The Upanishads (Easwaran's Classics of Indian Spirituality Book 2)

we also can see the beginnings of one of the most important principles of mysticism, the principle of yajna or spiritual sacrifice: in order to reach the highest fulfillment, the human being returns vital energy to the process rather than clinging to it. In practical terms, he or she works for the well-being of the world rather than for the gratifi

The infinite – free, unbounded, full of joy – is our native state. We have fallen from that state and seek it everywhere: every human activity is an attempt to fill this void. But as long as we try to fill it from outside ourselves, we are making demands on life which life cannot fulfill. Finite things can never appease an infinite hunger. Nothing

those who know they are not the body pass beyond pleasure and pain to live in abiding joy.

What the sages mean is that if one sees through the symbolism of the ritual to its meaning and identifies with that inner core of meaning through spiritual union, rites become superfluous.

Tradition has isolated four powerful formulaic utterances (mahavakyas) embedded in the early Upanishads. One is sarvam idam brahma, “All is Brahman” (Chandogya III.14.1), which states the foundation of mysticism: that everything is ultimately one.

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.

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.

samadhi is not emptiness but purnata: plenitude, complete fullness. The whole of reality is there, inner as well as outer: not only matter and energy but all time, space, causality, and states of consciousness.

those who combine action with meditation Cross the sea of death through action And enter into immortality Through the practice of meditation.