Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.
Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950)
Knowing all objects to be impermanent, let not their contact blind you. Resolve again and again to be aware of the Self that is permanent.
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), yoga teacher
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Mark Twain (1835–1910), American author
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.
Rumi (1207–1273), Sufi mystic and poet
When you practice what is right, even though you do not like doing it, and avoid what is wrong, even though you want to do it, you slowly change. Later, you find yourself in a position where what is to be done is what you like to do and what is not to be done is what you do not like to do. That is, indeed, a successful life.
Dayananda Saraswati (1930–2015)
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Iroquois proverb
One always begins with the simple, then comes the complex, and by superior enlightenment one often reverts in the end to the simple. Such is the course of human intelligence.
Voltaire (1694–1778), French writer
A good chief gives, he does not take.
Mohawk Proverb
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
Lao Tzu (4th or 6th century bce), author of Tao Te Ching
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), American author, poet and philosopher
In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone’s letter.
Chinese proverb
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou (1928–2014), American poet
Hinduism is not just a faith. It is the union of reason and intuition that cannot be defined but is only to be experienced. Evil and error are not ultimate. There is no Hell, for that means there is a place where God is not, and there are sins which exceed his love.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)former president of India
The most elegant and sublime of these is a representation of the creation of the universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle, a motif known as the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva. The God, called in this manifestation Nataraja, the Dance King. In the upper right hand is a drum whose sound is the sound of creation. In the upper left hand is a tongue of flame, a reminder that the universe, now newly created, which billions of years from now will be utterly destroyed.
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) astrophysicist
If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending the night with a mosquito.
West African proverb
If thou desirest Truth, then still thy mind.
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950)
In enjoyment, there is the fear of disease; in social position, the fear of losing face; in wealth, the fear of government; in honor, the fear of humiliation; in power, the fear of enemies; in beauty, the fear of old age; in scriptural erudition, the fear of opposing views; in virtue, the fear of temptation; in body, the fear of death. All the things of this world pertaining to man are attended with fear; renunciation alone stands for fearlessness.”
Vairagya Shatakam 31
We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), Swiss psychiatrist
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), theoretical physicist
Take no pride in the body, It will soon be mingling with the dust.
Mirabai (1516–1521) mystic poet
What we put into our subconscious mind is creating our future.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today
Peace is self-control, and self-control is freedom.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927–2001),founder of Hinduism Today
No, Widow Burning Is Not a Thing
One of the more persistent and damaging misconceptions about Hinduism is the claim that it endorses “sati,” the practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. This accusation is often tied to a mistranslation of Rig Veda 10.18.7. However, both the Sanskrit and respected scholarly interpretations clearly show that the verse encourages life, not death. The word “sati” originally meant “a virtuous woman,” not a funeral rite.
The verse includes the words avidhavaah, meaning “not widows,” and anaagneh, meaning “not toward the fire.” Yet early translators such as H. H. Wilson and R. T. H. Griffith took it as implying women approaching the pyre—a reading later criticized as arising from a confusion between anaagneh (“not toward the fire”) and agnim (“toward the fire”). This incorrect translation was later used to support the colonial narrative that Hinduism sanctioned sati, when in fact the verse says nothing of the kind. Even Griffith’s 1896 version, though less extreme, failed to highlight the verse’s life-affirming message. In contrast, Jamison and Brereton (2014) translate the verse as instructing the women to “go up ahead”—that is, to move forward in life, not toward the flames. Their rendering, based on meticulous linguistic analysis, affirms that the women are being urged to continue living, and clearly not to sacrifice themselves.
This interpretation is consistent with traditional Hindu commentaries. The 14th-century Vedic scholar Sayaana explained the verse as instructing surviving women to return home, not to enter the flames. Modern historians and Sanskritists, such as Romila Thapar and Wendy Doniger, have also debunked the claim that the Vedas support sati. In truth, Rig Veda 10.18.7 is a compassionate call to life. The women addressed are not widows being commanded to die, but surviving family being told to step forward—not toward the fire—and rejoin society.
There is no scriptural justification for self-immolation here. Although widow self-immolation did occur sporadically in certain regions of India, it was a social aberration, not a Hindu tenet, and was consistently condemned by Hindu teachers and reformers. The myth of Vedic support for sati stems from colonial-era mistranslations, not from the scripture itself, and has been amplified in modern times by its shock value, particularly on social media. Defending Hinduism means standing on the firm ground of linguistic and historical truth: the Vedas honor life, not self-destruction, and this verse makes that unmistakably clear.