Socialism is a judas

ON ONE OCCASION, A MONK ASKED MASTER DOGO: "EVEN IF THERE IS NO CLOUD FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES, IT IS NOT YET THE ORIGINAL SKY.

WHAT IS THE ORIGINAL SKY?"

DOGO REPLIED, "TODAY, IT IS GOOD TO DRY WHEAT."

ON ANOTHER OCCASION, DOGO WAS ASKED BY ANOTHER MONK, "WHAT IS THE DEEPEST?"

DOGO CAME DOWN FROM HIS SEAT, MADE OBEISANCE IN THE MANNER OF WOMEN AND SAID, "YOU HAVE COME FROM FAR, AND I HAVE NO ANSWER FOR YOU."

AT ANOTHER TIME, SEKISO KEISHO ASKED DOGO, "AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS, IF SOMEONE ASKS ABOUT THE ABSOLUTE MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHAT SHALL I SAY TO HIM?"

DOGO CALLED THE BOY ATTENDANT, WHO CAME, AND TOLD HIM TO FILL UP THE WATER BOTTLE. DOGO WAITED A WHILE, AND THEN SAID TO SEKISO, "WHAT WAS IT YOU ASKED JUST NOW?"

SEKISO REPEATED THE QUESTION. DOGO THEREUPON WENT BACK TO HIS ROOM, AND AT THIS, SEKISO BECAME ENLIGHTENED.

Friends, First, I am going to answer a few questions from the Australian TV crew. They have been here for almost one month. When they had come, they were very serious people, as Australians are supposed to be. But this morning they filmed me, and they have completely changed. They were smiling and laughing and enjoying.

Ecstasy is contagious. It is dangerous to enter this gateless gate! But they are very nice people and very perfectionist. They have been doing a film on the commune, its lifestyle, its philosophical approach to existence. And of course, on me, the spiritual terrorist behind the commune! -- or in other words, the center of this cyclone which is going to grow every day bigger and bigger and is going to envelop the whole earth.

When they go back to their homes, their wives will be absolutely surprised -- whatever happened to these guys? The very air of the commune changes personalities. Your joy, your laughter, your blissfulness, your silence, touches the very heart of anyone who is alive.

This morning I saw, these people are not dead. They are really alive! So now I can trust that their film and their program for television is going to be a real shock to the whole of Australia. If they can create the shock, I am coming!

Question 1:

Their first question is:

They are not ready, but I am going to make them ready! The time is ripe. They will have to be ready, because unless they become more and more conscious and alert, the destiny of this earth is doomed.

If anyone loves this earth, the beautiful birds and animals and human beings, if anyone has a sense of this tremendous phenomenon... because the whole universe is without any greenery, without any flowers, without any oceans, without any rivers. This place, this small earth -- very small -- has a special position in the world. In the whole of existence it is only this earth that has produced buddhas, enlightened people. This earth has become holy, just because so many buddhas have traveled on it.

And because the criminal politicians have come to the end of the rope, now they don't know what to do except create a war. To counteract, to create an atmosphere in the world against any possible war, the only way is to raise the consciousness of the people.

I know perfectly well that neither capitalists are ready nor communists are ready. But first communists will be ready -- then the capitalists, because the capitalists are full of vested interest. The Soviet Union and the people living there have nothing to lose. They are all equally poor, and seventy years of revolution have created a complete vacuum in their being. That vacuum can be filled only by meditative awareness.

As I have told you again and again, nobody can live on negative ideas. The positive idea may be wrong, may be fiction, may be just a hope, a consolation, but still it fills your being. It keeps you unaware of the hollowness. But the negative idea does not fill your inner being. The positive means your fridge may be full of rubbish, junk, but still -- when you open it, it is full.

When somebody starts believing in no God, in no heaven, in no hell -- drops all fictions, all the consolations humanity has lived with for thousands of years -- then suddenly he feels a great vacuum, a hollowness, a meaninglessness. Hence, I always give more priority to the atheist than the theist. The atheist is in every way ready, he just has to be hit on the right point. He has no God, he has nothing to cling to.

In the communist ideology he is left absolutely alone. That's what is missing in communist ideology: it cannot fill people's hearts, it cannot nourish their beings; hence the communists are going to be first to rise in consciousness. The capitalist has too much vested interest. He has so many troubles and problems, so much money, so many businesses. He has no time even to look inside and see that he is hollow.

I have heard about a very super-rich man. When he died, then he realized that he used to be alive -- but only when he died. In the grave where he was buried, he realized for the first time, "My God! I have been alive for eighty years and never thought about what it is to be alive!"

There are many people who only realize the value of life at the point of death. But then it is too late. Life keeps them engaged. The capitalist has too many things to remain engaged and involved in. The communist has nothing; hence the great possibility that the communist may be ahead of the capitalist as far as consciousness-raising is concerned.

The capitalist goes on postponing. Even though he sees the poverty he is creating, the beggars he is creating, the starving people he is creating, he goes on thinking that a few reforms will do. A little higher wages, a few more facilities for the poor, for the proletariat -- that's what I call socialism. Socialism is an invention of the capitalist mind to distract people from communism. Socialism is reformist, it is not revolutionary. And reforms can keep people hoping. It is a welfare state; it is just renovating the old house which is getting ready to fall down any moment.

Revolution means demolishing the old completely and creating the new, discontinuous with the past.

I love always to tell a small story....

There used to be a very ancient church, so ancient that even the priest was afraid to go inside. When there was a strong wind, the church used to wave like a tree. Any moment there was a possibility that it would fall down.

So the priest used to hold his assembly outside, far away from the church, under the trees.

But finally something had to be done. The trustees of the church met -- they also met outside -- and they proposed a few things to be done.

First, the church was too old, a new church was needed. But this is how the reformist mind functions.... Their second proposal was, "We will create the new church, but we will make the new church from the materials -- the doors, the bricks, the statues, everything -- of the old church. We will make the new church exactly the same as the old church, with the same materials."

And their third proposal was, "We will not destroy the old church until the new one is ready."

Now how can you manage it? The reformist goes on patching things, covering things, covering wounds and cancers.

Socialism is a renegade, it is a Judas. It is because of the communist danger to the capitalists that they are proposing a new form, socialism. It sounds good, but the intention is very evil.

I am worried about Gorbachev because he is not using the word 'communism' anymore.

He is using the word 'socialism' -- perhaps unconsciously, not being aware that socialism is a conspiracy of the capitalist world to prevent an international revolution that will transform the whole world into a communist world, with equal opportunity for everybody to attain to his potential.

And when the world is one, there is no need of any government -- that's why Karl Marx says the state will wither away. But it can wither away only when the whole world is communist.

I have every hope that because of the oncoming possibility of a third world war... if it happens it will be the last world war, and there will be no one left even to write the history about it.

When Albert Einstein was asked, "Can you say something about the third world war?"

his reply was amazing. He said, "No, I cannot say a single thing about the third world war, but I can say something about the fourth."

The questioner said, "You can say something about the fourth and you cannot say anything about the third? This is strange."

Albert Einstein laughed; he said, "It is not strange. I can say about the fourth that it will never happen. But about the third, it is impossible to say. The calamity will be so big that man will have never seen such calamity. Within ten to fifteen minutes the whole world, all life, every living thing on the earth, will be dead."

Just America alone has enough nuclear weapons to destroy life on this earth seven times, although there is no need. Only one man, Jesus, is supposed to have been resurrected, and I don't think even he will be able to resurrect seven times. One time he managed to escape from a cave and befool the whole world, but seven times? It will be impossible.

He never went back to Jerusalem, because once he managed to befool people; now it is impossible. If he is caught again he will be crucified.

What is the purpose of accumulating so many nuclear weapons? And seeing the situation, the Soviet Union has stopped creating more nuclear weapons. There are enough in the Soviet Union also to destroy the whole of humanity, all living beings. Now there is no point. They seem to be more intelligent, understanding that if you have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the whole world, why go on wasting money piling up nuclear weapons?

