Belief

"The greatest literature is the Biblical stories."

"... Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers... for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality... But I had gradually come by this time, i.e., 1836 to 1839, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, &c., &c., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian... By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported, (and that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become), that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost uncomprehensible by us, that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events, that they differ in many important details, far too important, as it seemed to me, to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eyewitnesses; by such reflections as these, which I give not as having the least novelty or value, but as they influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation. The fact that many false religions have spread over large portions of the earth like wild-fire had some weight with me. Beautiful as is the morality of the New Testament, it can be hardly denied that its perfection depends in part on the interpretation which we now put on metaphors and allegories. But I was very unwilling to give up my belief... Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."

"If Christians always seemed to be the most intelligent and the most righteous of men, I'd be a skeptic."

"Science is knowledge meeting humility meeting curiosity: ever-evolving, always learning. Atheism is often but knowledge meeting arrogance: a masquerade under the wing of the beauty of science. Religion is infamously a weight under the one wing; then under the other is atheism, the championed masquerade."

"Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence."

"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions."

"Egoism has arisen due to circumstances and circumstances have survived due to egoism. The one whose egoism is gone, for him circumstances are gone. Everything has come into existence because of wrong belief."

"What God predetermine proves true!"

"Religion means researching the true Eternal thing with Deluded world view (with wrong belief) and ‘this’ (akram vignan) is a science itself."

"Only the ‘Right belief’ gives rise to non-contradicting principle and that which is free from contradiction is known as ‘Principle’."

"How can we win souls for Christ? We must continue to preach the gospel of salvation."

"What is arrogant pride (abhimaan)? It is to believe the weight of the body-complex [pudgal] to be one’s own weight. It is to believe that ‘I am Great’."

"Prakruti [the relative self, innate nature] has opinions and may store them but we should stay in an opinion-free state. ‘We’ are separate and the relative self is separate from us. ‘We’ should play our part as a separate entity. We shouldn’t get involved with those problems."

"To know worldly relations as being ‘relation’ (temporary) will resolve everything. However, if they are believed to be true (real) relations, there will be insistence. In relative relations, one is not to prove ‘I am correct’. One has to bring about a closure by saying, ‘you are correct’."

"As long as this belief, ‘I am the doer’ is not gone, one has not yet attained an iota of exact religion. He is still in the auspicious-inauspicious [shubh-ashubh] state."

"This whole world is running solely on the foundation of ‘wrong belief’. Why is there suffering in the world? It is because one has acquired the ‘wrong belief’. With the ‘right belief’, there is no suffering at all."

"Prayer is the best way to face any problem, to crush every fear and to release every pain"

"To believe ‘I’ where ‘I’ is not, is known as tirobhav (concealed or hidden belief). To believe ‘I’-ness where ‘I’ is, it is known as Aavirbhav (visible or manifest belief)."

"There should not be opinion regarding anything. Opinion means you are supporting it. ‘Know’ the wrong as wrong, ‘Know’ right as right. There should not be any attachment (raag) towards the right, and abhorrence (dwesh) towards the wrong. There is no such thing as right or wrong. Right and wrong is a duality, it is illusionary vision, it is a societal belief. God does not see it that way. In God’s view, having a dinner on the table or going to toilet, they are both the same."

"Civility (sabhyata,) is the sign of one with the right belief (enlightened view, samkit) and etiquette is the sign of one with a wrong belief (deluded view, bhranti)."