Baba Hari Dass Quotes

Samyama, which is the application of concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and superconscious trance (samadhi) in lightning succession, is practiced with the intent to gain specific knowledge of the object of concentration. The object is seen from all sides, in all its aspects, with full depth and breadth. As such, this complete absorption of the mind using the process of samyama brings complete and specific knowledge of the object. This power of knowing is vibhuti.

The Self is beyond birth, death, gender, class, and religion - only the body wears those labels.

The world is an abstract art. We see it as we want to see it. It is a garden of roses and it is also a forest of thorny bushes and poison oak.

The aim of life is to attain peace. No one can give us peace. We can't buy or borrow it. We have to cultivate it by practicing yama and niyama (yoga restraints and observances).

Greed is a sickness of the mind. The more one hoards, the more greed increases. Giving with no expectation eliminates greed.

The ego rules the mind because it links the “I” with the mind and body. If the “I,” which is another name for the self, were not identified with the mind and body, the ego would have no power. Self-study, svadhyaya, therefore, is the set of practices that investigates the nature of the self to discover its origin. When the origin is found to be separate from the body, the ego loses the battle and peace is attain.

If the ego is pulled toward the world, it makes a wall. If the same ego is pulled toward God, it makes a ladder.

Creation is the product of bliss, and bliss is its sustainer; to bliss it returns.

The ashram [religious hermitage] protects man from the world. Man must protect himself from the ashram.

Your body is the temple of your soul. Your soul is God's temple.

When a person realizes peace inside by doing yoga, he will not smoke and get peace disturbed. The peace obtained by yoga is much higher than the pleasure of smoking.

Pleasure has desire in it. Desire is pain. There is no satisfaction. So pleasure is pain.

The embodied soul has two purposes to fulfill: Experience the world, and get liberation from all experiences. If the self were not in bondage then the two purposes would not be fulfilled.

Within the physical body every human being has a subtle body made up of invisible structures and energies (kundalini, nadis, and chakras); and within the subtle is the causal body out of which the subtle and physical bodies are formed.

Q: Babji, if you had only two words to say to the people of the world, what would they be?
A: Attain Peace.