Do your different duties in the world, fixing your mind on God. But practice is necessary, and one should also be alert. Only in this way one can safeguard both – God and the world. (The Gospel, p.428-29)
There are certain signs by which you can know a true devotee of God. His mind becomes quiet as he listens to the teacher’s instructions; just as the poisonous snake is quieted by the music of the charmer (The Gospel, p.244)
So long as a man has not realized God, he will have to come back to the Potters hand, that is, he will have to born again and again. (The Gospel, p.416)
A householder has his duties to discharge, his debts to pay: his debt to pay to the gods, his debt to his ancestors, his debt to the rishis, and his debt to wife and children…Only a monk must not save; the bird and the monk do not provide for the morrow. But even a bird provides when it has young ones. It brings food in its bill for its chicks. (The Gospel, p.156)
Man may be likened to grain. He has fallen between the millstones and is about to be crushed. Only the few grains that stay near the peg may escape. Therefore men should take refuge at the peg, that is to say, in God. Call on Him. Sing His name. Then you will be free. Otherwise you will be crushed by the King of Death (The Gospel, p.155)
(From the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math Madras, Mylapore, India)
