Change yourself – you are in control.
Distinguish between real needs and artificial wants and control the latter.
A man who would interpret the scriptures must have the spiritual discipline.
Man is oftentimes weak-minded enough to be caught in the snare of greed and honeyed words.
The human body is meant solely for service, never for indulgence. The secret of happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life. Indulgence spells death.
He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man.
Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.
Part 1. We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body.
Part 2. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.
Part 3. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.
Part 4. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.
Fasting unto death is the last and the most potent weapon in the armoury of Satyagraha (a policy of passive political resistance). It is a sacred thing. But it must be accepted with all its implications. It is not the fast itself, but what it implies that matters.
Not until we have reduced ourselves to nothingness can we conquer the evil in us. God demands nothing less than complete self-surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having.
Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.
Part 1. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth.
Part 2. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time.
Part 3. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.
The richest grace of ahimsa will descend easily upon the owner of hard discipline. (ahimsa is the principle of nonviolence toward all living things)
For winning Swaraj one requires iron discipline. (Swaraj can mean self-governance or “self-rule” but the word usually refers to Gandhi’s concept for Indian independence from foreign domination)
The Swaraj of my dream recognizes no race or religious distinctions.
Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law.
