Everyone wishes to be saved from something. That’s something that becomes clear in conversation after conversation as a motivational speaker, talking with people at every stage of life. The need to escape whatever is weighing on us leads people to do all sorts of things – some good, some not so good. Spirituality is one of the better escapes there is. Meditation works like fresh air for someone who’s been underwater too long – that’s exactly how good it feels once it clicks.
Here are 11 deeply inspiring spiritual quotes – in Hindi and English – that capture something real about the divine. Consider making one of them your own escape too.
1. On running with purpose
This poem quietly gets to the heart of what spirituality actually is. Being spiritual doesn’t mean giving up on life. A lot of people confuse it with renunciation – becoming a ‘baba’ and heading off to the Himalayas. That’s not really the idea. Spirituality and renunciation are about letting go of what’s unnecessary, what isn’t working, the fringes – and keeping only what actually helps. It’s still about running. Just in the right direction, and with a purpose.
I am running, running and running
I do not know where, I do not know why?
O, the embodiment of peace and prosperity!
Bless me with solitude for a few moments,
So that I can reflect upon myself & meditate upon you.
Thereafter, I can run still faster,
And with renewed vigor
But in the right direction
& with a specific purpose.
2. On the relationship between us and God
This one is about the kind of relationship we share with God. We keep asking for more, all the while forgetting how generously we’ve already been given to.
Main aur mere prabhu ek se hain,
Dono bhool jaate hain
Who meri galtiyon ko,
Main unki meherbaaniyon ko
(Translation: My God and I are both forgetful. He keeps forgetting my mistakes and I keep forgetting His blessings.)
3. On effort and grace
This is one of the favourites here. It takes sincere effort towards spirituality to truly realise how eagerly God is waiting for us to experience His joy and divinity. Those who aren’t ready to believe in Him might mock the thought, and that’s fine. But anyone who has genuinely sought it out will recognise the truth in this one.
Kitni mehnat se tu kamaata hai daulat ae insaan.
Thodi si mehnat kar khuda jannat bech raha hai
(Translation: Dear Human, you work so hard to earn money. Even a little of that effort, and God is waiting to give you the heavens.)
4. On what death does and doesn’t change
Paramahansa Yogananda’s words on life, death, and everything in between are worth sitting with – especially before dismissing the path of spirituality as something that isn’t worth exploring.
Don’t depend on death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing changes; you only give up the body. If you are a thief or a liar or a cheater before death, you don’t become an angel merely by dying. If such were possible, then let us all go and jump in the ocean now and become angels at once!
Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will bring that same nature with you. To change, you have to make the effort. This world is the place to do it.
5. On the hardest thing to master
It can be difficult at first, but once it clicks, it’s completely worth it – often to the point of wondering what took so long to begin. The sooner it starts, the better.
You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
6. On habits and simple living
Spirituality is really just a way of life that works. It’s the science behind good habits – the reason living well actually leads to good results. At its core, it’s discipline and good habits pointed toward positive behaviour, no matter what anyone else says.
It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life… Live simply. Don’t get caught in the machine of the world – it is too exacting. By the time you get what you are seeking your nerves are gone, the heart is damaged, and the bones are aching.
Resolve to develop your spiritual powers more earnestly from now on. Learn the art of right living. If you have joy you have everything, so learn to be glad and contented… Have happiness now.
7. On chemistry, peace, and joy
This is one of the most beautiful explanations of spirituality, from Sadhguru’s book Encounter the Enlightened: Sadhguru, A Profound Mystic Of Our Times. Simple, scientific, and highly reasonable.
There are many ways to understand this. One simple way to know this is: today, if you lose your mental peace totally, you will go to a doctor. He will give you a pill. If you take this pill, your system will become peaceful. Maybe this will last just for a few hours, but you become peaceful. This pill is just a little bit of chemicals. These chemicals enter your system and make you peaceful. Or in other words, what you call peace is a certain kind of chemistry within you.
Similarly, what you call joy, what you call love, what you call suffering, what you call misery, what you call fear, every human experience that you go through, has a chemical basis within you. Now the spiritual process is just to create the right kind of chemistry, where you are naturally peaceful, naturally joyous.
When you are joyous by your own nature, when you don’t have to do anything to be happy, then the very dimension of your life, the very way you perceive and express yourself in the world will change. The very way you experience your life will change.
It’s the kind of passage that earns a ‘wow’ on every re-read.
8. On acting small
This next one is small, but hard to fully take in. Understand it completely, and sadness or fear start to lose their grip. It’s one of the most powerful ideas in spirituality, widely shared as Rumi’s words – though, like many popular Rumi quotes online, this exact line can’t be traced back to a specific original verse.
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
9. On the soul’s true home
A quiet, far-reaching kind of smile comes with this one. It’s spirituality goals, plain and simple – again widely attributed to Rumi, again without a traceable original source.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
10. On the omnipresence of the divine
No list of inspiring spiritual quotes would be complete without these three couplets – by Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, and Ahmad Faraz – often shared together online as if they were a single conversation. The three poets actually lived generations apart and never spoke to each other, but their verses, read side by side, circle the same idea: the omnipresence of the divine, a concept that transcends religion.
Ghalib sharab peene de masjid mein baith kar
ya woh jagah bata jahan Khuda nahi (Ghalib)
(Translation: Either let me drink inside the Masjid, or tell me of a place where the Lord isn’t present.)
Masjid Khuda ka ghar hai peene ki jagah nahi
Kafir ke dil mein jaa wahan Khuda nahi (Iqbal)
(Translation: Masjid is God’s home, not a place for drinking or vices. If you want to drink, go to a disbeliever’s heart – the Lord doesn’t live there.)
Kafir ke dil se aaya hun yeh dekh kar Faraz
Khuda maujood hai wahan, par usey pata nahi… (Faraz)
(Translation: I have seen a Kafir’s heart. He is simply unaware that God lives there too.)
God is the goodness in our hearts, the purity in our souls. Nobody needs to be labelled ‘devout’ for goodness and God to reside in them.
11. On the many paths to the divine
A list of inspiring spiritual quotes wouldn’t be complete without Lord Krishna’s teaching in the Bhagavad Gita either – here simplified by Devdutt Pattnaik in his book My Gita.
Arjuna, immerse your mind in me and I will uplift you from the ocean of recurring death. If you cannot do that, then practise yoga and work on your mind. If you cannot do that, then do your work as if it is my work. If you cannot do that, then make yourself my instrument and do as I say. If you cannot do that, then simply do your job and leave the results to me. – Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 12, verses 6 to 11 (paraphrased)
Eleven is far too small a number to even touch the beauty of the spirit and the divine, as taught by the hallowed gurus and saints who’ve walked the Earth. But it’s a start. Consider this an invitation to explore this path sooner rather than later – there’s no greater joy than the journey within.
For more on this, there’s a companion piece worth reading: How to Meditate and Increase Mindfulness – Everything You Need to Know, which covers common questions and answers about spirituality and meditation gathered from fellow seekers along the way. Anyone looking for a direction should find at least a starting point there.
Got a favourite spiritual quote that belongs on this list? Share it in the comments below.
Lots of Love,
Akash Gautam
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