This is a curated selection of Ramakrishna quotes on free will (personally curated by me on my own lifelong learning journey). This page is intended as a learning resource for educational purposes and meant to offer an overview/introduction. Short quotes aren’t a substitute for source material, so if this page sparks your interest, explore more deeply by checking out The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
Post Contents:
25+ Ramakrishna Quotes on Free Will, The Doer, & God’s Will
Ignorance & Knowledge
“The feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is the result of ignorance. But to say, ‘O God, Thou art the Doer; all these belong to Thee’ is the sign of Knowledge.” — Ramakrishna
“Do you know what ignorance means? It is the feeling: ‘This is my house; these are my relatives; I am the doer; and the household affairs go on smoothly because I manage them.’ But to feel, ‘I am the servant of God, His devotee, His son’—that is a good attitude.” — Ramakrishna
“Without the commission from God, a man becomes vain. He says to himself, ‘I am teaching people.’ This vanity comes from ignorance, for only an ignorant person feels that he is the doer. A man verily becomes liberated in life if he feels: ‘God is the Doer. He alone is doing everything. I am doing nothing.’ Man’s sufferings and worries spring only from his persistent thought that he is the doer.” — Ramakrishna
“‘I’ and ‘mine’—that is ignorance. By discriminating you will realize that what you call ‘I’ is really nothing but Ātman. Reason it out. Are you the body or the flesh or something else? At the end you will know that you are none of these. You are free from attributes. Then you will realize that you have never been the doer of any action, that you have been free from virtue and faults alike, that you are beyond righteousness and unrighteousness.” — Ramakrishna
“‘I’ and ‘mine’ indicate ignorance. Without ignorance one cannot have such a feeling as ‘I am the doer; these are my wife, children, possessions, name and fame’ … I am not asking you to give up all of the ‘I’. You should give up only the ‘unripe I’. The ‘unripe I’ makes one feel: ‘I am the doer. These are my wife and children. I am a teacher.’ Renounce this ‘unripe I’ and keep the ‘ripe I’, which will make you feel that you are the servant of God, His devotee, and that God is the Doer and you are His instrument.” — Ramakrishna
“‘I’ and ‘mine’—that is ignorance. True knowledge makes one feel: ‘O God, You alone do everything. You alone are my own. And to You alone belong houses, buildings, family, relatives, friends, the whole world. All is Yours.’ But ignorance makes one feel: ‘I am doing everything. I am the doer. House, buildings, family, children, friends, and property are all mine.’” — Ramakrishna
“One cannot attain Knowledge unless one is free from egotism. There is a saying: When shall I be free? When ‘I’ shall cease to be. ’I’ and ‘mine’—that is ignorance. ‘Thou’ and ‘Thine’—that is Knowledge. A true devotee says: ‘O God, Thou alone art the Doer; Thou alone doest all. I am a mere instrument; I do as Thou makest me do. All these—wealth, possessions, nay, the universe itself—belong to Thee. This house and these relatives are Thine alone, not mine. I am Thy servant; mine is only the right to serve Thee according to Thy bidding.’” — Ramakrishna
“The feeling of ‘Thee and Thine’ is the outcome of Knowledge; ‘I and mine’ comes from ignorance. Knowledge makes one feel: ‘O God, Thou art the Doer and I am Thy instrument. O God, to Thee belongs all—body, mind, house, family, living beings, and the universe. All these are Thine. Nothing belongs to me.’ An ignorant person says, ‘Oh, God is there—very far off.’ The man of Knowledge knows that God is right here, very near, in the heart; that He has assumed all forms and dwells in all hearts as their Inner Controller.” — Ramakrishna
“Ignorance lasts as long as one has ego. There can be no liberation so long as the ego remains. ‘O God, Thou art the Doer and not I’—that is knowledge.” — Ramakrishna
“‘He is the Master, and the universe and all its living beings belong to Him’—that is Knowledge. And, ‘I am the doer’, ‘I am the guru’, ‘I am the father’—that is ignorance. ‘This is my house; this is my family; this is my wealth; these are my relatives’—this also is ignorance.” — Ramakrishna
“The feeling ‘I am the doer’ is the outcome of ignorance. But the feeling that God does everything is due to knowledge. God alone is the Doer; all others are mere instruments in His hands.” — Ramakrishna
The Doer
“God alone is the Doer. Everything happens by His will … A man becomes liberated even in this life when he knows that God is the Doer of all things … Not even a leaf moves except by the will of God. Where is man’s free will? All are under the will of God.” — Ramakrishna
“Is there any free will for anyone? Everything is happening and will happen eternally by God’s will. People understand this eventually.” — Ramakrishna
“God has put you in the world. What can you do about it? Resign everything to Him. Surrender yourself at His feet. Then there will be no more confusion. Then you will realize that it is God who does everything.” — Ramakrishna
“Only when a man says: ’Not I! Not I! I am nobody. O Lord, Thou art the Doer and I am Thy servant; Thou art the Master’, is he freed from all sufferings; only then is he liberated.” — Ramakrishna
“Everything depends on the will of God. The world is His play. He has created all these different things—great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is all His māyā, His sport.” — Ramakrishna
“A man will cherish the illusion that he is the doer as long as he has not seen God, as long as he has not touched the Philosopher’s Stone. So long will he know the distinction between his good and bad actions. This awareness of distinction is due to God’s māyā; and it is necessary for the purpose of running His illusory world. But a man can realize God if he takes shelter under His vidyāmāyā and follows the path of righteousness. He who knows God and realizes Him is able to go beyond māyā. He who firmly believes that God alone is the Doer and he himself a mere instrument is a jīvanmukta, a free soul though living in a body.” — Ramakrishna
