To love God is not merely to go to a temple or a church. To love God is not merely to read a scripture. To love God is to love the higher Self of one’s own self. The self that is conquered is the self that is befitting union with the higher Self; otherwise, our own self becomes the source of our fear. We do not fear other people. We fear our own selves, really speaking. It is the devil that is working from within us that frightens us. Rama and Ravana both are inside. By inside, I do not mean within our physical individuality, but inside the whole creation, out of which we cannot keep our foot apart. There is only inside, ultimately; there is no outside anywhere. The whole cosmos is an inside, if we would like to put it that way, and we are that.
- Swami Krishnananda on "The Soul is the Ultimate Existence"
