Cute, furry Easter bunnies are out. Bright and beautifully painted Easter eggs are waiting for you on the table, and there are inspiring words for the soul – to quench the thirst and fill the hunger. There's rejoicing on the street and celebration in homes.

Easter celebration for some Christians are bigger than Christmas though both days are closely and symbolically linked. On Easter Sunday, millions across the world wake up in the wee hours of the morning and gather in a place to welcome and rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death.

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However, through history, the spiritual meaning of Jesus' life on earth, his crucifixion and victory over death has inspired not only the Christians, but also other people belonging to different faith. World leaders and well-known personalities, including Mahatma Gandhi, had commented on it. Here are some popular soul inspiring quotes on Easter by them.

This is what our own Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, wrote:

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

Our spiritual guru Deepak Chopra too writes about Easter Sunday as a whole new way of thinking.

"The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking."

According to Annie Besant: "Easter is a movable event, calculated by the relative positions of sun and moon, an impossible way of fixing year by year the anniversary of a historical event, but a very natural and indeed inevitable way of calculating a solar festival. These changing dates do not point to the history of a man, but to the hero of a solar myth."

Then, of course, Pope John Paul II, speaking on one of the Easter Sundays, said to all the people in the world:

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."

Dwight L Moody wrote: "We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining – they just shine."

World renowned evangelist Billy Graham too has a message for the world.

"God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’"

"Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul." ~ Victor Hugo

It's springtime, and the time is right for shedding of the old and embracing the new.

"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime," wrote Martin Luther.

Then Pope Francis prays for the world: "We ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace."

And, as Pablo Naruda says, "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming," let the inspiring quotes stir your soul and let the spring in you blossom. Celebrate new life, new beginning every day. And, let your soul shine.