You just need a little courage

Question 1:

Aha! That's really groovy. That's the only experience I have missed in my life. And knowing that this is my last life, I would certainly want to be arrested. Make sure that I am handcuffed, because whenever I do anything, I do it totally.

Arresting me, an absolutely innocent person who has done no wrong, is the beginning of the end of American hypocrisy about democracy. It will be a great help to the whole world to understand that America is not what it pretends to be. It is not following its Constitution. It has the best Constitution in the world, but the worst politicians also.

The politicians of America are prostituting the Constitution. They should stop calling it "Constitution,"

they should start calling it "prostitution."

I have been for three and a half years in isolation, in silence, just remaining in my room, no contact with sannyasins, and still I am a criminal. If I am a criminal, then nobody on this earth is innocent.

It is perfectly good; if they have guts they should arrest me and show their real faces to the world, show that democracy is just fake. America and the Soviet Union do not differ in any way. Perhaps the Soviet Union is more straightforward; it says what it does, it is not phony.

The Soviet Union may be doing all kinds of wrong things - it is - but it calls itself the dictatorship of the proletariat. America calls itself a democracy - a government by the people, of the people, for the people. Arresting me, they will destroy their own image in the whole world.

I am perfectly happy. I don't want to miss this opportunity. But why tomorrow? - because tomorrow never comes. It is better today. Arrest me today. And arrest me as a criminal, handcuffed, so the whole world can see that this government is not for the people, of the people, by the people. That this government is, behind a mask of democracy, as dictatorial, as fascist as it can be.

But they should remember.... I inquired of a few of my sannyasins: they are all wanting to be voluntarily arrested, they want to be with me. So they should come with five thousand handcuffs. It is not going to be an easy thing. And we know how to make history. We don't read history, we make history. Five thousand sannyasins will offer themselves voluntarily to be arrested. And that will make what I say is the beginning of the end of American hypocrisy.

We are for the American Constitution, but not for American dirty politicians. We will fight for the Constitution against the politicians. I have tremendous respect and love for the Constitution. It has all the great values that humanity needs. But these politicians are not Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln must be tossing and turning in his grave. The best in America will feel it, and will be with you.

Not only here - if five thousand people are arrested here, then the same is going to happen in every country. Sannyasins will offer their governments, "Either disconnect all connections with America, throw out the American embassies, or arrest us." In every country thousands of sannyasins are going to do the same, because they feel the same as you feel. It is going to be a world-wide phenomenon.

To arrest me is not so simple. These politicians are just simpletons. But I welcome their idea. As far as I am concerned, I will really enjoy it.

In India I have been speaking against the politicians for thirty years, but they never tried to do any harm to me knowing perfectly well that doing any harm to me, means thousands of sannyasins around the country will be hurt.

We are nonviolent people. We cannot hurt anybody, but we can offer ourselves.

For thirty years they have not even tried any inquiry, any investigation. Even in the times of emergency rule in India it was more democratic than in America without emergency rule. All the ashrams were raided except my commune, for the simple reason that they understand me, and understood that it is better not to take such a risk. But these American politicians are not aware of me. It is a good chance to make them aware.

So only a few sannyasins will remain to take care of the commune; otherwise every sannyasin has to offer himself for voluntary arrest.

Question 2:

I have not stopped the sannyas movement; I have stopped it becoming a religion. A movement is a flux; that's the meaning of movement - it is moving, it is growing. But a religion is dead - it has stopped moving, it has stopped growing. It is dead. The only place for it is in the crematorium.

That's where we had to take it. And we have celebrated the death of the religion - a religion which was not my idea.

I trust in sannyasins remaining individuals, I trust in their growth and movement; but I don't like the idea of them becoming like Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists. That's what was done while I was in isolation. In my absence, Sheela gathered around herself a fascist group and managed to cripple the sannyas movement, to make it dead, to make it a religion.

We have burned the religion - that does not mean we have burned our religiousness. That is a totally different thing.

Religiousness is like love - invisible, yet so tangible. You cannot explain it, but you can experience it.