“You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God’s grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive the grace of God? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels, ‘I am the doer.’” — Ramakrishna
“It is God alone who does everything. You may say that in that case man may commit sin. But that is not true. If a man is firmly convinced that God alone is the Doer and that he himself is nothing, then he will never make a false step.” — Ramakrishna
“When the heart becomes pure through the practice of spiritual discipline, then one rightly feels that God alone is the Doer. He alone has become mind, life, and intelligence. We are only His instruments.” — Ramakrishna
“He who has seen God knows truly that God alone is the Doer, that it is He who does everything.” — Ramakrishna
Machine & Operator
“Those who have realized God are aware that free will is a mere appearance. In reality man is the machine and God its Operator, man is the carriage and God its Driver.” — Ramakrishna
“It is God alone who has planted in man’s mind what the ‘Englishman’ calls free will. People who have not realized God would become engaged in more and more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of free will. Sin would have increased if God had not made the sinner feel that he alone was responsible for his sin.” — Ramakrishna
“As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it … But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: ‘I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.’” — Ramakrishna
“What is knowledge? And what is the nature of this ego? ‘God alone is the Doer, and none else’—that is knowledge. I am not the doer; I am a mere instrument in His hand. Therefore I say: ‘O Mother, Thou art the Operator and I am the machine. Thou art the Indweller and I am the house. Thou art the Driver and I am the carriage. I move as Thou movest me. I do as Thou makest me do. I speak as Thou makest me speak. Not I, not I, but Thou, but Thou.’” — Ramakrishna
“You may feel a thousand times that it is all magic; but you are still under the control of the Divine Mother. You cannot escape Her. You are not free. You must do what She makes you do.” — Ramakrishna
“I say, ‘O Mother, I am the machine and You are the Operator; I am inert and You make me conscious; I do as You make me do; I speak as You make me speak.’ But the ignorant say, ‘I am partly responsible, and God is partly responsible.'” — Ramakrishna
“I feel very clearly that there is Someone within me … There is Someone within me who does all these things through me … I am the machine and God is the Operator. I act as He makes me act. I speak as He makes me speak.” — Ramakrishna
“As long as the upādhi exists there is ignorance. ‘I am a scholar’, ‘I am a jnāni’, ‘I am wealthy’, ‘I am honourable’, ‘I am the master, father, and teacher’—all these ideas are begotten of ignorance. ‘I am the machine and You are the Operator’—that is Knowledge. In the state of Knowledge all upādhis are destroyed.” — Ramakrishna
“Just try to find out who this ‘I’ is. While you are searching for ‘I’, ‘He’ comes out. ‘I am the machine and He is the Operator.’ You have heard of a mechanical toy that goes into a store with a letter in its hand. You are like that toy. God alone is the Doer. Do your duties in the world as if you were the doer, but knowing all the time that God alone is the Doer and you are the instrument.” — Ramakrishna
“This feeling, ‘I am the doer’, is ignorance. On the contrary, the idea, ‘O God, Thou art the Doer and I am only an instrument; Thou art the Operator and I am the machine’, is Knowledge. After attaining Knowledge a man says: ‘O God, nothing belongs to me—neither this house of worship nor this Kāli temple nor this Brāhmo Samāj. These are all Thine. Wife, son, and family do not belong to me. They are all Thine.’” — Ramakrishna
“‘O God, Thou art the Doer and I am nothing. Thou art the Operator and I am the machine. Thou art everything’ … God alone is the Master and I am His instrument. He is the Operator and I am the machine.” — Ramakrishna
“When the embodied soul says: ‘O God, I am not the doer; Thou art the Doer. I am the machine and Thou art its Operator’, only then does its suffering of worldly life come to an end; only then does it obtain liberation.” — Ramakrishna
“Those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened, who have realized that God alone is real and all else illusory, cherish a different ideal. They are aware that God alone is the Doer and others are His instruments. Those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened never make a false step. They do not have to reason in order to shun evil. They are so full of love of God that whatever action they undertake is a good action. They are fully conscious that they are not the doers of their actions, but mere servants of God. They always feel: ‘I am the machine and He is the Operator. I do as He does through me. I speak as He speaks through me. I move as He moves me.’ Fully awakened souls are beyond virtue and vice. They realize that it is God who does everything.” — Ramakrishna
“If a man truly believes that God alone does everything, that He is the Operator and man the machine, then such a man is verily liberated in life. ‘Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.’ Do you know what it is like? Vedānta philosophy gives an illustration. Suppose you are cooking rice in a pot, with potato, egg-plant, and other vegetables. After a while the potatoes, egg-plant, rice, and the rest begin to jump about in the pot. They seem to say with pride: ‘We are moving! We are jumping!’ The children see it and think the potatoes, egg-plant, and rice are alive and so they jump that way. But the elders, who know, explain to the children that the vegetables and the rice are not alive; they jump not of themselves, but because of the fire under the pot; if you remove the burning wood from the hearth, then they will move no more. Likewise the pride of man, that he is the doer, springs from ignorance. Men are powerful because of the power of God. All becomes quiet when that burning wood is taken away. The puppets dance well on the stage when pulled by a wire, but they cannot move when the wire snaps.” — Ramakrishna
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