The totality of the war is a new phenomenon to be encountered. All the wars in the past were small, local. Even our second world war was nothing compared to the possibility of the third world war. I call it a total war, because it will be a total destruction of the planet Earth. This creates a certain situation which has never been there before.

The time is short, perhaps not more than ten or eleven years. By the year 2000, most probably we will have either committed suicide or we will have changed the whole structure of the human mind and raised the consciousness and created millions of meditators and thousands of buddhas. That is the only alternative:

War or meditation.

War or spiritual revolution.

And the war has to be understood as the culmination of our whole human history. It is not coming from the sky -- it is coming from our past, accumulating more and more anger, more and more violence, more and more weapons. The first world war was smaller, the second became bigger. The third is going to be total.

Because it is a total war, every person has to understand his responsibility. In smaller wars it was nothing to be worried about. If it was going on in Vietnam... who cares about Vietnam? Many people have not even heard the NAME Vietnam. If it is happening in Afghanistan, who cares? -- small pieces of humanity are involved. But this time it is the whole existence of life and all living beings with us: trees, and roses, and lotuses....

And we are coming closer to the point where man can become a superman. Now we cannot afford a war. We cannot afford a global suicide. We have to understand how to transcend the mind that the past has created and programmed for wars and destruction and violence.

That's my whole work: to erase the past from your mind and give you a present orientation to look at reality with clean eyes. And your future will be golden if your present is clean. Out of this clean presence will arise a new future, which will not have any continuity with the past; it will be a quantum leap.

If communists are turned towards a revolution for consciousness, capitalists will not be far behind -- just as they are not far behind as far as war is concerned, destruction is concerned. It is a competitive world. If communists turn towards consciousness, that will be a great impetus for the capitalists to try to be ahead of them. Nobody wants to be behind!

So my whole strategy is, the communists should be turned towards a revolution of consciousness. That will become a Zen Fire and a Zen Wind, going around the earth, and turning everybody towards a new competition that they have never known before: who becomes the buddha first?

Question 2:

The second question:

My commune here is a far greater experiment than any communism. Communism was only an economic revolution, changing the economic structure of the society. It was very partial; that's why the Russians are feeling a little sad, something is missing.

A partial revolution is bound to fail. It is as if only one part of your body is healthy and the rest of the body is sick. What are you going to do with one hand healthy and the whole body sick?

Revolution has to be total on every plane -- economic, social, psychological, spiritual.

Unless it is a total revolution man is going to feel himself crippled, as if your head goes on becoming bigger and bigger and your body remains the same. Soon you will be in trouble.

I have heard about a circus....

The manager declared, "Now comes our last and greatest entertainment for you. Wake up everybody! We bring to the stage our greatest dancer." So a few people who had fallen asleep woke up, sat up in their chairs, alert. The greatest dancer?

Then the curtain opened and they saw a woman lying flat on her chest on the floor. They could not think what kind of dance was going to be happening. Finally, the woman tried hard to get up. Her breasts were so big that just to get up was the dance! When she stood up everybody was clapping! They had never seen such a dance -- the woman was doing a miracle! Her breasts were still touching the earth!

The manager came back and he said, "Have you seen the dance?" And people laughed; they said, "It is really the greatest dance we could have ever imagined!"

Partial revolution is not revolution. Only the total revolution -- and total revolution has to arise from your very center.

That is my work here. I want every individual to clean the past from his mind completely.

All his prejudices, all his thoughts -- political, social, religious -- everything has to be dropped. Just a clean slate, and you have arrived to the space of no-mind.

No-mind is meditation, and no-mind is the revelation, and no-mind is the greatest rebellion that has ever happened.

In the past only very few people... a Gautam Buddha here and there, thousands of years pass and then comes one person who blossoms into a buddha. But now there is no more time. You cannot postpone for tomorrow. Whatever you want to do has to be done now!

For the first time the present is becoming more and more important. Each day you are coming closer to choosing the alternative: either move towards becoming a buddha, or move towards becoming a corpse.

I don't think anybody wants to die, particularly when all life is at risk.

This third world war cannot happen. We are going to prevent it!

Our ways are very different... that's why I love your expression for me, a "spiritual terrorist." I don't have any weapons, I don't have any nuclear missiles, but I have something greater and something far more effective. It is not to kill, it is to bring life to those who are living almost as if they are dead. It is bringing awareness to those who are behaving like somnambulists, walking in their sleep, talking in their sleep, not knowing exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.

I want people to be so awake that their whole consciousness goes to the deepest part of their being, and also to the highest peak. A vertical growth -- just like a tree grows. Its roots go down into the earth, and its branches spread towards the stars. Its blossoms flower into the sky, its nourishment comes from the deepest part of the earth. It is always balanced: the higher the tree goes, the deeper the roots. You cannot have a cedar of Lebanon tree, four hundred or five hundred years old, rising so high in the sky, with small roots. It will fall down immediately.

Life needs a balance between the depth and the height. I teach you both simultaneously.

In your entering to the center in meditation, you are growing your roots deeper into the cosmos. And bringing the buddha out from the hidden center is bringing your fragrance, bringing your grace, bringing your ecstasy higher, where it can blossom into the sky.

Your ecstasy is a movement towards the height and your meditation is a movement towards the depth. And once you have both, your life becomes a celebration.

That is my work, to transform your life from a sad affair into a celebration.

If we can fill the earth with laughter there is not going to be any war. If we can teach the soldiers to tell jokes to the enemy, there is not going to be any war. They will throw their guns and sit down and share jokes! And when somebody is telling a joke, can you kill him? When he is bringing laughter to you, can you destroy him?

Every man now is responsible to create a buddhafield around himself, an energy field that goes on becoming bigger and bigger. Create as many vibrations of laughter, joy, celebration, as possible; dance, sing, let the whole of humanity by and by catch the fire of Zen and the wind of Zen.

Nobody is really interested to be sad. Nobody is interested to torture himself. It is your religions and your politicians who go on making you sad and miserable, because in your misery is their whole business. If you start laughing, if you start dancing, throwing the gun away; if you take up a guitar....

Jesus says to his disciples, "Carry your cross on your shoulders." I say, don't listen to such nonsense. Carry your guitar on your shoulders, and fresh and fragrant laughter on your lips. Make this whole world a merry-go-round. You don't have that word. You have the word 'SORRY-go-round'. I have to create language for you!

Just your laughter will be enough to prevent the war. Your celebration, your dance, will be enough to prevent the war. Your ecstasy, your meditation, will create a tremendous force which will be far higher because it is life-affirmative.

Your religions are life-negative. Your politicians are life-negative. Your religions prepare you for beyond life, not to live here joyously. And your politicians create weapons to kill you. Politicians kill you and priests console you: "Don't be worried. After your death you will be entering paradise -- beautiful women and rivers of wine." No prohibition, no marriage... have you ever heard that in paradise there are marriages?

I am creating a paradise herenow. I don't wait for death -- why should one wait for death? And if there is going to be a paradise after death, please prepare for it! Be ready for it! Enjoy here, so that you can enjoy there. Only those who are capable of enjoying here, and dancing here, and singing here, and loving here, will be able to enjoy paradise...

not your saints, only my people!

Your saints will be sitting there miserable, not looking at beautiful women -- with closed eyes, shrinking into themselves. And what to do? -- there is no water available, only wine, and all around beautiful women, naked, dancing.

One Hindu saint died a few years ago, Swami Muktananda. You must have heard his name; many of you may have seen him. But you don't know what happened in paradise.

One of his disciples was so miserable because his guru had died, he committed suicide.

He wanted to go with the guru. He reached just a little late, but he reached. And what he saw -- he could not believe his eyes! He saw Muktananda lying naked under a tree, and on top of him was an American actress, Marilyn Monroe, making love to Muktananda.

He could not believe that Muktananda, who was always teaching celibacy....