Religiousness has been freed from a dead structure, a bondage that Sheela and her criminal group have put around it. Now you are not Rajneeshees. And I would like the press, the media to be kind enough not to refer to my people as Rajneeshees. They need some kind of reference - they can call them friends of Rajneesh, and that will be absolutely right and appropriate.

Sheela wanted a dead religion. Every priest or priestess wants a dead religion, because it is predictable. Everything is just a catechism. There is no opinion, no evolution, no growth. Just look at Christianity: two thousand years have passed - have they gone even an inch farther than Jesus Christ? Twenty-five centuries have passed since Buddha - have Buddhists gone a single step ahead? This is destroying growth, destroying evolution.

Now I want my people to remain open, alive, growing, always fresh and new. It remains a new kind of phenomenon, religiousness: no label attached to it, because every label is a full stop. And I don't like full stops, I don't like even semi-colons: Life is always ongoing....

One journalist was very much worried; he said, "You have destroyed Rajneeshism, the religion.

Now you will be in great trouble on two counts: first, Rajneesh Foundation International will lose its tax-exempt status."

I told the man, "Don't you worry about it. We have burned religion but not religiousness; and we will fight so that a man can have a growing experience of religiousness without being part of a mob psychology, without being a member of a collectivity. That is perfectly good for the sheep, but not for lions. And I want my sannyasins to be lions, not sheep.

"Nobody can take away the tax-exempt status. We are more religious than any Christian, any Hindu, any Mohammedan. We have just buried the dead structure and freed the soul of religion. That freedom is religiousness."

He was also worried that it would be difficult now for me in reference to my immigration, on the same grounds. It is not going to be difficult for me at all. If you don't have a category for religiousness, that is your fault. Make a category for religiousness.

Even in my interview with the INS I had made it clear that this is no ordinary religion; it is simply a way of life, a quality of religiousness.

The INS officer said, "But it is difficult, because we don't have any category for that. We have a category for religion."

"Then," I said, "you can write that it is a religionless religion." And that is on record.

What does "religionless religion" mean?

It simply means a religiousness.

And I love fights. It is so exciting. I am all for fighting - of course, nonviolent fighting, not with guns.

Guns are used only by retarded people. I have enough intelligence to fight, to argue. And I will argue my case up to the Supreme Court.

I would like the Supreme Court to give me special permission to fight my case myself. An advocate can be an assistant to me, but I do not want to be lost in legal jargon. I am a straightforward, simple man. And what is the need for truth to have any advocate to defend it? Truth is not defensive; its presence is enough, and its victory is absolutely certain.

So there is no question. The movement of sannyas has been freed, it has not been stopped. It was being stopped.

I used to have another corporation just like Rajneesh Foundation International: Neo-Sannyas International. Sheela dropped it. I came to know only when I came out of silence, that now Neo- Sannyas International does not exist - and that has been my whole life's work!

I am going to revive Neo-Sannyas International. That is a movement; anybody can join it, and I have made it wider, I have given it a wide base. There are millions of people who love me, who love my insights, but cannot become sannyasins because they have to change their clothes - that creates trouble in their family, in their job, with their friends, in the society. I have withdrawn it.

I have withdrawn the mala. It has significance in India, because in India the red clothes and mala have been used for thousands of years by all the religions as symbolic of a sannyasin. I wanted to destroy that traditional idea of sannyas, because the sannyasin has to be celibate, the sannyasin has not to touch a woman, not to talk to a woman. The sannyasin cannot stay in a household, he has to stay in a temple. He has to eat only once a day, he has to fast continuously again and again.

He has to torture himself. This is sick.

I wanted to destroy this image, that's why I had chosen the red color. And I had almost three hundred thousand sannyasins in India. My sannyasins created tremendous trouble amongst the traditional sannyasins, because there was no way to know who is who. My sannyasins would be walking on the road and people would touch their feet, not knowing that these are not celibates; they have their girlfriends. They eat two times a day, they eat everything that is the best - whether it is Italian or Chinese or Japanese, it does not matter. These people belong to the twenty-first century, and old sannyasins were very angry because I have destroyed their image.

