Ramakrishna

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. What you wish others to do, do yourself.

   Ramakrishna puts the whole problem of preaching in one line. If you want others to change, go first and go further. Example persuades where lectures do not.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 158, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

2. Common men talk bagfuls of religion and act not a grain of it.

   Talk is cheap and comes in sacks; practice is expensive and comes in grains. The wise, Ramakrishna says, speak little, and their whole life is the sermon. Measure your beliefs by your days, not your words.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 157, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

3. Iron must be heated and hammered many times before it becomes good steel.

   Ramakrishna says a person is forged the way a blade is: through repeated fire and repeated blows. Only then is the steel both sharp and flexible. Hard seasons are not wasted; they are the forging.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 246, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

4. He who has faith has all. He who lacks faith lacks all.

   In Max Müller's English, 'wants' means lacks. Ramakrishna's mirror line says faith is not one possession among others but the thing that makes the rest count. With it you are rich with little; without it, plenty is empty.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 201, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

5. A newborn calf falls scores of times before it learns to stand.

   Nobody blames a calf for falling; it is how it learns to stand. Ramakrishna says the spiritual path works the same way, with many slips before steadiness comes. Treat your own stumbles with the patience you would give a newborn.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 178, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

6. There are pearls in the sea. Dive deep again and again.

   Asked where God is, Ramakrishna answered like a pearl diver: the pearls are there, but you dive again and again until you come up with one. One dive and a shrug proves nothing. Whatever you are seeking, depth and repetition are the method.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 292, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

7. No one swims the sea after one day's practice.

   Ramakrishna uses the sea to talk about patience: you flail for days before the water holds you. Anything deep, from a craft to a spiritual life, takes many failed attempts. Expect the early clumsiness and keep going back in.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 330, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

8. The breeze of grace is always blowing. Unfurl your sails.

   Grace, in Ramakrishna's picture, is not rationed; it blows day and night. What varies is whether we raise the sail. Help, chances and good influences are often already present, and the work is to open up and catch them.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 198, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

9. The anger of the good is a line drawn on water.

   Good people still get angry, Ramakrishna admits, but their anger closes over like a line traced on water. It flares and is gone, with no grudge left behind. Feel it, then let the surface smooth over.

   Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 237, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

10. Squeeze the almanac and not a drop of rain comes out.

    The almanac predicts the rain, but you cannot wring water from its pages. Ramakrishna says wise books are the same: reading about virtue does not make you virtuous. The page tells you what to do; only practice delivers it.

    Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 242, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

11. Whoever lives among the world's temptations and still grows whole is the true hero.

    Retreating to a cave makes some things easier. Ramakrishna reserves the word hero for the person who stays in ordinary life, with its money, family and distractions, and still grows. Your real arena is the life you already have.

    Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 375, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898

12. A tree heavy with fruit bends low. To be great, be humble.

    The more fruit a branch carries, the lower it hangs. Ramakrishna turns that into advice: real greatness shows as humility, and puffing up is a sign of emptiness.

    Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898), saying 235, F. Max Müller (ed.), 1898