God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion...One may eat a cake with icing either straight or sidewise. It will taste sweet either way.
religion religious-tolerance spiritual-truth

About This Quote

About Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna was a 19th-century Indian mystic. Ramakrishna, also called Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Ramakrishna Chattopadhyay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. He was a devotee of the goddess Kali, but adhered to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as Christianity and Sufi Islam. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Religion — Exploring belief systems, worship, and spiritual practice

More quotes by Ramakrishna

“Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God.”
— Ramakrishna
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“What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, f...”
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“You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts pow...”
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“Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.”
— Ramakrishna
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“Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those...”
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“That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge.”
— Ramakrishna
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