Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa was a mystic and spiritual teacher whose words continue to inspire seekers across the world. His teachings, deeply rooted in devotion and direct experience, transcend religious and philosophical boundaries. He did not rely on complex theories or scriptures but spoke from personal realisation, making his wisdom accessible to all. His philosophy revolves around love for God, surrender, selfless service, and the understanding that all religions lead to the same truth.
His words remain relevant even today, offering guidance on life, karma, devotion, and the nature of the self. Many people turn to Ramkrishna Paramhans quotes for insight, as they reflect profound truths in the simplest of words. Whether it is about faith, detachment, or self-discovery, his wisdom helps navigate the complexities of existence. His sayings act as reminders that true fulfilment lies not in worldly success but in spiritual awakening.
The Unity of Religions
One of Sri Ramakrishna’s most revolutionary teachings was the idea that all religions are true and lead to the same divine reality. He did not merely preach religious harmony—he practised it. He followed different spiritual paths, including Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, and realised that each led to the same ultimate truth. His teachings shattered the rigid barriers between faiths and brought people closer to a universal understanding of God.
His famous analogy of a lake beautifully explains this idea:
“A lake has many ghats. From one ghat, Hindus take water and call it ‘jal’. From another, Muslims take water and call it ‘pani’. From a third, Christians call it ‘water’. Though the names differ, the essence remains the same.”
This philosophy of religious unity is reflected in many Ramakrishna quotes in English, where he often encouraged people to follow their faith sincerely rather than argue over religious differences. He believed that what matters is not the name or form of God but the sincerity with which one seeks the divine.
Devotion and Love for God
Sri Ramakrishna emphasised that love for God is the highest goal of human life. He taught that intellectual knowledge and debate are secondary to true devotion. He often compared spiritual seekers to a child crying for its mother, saying that God comes running when devotion is pure and intense.
He discouraged over-reliance on dry reasoning and excessive intellectualisation of God. Instead, he promoted childlike faith and surrender. One of his most well-known teachings on devotion states:
“The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.”
He encouraged people to cultivate longing for God, as true devotion could melt the heart of the divine. According to him, love for God should not be based on fear or selfish desires but on pure longing to unite with the divine. He saw this kind of devotion as the surest way to spiritual liberation.
Karma and the Law of Cause and Effect
Sri Ramakrishna often spoke about karma, explaining that every action carries consequences, and no one can escape the effects of their deeds. His teachings on karma were not about fear but about personal responsibility and self-improvement. He believed that by surrendering to God and leading a righteous life, one could transform their destiny.
One of his powerful Ramakrishna Paramahamsa quotes on karma is:
“Every action has its result, and no one can escape the consequences of their deeds.”
However, he also believed in divine grace. He explained that while karma binds individuals to the cycle of birth and death, surrender to God can cleanse past karma. He compared it to a room filled with darkness—just as a lamp can instantly remove darkness, devotion can remove lifetimes of negative karma.
He also encouraged people to act selflessly, saying that true service to others is an offering to God. He emphasised that actions should not be performed with the expectation of rewards, as attachment to results creates suffering.
“To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward.”
This aligns with the Bhagavad Gita’s teachings on karma yoga, reinforcing the idea that selfless action leads to inner freedom.
The Mind and Its Role in Liberation
Sri Ramakrishna often spoke about the power of the mind and how it influences one’s spiritual progress. He believed that the mind is the key to both bondage and liberation. If the mind is attached to worldly pleasures, it remains trapped in suffering. But if it is directed toward God, it becomes a tool for spiritual growth.
He used simple analogies to explain this concept. He once said that an ocean of bliss may rain down from the heavens, but if one holds up only a small cup, that is all they will receive. This means that spiritual progress depends on one’s inner capacity and openness to divine grace.
He also warned against distractions, saying that the mind must be focused on God at all times. He compared it to a flame in a windless place—only when the mind is still and steady can it reflect divine truth.
Detachment and Renunciation
While Sri Ramakrishna recognised the value of worldly responsibilities, he also emphasised the importance of detachment. He taught that attachment to material things creates suffering, while true joy comes from surrendering to God.
He encouraged people to live in the world but not be consumed by it. His famous teaching on detachment states:
“Live like a maidservant in a rich man’s house. She takes care of the house, calls the master’s children her own, but her mind is on her village home.”
This means that one should fulfil their duties but keep their mind focused on the divine. He did not ask people to abandon their responsibilities but to cultivate inner renunciation.
The Importance of a Guru
Sri Ramakrishna strongly believed in the need for a spiritual teacher. He taught that just as a person needs guidance to learn any skill, a seeker needs a guru to navigate the spiritual path. However, he also emphasised that true faith in the guru is essential for spiritual success.
“Man needs a guru, but he must have faith in the guru’s words. He succeeds in spiritual life by looking upon his guru as God Himself.”
He explained that a genuine guru is not just someone who gives knowledge but someone who transmits spiritual experience. He often compared a guru to a matchstick—just as a match ignites fire, a true guru awakens the divine consciousness in a disciple.
Simplicity and Humility
Ramakrishna believed that pride is the greatest obstacle on the spiritual path. He encouraged humility, saying that true wisdom comes from a simple and open heart. He often used the example of a tree:
“The tree laden with fruits always bends low. If you wish to be great, be humble.”
