"Love knows no logic; it is above reason. Love dwells on the heights, above the valleys of reason. It is an exalted state of being, the crown of existence, and it is granted to few."
Jack London, “Martin Eden”
"Everything we do should be done with love and with the desire to benefit others."
Milarepa
"Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, sends its roots deep into our entire being, and often continues to grow green and bloom even on the ruins of our hearts." Victor Hugo
"Both the soul and the body participate equally in love. Otherwise, love is incomplete. We are neither spirits nor beasts." Ivan Goncharov
Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 10
The Opulence of the Absolute
Text 18: O Janardana, once again I ask You to describe in detail Your mystical powers and opulences. I will never tire of hearing about You, for the more I hear, the more I yearn to relish the nectar of Your words.
Text 19: The Supreme Lord said: Very well, I shall tell you of My glorious manifestations, but only the most prominent of them, O Arjuna, for My glories are limitless.
Text 20: O Arjuna, I am the Supersoul dwelling in the heart of every living being. I am the beginning, middle, and end of all that exists.
Text 21: Among the Adityas I am Vishnu; among the luminaries I am the radiant sun; among the Maruts I am Marichi; and among the stars I am the moon.
Text 22: Among the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; among the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; among the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the life force [сознание].
Text 23: Among the Rudras I am Lord Shiva; among the yakshas and rakshasas I am the treasurer [Кувера]; among the Vasus I am fire [Агни]; and among the mountains I am Mount Meru.
Text 24: Know, O Arjuna, that among priests I am the chief priest, Brihaspati. Among military commanders I am Karttikeya, and among bodies of water I am the ocean.
Text 25: Among the great sages I am Bhrigu, and among sounds I am the transcendental sound om. Among sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names [джапа], and among immovable things I am the Himalayan mountains.
Text 26: Among trees I am the banyan, and among sages of the demigods I am Narada. Among the Gandharvas I am Chitraratha, and among perfected living beings I am the sage Kapila.
Text 27: Among steeds I am Ucchaihshrava, born during the churning of the ocean. Among mighty elephants I am Airavata, and among human beings I am the king.
Text 28: Among weapons I am the thunderbolt, among cows I am Surabhi. Among the causes of procreation I am Kandarpa, the god of love, and among serpents I am Vasuki.
Text 29: Among the many-headed Nagas I am Ananta, and among aquatic beings I am the demigod Varuna. Among ancestors I am Aryama, and among those who administer justice I am Yama, the lord of death.
Text 30: Among the Daitya demons I am the righteous Prahlada; among destructive forces I am time; among beasts I am the lion; and among birds I am Garuda.
"Spiritual hunger—suppressed ambitions, at times traces of mystical coldness, sometimes mysticism and misfortune. I am not saying that joy is foreign to beauty. But joy is one of beauty's most vulgar garments, while melancholy is its best companion, and I can hardly imagine beauty without sorrow." Charles Baudelaire
"The main thing life teaches a person is not that suffering exists in the world, but that it depends on them whether they will turn suffering to their own benefit, whether they will transform it into joy."
Rabindranath Tagore
"The purpose of life, its meaning, is joy. Rejoice in the sky, the sun, the stars, the grass, the trees, the animals, and people. And see to it that this joy is disturbed by nothing. If this joy is disturbed, it means that you have made a mistake somewhere—seek out this mistake and correct it."
Leo Tolstoy
"Whatever happens, I will not allow my joy to run dry. Misfortune leads nowhere and destroys everything that exists. Why suffer? If everything can be changed. And if nothing can be changed, how will suffering help?" The 14th Dalai Lama
Text 31: Among purifying forces I am the wind; among those who bear weapons, I am Rama; among fish, I am the shark; and among mighty rivers, I am the Ganges.
Text 32: I am the beginning, the end, and the middle of all creation, O Arjuna. Among all kinds of knowledge, I am the divine knowledge of the soul, and among logicians, I am the argument that leads to truth.
Text 33: Among letters I am the letter “a,” and among compound nouns, I am the dvandva compound. I am eternal time, and among creators, I am Brahma.
