Beautiful Spiritual Quotes – Profound Answers to the Greatest Questions of Life!

Words of Wisdom || Beautiful Spiritual Quotes

Just as a Lotus unfurls its petals to the Sun, may our minds open to the Divine Light of Spiritual Wisdom.

Welcome to the Spiritual Bee’s collection of Beautiful Spiritual Quotes!

Ever since the dawn of time, humans have been searching for the answers to some of the most profound questions of life: Who are we? Who is God? Are we just a momentary outburst of chance, or is there a goal to life?

In this beautiful collection of spiritual quotes I have endeavored to unveil these simple, yet profound Truths.

It is important to note that these spiritual quotes are not mere philosophies, conjectures or ideas dreamed by a group of people; rather they represent Supreme Truths, which have been realized i.e. experienced by people in the highest states of meditation.

“From unreality lead me to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality.”
– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Moreover, the teachers are not one, or a few, but many, spread out over at least 3,000 years of human history, all of whom, traveling different paths, through meditative practices or by acts of divine grace, despite being separated by both time and geography, have nevertheless arrived at the same uniform conclusions.

Many of these teachers have lived in India – the birthplace of spirituality, where flow the perennial waters of spiritual Truths. From the ancient sages of the Upanishads (800 BC), to Krishna the preacher of the Bhagavad Gita (date undetermined), to Buddha (500 BC), to Sankaracharya (9th century), to Kabir (15th century), to Swami Vivekananda (19th century), to Rabindranath Tagore (20th century) and through countless others, this stream has flowed unchanged.

Outlined below is an extraordinary collection of spiritual quotes from the teachings of some of these great teachers. I hope that their powerful spiritual thoughts, offer you a deeper perspective on life, and remind you of the Grandest of all Truths – of Universal Brotherhood – that we are essentially One – because in each of us resides the same Supreme Soul who binds together and cradles all humanity and all Creation – both matter and consciousness.

“The entire purpose of manifest existence is simply to facilitate the realization of who and what you really are.”
– Metta Zetty

Spiritual Quotes and Sayings by Topic

Presented below is a wonderful collection of beautiful spiritual quotes. To get the most out of these spiritual quotes I have categorized them under the following subheadings, which are best read sequentially from top to bottom.

  1. Spirituality – The Science of Consciousness
  2. The Soul – Our True, Eternal and Unchanging Self
  3. God – The Ultimate Universal Consciousness
  4. The Goal of Life – To Manifest the Divinity Within

Spirituality – The Science of Consciousness

This universe is formed out of both consciousness forces and matter. While the study of matter has been the domain of traditional science, the study of consciousness is the science of spirituality.

– Shriram Sharma Acharya (1911-1990).

Spirituality is the science of the Soul.

-Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).

All spiritual progress is the growth of half-knowledge into clear illumination. In our inspired moments we have the feeling that there is a greater reality within us, though we cannot tell what it is.

– A beautiful quote from the book “The Principal Upanishads” by S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975), the second President of India.

I believe in a spiritual world – not as anything separate from this world – but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth that we are living in God.

Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance drifting on the current of matter toward an eternal nowhere. We cannot look upon our lives as dreams of a dreamer who has no awakening in all time.

We have a personality whose nature we have discovered in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature, which can never be a mere physical fact nor anything but an expression of the “Supreme” personality.

– A beautiful spiritual quote from the book “Personality”, by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). His breathtaking literary works (which can be freely downloaded from our website) are a must read, for any seeker of spiritual wisdom.

The Soul – Our True, Eternal and Unchanging Self

We are not a body, but a Soul. Our Soul is a spark of the Divine (God). Just as a wave is distinct from the ocean only in name and form, so too are we joined with the Infinite Divine. Our separation is merely an illusion; we falsely identify our True Self with the body. We fear death and remain miserable.

Happiness lies in understanding that we are not a mortal body, but an immortal soul – that is never born, which never dies. Therefore, do not confine your identity to the boundaries defined by the body, let your spirit soar into the infinite beyond, in union with the Creator.

You don’t have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.

– C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).

The word Atman (Soul) means the “breath of life”. Atman is the principle of man’s life, the Soul that pervades his being, his breath, his intellect and transcends them. Atman is what remains when everything that is not the self is eliminated. It is the unborn and immortal element in man, which is not to be confused with body, mind or intellect.

– A profound spiritual quote from the book “The Principal Upanishads”, by S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975).

Without birth or death, eternal, ever-existing, free, unchangeable and beyond all conditions is this Soul of man – the real Self of Man – the Atman.

– Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).

All beings exist in an invisible state and then come to a state of visibility. Change occurs only on the surface, for the self-existent glory remains unchanged; changing form does not affect the self-existent Reality. Atman, Soul or the Self, dwells in all that is perishable, yet it remains imperishable.

– A beautiful Sanskrit quote from the Bhagavad Gita, translated by Swami Rama. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the world’s best known books on spirituality, and was the prime source of inspiration for Mahatma Gandhi.

Even the lowest of the low have the Atman (Soul) inside, which never dies and never is born, immortal, without beginning or end, the all pure, omnipotent and omnipresent Atman!

– Swami Vivekananda.

The first step in getting strength is to believe that “I am the Soul”. Me the sword cannot cut; no instruments pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry; I am the Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient. Repeat these blessed saving words of the Upanishads.