He discouraged spiritual arrogance, explaining that no matter how much one learns, real wisdom comes only through direct experience of God.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s teachings are timeless, offering profound wisdom on devotion, karma, detachment, and the unity of religions. His simple yet powerful words continue to inspire people across the world. He did not just preach spirituality—he lived it, showing that realisation of God is possible for anyone with sincere devotion.
His quotes act as a guiding light, helping seekers navigate life’s challenges with faith and wisdom. Whether it is through devotion, selfless action, or meditation, his teachings provide a path to inner peace and divine realisation. In a world full of distractions, his message remains clear—love God, serve humanity, and realise the divine within.
- “God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”
- “One should not think, ‘My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.’ God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions.”
- “I had to practise each religion for a time — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. Furthermore, I followed the paths of the Śāktas, Vaishnavas, and Vedāntists. I realized that there is only one God toward whom all are travelling; but the paths are different.”
- “Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A lake has many ghats. From one ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it ‘jal’. From another ghat the Mussalmāns take water in leather bags and call it ‘pāni’. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it ‘water’. Suppose someone says that the thing is not ‘jal’ but ‘pāni’, or that it is not ‘pāni’ but ‘water’, or that it is not ‘water’ but ‘jal’, It would indeed be ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.”
- “You must know that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion. God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By no means all are fit for the Knowledge of Brahman. Therefore the worship of God with form has been provided. The mother brings home a fish for her children. She curries part of the fish, part she fries, and with another part she makes pilau. By no means all can digest the pilau. So she makes fish soup for those who have weak stomachs. Further, some want pickled or fried fish. There are different temperaments. There are differences in the capacity to comprehend.”
- “A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must follow one path with all his strength. But you must regard other views as so many paths leading to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn’t bear malice toward others. If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to whom the world belongs, takes care of that.”
- “Lovers of God do not belong to any caste…. A brāhmin without this love is no longer a brāhmin. And a pariah with the love of God is no longer a pariah. Through bhakti an untouchable becomes pure and elevated.”
- “Knowledge leads to unity, but ignorance to diversity.”
- “The tree laden with fruits always bends low. If you wish to be great, be lowly and meek.”
- “As long as I live, so long do I learn.”
- “All troubles come to an end when the ego dies.”
- “Man suffers through lack of faith in God.”
- “The breeze of grace is always blowing; set your sail to catch that breeze.”
- “If you want to go east, don’t go west.”
- “When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.”
- “The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself.”
- “The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.”
- “When you meditate, go into the solitude of a forest, or a quiet corner, and enter into the chamber of your heart. And always keep your power of discrimination awake.”
- “To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward.”
- “If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God.”
- “Why does God allow evil in the world? To thicken the plot.”
- “At a certain stage in the path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in God with form, and at another stage, in God without it.”
- “Whoever wants God intensely, finds Him. Go and verify it in your own life.”
- “God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.”
- “Brahman is beyond mind and speech, beyond concentration and meditation, beyond the knower, the known and knowledge, beyond even the conception of the real and unreal. In short, It is beyond all relativity.”
- “It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated.”
- “An ocean of bliss may rain down from the heavens, but if you hold up only a thimble, that is all you receive.”
- “Pray to Him anyway you like, He can even hear the footfall of an ant.”
- “One cannot be spiritual as long as one has shame, hatred, or fear.”
- “The ego is like the root of a banyan tree, you think you have removed it all then one fine morning you see a sprout flourishing again.”
- “The world is impermanent. One should constantly remember death.”
- “Man needs a guru. But a man must have faith in the guru’s words. He succeeds in spiritual life by looking on his guru as God Himself.”
- “Imagine a limitless expanse of water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The ‘I’ is the jar.”
- “It is on account of the ego that one is not able to see God. In front of the door of God’s mansion lies the stump of ego. One cannot enter the mansion without jumping over the stump.”
- “The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing.”
- “Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.”
- “It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire.”
- “If a white cloth is stained even with a small spot, the stain appears very ugly indeed. So the smallest fault of a holy man becomes painfully prominent.”
- “If you spent one-tenth of the time you devoted to distractions like chasing women or making money to spiritual practice, you would be enlightened in a few years.”
- “Forgiveness is the true nature of the ascetic.”
- “When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.”
- “Make your meditation a continuous state of mind. A great worship is going on all the time, so nothing should be neglected or excluded from your constant meditative awareness.”
- “He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life.”
- “If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth and worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you.”
- “Do you know my attitude? Books, scriptures, and things like that only point out the way to reach God. After finding the way, what more need is there of books and scriptures? Then comes the time for action.”
- “Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body, as the tenant pays house-rent for the use of the house.”
- “Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day.”
- “There is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God.”
- “If a householder is a genuine devotee, he performs his duties without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to God—his gain or loss, his pleasure or pain.”
- “The nearer you approach to God, the less you reason and argue. When you attain Him, then all sounds—all reasoning and disputing—come to an end. Then you go into samadhi—sleep—, into communion with God in silence.”
- “How dare you talk of helping the world? God alone can do that. First you must be made free from all sense of self; then the Divine Mother will give you a task to do.”
- “Can he rectify false weight whose own scales are uncertain? Can you enlighten your neighbor while you yourself have no light?”
- “No one can say with finality that God is only ‘this’ and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream.”
- “It is necessary to pray to Him, with a longing Heart.”
- “Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.”
- “If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.”
- “Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace.”
- “God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.”
- “Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind. If you say ‘I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me’ free you shall be.”
- “Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God.”
- “God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached, and beyond pain and pleasure.”
