Top 69 Quotes & Sayings by Krishna Das

We all inhabit our lives, in different ways to some degree. We see ourselves a certain way, and based on how we see ourselves, that's how we see the world.

Surrender happens by Grace. All we're doing is cleaning up the room so when Surrender walks in, He can sit down.

We are so programmed to feel that our emotions are the most important thing in the Universe...We write, produce and act in the story of me. And then we write reviews - and read them and get more depressed. All we can do is let go, and that comes from training. And then we spend less and less time in the darker spaces.

To love somebody is to let them be who they are and do what they have to do.

Bliss is easy, just take a drug. What is hard is feeling good about our real selves.

The heart is like a mirror. When we dust it off, we are able to see ourselves. The dust is all our stuff - guilt, anger - this stuff is reflected back to us. Practice removes the dust from the mirror of our hearts.

Whenever I'm really stuck, when I really need to go 'in there,' I sing the Chalisa and that connects me to Maharajji, to Hanuman, to that powerful presence that's deeper than any of that stuff. And, by touching that, I'm able to overcome whatever I'm stuck in...at least for 10 minutes.

There is love in this world, and it lives within us as who we really are, not who we think we are.

When our desires are fulfilled, and we still feel unhappy - this is the moment we begin the process of letting go.

I knew that if I did not start chanting with people, that I would never be able to clean out the dark corners of my own heart. I knew it with every cell in my body and mind.

It takes two to tango! I need everybody to sing with me.

Unlimited inner strength can only be awakened when it is in the service of Love....When we align ourselves with that love and act in service of that love, anything is possible.

You can't manipulate a heart open. You can only allow it to open in the right circumstances.

When you fall in love, nobody has to tell you. You know what you feel.

When we start talking about gurus, first of all we're starting to talk about something that can't be talked about, in the sense that you can never really know what a guru is as long as you are imprisoned by your own thoughts and circular ego. The true guru is someone who's transcended all that. And we don't know anything about that.

Practice is not about how you feel while you are doing it. You are planting seeds.

Until you are fully enlightened, you can never know what another person's reality is like for them.

As we do practice something unexpected starts to happen-we get happy!

When you meet your guru or a being who knows, who is no longer loving, but has become love, a being who is sitting in truth, and in compassion and kindness for all beings - you know. When I met my guru, I knew. And it was before I met him physically, actually.

Grace removes obstacles that we don’t even know are there. Grace is what arranges our lives so we are forced to look within.

On the Path, it’s impossible to know how you are doing because it’s the judger who is disappearing.

One of your biggest lessons so far in life has been to learn to forgive myself over and over again and not to be so harsh with myself.

Devotion is a way of being, it's not something you do. It's dedication to finding awareness and Love. Chanting is like asanas for the mind and the heart.

Grace surrounds us and holds us like the sky holds everything in it … and as soon as I find a way to let go of my story, I keep seeing over and over again that grace is always here and it includes the forgetting and the remembering. The practice is the opening of the hand to catch the raindrops, which are always falling. If you don't open your hand, you get wet, but you don't get much to drink.

You cannot think your way out of a box made of thought.

Chanting is a way of getting in touch with yourself. It's an opening of the heart and letting go of the mind and thoughts. It deepens the channel of grace, and it's a way of being present in the moment.

Just the slightest turn toward the inside is a very big thing.

I chant to save my heart. Every time I sit down, that's what I'm doing.

Chanting just hits you and you want to be a part of it. That’s the point of this whole thing. That’s what cuts through all the ‘stuff’. You get lit up. You don’t have to know what it means.

You can never really know what a guru is as long as you are imprisoned by your own thoughts and circular ego.

Letting go does not mean pushing away or negating thoughts or feelings that come to us - but instead being with the feeling. We start to feel that we are no longer victims of the stuff that happens to us. There is something we can do about it... if we just take a look at it.

Chanting is the main thing in my life.

Don't give up on your dreams. You can become the person you know you really are.

The repetition of the holy names reveals a presence hidden within the heart. Something begins to happen that's very disturbing - we get happy.

I just try to keep my heart open. By this, I mean to try not to let my own programmed reaction to things keep me closed down for too long.

I chant to save my miserable ass. That's what I do.

I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew whatever it was that I was looking for was real.

Can you imagine what it would be like to all of a sudden see another color that nobody else sees?

Even if somebody tells us something, the hit, the light goes on inside of us, not out there. We learn and understand everything within ourselves.

The presence of real love in the world inspires me.

It's within your world that things will unfold and intuitive understandings will open up.

You can’t think yourself out of a box that’s made of your thoughts.

Ultimately when I am with you all, what I see is my Guru. And what is he? He is love.

Don't wait for a Guru. Your life is your Guru.

We have to learn to love people even if they are not giving you what you want... and then not take it personally. If you feel hurt, you have to recognize that they are not hurting you because you are you, but because they are them. You have to try not to be so hard on yourself.

If we know anything about a path at all, it's only because of the Great ones that have gone before us. Out of their love and kindness, they have left some footprints for us to follow. So, in the same way that they wish for us, we wish that all beings everywhere, including ourselves, be safe, be happy, have good health, and enough to eat. And may we all live at ease of heart with whatever comes to us in life.

Real compassion is not emotional. Real compassion is based on the experience that all beings, which might appear separate, are actually a part of my own body, and I am a part of the body of the universe. We are not separate. So if one being hurts, I also hurt.

We are just here, right? We are just people doing our thing. And the most important aspect of anything we do is our motivation, why we do it.

The Presence is our own presence. We are not getting anything from the outside. We already have all we need inside.

The ultimate act of power is surrender.

If you stub your toe, you don't need to dialog yourself to be good to your foot, do you? When you see things that clearly, there's no dialogue or emotional manipulation that you need to do to extend compassion to that being, because that being is a part of you, and if that being hurts, you hurt.

Bhakti yoga isn't something you join, it's love. It means falling in love.

The heart in us is deeper than any emotion or psychological issue.

Let's just chant and be good people, alright?

We are not separate. So if one being hurts, I also hurt.

Love is what we are; we don't get it from somebody, we can't give it to anybody, we can't fall in it or fall out of it. Love is our true Being.

We instantly believe everything we think. Isn't that insane? It's good for us to explore the depravity of our minds, so we know we are just as crazy as everyone else!

Devotion is a disease. And you catch it from those people who have it.

I'm reconnecting, I'm deepening, I'm opening, I'm releasing negativity and negative thoughts and all the limitations I carry around with me - again and again and again and again and again and again. And again! And that's the only thing that keeps me alive.

Hanuman not only gives liberation, he also fulfills our beneficial desires.