In his book, CHIDVILAS -- "Play of Consciousness", he describes that his discipline of celibacy came to such a point that his prick would rise so high that it would touch his navel.... The disciple had read it. And what is Muktananda doing? Has he forgotten everything? But anyway, Muktananda is his master, so he has to pay his respects.

He did not look at what was happening, he just touched Muktananda's feet and said, "Baba, I think this must be the reward for all your virtues."

And Marilyn Monroe said, "You idiot! This is not the reward for this idiot, this is punishment for me!"

I want you to prepare, because paradise is going to be really great! Far out! But you have to be ready. So love, drink, dance -- this is the preparation, the discipline for entering into paradise. I am an utter hedonist, and only a hedonist has the right to enter into paradise.

People who are masochists, torturing themselves, need to go to hell because there they will not have to torture themselves, the Devil and his whole army will torture them. That will be their joy.

Hell is for saints, heaven is for sinners -- this is absolutely logical. This is my revolution! Once we enter into heaven, we are going to throw all the saints into hell:

"You enjoy torture -- get tortured! We enjoy luxury, we enjoy every comfort. Let us possess paradise; you have lived here long enough. Just get out!"

I am not going alone, you are all coming with me! Because I am a lazy guy, I will be going still sitting in my chair. If Mohammed can go riding on his horse, what is wrong with it? If Jesus can go directly, alive, and pulls his mother up after him, what is the problem?

Perhaps I may reach a little earlier than you, because my podium is a little higher -- but you won't be too late. I will greet you there, "Hi! So you have arrived. Now do the work -- throw all those saints towards hell."

They deserve it. They have been disciplining themselves for it. We have been disciplining ourselves for paradise. Our whole expertise, our whole specialization is to possess the kingdom of God.

Question 3:

The third question is from a sannyasin. A sannyasin has asked:

It is not only you, there may be a few more who have been shocked. Majid is sitting there -- he must be shocked, and other Italians, because they have a political prejudice in their mind. They think they are radicals, and they don't understand even the ABC of radicalism.

When I said that Joseph Stalin killed one million people to save communism, you did not give much thought to it. Who were the one million people? Priests, bishops, cardinals, archbishops -- those were the people, and they were not ready to give away the possessions of the church to the society. These were the people, whether rich or poor it does not matter, who resisted revolution, who wanted their things to be theirs.

Those things may not be much -- a house, a little piece of land, maybe a few trees, maybe a few cows or horses. But for centuries man has been programmed to possess, and to go on possessing more and protect and defend whatever he already possesses.

So these were the people who were obstacles to revolution. The revolution was for twenty million people in the Soviet Union. And at that time the idea of revolution was not national, it was an idea of international revolution.

You will be surprised to know... I was very small when I became acquainted with a man, one of the most intelligent men I have come across, who was with Lenin and Trotsky in the Soviet revolution. His name was Manvendra Nath Roy. He was one of the members of the international commanding body of the communists, the Politburo. He was the only Indian who ever rose to that status, and he fought in the revolution side by side with Lenin.

After the revolution he thought, "Now my work is in India. I have to go and create revolution in India." But here he found himself in utter difficulty, because the Hindu mind is more possessive than any other mind. It talks about non-possessiveness, it talks about celibacy, it talks about morality. But always remember, people who talk about these things are the people who are suppressing just the opposite.

A person who praises celibacy knows perfectly well that he is not celibate. People who are greedy, their religion will be teaching no greed. Otherwise why should religions teach no greed? For five thousand years, from Manu to Yagnavalkya to Buddha to Mahavira to Mahatma Gandhi -- all the teachers of this country are talking to people about "non- attachment." Why? Certainly people are too much attached; otherwise... their whole history is the teaching of non-attachment! People must be greedy; hence the teaching, "no greed." People must be violent; hence the teaching of non-violence.

Always remember this as a fundamental. Look at the teachings of the scriptures and you will know what kind of people they were -- just the opposite, otherwise there is no need.

Why does Buddha go on telling people his whole life, forty-two years after his enlightenment, "Don't be attached to things. Be non-possessive." And the same continues....

When M.N. Roy came to India, he found himself in an absolutely different world. He was thinking that because everybody had been teaching non-possessiveness, communism would be the easiest thing in India. This is where logic fails. He had read -- he had lived his whole life in the West -- he had only read about Indian scriptures, that they have been teaching non-possessiveness for centuries and centuries. So he thought people must be ready to give all their possessions to the collective; they will not have much difficulty in dropping their private possessions.

But when he came to India he was utterly surprised. Nobody was ready; the very word 'communism' was anathema. And because he was a well-educated man, well dressed, used to smoke cigarettes, the Indian mind turned absolutely against him.

Mahatma Gandhi crushed that man, who was far more intellectual, far more significant than Mahatma Gandhi himself. But Mahatma Gandhi crushed him because people would rather follow Mahatma Gandhi, half-naked -- it appeals to people. "This is a mahatma.

And what kind of mahatma is this who is smoking cigarettes, who is well dressed in a poor country?"

Nobody listened to M.N. Roy. Perhaps I was the only person who became very deeply interested in him. It was just by chance that I met him, in a train. I was going for my studies, traveling from my village to the bigger city to join a university. And just on the platform we were both waiting for the train... because in India no train ever arrives on time. Only once has it arrived on time in my experience. For twenty years I was traveling in trains continually -- only one time....

In Allahabad, the train arrived exactly at six o'clock in the morning. It was a miracle! I ran to thank the driver, and I told him, "You have done it! I was waiting for a day when somebody would bring the train at the right time."

He looked very ashamed. I said, "Why are you looking ashamed?" He said, "This is yesterday's train."

By that time the conductor had come, and the stationmaster had come. I asked the stationmaster, "This seems to be stupid. If every train is going to be late, why publish the timetable?"

He said, "The timetable is absolutely needed; otherwise how will we know how much the train is late?" So the timetable is published in India to know how much the train is late.

I said, "That seems to be absolutely right."

The train was late and I was sitting on the bench, and M.N. Roy came and sat by my side.

I was reading a book by Lenin, his collected works. He was surprised, because I was so young -- may have been seventeen years old. He looked at the big volume, and he asked me, "Where did you get this collected works of Lenin?"

I said, "I have the whole library of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, everybody."

He said, "You are the first man... I have been here for seven years, continuously trying.

Are you a communist?"

I said, "Right now I am nobody. But who knows? I may turn out a communist. I am looking in every direction without any prejudice. Whichever dimension fulfills me totally, I will be that. Communism is my study, I am not a communist. I have to study many more things before I can decide. I have to look into anarchism, I have to look into socialism, I have to look into capitalism, I have to look into spiritualism. Before that I cannot say anything. I am just a seeker."

We became friends. He talked about his experiences in the Soviet revolution, and he became a constant visitor to my small house.

I was living outside the city in a very small house. Nobody else was ready to take that house because it was known as being haunted by ghosts. So when I asked the owner, he said, "Without any rent you can live there. At least somebody living there may create the idea in people that it is not haunted. If a small boy is living there alone..." So he said, "It is good. If you need anything I will support you. I want to sell it, but neither can I sell it nor is anybody ready to rent it. And I myself am afraid! My wife is not willing to move with me, otherwise we could sell this house and move there. That house is in a very beautiful location."

It was absolutely alone. For miles there were no other houses, and behind were the beautiful Satpura Mountains. It was so peaceful there. He said, "I purchased it just to live there, but nobody is willing. So you start living there."

I started living there, but I continued to create the fear in everybody that it was haunted by ghosts because if somebody purchased it, I would be thrown out. The owner heard that I was continuing to create the rumor. He came to me: "This is strange. I gave it to you free of charge..."

I said, "I will keep it free of charge! But remember, it is haunted with ghosts. Don't come here -- whenever you want me, just phone me and I will come -- it is dangerous!"

He said, "And it is not dangerous for you?"

