1-Select Quotes of Anandmayi Ma

Anandmayi Ma was one of the foremost saints of India in the twentieth century. I got to know about her, but never got to read any of the books by or on her. I will do that someday. But, whenever I find someone inspiring and if I do not get to read their books, I search online for their quotes( a habit which has been life transforming for me). So, I searched online for Anandmayi Ma’s quotes, and I found them really transformative; reading them made me tranquil. I am sharing with you here, her quotes, which appealed to me. I hope they will help you too.

1. Exert yourself to the limits of your power, however feeble. He is there to fulfill what has been left undone.
2. Unconditional surrender to Him is the best solace for man.
3. You will have peace only if you rise above worldly desires.
4. Love and serve your consort and children as Divine manifestations. Perform all work as God’s service. Do not allow your mind to wander here and there. Endeavor to make it one pointed. Have one single end in view.
5. Try to treat with equal love all the people with whom you have relations. Thus the abyss between ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ will be filled in, which is the goal of all religious worship.
6. Do not set your hopes on anything less than supreme beatitude.
7. Blame may be likened to cowdung. When it lies about just anywhere it is of no use. But when, mixed with earth and turned into manure, it is put under plants, what lovely flowers, fruits and grain will grow due to it. Similarly, if an aspirant can bear to be blamed and criticized, that is to say, if he uses it to improve his character, it will be beneficial – just as the soil is made fertile by manure.
8. Man’s mind is clouded by worldly ties. But there is no cause for despair. With purity, unflinching faith and burning eagerness go ahead and you will realize your true Self.
9. Enquire: ‘Who am I?’ and you will find the answer. Look at a tree: from one seed arises a huge tree; from it comes numerous seeds, each one of which in its turn grows into a tree. No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere.
10. Whatever work you have to do, do it with a singleness of purpose, with all the simplicity, contentment and joy you are capable of. Thus only will you be able to reap the best fruit of work. In fullness of time, the dry leaves of life will naturally drop off and new ones shoot forth.
11. Householders should emulate the ancient rishis (sages) who were married men living with their families and leading a life dedicated to God.
12. Just as fire burns away all dross and rubbish, so the three fold suffering purges man’s heart from all impurity and results in a growing single mindedness in his search after Truth. When he becomes deeply conscious of his weakness and tormented by the thoughts of his undesirable impulses and distressing characteristics, when afflictions like poverty, bereavement or humiliation make him feel his life is futile, then and then only does he develop real faith and religious fervor, and becomes anxious to surrender himself at the feet of the Supreme Being. Suffering should therefore be welcomed. Never does the soft moonlight appear more soothing than after the scorching heat of a summer day.
13. Happiness that depends on anything outside of you, be it a wife, a child, money, fame, friends cannot last. But if you find happiness in God who is everywhere, all pervading, who is your own self, that is real happiness.
14. Renunciation is the giving up of the idea of separateness, not the giving up of things.
15. Whatever may be your short comings, don’t be depressed, don’t lose hope. Try to improve yourself.
16. Always bear this in mind: Everything is in God’s hands, and you are His tool to be used by Him as He pleases. Try to grasp the significance of ‘All Is His’. and you will immediately feel free from all burdens. What will be the result of your surrender to Him? None will seem alien, all will be your very own Self.
17. He is in all figures and forms, eternally enthroned in the hearts of all beings. It is true, He lives everywhere. Once one has achieved to see this, then one has seen and achieved everything. It means, to be fearless, sure, devoid of all conflicts, completely silent, imperishable.
18. By constantly dwelling on the thought of God all the granthis (knots) that make up ego are unraveled, and that which has to be realized will be realized.
19. Even when speech is suppressed, the activity of the mind still continues. All the same silence helps control the mind. As the mind dives deeper, its activity slackens off, and then one comes to feel that He Who provides for everything will arrange matters.
20. Since the body is bound to get hurt at times, there must be suffering as long as one is identified with it.
21. Our mind is the swiftest thing in creation. Let the mind move at its own speed constantly towards the One Aim, which is God.
22. The mind does not obey me; very well, I shall not obey the mind either; I shalt continue to repeat the Lord’s Name.
23. Thinking of anything other than GOD is what creates sorrow.
24. The positive proof that the aspirant is centered in GOD is that one ceases to hate any person or object and that good qualities such as Love, Forgiveness, Patience, and Forbearance go on increasing in one.
25. Divine happiness, even the tiniest particle of a grain of it, never leaves one again; and when one attains to the essence of things and finds one’s Self-this is supreme happiness. When it is found, nothing else remains to be found; the sense of want will not awaken anymore, and the heart’s torment will be stilled forever. Do not be satisfied with fragmentary happiness, which is invariably interrupted by shocks and blows of fate; but become complete, and having attained to perfection, be YOURSELF.
26. Reality is beyond speech and thought. Only that which can be expressed in words is being said. But what cannot be put into language is indeed That which IS.
27. Widen your shriveled heart, make the interests of others your own and serve them as much as you can by sympathy, kindness, presents and so forth. So long as one enjoys the things of this world and has needs and wants, it is necessary to minister to the needs of one’s fellow men. Otherwise one cannot be called a human being. Whenever you have the opportunity, give to the poor, feed the hungry, nurse the sick – do service as a religious duty and you will come to know by direct perception that the person served, the one who serves and the act of service are separate only in appearance.
28. Either melt by devotion the sense of separateness, or burn it by knowledge-for what is it that melts or burns? Only that which by its nature can be melted or burnt; namely the idea that something other than your Self exists. What will happen then? You come to know your Self.
29. As you love your own body, so regard everyone as equal to your own body. When the Supreme Experience supervenes, everyone’s service is revealed as one’s own service. Call it a bird, an insect, an animal or a man, call it by any name you please, one serves one’s own Self in every one of them.
30. To believe in Him under any particular form is not enough. Accept Him in His numberless forms, shapes and modes of being, in everything that exists. Aim at the whole and all your actions will be whole.
31. Those who desire to remain intoxicated by Reality do not require artificial intoxicants. Indulging in false things will only increase falsity, for every direction is indeed infinite. Those who desire the truly genuine Thing proceed of themselves with great intensity so as to progress in their sadhana.