. All things love-existence are. Do you respect them as such. Even the beginnings of worlds, the whirling mote of dust, the heart that is fertile and the heart that is barren, on all look with eyes of pure love. ”

“ Am I not the magician of all time, who by the spell of My love do charm a waiting, passive, alas!–a blinded world? Aye, even thy heart of hearts shall be laid bare and those who seek shall come and feed of the peace thereof. Lo, on the hilltop for thee my sun spreads cheer!
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Be thou he, who shall invest in courage, climbing the rocky hill, where thou shalt embrace cheer and she shall bring forth the baby, that is thy desire, and because of the baby which thou holdest in thy arms, because of that thy path shall be light, for lo! the babe is what men call success. ”

“ With hearing begins action; and as Brahmā concentrates his mind upon his former creation, its memory in time flashes through him, and with the flashing of that memory creation manifests itself, in the shape of earth, and sky, and trees, and grass, and ocean, and rivers, and in time beast, and bird, and man, all complete. Just as a master painter first designs a picture in his mind and reproduces that design upon the canvas, even so is the picture of creation produced upon the canvas of Love-life. ”

“ This is His Rash Dance in the aggregate, the Rash Dance that is being performed every moment within Nature though hidden from our outlooking physical vision. What is true of the great Universe is true also of its miniature, man. Within our heart of hearts is the forest of Brindāban in which the microscopic blue river of love, Jumnā, flows, lapping with thrills of joy the bank of the bowery lawn where Krishna—our Soul—with His Gopis—our ensouled mental aspirations—is performing His ever-favorite, never-ending Rash Dance. ”

“ He must not occupy his mind with any other but that one thought; he must live on one simple, spare meal a day, enough to sufficiently satisfy his hunger; he must dress himself in scant saffron-colored clothes, the color of Love and Wisdom. He must ever be wandering, never entering a human home, and rest under trees; but must not sleep under one tree or on the same spot or place for three successive nights, Never talk with people on any other subject than that of his search, and discuss it with humble spirit of inquiry with illuminated sages he comes across on his journeyings. ”

“ Love, Universal Love, unmixed, Absolute Love is the only Life. When we lose sight of this Ideal, this substance of life, we fall. So long as our minds are filled from within with this Love, this Radiance of God, and we think, move and act by its influence and promptings, so long do we really live the Life which is our real heritage from God. The Golden Age people live this life moved by the Spirit within them, the Spirit-Life that makes life an ecstasy unto itself. ”

“ Then Chānoor became insolent, because of the confession of Krishna which he thought was made in weakness, and cried:
"O thou who hast killed the furious elephant as if in sport, thou askest to be matched with one of thine own age! With me thou shalt wrestle, me the most powerful, the strongest man of the age, and Rāma shall match with Mushtik; and, be it just or unjust, fair or unfair, thee I will fight and fight to kill." And so a combat began between the man that was mortal and the youth that was God. ”

“ I wish to sing a song whose sweetness will thrill through your body, which will make your soul float in ecstasy. I will sing a song whose burden will enter your heart as a dewdrop enters the bosom of a flower, but will soon, if you are attentive, spread itself into a boundless ocean on which your heart will be tossed over its gentle waves, like a boat bound for and sure of the land of Eternal Bliss. I as earnestly ask your blessing that I may be filled with such power to sing such a song, as I ask the blessing of my Krishna to sing of Him to you. ”