Krishna Das Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The ultimate act of power is surrender.

Chanting is the main thing in my life.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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?

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

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.

The presence of real love in the world inspires me.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.