With our coming to the West, now red clothes and the mala are no longer needed, because in the West they have never been symbolic of religion. They have done their work in India. They have made their point, that a sannyasin can be with a wife, with children; that he need not be a parasite on the society, he can work, he can create, he can earn; that he need not be worshipped.

But in the West there is no need. I was going to withdraw the mala and the color anyway, but Sheela made it more urgent; you have to be grateful to her. All her crimes made it absolutely necessary that now sannyasins should be absolutely normal human beings, so you can live in the society without creating any kind of hostility or embarrassment for yourself, for your family, or difficulties in your job.

And, more specifically, you are now completely devoid of all outer symbols. All that is left is the essential core of religiousness, the inward journey, which only you can do. I cannot do it for you, nobody can do it for you.

So now there is left only the essential quality, the most fundamental quality of religiousness.

That is meditation.

You have to go inwards.

I have been teaching you all the methods of meditation. You can choose any method that suits you. There are only one hundred and twelve methods; there is no possibility of adding more. It is exhaustive. All the methods possible have been explored. The simplest is witnessing.

So now that you no longer have any outer symbols, it is good, if you want to be a sannyasin, for you to remember only one thing: how to go into the discipline of witnessing; otherwise there is a possibility that wearing red clothes and the mala you are completely satisfied that you are a sannyasin. You are not. Clothes don't make anybody change, neither does the mala make anybody go through a transformation. But you can deceive yourself.

Now I am taking all that away from you, and leaving only one simple thing. You cannot deceive:

either you do it or you don't do it. Without doing it, you are not a sannyasin. So the movement has come to its purest state, the most essential stage; it has not been dropped.

But it is a good coincidence that on the same date I had started the sannyas movement, and on the same date I have made it absolutely purified of all unnecessary, nonessential things. But it is purely a coincidence, because I am not good about dates, days, years. Forgive me for that.

I live in a timeless space. I don't know what day it is, I don't know what date it is. I use the watch only for you - in the morning discourse, in the evening interviews for the press - otherwise, the whole day I don't use it. I don't have any need to know what the time is. What am I going to do with the time?

Just for your sake... because I am such a crazy man that I may go on speaking and speaking - three hours, four hours, five hours - the watch prevents me. It is simply for your sake, a compassionate gesture.

Question 3:

The arts can be immensely helpful in therapy, in spiritual growth, in your meditations. But it is taking a hard and long way unnecessarily. The shortcut is: first, meditation, and then out of meditation comes creativity of its own accord. Otherwise, it is a long journey; even one life may not be enough.

For example, the paintings of Picasso are nothing but his nightmares, as if somebody is not painting but vomiting. It has helped him to relieve himself of his tensions, schizophrenia, paranoia and all kinds of mental repressions. But it is not of much use to you. In fact, if you go on looking at a Picasso painting for a long time, you will feel sick, because it is vomiting. You will start feeling nauseous. This is not real art.

The people who created the Taj Mahal - that is real art. They were Sufi mystics who knew what meditation is. And they created the Taj Mahal in such a way that if on every full-moon night, exactly at nine o'clock in the evening, you just sit looking at the most beautiful architecture in the whole world, you will find suddenly you are becoming silent, peaceful, serene. Something is transpiring between you and the Taj Mahal.

Gurdjieff used to call the Taj Mahal, objective art. It means: created by people who are fully aware, able to create something which can help people to grow. He would not call Picasso an objective artist. Picasso is a subjective artist, he is just throwing up whatsoever is in his mind. It is not going to help anybody. Picasso feels relieved, but for how long? Soon he will gather tensions again. Soon he will be again in a state of insanity, and then he will paint. Painting is a release for him.

The people who built the Taj Mahal - it is not a release for them; it is their experience. And they are trying somehow to make something which can also give you the same experience - at least a glimpse of it.

In India there are many places of objective art, and it is obvious why they are in India - because for ten thousand years the country has been involved with meditative techniques. The caves of Ajanta and Ellora... there are many caves; the whole mountain has been carved. Great caves have been made into the mountain. A line of caves - perhaps thirty or thirty-five, and each cave has its own beauty; not just beauty, but its own meditative fragrance from a different angle.

