The greed for fruit misses the flower.
In Indian music, it is not possible to build anything other than the raga basis. We can run away from its fetters, but not from its main outline.
My dearest life, I know you are not mine forever; but do love me even if it's for this moment. After that I shall vanish into the forest where you cast me, I won't ask anyone for anything again. Give me something that can last me till I die.
If my heart is breaking – let it break! That will not make the world bankrupt – nor even me; for man is so much greater than what he loses in this life.
The winds of grace are blowing all the time, but it is you that must raise your sails.
The fact is, those who are like everyone else arouse no hatred unless there is a reason. But when a resplendent inner self pierces the grossness that envelops it, some, quite irrationally, extend it heartfelt adoration; others, just as irrationally, try heart and soul to insult it.
You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time.
My husband would not give me an opportunity for worship. That was his greatness. They are cowards who claim absolute devotion from their wives as their right; that is a humiliation for both.
The man whose acquaintance with the world does not lead him deeper than science leads him, will never understand what it is that the man with the spiritual vision finds in these natural phenomena.
Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.
Pride engraves his frowns in stones;
love offers her surrender in flowers.
Clothed in facts truth feels oppressed. In the garb of poetry it moves easy and free.
I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.
Now that a full flood of music has swept over our country, let Nikhil practise his scales, while we rouse the land with our cracked voices.
The sands of desert may be very white and shiny, but I would much rather sow my seeds in black soil.
We gain freedom when we have paid the full price...
Do not blame your food because you have no appetite.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
As a flower plucked from a tree gradually droops and shrivels, love that avoids the harsh realities of practical life cannot thrive on its own resources.
The blue of the sky longs for the earth's green;
the wind between them sighs, Alas.
Ah, thou hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes of thy music, my master!
I will sit in the pupil of your eyes and that will carry your sight into the heart of the things.
But when physical appearance evades the scrutiny of our senses and enters the sanctuary of our hearts, then it can forget itself. I know, from my childhood's experience, how devotion is beauty itself, in its inner aspect.
We can look upon a road from two different points of view. One regards it as dividing us from the object of our desire; in that case we count every step of our journey over it as something attained by force in the face of obstruction. The other sees it as the road which leads us to our destination; and as such it is part of our goal.
The pain of dwelling on the wrongs done to us by other people far exceeds the little bit of pleasure we derive from condemning others for their guilt.
If no one responds to your call, then go your own way alone.
Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
I have spent a fortune traveling to distant shores and looked at lofty mountains and boundless oceans, and yet I haven't found time to take a few steps from my house to look at a single dew drop on a single blade of grass.
Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
Vanity is not like a horse or an elephant requiring expensive fodder.
THE mind, sharp but not broad, sticks at every point but does not move.
Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.
What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.
Man is a born child, his power is the power of growth.
Some day I shall sing to thee in the sunrise of some other world, I have seen thee before in the light of the earth, in the love of man.
The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.
Be not concerned about her heart, my heart: be content if the music is true, though the words are not to be believed; enjoy the grace that dances like a lily on the rippling, deceiving surface, whatever may lie beneath.
Open your door to that which must go, for the loss becomes unseemly when obstructed.
While God waits for His temple to be built of love Men bring stones.
My day is done, and I am like a boat drawn on the beach, listening to the dance-music of the tide in the evening.
Even he whose near ones have all died, one by one, is not alone-companionship comes for him from behind the screen of death.
But here Nature fulfilled her want of speech and spoke for her. The murmur of the brook, the voice of the village folk, the songs of the boatmen, the crying of the birds and rustle of trees mingled and were one with the trembling of her heart. They became one vast wave of sound which beat upon her restless soul.
Those who slander others,' Sachish said, 'do so because they love slander, not because they love truth. It's pointless therefore to struggle to prove that a piece of slander is untrue.
I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man.
For what are obstacles to the lower creatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.
Her wistful face haunts my dreams like the rain at night.
The civilisation of the West has in it the spirit of the machine which must move; and to that blind movement human lives are offered as fuel, keeping up the steam-power. It represents the active aspect of inertia which has the appearance of freedom, but not its truth, and therefore gives rise to slavery both within its boundaries and outside.
Of course, I'm dying to be about for ever so long. I'll ask the King to find me the polar star. I must have seen it often, but I don't know exactly which it is.