I said, "I know a few secrets about ghosts. They are afraid of me. Do you know anything?" He said, "No, I don't..." I said, "You simply go back."

And I lived in that house for almost ten years without any rent. On the contrary, I would order him, "Send me something" -- and he would bring it -- "otherwise I will leave the house."

M.N. Roy used to come, and he loved the place. He used to live in the Himalayas in Nainital, but he said, "Even there it is too crowded, too many people have come. Roads, airport, buses -- it is no more the old Nainital I used to know in my childhood before I left India. But your place..."

I said, "This place will remain as it is, as long as I want to live in it. For miles nobody can build a house, because not only this house is haunted, the whole area is haunted!" I went on creating the rumor and making the area bigger. Nobody was ready, even at the cheapest rate, to purchase the land.

When I talked with M.N. Roy, he said, "What do you think is the cause of my unsuccessfulness? I was such a successful member of the international high command of the communists. I fought in the revolution, I was a close friend of Lenin and Trotsky, who were the architects of the revolution. And here? I am nobody; nobody is ready to listen."

I said, "Here, you will have to change. You will have to be a hypocrite. You will have to smoke in your bathroom, not in public -- in public, speak against smoking. You will have to wrap yourself in a small cloth just covering you down to your knees, just like Mahatma Gandhi -- or even smaller will be better. Shave your head and become a mahatma, and I can manage everything for you. But first become a mahatma. I will call a barber here, and he will make you a mahatma."

He said, "My God -- first I have to become a mahatma?"

I said, "Without becoming a mahatma, in this country you don't have any appeal. This country is so fucked up that first you have to pretend all kinds of things. You don't drink tea -- if somebody sees you drinking tea, finished! You are not a mahatma.

"In the cold, you have to remain half-naked. You will get accustomed, don't be worried.

All the animals are accustomed, and you are an intelligent animal so you will get accustomed. It is only a question of two or three years and then heat or cold, all are the same, because your skin becomes thicker and thicker. And your skull also becomes thicker and thicker! You will be a mahatma, and everybody will be listening to you."

He said, "I cannot do that."

I said, "Then forget all about leadership." And he died an unknown man. If he had lived in the Soviet Union he would have been a cabinet minister.

This country is so prejudiced.

Your question comes out of a prejudice. You don't understand the mechanism, the dynamics of life.

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hirohito of Japan -- all three together killed thirty million people, and for no purpose at all, just a personal egoistic desire to become the whole and sole owner of the earth. Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, and Nadirshah -- three generations of one family -- amongst the three they killed one hundred million people for no purpose. And you don't bother about these people.

How many people did Napoleon kill? How many people did Alexander kill? And how many people has the Catholic church killed? -- you don't bother about it -- and for no reason!

Stalin was not killing for any personal reason, and he was not killing those who were ready to understand the revolution and participate in it. He had to kill to remove all obstacles from within, because he was surrounded on all sides by enemies ready to enter the country and finish it. If he had had to face both the enemies, inside and outside, there would have been no possibility for that experiment ever to succeed.

And the people he killed... don't think they were individuals. They were just robots, as the masses are. No individuality, no dignity, no understanding -- just greed and lust and the old mind, that "My things are mine. I will not give them to the collective." And he is miserable because what he has is not enough for his own nourishment or his family, but he is not ready to create a collective land where tractors and other modern mechanisms can be used to sow the seeds. When the land is miles long, airplanes can be used to sow seeds. Tractors can be used to prepare the land. On a small piece of land this is not possible.

Whatever communism was saying to them was absolutely correct, but just their prejudices....

And when I said that it does not matter, everybody has to die anyway, I meant it. Unless you are a buddha, it does not matter. Only the death of a buddha matters.

What are you going to contribute? What are you going to do tomorrow, except repeat today? You can live for thirty years repeating the same circle, morning to evening, evening to morning, what is the point? Where are you going? Round and round, reaching nowhere.

To these people the experiment of communism was not at all important. Their own prejudice was important, that "Our things cannot be taken away by anybody." And those things were their misery! Even a beggar was not ready to give his things, and what did he have?

The whole idea was that all the land, the whole property and everything in it, should belong to the collective. Soviet means a commune. The village turns into a soviet, it becomes a commune. Families disappear; only individual members contribute whatsoever they can and the commune will fulfill their needs -- not according to their worth, but according to their need.

Somebody may not be such a hard worker and somebody else may be a hard worker, but in a commune it is a bigger family. You have to understand that somebody is weaker, somebody is sick, somebody is old, but their needs have to be fulfilled.

Now Gorbachev is saying, "Each according to his work." What about the old people?

They will not be able to work the same way as the young people. What about the children? They will not be able to work the same as the young people. What about the women? They cannot be put into any muscular work.

The communist idea was far higher and superior: "Each according to his needs." An old man has his own needs. He may not be able to work, but he has worked enough his whole life. A child has not worked yet, but one day he will work. And he has needs right now.

Now Gorbachev is saying, "Each according to his work," and that is the motto of capitalism. He is deceiving and betraying the whole communist approach.

Just think -- Majid is here -- if revolution comes to Italy, are you going to allow the pope to continue the Vatican? Are you going to allow the Vatican Bank to change black money, heroin money, into white money and earn billions of dollars per year? Are you going to allow all the priests and bishops and archbishops and all the churches to continue as they are? They will all resist, because it is their vested interest. Then what are you going to do? Just sit before the churches and cry like small babies? You will have to finish these people or throw them out in the ocean -- and you have such a beautiful ocean.

Revolution does not care for these parasites. It is against these parasites, and these parasites will create every kind of difficulty for you, from inside and from outside. Now the Catholics number six hundred million around the world. If you do anything against the pope he will fight, and the six hundred million Catholics around the world will create great pressure on you from every government: "Don't touch the Vatican; otherwise we will disconnect our relationship with you."

That's what had happened in Russia. All other countries dropped their connections with Russia. All the countries called their ambassadors back, there was no communication with Russia -- boycott, absolute boycott.

You have only heard one side of the story, which America goes on propagating, that Stalin created an "iron curtain." It was not Stalin who created the iron curtain, it was all the countries who withdrew from the Soviet Union, boycotting it completely. Then it was absolutely necessary that the Soviet Union should create a situation where nobody could enter. All kinds of agents to provoke people... and people were ready to be provoked because they were very sad that their personal things had been taken. People become so attached to their personal things -- small things. They were ready to be provoked, and the whole country was full of spies from every capitalist country trying to provoke people to destroy the collectives, to burn the collectives.

All the different Christian sects agreed on the point that communism is against religion -- and all the Mohammedans, all the Buddhists... because the Soviet Union has three religions. One part, Mongolia, is Buddhist; another part near Afghanistan is Mohammedan. The third part is orthodox Christian. Now these three religions were agreed: "Communism is against religion, so we have to give a fight." And all the people had belonged to some religion. Everybody had belonged to some religion -- either to the Buddhists, to the Mohammedans, or to Christianity. How to deal with the situation?

I don't see that except Stalin there was anybody else in the Communist Party at that time to deal with the situation. And the poor fellow has been condemned because he saved communism; otherwise these people would have destroyed it.

It was a chaos. Once the czar was killed there was no system, there was no order in the country. Trains were running -- nobody knew where they would end up, where they were going, because people had taken out railway lines, had destroyed the bridges. Trains were moving -- burning. These were the people for whom the revolution had been made, who were burning the trains, who were burning the palaces of the governors, who were burning the palaces of the czar. And the Communist Party was trying to tell them, "Now all these belong to you. Don't destroy them! The czar is finished, it is your property." But nobody was listening, and people were carrying things to their homes.

I have heard that after the Czar's family was taken out of his palace -- it used to be one of the biggest palaces in the world, the richest; it was one of the oldest royalties -- people were taking everything from the palace to their homes. Even the carpet... it was so huge that nobody could take it alone, so people were cutting the carpet with scissors, just enough for their home -- take-away! Now what can you do with these people?

