All is well for those who choose The joy of the spirit, but they miss The goal of life who prefer the pleasant.

Brahman, from the root brih, “to expand.”

If rita is the moral law, yajna is the human response to live in accordance with that law, taking nothing from life for oneself but everywhere seeking to give of oneself to life.

damyata datta dayadhvam, “Be self-controlled, give, be compassionate.” This passage, boiled down as it is to three potent syllables, da – da – da, caught the imagination of T. S. Eliot; more to the point, it has helped countless seekers down the ages to orient their lives to the supreme goal.

The rasa of anything is subtler than it; it is its cause, its explanation, and the key to its significance; it is more real – more long-lasting – and the next step closer to the ultimate reality beyond both the knower and the known.

the forest civilization of the Upanishads took a turn unparalleled in the history of science. It focused on the medium of knowing: the mind.

What is an Upanishad? Etymologically the word suggests “sitting down near”: that is, at the feet of an illumined teacher in an intimate session of spiritual instruction, as aspirants still do in India today.

The Lord is the operator; we are But his innumerable instruments. May we realize him in our consciousness And find the bliss he alone can give us.

Like strangers in an unfamiliar country walking over a hidden treasure, day by day we enter the world of Brahman while in deep sleep but never find it, carried away by what is false.