Text 34: I am all-devouring death and the creative beginning of everything that is destined to be born. Among women I am Fame, Fortune, Eloquence, Memory, Intelligence, Determination, and Patience.*
Text 35: Among the hymns of the Sama Veda, I am the Brihat-sama, and among poetic meters, I am the Gayatri. Among all months I am Margashirsha [ноябрь-декабрь], and among seasons, I am spring in bloom.
Text 36: Among all forms of deception, I am gambling. I am the splendor of everything that dazzles with magnificence. I am victory, adventure, and the strength of the strong.
Text 37: Among the descendants of Vrishni, I am Vasudeva, and among the Pandavas, Arjuna. Among sages, I am Vyasa, and among great thinkers, Ushana.
Text 38: Among all means of suppressing lawlessness, I am punishment. In those who strive for victory, I am moral purity. I am the silence of secrets and the wisdom of the wise.
Text 39: Moreover, O Arjuna, I am the seed of life. No created being, moving or unmoving, can exist without Me.
Text 40: O mighty conqueror of enemies, there is no end to My divine manifestations. I have given you only a few examples of My countless glories.
Text 41: Understand that everything magnificent, beautiful, and glorious in this world is born from merely a spark of My splendor.
Text 42: But why, O Arjuna, do you need to know all these details? With a single part of Myself, I pervade and sustain the entire universe.
Bhagavad Gita
Chapter 10
The Glories of the Absolute
"A God who did not know how to smile could not have created this amusing universe." Sri Aurobindo
"Order is the most primitive and arbitrary grouping of objects in the chaos of the universe." Robert Sheckley
"I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker." Voltaire
"The soul of God's creation
Is nourished by eternal joy,
By the secret power of fermenting
The cup of life blazes;
It lured the grass into the light,
Developed chaos into suns
And poured it through spaces,
Beyond the astrologer's command."
Fyodor M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov,"
Blame no one, not even yourself. Judgment and condemnation will not erase the past; rather, they will serve as further proof that you depend on circumstances over which you have completely lost control.
"Judging another is always wrong, because no one can ever know what was and is happening in the soul of the person being judged."
Leo Tolstoy
"Do not be afraid to assert yourself, even if it provokes criticism and condemnation from those around you. For self-expression—like a photograph—begins with a negative."
Alexey Khristinin
"The loss of those I once fell in love with used to wound my soul. Now I am convinced that no one can lose anyone, because no one belongs to anyone. That is true freedom—to possess what is most precious to you, but not to own it." Paulo Coelho, "Eleven Minutes"
Sacred scriptures are beneficial because they awaken the desire for inner realization, but to achieve this, one must gradually absorb one verse after another.
"Be diligent in reading the Scriptures, and they will drive away impure thoughts. If you constantly and diligently read the Scriptures and follow the commandments, God's mercy will be with you." Anthony the Great
"One who perceives everything as none other than oneself, and who sees oneself in everything, rejects nothing. For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing other than a reflection of their essence. Therefore, how can any suffering or falsehood exist for one who has realized this unity?"
Upanishads
"The tenderness and delight we experience when contemplating nature are a memory of the time when we were animals, trees, flowers, and earth. More precisely, it is the awareness of unity in everything, concealed from us by time."
L. N. Tolstoy
"People must not forget that they have been given very little space on Earth, that they live surrounded by nature, which can take back everything it has given to humanity. It would cost her nothing to sweep us from the face of the Earth with her breath or flood us with ocean waters—simply to remind humanity once again that it is not as all-powerful as it thinks. If we do not constantly feel her presence at night, we will forget how formidable and powerful she can be. And then, one fine day, she will come and swallow us."
Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451"
"Just look at the ocean—isn't it a living creature? Sometimes angry, sometimes gentle! At night it slept just as we did, and now it awakens in a good mood after a peaceful sleep!"
Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
"Do you know that the ocean is a gigantic snowflake, the greatest snowflake in the world? Ever in motion, with thousands of colors and forms, and never repeating itself."
Ray Bradbury, "The Golden Apples of the Sun"
"If you can find paths without any obstacles, it probably leads nowhere."
Che Guevara
"Perhaps there is no character trait more important than firm resolve. Anyone who wants to become great or, in one way or another, leave a mark on this life must resolve not only to overcome a thousand obstacles, but also to triumph despite a thousand failures and defeats."
Theodore Roosevelt