There was no time to convince them. There was no time to make them understand that, "Everything belongs to you and you are destroying it." Except Stalin... neither Lenin was able to do it nor Trotsky was able to do it. This man had certainly a heart of steel: at any cost, revolution had to survive.

And as I have told you again and again, the masses are the greatest enemy of themselves; they don't know what they are doing. So the bullet was the only answer, and he killed for an absolutely right end. There are times when you have to use means which are apparently wrong -- violence, murder. But what can you do with this humanity? If you are in power you will suddenly realize that the only way is to put people back to their senses. When one person is killed, a hundred persons absolutely understand that "this is a difficult problem, keep quiet." Those one million people killed made twenty million people silent, settled.

But you have your prejudices. You are shocked -- but that is my business. When I was criticizing Christianity you were not shocked, you were happy. Now let the Christians be happy, because everybody has his own time. The Catholics would have been shaken -- they were shaken. The whole seminary, *which consists of five hundred missionaries being trained, and must be at least one hundred professors to teach them, was agog with only one thing: they wanted to hear what I have said. One student came here the next day, saying, "The whole seminary is talking about only one thing -- so you bring the tape or the video." And I sent Prasad, because he had already been to the seminary to talk to them, to explain my philosophy to them, so he was acquainted with the authorities there.

He went there but the authorities said, "We don't have equipment and it will take time to arrange for equipment, so we cannot do it."

A group of students from a local seminary attended one discourse recently, and their questions were addressed throughout the series, CHRISTIANITY, THE GREATEST POISON AND ZEN, THE ANTIDOTE TO ALL POISONS.

Prasad said, "Don't be worried about the equipment. I will bring all the equipment with me."

Then they changed immediately. They said, "But first, permission from higher authorities is needed." It was not needed before. Now the permission from higher authorities is needed!

The next day he went again and asked, "Has permission been granted?" They said, "We are waiting." And finally they phoned: "You don't have to come here. We hope that within two and a half weeks permission will be obtained."

I don't think permission will be obtained. It is just a delaying process; after another two and a half weeks... and who are the higher authorities? They live there in the campus! It takes two and a half weeks to reach their bungalow? And they go every day to the office....

But you were not worried then. Somebody else was being hit and you were enjoying.

Now it is your turn. Let others enjoy!

I am against every kind of prejudice. This is just a prejudice. If you understand the practicality of it you will not be against it. Theoretically you can go on and on thinking about it: "One million individuals..." Forget that word -- there is rarely an individual.

One million phonies, who were obstructing a revolution which was going to be one of the greatest experiments in human history.

It was worth it. And when I said anyway you have to die, I could immediately feel that you became very shocked. But still I repeat: Anyway you have to die. Don't die against revolution. If you have to die, die for revolution. Don't die for the status quo; if you have to die, die for rebellion.

Everyone has to die, and as far as I am concerned, whether Stalin kills them or Adolf Hitler or Mussolini or Hirohito, it doesn't matter; he only kills the body. The soul immediately gets into another woman's womb. Nothing is killed, only houses are changed. Do you think those one million people are finished? Many of them may be here!

If not now, soon.

To me, these people seem to be absolutely absurd, who are against violence and still talk about eternal life. They don't see their contradiction. If life is eternal, then death does not matter: life will continue in new forms somewhere else. If not in the Soviet Union, then in China, and if you are killing China then India is always available. From where do you think all these Indians go on growing?

Hitler kills, Stalin kills, Hirohito kills -- whoever kills, India's population goes on growing. India gives ready-made wombs to everybody. People may be dying of starvation but they brag that they have twenty children. So what is great about it? Look at a bull -- a bull has thousands of children, so do you think the bull is greater than you?

And poor people are bound to produce more children because they have no other entertainment. By the evening -- they don't have electricity, they don't have television, they don't have too much to eat so that their bellies become too big and they cannot reach the woman. So the whole dark night, and cold, not enough blankets... the woman is warm, is a good blanket, and no other thing to do in the dark, so people go on producing children. They cannot go to see a film, it takes money; they cannot go to have dinner in a restaurant, it takes money. Sex is free.

So everywhere you kill, India is ready to receive! From four hundred million people, just forty years ago, today there are more than nine hundred million people. It seems every year, ten million people are added. By the end of this century the population will have gone beyond one billion people. From where are all these people coming?

Richer countries, more educated countries, are losing population -- because educated people understand that this is stupid, creating people and making the country poorer.

They are using all kinds of methods to prevent the explosion of population, in spite of all the popes and the bishops. Who cares? These people, even Catholics, don't care; it is just a formal respectability. But there are countries which are promoting programs for giving birth to more children. Their population is shrinking and the fear is that they may disappear in the vast third-world population which is growing. Soon they will be rushing all over Europe; no boundaries will be able to prevent them.

Already in Germany, that is the problem. From Turkey, so many people have entered Germany that there is a great problem of unemployment. And you will be surprised to know that the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler is again raising its head. One of Adolf Hitler's men has organized a party which won eleven seats in the parliament just now, on the basis that all these Turkish people should be thrown out of Germany, otherwise Germany will be drowned.

Adolf Hitler was throwing out Jews -- now it is the Turkish people. And this party has won eleven seats. This is the beginning... and why have people supported an ex-Nazi officer? Because the German people are becoming afraid: "If these populations go on immigrating to Germany, we will be poorer. We will have to give employment to these people. We will have to share our money with these people, our land with these people, our houses with these people." And this caravan of immigrants is going to grow every day, because Mohammedan countries allow one man to marry four women, so Mohammedans increase four times more than anybody else.

You can create only one child in a year, at the most, with great difficulty. Mohammedans can create four children. That's why in India, just forty years ago, Mohammedans took away Bangladesh and Pakistan, but within forty years again they are so many that the biggest Mohammedan country in the world is India -- not Saudi Arabia, not Pakistan, not Bangladesh or any of the other Middle East countries. The biggest Mohammedan country is India -- second to the Hindus are the Mohammedans, and soon they will be the first because they have four women and you have only one. And it continues in the name of not interfering in anybody's religion -- the government allows Mohammedans to have four wives and Hindus only one.

This kind of stupidity can be prevented only if you are really hard.

I would like the population explosion in India to be stopped, on a war scale. The whole army should be sent to every village and if people are not ready voluntarily, then compulsorily they have to be sterilized. You will say, "It is not democratic." But is it democratic that five hundred million people will die by the end of this century? Problems are very connected. Whenever you look at a problem, look from all sides and you will be able to understand what I am saying.

And drop your preconceived ideology.

My effort here is to bring you to a space of no-mind. And from no-mind, function -- then you function directly, looking at the situation. Whatever is right immediately arises in you, and you do it. Neither is it a question of morality nor is it a question of religion; it is a question of immediate response to a situation. And immediate response comes only through meditation.

I shock your mind on purpose, and I go on finding ways. I will not leave anyone! People are wondering -- Jews are wondering, "Maybe our turn is coming." Wait, it will come!

I am going to speak against all ideologies of the past, all moralities of the past. I am against the whole past of humanity -- in toto -- I don't make any exception. I want a totally new man to arise on the earth -- the superman.

The sutra:

This is the way of Zen. Don't waste your time in unnecessary theoretical things -- "Although there are thousands of miles with no cloud... but this sky is not the original sky, because beyond this sky there will be another sky and beyond that another sky.

Where is the original sky?"

But Master Dogo said, "Forget all about it! Today, it is good to dry wheat. The day is sunny, the sky is open, there is no cloud. Be in the present! Today it is good to dry wheat."

And once you are in the present you will become aware of the original sky -- which is not said. The original sky is within you. It is not outside, thousands of miles or millions of miles don't matter. You will never come to the end of the sky outside.

But there is a sky inside which is the original, out of which you are living, you are getting your nourishment. Your roots are in that original sky. Just go inwards and it is not thousands of miles away. It is only thousands of thoughts away.

