Below is an ongoing collection of quotes from spiritual literature that lights our way as we seek old paths towards a new future.

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Nothing is difficult. You just throw away everything and you will find that you are as happy and comfortable as you were before you got hi-tech. What does it take? Leave your computer at home, disconnect your telephone, disconnect your electricity: you are back in the beginning. It doesn’t take much. What is civilisation? It’s nothing but a few instruments of communication and illumination! What else is civilisation?

You sleep out one night and look at the stars - you are where your original forefathers were. It’s beautiful. And then you begin to wonder why on earth you went where houses are air conditioned 24 hours of the day, where you don’t know from inside whether it’s raining or not. The wind is blowing and you think it’s cool outside and you go and it’s 120 [degrees]! You wonder because it’s all artificial. So to cut off artificial is natural. There is nothing primitive about that. Natural was always natural. Sahaj Sandesh, December 29, 2008

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The crisis point is reached: this civilization is going too far in many respects. May our brothers admit it and conform to a more rigorous way of life while progressing in their personal and spiritual development.

All excesses come to an end; it is in the nature of things. Whispers From the Brighter World, Sept. 29, 2004

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Be Natural, Be Fearless & Have Faith - Sahaj Sandesh, No. 2008.35, 23 November, 2008

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So, that is how we are now like the salmon which goes back from the ocean to the place of its birth to spawn. After wandering around the world, doing so many things, we are back with our old traditional way of life, combining Sahaj Marg which has evolved out of religion, beyond religion – not out of, beyond religion – and combining it with a sort of agricultural life which is peaceful, where you can eat fresh things. Today’s banana plucked from the plant and eaten just then. Today’s banana, raw, cut from the plant and cooked. Today’s lady fingers cooked; fresh milk from our own cows, no pasteurization. So this you can’t get in city life. So, we combine the best of two worlds – the spiritual and the material. And Sahaj Marg says a bird flies on two wings, spiritual and material. So, we are, in a sense, combining that here. And I hope all of you will stick to this tradition … He, the Hookah and I p. 369-370

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One cannot easily find his own way in this troubled world. Man is destabilized by too many pieces of contradictory information, and he manages to find his own way around with difficulty. The bustle and the many sorts of nuisance are a hindrance to personal research, which requires a minimum of calm and attention. Everything inclines him to get diverted away from his real nature instead of developing it. Happy is the man who can live in peace, far from the noise of the cities and the daily worries of a hectic life. It is all the more commendable to manage to organize it and to devote some time to a practice allowing him to discover his true nature. Whispers from the Brighter World, June 3, 2003

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It is the attitude, it is the compassion for all living things that, “Let me take the minimum out of this world for me to subsist and let me make the maximum out of what I take.” Nature is a conservationist par excellence. If you waste, you are against Nature’s edict. You are not following the way of nature, that you must create the maximum from the minimum. Heart Speak 2004, Vol. 2, p.29

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If you don’t use your resources carefully, Nature is going to say, “This wonderful race of human beings which I created does not deserve these resources - cut!”Heart Speak 2004, vol. 2, p. 180

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So variety is produced not because God produced varieties, but because he produced seeds and gave them the opportunity of change, of being affected by external circumstances, which produces uniqueness in each individual growth. .. But this intelligence which said, “Produce seeds. Let them grow. Let them be shaped by the wind and the rain and the sun, which produces infinite variety of trees – no tree the same as another tree, no leaf the same as another leaf.” This would not be possible if you had gifts readymade given to you. Principles of Sahaj Marg, Vol. 13, p. 3

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In the beginning the necessities of life were limited. As time went on, the surroundings affected the lives of the people with the result that necessities began to increase. From the materialistic point of view the world is progressing day by day, and for that reason luxuries are gradually taking the place of necessities. In a way life has become quite luxurious. Our appetite for charms and attractions is growing greater and denser, and it is constantly being reinforced by the thought-force. Thus the individual mind is being altogether spoiled. That is why it has become over-excessively restless (chanchal). The excessive restlessness or chanchalta of the individual mind goes on increasing and intensifying by the action of our thoughts and doings, and this subsequently results in the formation of our fate. Our fate is thus governed by this chanchalta of the mind. The individual mind having now become used to such a type of character, leads us on to follow its own dictates. We are thus completely spoiled. We have therefore to correct the individual mind now. The process would be to adopt simple ways of living dissociated from the unnecessary hankering of the mind. It does not mean lowering the standard of life but only purging out from it what is superfluous and unnecessary. Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Vol. 2, p. 111

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I have known many people who are interested in gardening; when they plant seeds with a negative idea, “Oh, I don’t know how many of these will come,” nothing comes. But there are other gardeners who do not know anything of Botany and Zoology, nor of seeds and soil sciences. They plant it with love, water it tenderly, and everything comes. You call them green fingers bu they are the ‘love-hearted’. What are green fingers? It is love, which goes with the water to the seed. It is the love to which the seed responds and grows. We forget that love; we have become mechanical, we have become scientific, we have become botanists, zoologists, rock-soil scientists, and I don’t know what else. Even heart surgeons today forget that the seat of love is here and they are cutting it and destroying it, and taking specimens from it and even transplanting it. It is necessary, I don’t deny it, but , but are they doing it with love or just to show off, that here I have made one more transplant? They should not treat it as just a vessel that is circulating blood through the system. They should treat it as that organ which is significant in the human being as the seat of divinity, therefore the seat of love. Blood circulation is a mere physiological phenomenon. If they did it with this idea, every operation would be a success. Principles of Sahaj Marg, Vol. 13, p. 8

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… I believe that when the idea of speaking the truth was left behind, and people just repeated what others have said before them, like the manifestos of political parties, originality stopped. When originality stops, creation stops. When creation stops, there is only death and destruction and decay. Principles of Sahaj Marg, Vol. 13, p. 7

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… And his message again and again repeated – success or failure is not yours. Doing is your part. Success or defeat is His business. We do without knowing why. We do because we have to do it, we do because we must; we do because it is the law. Results? I mean the moment you think of result you are weakened. Anybody who thinks of a result is becoming weaker. Principles of Sahaj Marg, Vol. 13, p. 8

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