In the last cave, Buddha is lying down just before he died. It is a long statue - perhaps thirty feet long. Just sitting by the side, alone in the cave, you can again feel something that must have been felt by people who saw Buddha dying - the release of his light, the release of his soul becoming universal. Somehow the statue gives you an insight into it.

Tourists miss it. It is not something that you simply go in and have a look and then rush into another cave. That is simply idiotic. And most of the tourists are idiots. Most of them are old women having nothing to do. Perhaps they have finished their husbands - now there is nobody even to nag. India is full of old women from all over the world.

Tourists cannot understand it. You have to sit down. You have to be quiet and silent. The cave is very cool - remains cool even in the hottest summer - and outside is the lush green valley. If you can sit for an hour or more, then perhaps some glimpses of objective art will be felt.

There is one cave in Ajanta which has been made of special stones which are musical. You can just hit them with your hand, with your finger, and you will be surprised that they resound just like a guitar. If you are really a good musician, you can create any music on those pillars in the cave, on the walls of the cave.

But if you are not a musician, no problem: you simply sit there. Once in a while a breeze comes in, and with the breeze there is a murmuring music in the cave. And it is so soothing. I have never known anything that can be so soothing to your mind, to your heart, to your body - so relaxing. This is objective art.

But your question is, "Can art help somehow in being more healthy spiritually? Can it become a therapy?" Yes, it can; vomiting is a therapy. And when you are feeling nauseous, it is good to vomit, have a good vomit, and you will feel clean. The nausea is gone. But this is not something of great help. Please go vice versa: first meditation, then out of meditation there is a spontaneity of creativity.

Right now you don't know even what areas of creativity can bring out your potential for spiritual growth. To paint? - everybody is not a painter. To write poetry? - everybody is not a poet. To play music? - everybody is not a musician. How are you going to choose in your confusion? But if you are silent through meditation, utterly silent, suddenly you feel a tremendous urge to create something, to become a musician.... It comes spontaneously!

I know one of the great musicians in India - it is inconceivable, the way he created music. You know the name of Ravi Shankar - Ravi Shankar married that great musician's daughter; Ravi Shankar is his disciple. He was capable of creating music with anything. He would start hitting just two pieces of steel, and you will be surprised how many and how beautiful were the sounds he could create out of it. He was a born musician.

A meditator finds his potential and starts moving towards it. Then poetry or dance or sculpture - whatever happens spontaneously - is objective art. It is your contribution.

It will help you to grow spiritually. It will be your real therapy, because growth is therapy. It will give you authentic spiritual health. And, by the way, it will help many other people who can for a few moments sit silently, listen to your music, or watch your dance, or see your painting. They will be immensely benefited because your art will give them a certain direction towards meditation.

So my suggestion is, everything starts with meditation. And if you try other things, you will be going on a sorry-go-round for many lives, round and round - I cannot call it a merry-go-round - but you will never reach to your center.

The first and the foremost act of a sannyasin is to reach to his center, and then leave everything to that experience to explode in its own way. Then you are natural. Then whatever you do is helpful to you and helpful to others. This is the only love, compassion that you can share with humanity.

Question 4:

I know it is going to happen. It is not by the clothes that a person is recognized, it is the energy aura around him which makes him separate and unique from others.

My sannyasins will have a different flavor. It does not matter what clothes they wear. You cannot disguise yourself, you will be found out. Your very vibe will make you a stranger.

But without the clothes and the mala, your being a stranger is not going to be offensive to anybody.

On the contrary, they will become interested: What has happened to this man, to this woman, which is special? What kind of fragrance surrounds this man? Your gestures will show it, your eyes will show it. The way you walk, the way you talk - everything will show it. There is no way to hide a fire which is burning within you. There is no way to hide a light.

You can easily recognize a house which is in darkness and there is no light in it. And you can recognize from the outside of a house if there is light inside: every window, every door shows the light. It is impossible for meditators to become just like other people who are not meditators.

And it is good that they recognize you. That gives you a chance to open your heart to them - that clothes and mala have been dropped, not because of any disillusionment, but because their purpose is served. Now we can be recognized without them. We have come of age.