So it is only a question of reducing the thoughts and the mileage is reduced.

If you don't have any thoughts, you are in it.

You are it.

You don't have to go anywhere; you have to simply go on throwing your thoughts.

That is the purpose of our gibberish before the meditation. Just a time to throw everything, without inhibition.

These creatures that you throw out are eating your head continuously, destroying your intelligence. Catch them and throw them out, and don't be worried with a moral question that they may enter into somebody else's mind. No, your creatures are accustomed to your mind. Even if you throw them, they will wait outside on the bamboos, and when you are going to the canteen they will jump!

And you can see in the canteen -- I never go there -- but so much talk, discussion... all the creatures are back. So beware of the bamboos! Just watch out that these creatures don't enter in your head again -- run! And in the canteen be silent. The more you open your mouth, the more they get in. They know you perfectly well, they will not enter into anybody else. Nobody wants foreigners, strangers; everybody wants to enter into his own place, into his own house. You don't enter somebody else's house. You don't pick up somebody else's rented bicycle....

Everybody finds his own rented bicycle, in thousands of bicycles. Strange!

Those creatures are very well acquainted with you and they know how much you love them. What is the guarantee that the other person will be loving towards them? -- may not be even friendly, and you have been feeding them year after year.

So when you are throwing, throw them so far away that they get mixed up, start fighting with each other, and meanwhile you escape to the canteen.

The inner sky is only as far away as the number of thoughts you have. If you don't have any thoughts, you are just in the present. That's what Dogo means:

"TODAY, IT IS GOOD TO DRY WHEAT."

Just be now and here, and without saying anything about the original sky... that is the way of Zen, to indicate. If you have intelligence, just an indication is enough. If you don't have intelligence, even if one goes on hammering on your head, it doesn't matter.

Dogo showed the monk where the original sky is. It is within you, if you are in the present.

To be in the present is to be out of the mind. To be in the present is to be in the beyond, in the space, in the sky which is your very being.

ON ANOTHER OCCASION DOGO WAS ASKED BY ANOTHER MONK, "WHAT IS THE DEEPEST?"

DOGO CAME DOWN FROM HIS SEAT, MADE OBEISANCE IN THE MANNER OF WOMEN AND SAID, "YOU HAVE COME FROM FAR, AND I HAVE NO ANSWER FOR YOU."

In fact, he has given the answer. What is the deepest? -- humbleness, gratitude, nobodiness. He is a man, but he bowed down in the manner of a woman -- no distinction between man and woman, because it is not a question of the body. And a woman is more humble, more grateful, more loving. So he is showing it: create the female qualities of love, of gratitude, of compassion, of humbleness; just be a nobody. And he came down and made obeisance, bowed, to the stranger.

He has answered. But the stranger, the monk, has not understood -- that's why he is saying, "YOU HAVE COME FROM FAR, AND I HAVE NO ANSWER FOR YOU." If you want an answer in language, I don't have it.

This is also done out of compassion. He has answered that humbleness is the deepest, nobodiness is the deepest; to be nothing, to be utterly selfless is the deepest. There is no further depth possible. He has given the answer by his action, but the man looked as if he did not understand. It is also out of compassion, not to make the man feel embarrassed, not to make him feel that he has not understood.

Dogo said, "You have come from very far away, and I have no answer for you." He takes the responsibility on himself: "It is not your fault. You have done great work, you have come from very far, and I don't have any answer for you." He takes the responsibility on himself -- although the reality is that the monk has missed the answer.

This is the beauty of a master. It shows in so many different colors, in so many rainbows.

Unless you understand it, you will not be able even to see it. Just reading it, you would have missed it.

AT ANOTHER TIME SEKISO KEISHO ASKED DOGO, "AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS, IF SOMEONE ASKS ABOUT THE ABSOLUTE MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHAT SHALL I SAY TO HIM?"

You will be gone. After a hundred years you will be no more; otherwise, you could have answered him. Just give me the answer so if somebody asks the question after you are gone, I can give him your answer.

But that is impossible. You cannot give my answer unless it is also your answer.

Repeating my answer will be simply borrowed, it won't have life and it won't have any charisma in it. It won't penetrate the heart of the person. Unless it is alive, throbbing with life and radiant with life and luminous with great energy, coming out of your own experience... Then perhaps the other, if he is intelligent enough, meditative enough, receptive enough, may get it.

DOGO CALLED THE BOY ATTENDANT, WHO CAME, AND TOLD HIM TO FILL UP THE WATER BOTTLE.

He did not pay any attention to Sekiso's question. Not paying attention to Sekiso's question is also an answer. He is saying, "Don't ask absurd things. Find out the answer yourself, by your own experience. My answer is not going to help so I am not going to give it."

So he simply, as if he has not heard -- he has heard it perfectly -- calls the boy attendant and tells him to fill up the water bottle.

DOGO WAITED A WHILE...

It is strange: the master is not answering the question.

AND THEN SAID TO SEKISO, "WHAT WAS IT YOU ASKED JUST NOW?"

As if he has not heard: "What was it you asked just now?"

SEKISO REPEATED THE QUESTION. DOGO THEREUPON WENT BACK TO HIS ROOM, AND AT THIS, SEKISO BECAME ENLIGHTENED.

He had answered the first time, but Sekiso did not get it, that what he was saying was, "Don't ask such things which are available only to your own experience, alone." But because he did not understand, Dogo waited a while: perhaps he may catch it.

AND THEN SAID TO SEKISO, "WHAT WAS IT YOU ASKED JUST NOW?"

SEKISO REPEATED THE QUESTION.

That shows he had not understood the answer that Dogo had indicated by not paying attention to his question. At this, Dogo went back to his room without answering him again.

This time he got it, that it is not a question which can be answered: you have to go inside your room.

The word 'room' is very beautiful. It simply means space. And you sometimes use it in the sense of space, that this place has "enough room." What do you mean by it, "enough room"? Enough space, no unnecessary furniture.

I used to stay with a very rich man in a place called Saugar. He was an accumulator of junk. He had enough money, so all kinds of things.. . whether he needed them or not was not the question, he could afford.

There was no television in those days in Saugar.... I used to stay with him, and he had a special guest room, filled with all his junk. I saw a television there. I asked, "Are you mad? There is no television!" At that time it was not even in Bombay, not in New Delhi; television had not been introduced in India. "What are you doing with a TV set?"

He said, "I had gone to London, and I just liked it." I said, "Just liked it?" He said, "Sometime television will come." And he was at that time seventy-five years old.

I said, "At least not in your lifetime." He said, "What?" I said, "You don't understand that you are seventy-five..." But he said, "It is not good to say to anybody 'not in your lifetime'. That means you are already thinking about my death!"

I said, "I am not thinking about your death, I am thinking about your city. It is still one thousand years behind! Even in New Delhi the television has not come. In your city it will take at least a century, and I don't think you will be able to make it."

But he was very angry, and he said, "I have put it here for your entertainment."

I said, "I am not mad. This box cannot make any kind of entertainment. It is dead, because there is no connection to it anywhere."

And then I saw many radios, lined up, all kinds of models of radios. I said, "One is enough." He said, "But I can afford them, so whenever some new model comes, some new manufacturer comes in..."

I said, "In this room I cannot stay. I will go insane, because there is no room at all!"

Things upon things, things upon things! Just... you had to somehow make your way to the bed, and if it was night -- and there was no electricity there -- you could not even go to the bathroom without having multiple fractures and destroying his many valuable things.

So I said, "Forgive me. You just give me a plain room." He said, "Plain room?"

I said, "Yes, because I sometimes go to the bathroom also." He said, "The bathroom is there."

I said, "In the dark night, and there is no electricity.... And your room is simply mad! I will have nightmares here, I cannot tolerate all this!"

There were all kinds of clocks, old, ancient, and they were all making noise at different times. No clock was at the same time as another clock. I said, "Do you want me to sleep or not?"

