Baba Hari Dass Quotes

51 Sourced Quotes

Faith and devotion are the foundation on which meditation is built.

Baba Hari Dass
Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, you engage in battle for the sake of battle; thus you shell win and not incur sin.

Baba Hari Dass
The world is an abstract art. We see it as we want to see it. It is a garden of roses and it is also a forest of thorny bushes and poison oak.

Baba Hari Dass
Contentment, compassion, and tolerance are the pillars of peace.

Baba Hari Dass
Yoga is defined as a method – the process of nirodha (mental control) – by which union (the goal of yoga) is achieved. Yoga is therefore both the process of nirodha and the unqualified state of niruddha (the perfection of that process). The word yoga (union) implies duality (as in joining of two things or principles); the result of yoga is the nondual state..., or as the union of the lower self and higher Self. The nondual state is characterized by the absence of individuality; it can be described as eternal peace, pure love, Self-realization, or liberation.

Baba Hari Dass
The ashram [religious hermitage] protects man from the world. Man must protect himself from the ashram.

Baba Hari Dass
Q: Can intellect aid understanding? A: It helps in the beginning but cannot give full enlightenment. The mind is the main instrument to gain enlightenment, but enlightenment is only reached when the mind stops. Q: How can we stop the mind? A: Not hitting it with a hammer. Stop the mind by the mind.

Baba Hari Dass
Using siddhis (powers) is not good for those who possess them. It can also trap the mind into desires. By being pure in mind siddhis will come by itself, and a yogi should not try to show his powers. First thing is to have siddhis and then not to get trapped in siddhis.

Baba Hari Dass
Everything can be a trap. A hermit goes to a cave to get out of all worldly attachments and then gets attach to the cave. If we miss the point, then everything becomes a trap.

Baba Hari Dass
Creation is the product of bliss, and bliss is its sustainer; to bliss it returns.

Baba Hari Dass
The Self is beyond birth, death, gender, class, and religion - only the body wears those labels.

Baba Hari Dass
It was well known to people [in Kumoan villages] that Babaji Maharaj's age was several thousand years and that he was present at the War of Mahabharata at the time of Krishna.

Baba Hari Dass
In this verse Lord Krishna advises Arjuna how to fight the battle he is trying to avoid. Life in the world functions by ego, attachment and desire, which gives the rise to the idea of likes and dislikes. In this way the mind starts identifying all experiences in the world in terms of opposites, such as pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat... Here, Sri Krishna is saying that if Arjuna has neither desire for heaven nor for sovereignty over the earth, then he should achieve equanimity of the mind. With equanimity of the mind one can achieve success in the war of life. Without it, one cannot remain unaffected by the pairs of opposites and will be continually tossed about by the waves of egocentric likes and dislikes.

Baba Hari Dass
We cannot describe it. We cannot reveal it. And when we do, we disappear.

Baba Hari Dass
Anything that exists will never be destroyed; its disappearance is simply a transformation.

Baba Hari Dass
Work honestly, meditate every day, meet people without fear, and play.

Baba Hari Dass
Q: How do you define ego? A: Ego is life. To keep the body's existence is ego. It is the part of the mind which identifies a creature with the world. Ego self tells you, This is my body, and also tells you, This is my Self. It connects the two.

Baba Hari Dass
A person knows what he knows. An animal knows, but doesn't know what he knows. In Yoga, "I" consciousness is called asmita klesha. It is classified as an affliction and a hindrance to attaining higher consciousness. There is always a chance for a person to break out of the cycle, but there is no such chance for an animal unless it incarnates as a human and develops "I" consciousness.

Baba Hari Dass
The embodied soul has two purposes to fulfill: Experience the world, and get liberation from all experiences. If the self were not in bondage then the two purposes would not be fulfilled.

Baba Hari Dass
The aim of life is to attain peace. No one can give us peace. We can't buy or borrow it. We have to cultivate it by practicing yama and niyama [yoga restraints and observances].

Baba Hari Dass
Q: Did you start life like us with lots of demands, and what spurred you to give it up? A: When I was six or seven, I would feel I was inside a box of earth and sky, and I would weep. Once I asked my mother: "Take me out of this box of earth and sky." She said, "I can't." Then I said, "I'm going."

Baba Hari Dass