Quotes from the Beacons of the Freedom Struggle that would continue to Illuminate India

Swami Vivekananda

• In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.
• All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
• You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
• May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians give strength to you to carry out your noble idea.
• The greatest sin is to think yourself weak Anything that makes weak – physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.
• Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
• The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.
• Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.
• The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
• The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
• “Whatever you think that you will be.
  if you think yourself weak, weak you will be;
  if you think yourself strong,you will be”
• Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached.
• All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. You can do anything and everything, without even the guidance of any one. Stand up and express the divinity within you.
• Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.
• In a day, when you don’t come across any problems – you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path.
• The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.
• You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
• In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart. The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.
• We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
• They alone live, who live for others.
• All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love’s sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live.
• The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them. Swami Vivekananda
• Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you, but do not think of that now.
• Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
• Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
• Learn Everything that is Good from Others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it; do not become others.
• Do one thing at a Time, and while doing it put your whole Soul into it to the exclusion of all else.
• All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
• Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, ‘Thy will be done.’ We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.”
• Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book!
• Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.

Mahatma Gandhi

• “Your beliefs become your thoughts,
  Your thoughts become your words,
  Your words become your actions,
  Your actions become your habits,
  Your habits become your values,
  Your values become your destiny.”
• Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
• Seven deadly sins:
• Wealth Without Work
  Pleasure Without Conscience
  Knowledge Without Character
  Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)
  Science Without Humanity
  Religion Without Sacrifice
  Politics Without Principle
• We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.
• Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
• Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
• An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
• Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
• A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
• You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
• Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
• What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?
• To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
• I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
• God has no religion.
• You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
• It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
• Truth never damages a cause that is just.
• The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Jawaharlal Nehru

• Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance”
• “do or die ”
• The best and noblest gifts of humanity cannot be the monopoly of a particular race or country; its scope may not be limited nor may it be regarded as the miser’s hoard buried underground.”
• We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
• Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
• Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
• The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
• Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.
• It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving people… Who indeed could afford to ignore science today?
• Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
• The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
• The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.
• Politics and Religion are obsolete. The time has come for Science and Spirituality.
• Our lives are encumbered with the dead wood of this past; all that is dead and has served its purpose has to go. But that does not mean a break with, or a forgetting of, the vital and life-giving in that past. We can never forget the ideals that have moved our race, the dreams of the Indian people through the ages, the wisdom of the ancients, the buoyant energy and love of life and nature of our forefathers, their spirit of curiosity and mental adventure, the daring of their thought, their splendid achievements in literature, art and culture, their love of truth and beauty and freedom, the basic values that they set up, their understanding of life’s mysterious ways, their toleration of other ways than theirs, their capacity to absorb other peoples and their cultural accomplishments.
• No two persons could be so different from one another in their make up or temperaments. Tagore, the aristocratic artist, turned democrat with proletarian sympathies, represented essentially the cultural tradition of India, the tradition of accepting life in the fullness thereof and going through it with song and dance. Gandhi, more a man of the people, almost the embodiment of the Indian peasant, represented the other ancient tradition of India, that of renunciation and asceticism. And yet Tagore was primarily the man of thought, Gandhi of concentrated and ceaseless activity. Both, in their different ways had a world outlook, and both were at the same time wholly Indian. They seemed to present different but harmonious aspects of India and to complement one another.
• Yet the past is ever with us and all that we are and that we have comes from the past. We are its products and we live immersed in it. Not to understand it and feel it as something living within us is not to understand the present.
• A country under foreign domination seeks escape from the present in dreams of a vanished age, and finds consolation in visions of past greatness. That is a foolish and dangerous pastime in which many of us indulge. An equally questionable practice for us in India is to imagine that we are still spiritually great though we have come down in the world in other respects. Spiritual or any other greatness cannot be founded on lack of freedom and opportunity, or on starvation and misery.
• Fine buildings, fine pictures and books and everything that is beautiful are certainly signs of civilization. But an even better sign is a fine man who is unselfish and works with others for the good of all. To work together is better than to work singly, and to work together for the common good is best of all.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

• The most practical teaching of the Gita, and one for which it is of abiding interest and value to the men of the world with whom life is a series of struggles is not to give way to any morbid sentimentality when duty demands sternness and the boldness to face terrible things.
• If we trace the history of any nation backwards into the past, we come at last to a period of myths and traditions which eventually fade away into impenetrable darkness.
• Swaraj (self rule/freedom) is my birthright, and I shall have it!
• If God is put up with untouchability, I will not call him God.
• The problem is not the lack of resources or capability, but the lack of will..
• Religion and practical life are not different. To take sanyas (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real spirit is to make the country, your family, work together instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God.