He said, "You are the first guest who is making so much fuss." I said, "I am not making fuss, I simply want a room." He said, "This is a room!"

I said, "You don't understand the meaning of the word 'room'. This is not a room, this is a junkyard!"

So when the master Dogo went to his room, he was again giving another chance to Sekiso: "Just go into the silent space within you. As I am going into my room, you go into your room, into your own space." And this time Sekiso got it. He became enlightened.

The master goes on repeating the same thing in different ways, in different words, in different gestures, with the hope that some day, at some point, you are going to get it.

How can you escape?

I will go on hitting you from every angle, poking you from every possibility, into every rib. I don't care whether you are getting fractures or not, I will go on hitting you. My hits are more subtle than those of the Zen people. Their hits are more primitive.

So whenever you get upset and disturbed, remember, it is a hit. Just take a shower and sit down to meditate. No need to think about it, it was just a hit to wake you up.

My speaking to you is not that of an orator or that of a philosopher. My talking to you is that of a master who knows how to disturb you. And your function is not to be disturbed whatever happens, whatever I say.

I may call Jesus a crackpot, don't be worried. Just enjoy and have a good shower if some trouble arises... because what have I to do with Jesus? My concern is with you! If I see somewhere in your head Jesus lurking, then I immediately hit Jesus. I am hitting you.

What concern have I with Jesus? In fact, nobody knows whether this fellow ever was there or not.

But when I talk about Stalin, don't get worried. I have nothing to be concerned with Stalin. He is not my disciple, you are! And you are on your own -- in spite of me. I am trying every possible way to throw you out, but you still go on coming.

You know perfectly well that my words should not be taken at face value. They are strategies and devices. The whole problem is how to shock you and shatter your mind completely so you can enter into the inner room and see with your own eyes your vast sky.

Basho wrote:

A COLD RAIN STARTING, AND ME WITHOUT A HAT.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, WHO CARES?

This is the beauty of Zen.

A COLD RAIN STARTING, AND ME WITHOUT A HAT.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, WHO CARES?

Remember it. On second thought, don't care at all about anything. Perhaps on the first thought you may not be able, but on second thought, don't miss it. Sekiso did not miss on second thought.

Question 4:

Maneesha's question:

Maneesha, Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood giants of mankind. And nobody can feel for him more than I feel, because I am also in the same category -- even more misunderstood a man than Friedrich Nietzsche.

When I say I hate poverty, people think I hate the poor people. I hate poverty because I want to destroy poverty completely! There will be no poor people when the poverty is destroyed.

The same was the situation with Nietzsche. When he said, "I hate weaklings, and I proclaim the coming of the superman," people misunderstood. They thought, "This man is in favor only of the powerful, superior people, and he is against the ordinary, average humanity." That was not the case.

Emma Goldman is right. She is one of the few women of history who has had a very clear-cut intellectual understanding. Very few women think about great problems, their world is very limited -- the neighborhood, who has got a new sari....

A woman rushed into the house and said to her husband, "You have to do either one thing or the other."

He said, "What?"

The woman said, "The neighbor has purchased a new car. Either you purchase a new car, or change neighborhoods. We will move into some other house, we cannot live in this house. I cannot stand to see a new car in his garage, when in our garage is an old Ford. So you be quick! Either find a new house -- we move out of this house -- or bring home a new Cadillac!"

The woman's world has been very limited. It has been made limited by man, but the woman is also responsible; she accepted it. When somebody enslaves you, of course that person is responsible -- but don't think that you are not responsible. You are also responsible: you could have died instead of becoming a slave; then how could he have made you a slave?

So whenever there is such a phenomenon, people only think with compassion and pity about the victim, but they don't think that the victim somehow agrees with the status quo.

Otherwise, if all the women just go on a one-day strike all over the world, men will be massaging their feet: "You are not only equal, you are superior! Just come back to the kitchen."

I know about myself... I cannot even make a cup of tea. I have tried and burned myself.

Just once was enough, then I said, "It is not my thing."

Have you ever thought, if you have to sleep with your little baby what is going to happen in the night? Either you will throw the baby out of the window... because these small babies are such rascals, you won't believe. They will sleep the whole day and they will stay awake the whole night. And every moment they want this, and they want that; and if nothing else, they want to go to the bathroom! They will drive you crazy just within one night. Either you will shoot yourself, or throw out the baby and have a peaceful night.

The woman is immensely patient. She has no problems about what will happen when third world war happens. Who cares? Right now, the question is that the husband has not come home. Where is he? With which woman? She is just going down the list of all the women she knows....

And when the husband comes back in the middle of the night, she immediately inquires, "Where have you been?" And he says, "I was with my friend such-and-such."

And the wife has all the information. She has phoned all the friends. "That friend is not at home, so where have you been? Be truthful and honest! I have inquired, I have your diary, all the phone numbers. That fellow is not at home! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

Now you are caught red-handed! Nobody can escape a wife's scrutiny. I have never heard of a single man who has escaped the scrutiny of a wife. They are such great detectives that sometimes I think they should all enroll in the CIA, the FBI, the CID -- they will do far greater work! Their concern is so limited, so their whole concentration....

Very few women, like Emma Goldman, have ever thought about such problems as anarchism. She was really a rare woman. No husband could tolerate her, she was too intellectual. Every husband will feel inferior to her.

She is perfectly right about Friedrich Nietzsche, that when he talked about superman and he said, "I hate the weaklings" -- people have missed the point. They think he is a hater of the average humanity and only wants the superman, a superior quality, intellectual giants. That is not the case.

His conception of the superman and the society that will come with the superman is that such a society will not allow weaklings to be born. That's exactly my conception too. And I am being criticized all around the world because I have been saying that man should not be allowed anymore to give birth to accidental children.

Up to now the whole humanity has been accidental. Now we have every means to choose the right child. We can create a humanity in which everybody will be a superman.

Nietzsche was only an intellectual -- a great intellectual, perhaps the greatest. I have left intellect far behind. I use it just for you.

In my vision we don't have to wait for biological engineering to create the superman. It will go against all the masses, all the societies. All the religions will become hindrances, they won't allow it. Because I have proposed it, I am being criticized. I have received from all over the world criticism of my book, *THE GREATEST CHALLENGE, THE GOLDEN FUTURE, saying that I am a fascist just like Friedrich Nietzsche was a fascist.

But they don't understand me. Neither have they understood Friedrich Nietzsche. And they will misunderstand me even more because I am not going to wait for biological engineering. I am going to create the superman by a very different methodology.

My methodology is meditation.

I can change the ordinary, average human being into a buddha. There is no need right now to go into changing the ordinary structure of reproduction. Finally it has to be done, because that will be the easiest way. And if I have supermen to work with, then meditation will be so easy, immediately understood.

But Friedrich Nietzsche had no idea about meditation. I can change, through meditation, the very ordinary and average person into a superman. The moment you enter into your being -- centered, silent, the whole sky within has no clouds of thought -- you are turning into a superman. I call that superman the buddha.

Maneesha, you are right -- because I am looking at man from every angle: from his body, from his mind, from his soul. I am looking at man as a totality. So many half- circles are going to be complete in me. Buddha was looking only at the spiritual; Marx was looking only at the material; Sigmund Freud was looking only at the psychological.

My approach is total, from all dimensions and directions. And I have gone through all these people as deeply as possible, and I know where they stand, where they have stopped. Nietzsche has stopped with intellectual analysis, Sigmund Freud has stopped with psychoanalysis, Marx has stopped with an economic analysis of the society.

But man is not partial. Don't deal with man part by part.

You can deal with a machine in a partial way -- you can change one part if it is not functioning well -- but man is an organic unity; you cannot do that with man. You have to take the whole man into your vision. My vision is for the whole man.

And the moment you also understand all your dimensions, all your directions, all your potentialities, suddenly a great transformation happens: the superman is born in you. You don't have to wait because you cannot change your programming of biology now.