– Swami Vivekananda.

Realize your true nature. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you are — infinite Spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is impractical, for everything else will perish.

– Swami Vivekananda.

The self (Soul) is the constant-witness consciousness. Through all months, seasons and years, through all divisions of time, the past, present and future the consciousness remains one and self luminous. It neither rises nor sets.

The ultimate self is free from sin, free from old age, free from death and grief, free from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing and imagines nothing.

– S. Radhakrishnan explaining the philosophy of the Upanishads in his book “The Principal Upanishads”.

Because the Soul is not made of matter, since it is spiritual, it cannot obey the laws of matter, it cannot be judged by the laws of matter.

– Swami Vivekananda.

God – The Ultimate Universal Consciousness that Binds Together all Creation

Just as the Atman (Soul) is the reality underlying the conscious powers of an individual, so the Supreme Soul (God) is the eternal quiet underneath the drive and activity of the universe.

– A spiritual saying in the Upanishads, from the book “The Principal Upanishads” by S. Radhakrishnan.

God is the Soul of all souls – The Supreme Soul – The Supreme Consciousness.

– S. Radhakrishnan on the spiritual teachings of the Upanishads.

The universe is founded in consciousness and guided by it. The final reality is Universal Consciousness. The Supreme Consciousness is Omnipresent. Its evolutionary powers pervade the entire Universe. All processes of Nature are governed by the laws of this Absolute Force.

– A Sanskrit quote from the Aitareya Upanishad, beautifully explained by Shriram Sharma Acharya.

Tat twam asi – “You are That”. That immanent one (God), is the same that is in the human soul.

The Supreme Soul (who is one), resides within all his creations (as many). Herein lies the true source of morality; the unifying principle that connects us all; that we are all children of one Supreme God, and by hurting another, we are in reality hurting not only God but ourselves.

– A famous spiritual saying from the Chandogya Upanishad.

Only those of tranquil minds, and none else, can attain abiding joy, by realizing within their souls the Being who manifests one essence in a multiplicity of forms.

– Rabindranath Tagore translating a verse of the Upanishads in his book Sadhana – The Realisation of Life, published in 1913.

Weak or wicked, great or small, in men and in animal, resides the same omnipresent, omniscient soul. The difference is not in the soul, but in the manifestation. Between me and the smallest animal the difference is only of manifestation, but as a principle he is the same as I am, he is my brother, he has the same soul as I have.

This is the principle of Universal Brotherhood of man with one another, with all life down to the little ants.

– Swami Vivekananda.

Our self (Soul) is maya (an illusion) where it is merely individual and finite, where it considers its separateness as absolute; it is satyam (truth) where it recognizes its essence in the universal and infinite, in the Supreme Self, in paramatman (God). This is what Christ means when he says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (i.e. before Abraham was God, who is the same that is in my soul – I am That.)

– A beautiful quote from Rabindranath Tagore’s book Sadhana – The Realization of Life. This book is a profound collection of his essays on spirituality – one you will find difficult to put down!

Our self (Soul), as a form of God’s joy, is deathless. For his joy is amritham, eternal bliss. We know that the life of a Soul, which is finite in its expression and infinite in its principle, must go through the portals of death in its journey to realize the infinite.

– A profoundly beautiful spiritual quote from the book Sadhana – The Realisation of Life, by Rabindranath Tagore.

The Goal of Life – To Manifest the Divinity Within, by Realizing the Truth

The goal of life is to manifest the divinity within by removing the veil of ignorance which darkens our mind. By attaining knowledge (of both the physical and the spiritual world), we can uncover the unifying principles behind this variedness of creation i.e. the Truth.
Once we have realized the Truth, all fears, superstitions and disparities cease and we experience freedom and bliss.

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature; external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or philosophy, by one, or more, or all of these – and be free.
This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.

– Swami Vivekananda explaining the philosophy of the Vedas in a lecture in his book “Vedanta Philosophy” (1913).

rue deliverance of man is the deliverance from Avidya i.e. ignorance. It is not in destroying anything that is positive and real, for that cannot be possible, but that which is negative, which obstructs our vision of truth.

– An excerpt from the book Sadhana, by Rabindranath Tagore.

The doctrine of deliverance that Buddha preached was the freedom from the slavery of ignorance which darkens our consciousness, and tends to limit it within the boundaries of our personal self. It is this Avidya, this ignorance, this limiting of consciousness that creates the hard separateness of the ego, and thus becomes the source of all pride and greed and cruelty incidental to self-seeking.

When a man sleeps he is shut up within the narrow activities of his physical life. He lives, but he knows not the varied relations of his life to his surroundings, therefore he knows not himself. So when a man lives the life of Avidya he is confined within his self. It is a spiritual sleep; his consciousness is not fully awake to the highest reality that surrounds him, therefore he knows not the reality of his own soul.
When he attains Bodhi, i.e. the awakenment from the sleep of self to the perfection of consciousness, he becomes Buddha.

– An excerpt from the book Sadhana, by Rabindranath Tagore.

Amazing God Quotes >>

I hope you enjoyed reading these spiritual quotes as much as I did researching them! Be sure to explore more such quotes from the outstanding Words of Wisdom collection.

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