Many more people are going to become sannyasins, because we have withdrawn all barriers for them. The only change will be that they will have a spiritual name that is not their legal name. In the world they can continue to have their legal name. Their spiritual name will remind them in their day-to-day work that they should not forget they have made a commitment to grow spiritually. And their spiritual name will be a connection with a world-wide community.

Except that, meditation remains your whole work.

Question 5:

Perhaps you are right.

There is a group of psychologists who think that the women who are raped are really inviting it. To be raped means to create so much excitement in the man that he forgets that he is committing a crime. It is a tribute to the beauty of the woman. She has proved to be almost like a drug, and the man has proved to be completely in her power. He is ready to commit a crime for which in different countries he will have different kinds of punishments. For example, in the Middle East, death will be the punishment. He has even forgotten that death will be the punishment. Perhaps those psychologists have a certain insight into the matter.

I was a professor in the university. One day I was just sitting with the vice-chancellor - once in a while he used to call me, just to chitchat. When I was with him, a young, beautiful girl came crying.

She said to the vice-chancellor, "Now it is becoming too much...." One student was continuously harassing her. He was throwing pebbles at her in the class, sending letters to her, writing loving words on her desk. "You have to do something to prevent all this."

The vice-chancellor was sympathetic. He said, "I will call him and put a stop to it."

I said, "Wait a minute. Let me deal with the case." I turned to the girl and asked her, "Be sincere and true: are you not enjoying it?"

There was a great silence for a few seconds. And then the girl said, "But how did you know that I am enjoying it?"

I said, "Just think of the opposite. If nobody writes letters to you, and nobody throws pebbles at you, nobody takes air out of your bicycle tires, nobody writes beautiful words on your desk - nobody at all, you are simply ignored, as if you do not exist - will that make you happy?"

Again there was a silence. The girl said, "But how are you able to know all this?"

I said, "Leave that aside. You just first figure it out - because the vice-chancellor is going to stop the boy. But if it is giving you enjoyment.... In fact, informing the vice-chancellor has also given you joy. You have made your point even to the vice-chancellor, that you are a beautiful girl. You certainly are. And I think it is perfectly right for people to do these small things to you; otherwise, you will be miserable. You go back and think about it again. If you want to stop that boy, then you can come back again to the vice-chancellor tomorrow." She never came back.

The vice-chancellor was very much surprised. He said, "You solved the problem so easily; the other party was not even called."

I said to him, "You are now very old" - he must have been sixty-five; he was a retired chief justice of a high court. "Do you remember the times when you were a student in the university? Have you not written letters to girls, thrown pebbles at the girls, made attempts somehow to touch them? Have you never taken air out of their bicycle tires?"

He said, "You are really strange. How do you know?"

I said, "Again, the same question the girl was asking. I don't know anything either about the girl or about you, but I know everything about the human mind, and you cannot be an exception. Has not youth come to you? Haven't you seen the spring?"

He said, "Perhaps you are right. Yes, I remember doing all these things."

"And," I said, "still you were going to stop that poor boy. In fact, you should encourage all kinds of these activities so no girl is left miserable, so that no boy misses his youth, his springtime. What is natural should be accepted."

I told him, "In my class it never happens, for the simple reason that my class is the only class in the whole of India where girls and boys cannot sit separately. It is mandatory that they should sit mixed; then there is no need to throw pebbles. You can nudge the girl - which is far more human, more loving. You can feel the warmth of the girl. The girl can feel your lovingness towards her."

I said, "One day you should come to my class. This is the most silent class, without any trouble, for the simple reason that I am not creating monks and nuns. I am helping them to be human beings, and I am allowing them to be together.

"I have made it clear to them: 'Anybody who wants to leave the class can leave the class without asking me. Anybody who wants to come in the class at anytime can come in without asking me.

Just don't disturb the class; come slowly and sit silently.'

"Nobody leaves, nobody comes late. When you don't make people obey you, when you don't become dictatorial, of course there is no question of disobedience, there is no question of resistance."

Life would be so simple if people accepted its naturalness.