Perhaps your children's children may gather courage enough to change the biology of man.

When I am talking to you, I am taking care not only about you but about your children's children's children. My approach is not only concerned with you -- it is certainly concerned with you, but not only with you. My vision reaches far deeper. I am saying many things which should be said only one century from now. That's what creates controversies about me, unnecessary condemnation of me, but I am helpless.

In fact, I enjoy all the controversies, all the condemnation. At this moment, I am the most condemned man in the whole world. That gives me great joy! At least I am something....

This brings us to Sardar Gurudayal Singh.

Guiseppe and Martino, two Italians, are at the movie house watching a spaghetti western and feeling bored.

Martino leans over in the dark and taps his friend on the arm. "Hey-a, Guiseppe," whispers Martino, "I am-a really bored! You see-a this guy in front with the bald-a head?

I give-a you a thousand lira if you smack him over the head!"

Guiseppe immediately takes the money, stands up and hits the bald man in front -- POW! -- over the head.

The man turns around in a daze.

"Hey-a! Francesco!" says Guiseppe. "Good-a to see you!"

"I am not-a Francesco!" replies the man, shakily, and he turns back to watching the movie.

Five minutes pass, and Martino is bored again.

"Hey-a Guiseppe!" he whispers. "I give-a you two thousand lira if you hit-a the bald-a guy again!"

Guiseppe takes the money, stands up and hits the bald-headed man -- BONK! -- on the head.

The bald man spins around and is just about to climb over the back of his seat, when Guiseppe says, "Hey-a! Francesco! Good-a to see you!"

"I tell-a you!" snaps the bald man. "I am not-a Francesco!" and he storms out and goes and sits upstairs in the balcony.

Ten minutes later, Martino is bored again.

"Hey-a! Guiseppe!" he whispers, "I am-a bored! Let's-a go upstairs!"

The two friends go to sit in the balcony just behind the bald-headed man.

"Hey-a! Guiseppe!" whispers Martino. "I give-a you ten thousand lira if you hit-a the man with the bald-a head again!"

Guiseppe puts the money into his pocket, gets to his feet, and hits the bald head -- SMACK! -- with his hand.

The man spins around in his seat.

"Hey-a! Francesco!" says Guiseppe. "You know, downstairs there is a guy that looks just- a like you!"

One day, Joseph Stalin wants to find out what the people of Russia really think about him. So he disguises himself with a big black beard and an overcoat and goes out into the streets of Moscow. He walks around for a while and then goes into a favorite communist pub, the Czar's Head.

He walks up to the bar, orders a double vodka and begins to sip it slowly. Then he turns to the man next to him, Comrade Popov, and casually asks, "Tell me, comrade, what do you think of Joseph Stalin?"

Comrade Popov turns white, looks over both shoulders, grabs Stalin by the arm, and whispers, "Are you crazy? We can't talk here -- follow me!"

The two Russians go outside through the back door, into the quiet back street. Popov looks around frantically, then leads Stalin into a dark alley. Then Popov looks around and says, "We are still not safe here! These walls have ears! Come with me."

He takes Stalin through a maze of unlit passages and side streets before arriving at a small, hidden garden. They climb over the fence, and finally crouch behind some bushes.

"Okay," says Popov, "we can talk here. You want to know what I think of Joseph Stalin?"

"That's right," replies Stalin.

"Well," says Popov, "I could not say it in the pub, but personally -- I like the guy!"

Igor and Becky Ivanovich, a Moscow couple, keep a parrot called Boris in their apartment. Boris likes to cry, "Down with communism!" at the top of his voice, and one day the neighbors hear him and report him to the KGB.

When the police arrive, Igor quickly hides Boris in the freezer.

The KGB officers search everywhere throughout the apartment and cannot find anything.

But just before they leave, one of them decides to have a look in the freezer and finds a frozen Boris.

When Boris finally thaws out he starts shouting at the top of his voice: "Hurray for Gorbachev! Long live communism!" The KGB men are very happy and leave the apartment.

When they are gone, Igor grabs Boris.

"I don't understand," says Igor. "Why did you suddenly start praising communism?"

"Look," replies Boris, "you would do the same if you had just returned from Siberia!"

Nivedano...

(Gibberish) Nivedano...

Be silent.

Close your eyes.

And feel your body to be completely frozen.

This is the right moment to look inwards.

Gather your whole life energy and rush towards your very center of being, with total consciousness and with an urgency as if this is going to be the last moment in your life.

Without such urgency nobody has ever reached to his very being, the center which is your original face, which is your door into the divine.

Faster and faster, deeper and deeper....

As you come closer to yourself, a great silence descends over you, almost like soft rain.

A little closer... and you find a tremendous peace blossoming around you.

A little more... and fragrances from the beyond fulfill your being.

Now you can see your original face. This is the buddha, hidden at the center of your being for centuries. This is your superman.

The only quality of the buddha is witnessing, and as your witnessing deepens, your blissfulness deepens also.

As your witnessing becomes greater, a tremendous ecstasy arises in your very being. It is not something coming from outside, it is something that is arising in you and blossoming in you like a lotus flower.

But it all happens -- this whole miracle of meditation is nothing but witnessing. A single word, and the whole of religion is intrinsic in it.

At this moment you are the most blessed people on the earth.

To make the witnessing a little deeper, Nivedano...

Relax, let go. Just continue to witness. Witness that you are not the body, witness that you are not the mind.

Witness that you are only a witness, just a buddha, a pure consciousness, and eternal life suddenly becomes clear to you.

You have been changing bodies again and again and again but your life goes on flowing from eternity to eternity. It is infinite; it is immortal.

And as you relax you start melting like ice. All separations dissolve. Gautam the Buddha Auditorium suddenly becomes an ocean of ten thousand buddhas melting their consciousness into oneness, without any waves, without any ripples.

The evening was very beautiful on its own but your totality, your urgency, your tremendous longing to reach to the center have made it a miraculous evening -- a great splendor.

Meditation is the only magic in the world and the only miracle.

Before Nivedano calls you back, gather all the flowers that are showering on you -- of ecstasy, of joy, of peace, of a deep serenity, silence, a fire within you. The fire of eternal life, which is very cool, and a breeze which is so fragrant, of the beyond.

This I have called Zen Fire, Zen Wind. We have to fill the whole earth with Zen Fire and Zen Wind. This is the only possibility for saving humanity and this beautiful planet from destruction, from the politicians and from the priests.

And don't forget to persuade the buddha to come with you. He has to become your daily life. In each of your activities, in each of your gestures, in every bird, in every silence -- he has to be a constant presence, just behind you. Just his presence behind you will start changing your lifestyle. It will bring grace and beauty and benediction and compassion that you have never dreamt of.

Meditation makes the greatest dream a reality.

Nivedano...

Come back, but come back as buddhas, silently, peacefully, with deep gratitude and great grace.

Sit for a few seconds just to remember where you have been, to what sky, to what space, what golden path you have traveled. And just feel who is behind you, the presence of the buddha.

These are the three steps before you become enlightened:

Buddha comes behind you like a shadow, the first step.

Buddha comes before you and you become the shadow, the second step.

Your shadow disappears in the buddha. You are no more, only buddha is... the third and the final step.

The moment your shadow disappears in the buddha, you will find, suddenly, that buddha is only a transparent consciousness. When there is something transparent it makes no shadow.

And buddha is your very nature, so there is not much problem to bring him from the hidden sources and to make him your whole being.

He is just a seed at the center. As you bring it out the seed breaks down and suddenly out of your mud, dirty mud, of all kinds of desires, jealousies, anger, violence, arises a beautiful lotus.

This lotus is the flowering of your very potential. This will make you a superman.

Nietzsche can only talk about you: I can transform you into the superman.

Superman is my very teaching.

I teach you the superman, the buddha. I don't give you any discipline, any philosophy -- I simply help you to bring out your own consciousness into a state of flowering.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.

Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind