Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Atman

“The Atman, Self, is the same as Brahman, the Lord. This Self is all that is; It is the only reality. Māyā, delusion, makes us see It as different. There is one Self, not many. That one Self shines in various forms.”

“The Background, the Reality, of everyone is that same Eternal, Ever Blessed, Ever Pure, and Ever Perfect One. It is the Atman, the Soul, in the saint and the sinner, in the happy and the miserable, in the beautiful and the ugly, in men and in animals; it is the same throughout. It is the Shining One.”

“This Atman is altogether dormant in matter; in man, designated as a living being, It is partially conscious; while in personages like Shri Krishna, Buddha, and Shankara the same Atman has reached the superconscious stage. There is a state even beyond that, which cannot be expressed in terms of thought or language—“अवाङ्मनसगोचरम्””

“According to the Advaita philosophy, there is only one thing real in the universe, which it calls Brahman; everything else is unreal, manifested and manufactured out of Brahman by the power of Māyā. To reach back to that Brahman is our goal. We are, each one of us, that Brahman, that Reality, plus this Maya. If we can get rid of this Māyā or ignorance, then we become what we really are.”

“The body is the objective view of what we call mind (subjective). We, the Self, are beyond both body and mind; we are “Atman,” the eternal, unchangeable witness. The body is crystallised thought.”

“The Atman is the only existence in the human body which is immaterial. Because it is immaterial, it cannot be a compound, and because it is not a compound, it does not obey the law of cause and effect, and so it is immortal. That which is immortal can have no beginning because everything with a beginning must have an end. It also follows that it must be formless; there cannot be any form without matter. Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end.”

“We know our body will perish; it had a beginning and it will have an end. But the Self having no form, cannot be bound by the law of beginning and end. It is existing from infinite time; just as time is eternal, so is the Self of man eternal.”

“It is only form that is conditioned and limited by space; that which is formless cannot be confined in space. So, according to Advaita Vedānta, the Self, the Atman, in you, in me, in every one, is omnipresent. You are as much in the sun now as in this earth, as much in England as in America. But the Self acts through the mind and the body, and where they are, its action is visible.”

“No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the glory of the Self that appears as man, the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists, or ever will exist. I am to worship, therefore, none but myself.”

“You are God, and whatever else you may think is wrong. You must worship the Self in Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna. Only by worshiping the Self can freedom be won. Even personal God is but the Self objectified.”

“Modern science has really made the foundations of religion strong. That the whole universe is one, is scientifically demonstrable. What the metaphysicians call “being,” the physicist calls “matter,” but there is no real fight between the two, for both are one. Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe. That is exactly what the Vedantist says of Atman.”

“Here I stand and if I shut my eyes, and try to conceive my existence, “I,” “I,” “I,”— what is the idea before me? The idea of a body. Am I, then, nothing but a combination of material substances? The Vedas declare, “No.” I am a spirit living in a body. I am not the body. The body will die, but I shall not die. Here am I in this body; it will fall, but I shall go on living.”

“When you think you are a body, you are apart from the universe; when you think you are a soul, you are a spark from the great Eternal Fire; when you think you are the Atman (Self), you are All.”

“No one will ever know his own Self or God; but we are that own Self, we are God.”

“Life and death are only different names for the same fact, the two sides of the one coin. Both are Māyā, the inexplicable state of striving at one time to live, and a moment later to die. Beyond this is the true nature, the Atman.”

“Bow down to nothing but your own higher Self. Until you know that you are that very God of gods, there will never be any freedom for you.”

“Deep, deep within, is the soul, the essential man, the Atman. Turn the mind inward and become united to that.”

“When everything has been thrown away until what cannot be thrown away is reached, that is the Self.”

““This Atman is first to be heard of.” Hear day and night that you are that Soul. Repeat it to yourselves day and night till it enters into your very veins, till it tingles in every drop of blood, till it is in your flesh and bone. Let the whole body be full of that one ideal, “I am the birthless, the deathless, the blissful, the omniscient, the omnipotent, ever-glorious Soul.” Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes part and parcel of your life. Meditate upon it, and out of that will come work.”

“Brahman is without action, Atman is Brahman, and we are Atman; knowledge like this takes off all error. It must be heard, apprehended intellectually, and lastly realised. Cogitating is applying reason and establishing this knowledge in ourselves by reason. Realising is making it a part of our lives by constant thinking of it. This constant thought or Dhyāna is as oil that pours in one unbroken line from vessel to vessel; Dhyāna rolls the mind in this thought day and night and so helps us to attain to liberation.”

“Whoever repeats day and night, knowingly or unknowingly, “I am the eternal, pure, free, self-illumined Atman,” verily becomes the knower of Brahman.”

“The first step upwards is when we recognise ourselves as the children of God; the last step is when we realise ourselves as the One, the Atman.”

“Always try to get absorbed in the eternally present Atman. If you once get the vision of the Atman, you will get everything—the bonds of birth and death will be broken.”

““We are the Atman, deathless and free; pure, pure by nature. Can we ever commit any sin? Impossible!”—such a faith is needed. Such a faith makes men of us, makes gods of us.”

“Identify yourself with Atman, not with human limitations.”

“The highest good is the realisation of the Self.”

“Plant in your heart the faith of Nachiketâ. Even go up to the world of Yama like him. Yes, if to know the secrets of the Atman, to liberate your soul, to reach the true solution of the mystery of birth and death, you have to go to the very jaws of death and realise the truth thereby, well, go there with an undaunted heart.”

“Always discriminate between the real and the unreal, and devote yourself heart and soul to the attempt to realise the Atman. There is nothing higher than this knowledge of the Atman; all else is Maya, mere jugglery. The Atman is the one unchangeable Truth. This I have come to understand, and that is why I try to bring it home to you all.”

“This is the great lesson that we are here to learn through myriads of births and heavens and hells—that there is nothing to be asked for, desired for, beyond one's Self. "The greatest thing I can obtain is my Self.””

“This Atman in all beings does not manifest Himself to the eyes or the senses, but those whose minds have become purified and refined realise Him. Beyond all sound, all sight, beyond form, absolute, beyond all taste and touch, infinite, without beginning and without end, even beyond nature, the Unchangeable; he who realises Him, frees himself from the jaws of death. But it is very difficult. It is, as it were, walking on the edge of a razor; the way is long and perilous, but struggle on, do not despair. Awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached.”