Sri Ramakrishna

A boat may stay in water but water should not stay in the boat.

A spiritual aspirant may live in the world but the world should not live within them.

Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name and creature comforts may become less and less every day.

Live in the world like a waterfowl.

The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off.

Live in the world like a mudfish.

The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.

It is very pleasant to scratch an itching ringworm, but the sensation one gets afterwards is very painful and intolerable.

In the same way, the pleasures of this world are very attractive in the beginning, but their consequences are terrible to contemplate and hard to endure.

Little children play with dolls in the outer room, just as they like, without any care of fear or restraint.

But as soon as their mother comes in, they throw aside their dolls and run to her crying, Mama, Mama.

You too are now playing in this material world, infatuated with the dolls of wealth, honour, fame and so on.

If, however, you once see your Divine Mother, you will not afterwards find pleasure in all these.

Throwing them all aside, you will run to her.