USE THE ENERGY PROPERLY, IT LEADS YOU TO GOD. INVERTED, IT IS HELL ITSELF

Nothing is gained except by sacrifice.... The holiest function of our human consciousness, the noblest, do not make it unclean! Do not degrade it to the level of the brutes.... Make yourselves decent men! ... Be chaste and pure! ... There is no other way. Did Christ find any other way? ... If you can conserve and use the energy properly, it leads you to God. Inverted, it is hell itself ....

- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, April 5, 1900) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/Practical Religion: Breathing And Meditation

THE GREATEST CONQUEROR IN THE WORLD - A MERE CHILD; DO NOT DESPAIR!

 It is much easier to do anything upon the external plane, but the greatest conqueror in the world finds himself a mere child when he tries to control his own mind. This is the world he has to conquer — the greater and more difficult world to conquer. Do not despair! Awake, arise, and stop not until the goal is reached!...

- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, April 5, 1900) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/Practical Religion: Breathing And Meditation

SALVATION IS ONLY POSSIBLE IF THERE IS SOME BEING WHOM NATURE NEVER CAUGHT, WHO IS THE RULER OF NATURE

You can build hospitals for every fly and flea that ever lived.... All this you may do, but it would never lead to salvation.... [Hospitals] go up and they come down again. [Salvation] is only possible if there is some being whom nature never caught, who is the Ruler of nature. He rules nature instead of being ruled by nature. He wills law instead of being downed by law. ... He exists and he is all merciful. The moment you seek Him [He will save you].

Why has He not taken us out? You do not want Him. You want everything but Him. The moment you want Him, that moment you get Him.

- Swami Vivekananda
The Soul And God (Delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900) - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God

THE ROAD TO SALVATION IS THROUGH TRUTH

There are other people, who would have no compromise. The road to salvation is through truth. That was another watchword....

- Swami Vivekananda
The Soul And God (Delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900) - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God

HE STOOD UP AND TOOK THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MISERY OF THE WORLD UPON HIS OWN SHOULDERS

[Man began to progress spiritually] when he kicked the devil out. He stood up and took the responsibility of the misery of the world upon his own shoulders.

- Swami Vivekananda
The Soul And God (Delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900) - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God

NOT SO VEDANTA. THIS IS THE FIRST LIGHT THAT THE HUMAN MIND THROWS BACK OF ALL THAT

Mark today, this is the ... difference between the first part of the Vedas and the second. In the first, it is all in [the domain of] sense. But all religions are only [concerned with the] infinite of the external world — nature and nature's God.... [Not so Vedanta]. This is the first light that the human mind throws back [of] all that. No satisfaction [comes] of the infinite [in] space. "[The] Self-exisent [One] has [created] the [senses as turned] ... to the outer world. Those therefore who [seek] outside will never find that [which is within]. There are the few who, wanting to know the truth, turn their eyes inward and in their own souls behold the glory [of the Self]"

- Swami Vivekananda
The Soul And God (Delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900) - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God

YOU ARE NOT BOUND. NO ONE WAS EVERY BOUND. THE SELF IS BEYOND

You are not bound. No one was ever bound. [The Self] is beyond. It is the all. You are the One; there are no two. God was your own reflection cast upon the screen of Maya. The real God [is the Self]. He [whom man] ignorantly worships is that reflection. [They say that] the Father in heaven is God. Why God? [It is because He is] your own reflection that [He] is God. Do you see how you are seeing God all the time? As you unfold yourself, the reflection grows [clearer].

- Swami Vivekananda
The Soul And God (Delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900) - The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God