B R Ambedkar

• Freedom of mind is the real freedom.
  A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man.
  One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man.
  One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead.
  Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.
• Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as a governing principle.
• A just society is that society in which ascending sense of reverence and descending sense of contempt is dissolved into the creation of a compassionate society.
• On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value.
  In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?
• In the Hindu religion, one can[not] have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men. He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought
• I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.
• It is not enough to be electors only. It is necessary to be law-makers; otherwise those who can be law-makers will be the masters of those who can only be electors.”
• Constitution is not a mere lawyers document, it is a vehicle of Life, and its spirit is always the spirit of Age.
• If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.
• Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent.
  He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self too.
• I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity.
• “The Hindus criticise the Mahomedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the Inquisition.
  But really speaking, who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mahomedans and Christians who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as necessary for their salvation, or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own make-up? I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mahomedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty.”( B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste)
• Though, I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as a Hindu.
• The religion of Buddha has the capacity to change according to times, a quality which no other religion can claim to have. If you study carefully, you will see that Buddhism is based on reason. There is an element of flexibility inherent in it, which is not found in any other religion.The teachings of Buddha are eternal, but even then Buddha did not proclaim them to be infallible.
• Indifferentism is the worst kind of disease that can affect people.
• History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.
• Humans are mortal. So are ideas. An idea needs propagation as much as a plant needs watering. Otherwise both will wither and die.
• Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle…. Goats are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.

Subhash Chandra Bose

• At this unprecedented juncture in our history I have a word for you. Do not be disheartened by our temporary defeat ; be cheerful and optimistic. Above all, never lose your faith in the destiny of India. There is no power on earth which can keep India in bondage. India will be free and, that too, soon. JAl-HIND !
• One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives.
• Give me blood and I will give you freedom!
• It is our duty to pay for our liberty with our own blood. The freedom that we shall win through our sacrifice and exertions, we shall be able to preserve with our own strength
• India is calling Blood is calling to blood. Get up, we have no time to lose. Take up your arms ! we shall carve our way through the enemy’s ranks, or if God wills, we shall die a martyr’s death. And in our last sleep we shall kiss the road that will bring our Army to Delhi. The road to Delhi is the road to Freedom. Chalo Delhi
• When we stand, the Azad Hind Fauz has to be like a wall of granite; when we march, the Azad Hind Fauz has to be like a steamroller.
• Forget not that the grossest crime is to compromise with injustice and wrong. Remember the eternal law: you must give, if you want to get.
• It is only on the basis of undiluted Nationalism and of perfect justice and impartiality that the Indian Army of Liberation can be built up.
• I have no doubt in my mind that our chief national problems relating to the eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease and the scientific production and distribution can be tackled only along socialistic lines. The Very first thing that our future national government will have to do is to set up a commission for drawing up a comprehensive plan for reconstruction.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh

• “इस कदर वाकिफ है मेरी कलम मेरे जज़्बातों से,
  अगर मैं इश्क़ लिखना भी चाहूँ तो इंक़लाब लिखा जाता है।”
• They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.
• I am a man and all that affects mankind concerns me.
• Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you.
• The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below; and not to realise truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in the actual experience of daily life.
• Study so that you are able to meet arguments of your opponents. Equip your ideology with supporting arguments. If you oppose a prevailing belief, if you criticize a great person who is considered to be an incarnation, you will find that your criticism will be answered by calling you vain and egoist. The reason for this is mental ignorance. Logic and free thinking are the twin qualities that a revolutionary must inevitably possess.
• Lovers, Lunatics and poets are made of same stuff.
• But man’s duty is to try and endeavour, success depends upon chance and environments.
• It is beyond the power of any man to make a revolution. Neither can it be brought about on any appointed date. It is brought about by special environments, social and economic. The function of an organised party is to utilise any such opportunity offered by these circumstances.
• Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking.

Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagor

• Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
• Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.
• If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door- or i’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.
• “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
  Where knowledge is free;
• Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
  Where words come out from the depth of truth;
  Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;
  Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
  Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action –
  Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
• Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.
• Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
• If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
• Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
  but to be fearless in facing them.
  “Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but
  for the heart to conquer it.”
• You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
• I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
• “The small wisdom is like water in a glass:
  clear, transparent, pure.
  The great wisdom is like the water in the sea:
  dark, mysterious, impenetrable.”
• Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time.
• A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
• Life’s errors cry for the merciful beauty that can modulate their isolation into a harmony with the whole.
• Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation.
• Love is an endless mystery, because there is no reasonable cause that could explain it.
• It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
• Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
• The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
• Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
• The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.
• Facts are many, but the truth is one.
• We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.
  The newer people, of this modern age, are more eager to amass than to realize.
• Mistakes live in the neighbourhood of truth and therefore delude us.
• Mistakes live in the neighbourhood of truth and therefore delude us.
• God seeks comrades and claims love, the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.
• Man’s cry is to reach his fullest expression.
• In the world’s audience hall, the simple blade of grass sits on the same carpet with the sunbeams, and the stars of midnight.