Quotes

If there is understanding of the difference between the body and the soul
then, just as we don’t neglect to supply the physical with food,
similarly, we don’t live in the illusion that our inner craving
or emptiness can be satisfied by endless material consumption.

Perfection means being in tune with reality.
The first thing we must understand is reality –
the reality of my identity ie my essence, position and function.
Who am I?

Like the swans, which drink only the pure nectar of the blooming lotus flower, the liberated souls drink only at the fountain of transcendental love; they never try to find happiness in a life of material sense enjoyment.

In this world, people are always fighting over property. They want to stake their claims of ownership on both the living and the nonliving. According to the Sri Ishopanishad, these people are like thieves fighting over stolen loot. If we look at the question from the relatively short-term view, we may find it hard to accept that no one is really an owner of anything. But if we adopt the point of view of the Sri Ishopanishad—which sees the universe not in terms of decades, centuries, or even thousands of years, but in terms of many millions of years—then we can understand this point.

"The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience."
~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Ten

For one who lives a hedonistic life, a life in which nescience is cultivated, the results are envy, anger, greed, impatience, disrespect for others, anxiety, depression, hatred, ever-increasing lust, forgetfulness, frustration, dissatisfaction, duplicity, fear of death, and so on.

The yogi's interest is inner peace and self-realization and social harmony.

In the same way that we do not befriend or reject somebody just on the basis of the type of clothing he is wearing, we should not feel prejudice nor bigotry towards others just because of the type of body that they are wearing. We should know that we aren't our bodies and thus not relate with others according to their temporary bodies.

Lust is a manifestation of inner spiritual hunger. The attempt to satisfy spiritual hunger in sense pleasure is due to ignorance. The development of pure, all-expansive love within the heart satisfies one’s spiritual hunger. Love cancels out lust.