DAYANANDA SARASWATI

No human heart is denied empathy. No religion can demolish that by indoctrination. No culture, no nation and nationalism - nothing can touch it because it is empathy.

A value is valuable when the value of value is valuable to oneself.

Prayer in any form is efficacious because it is an action. It will, therefore, have a result. That is the law of this universe in which we find ourselves.

Lyric helps invoke the core person. And, without lyric, it is difficult to touch the core. Lyrical music is the music of India.

To be compassionate is not a joke. It's not that simple. One has to discover a certain bigness in oneself. That bigness should be centered on oneself, not in terms of money, not in terms of power you wield, not in terms of any status that you can command in the society, but it should be centered on oneself.

Though music transcends language, culture and time, and though notes are the same, Indian music is unique because it is evolved, sophisticated and melodies are defined.

What is crucial in dealing with loss is not to lose the lesson. That makes you a winner in the most profound sense.

Compassion is not defined in one form. There's no Indian compassion. There's no American compassion. It transcends nation, the gender, the age. Why? Because it is there in everybody. It's experienced by people occasionally.

The greatest musical instrument given to a human being is the voice.

There is no verb for compassion, but you have an adverb for compassion. That's interesting to me. You act compassionately. But then, how to act compassionately if you don't have compassion? That is where you fake. You fake it and make it. This is the mantra of the United States of America.

In life, loss is inevitable. Everyone knows this, yet in the core of most people it remains deeply denied - 'This should not happen to me.' It is for this reason that loss is the most difficult challenge one has to face as a human being.

Because a human being is endowed with empathy, he violates the natural order if he does not reach out to those who need care. Responding to this empathy, one is in harmony with the order of things, with dharma; otherwise, one is not.

Salvation is the state of emancipation from the endurance of pain and subjection to birth and death, and of the life of liberty and happiness in the immensity of God.

I love to follow truth; nay, I have made it my duty to persuade others to act on truth and abjure falsehood for the sake of their own good. So, the eradication of iniquities is the object of my life.

Wealth is a thing, earned with honesty and justice. Its opposite is the Mammon of unrighteousness.

God has neither form nor color. He is incorporeal and immense. Whatever is seen in the world describes his greatness.

God is absolutely holy and wise. His nature, attributes, and power are all holy. He is omnipresent, incorporeal, unborn, immense, omniscient, omnipotent, merciful and just. He is the maker, protector, and destroyer of worlds.

The works of present life are more important that the whole and entire reliance on wholesale blind fate.

The commendable conduct of man is shown by his discriminate treatment of merits and sympathetic regard for pleasure and pain, profit and loss of others. The contrary course is reprehensible.

He is good and wise who always speaks the truth, acts on the dictates of virtue, and tries to make others good and happy.

Beneficience removes evils, introduces the practice of virtue, and adds to general welfare and civilization.

The soul is one in its nature, but its entities are many.

The tongue should express what is in the heart.

People should try to know God and imitate him in their works. Repetitions and ceremonials are of no use.

Innocent pleasures are got by virtue and well-earned wealth.