In fact, nobody can rape a woman unless deep down she is willing. It is impossible. She will scream, she will throw tantrums, she will hit you, she will bite you. And in all that atmosphere, can you make love to her? You will lose your erection! She can give a really good hit to your balls, and you will forget forever raping anybody! That is such a simple thing. And man is most vulnerable at that point - just a good hit, the way you kick a football, and he is finished. If a woman is raped, there is some deep willingness for it.

So perhaps you are right that Sheela left because she was raped in her youth, and she could not forgive men or the society. And when she got the power in her hands she started torturing everybody.

And the others left because they have not been raped. They have been available to you, and you did nothing. I know about Vidya; I don't think there is any man who is going to rape her. That is one of the problems she has come to me for, that "I feel nobody loves me."

But I said, "What can I do about it? You can console yourself: at least I love you. I love all kinds of creatures, don't be worried."

And as for Puja, she can rape any man! If she can murder a man, can make attempts to murder a whole city, to murder sannyasins, rape is a very small thing. But I don't think any man would like to be raped by her. The man will do everything - he will start doing Dynamic Meditation to avoid the rape. Dynamic Meditation is immensely helpful in many situations.

Question 6:

The function of the commune is to create an atmosphere of encouragement - that you are not alone.

The path that you have to travel, you have to travel alone; but if you know that so many people are traveling alone on the path, it gives tremendous encouragement. There is no fear: "If these people can manage, I can manage also."

The commune is not a religion, following collectively on a super-highway. The commune belongs to individuals who have joined hands with each other because they are going on an inner journey where they will be alone. But with so many people going on that inner journey alone the fear of being alone is dropped.

You can share your experiences with each other; perhaps sharing your experiences with each other will help immensely. That's why therapies exist where people can open their heart and share their experiences.

But the commune experience is a therapeutic experience - day in, day out.

My vision of a commune is of absolutely individual meditators living together, helping each other:

"Don't be afraid, it is tremendously exciting to go in. Although you are going alone, you are not the only one who is going alone. One million sannyasins are going alone."

It is a very strange phenomenon: living together, yet exploring the truth in absolute aloneness. And whatever you find, you can share. It will be respected, it will be accepted. And everybody is to have different kinds of experiences on the way, until the person reaches to the ultimate omega point. That omega point is exactly the same for everyone. But on the way there are so many beauties, so much splendor.

You just need a little courage, and the commune provides you the courage. And I am here to encourage you to take the jump. You have nothing to lose, and you have the whole universe to gain.

Question 7:

It is happening around the world. The therapist, the psychoanalyst, the psychiatrist - they are the new priests. The old priests are out of date with the new generation.

The gap between the old people and the new generation is widening every day. The gap is widening, but your conditioning is done by the older generation: your parents, your teachers, your priests. So now you are in a situation where you have to find new priests, new father figures, and that is being fulfilled by the psychologists of different schools.

One of the functions here in our university is to destroy this role. The therapists have to be aware not to become authoritative. But they can become nonauthoritative only if you are ready to drop the idea of authority.

So it depends on both the therapist and the people who are participating in the therapy. The persons who are participating should drop the father figure, they should drop the idea of any authority. They will help the therapist. But if they are all demanding that he become an authority, a father figure, then it will be difficult for him to drop it. So both have to become aware of it.

At least in my communes, therapies are not going to replace priesthoods. My therapists are simply experts who can help you to sort out problems, problems which you cannot sort out yourself, problems which are too heavy on you. An outsider who knows the expertise of analyzing your dreams, of analyzing your behavior, of analyzing your mind, can be of immense help.

But the danger is, you both are human: you want a father figure, and the other person wants to become an authority. You have to be conscious about it. The therapist is just doing his job as the plumber is doing his job, as the electrician is doing his job, as the mechanic is doing his job. They are experts in different fields. He is expert in the field of the machine called mind. He is a mechanic, he can help you.

But both have to be aware - and this will happen, because I am creating every possibility for it. If I can become your friend, that is an indication for all therapists to be just friends. And to be a friend has a beauty of its own. This exploitation will disappear, I will take care that it disappears. At least in my communes nobody can be exploited and nothing of the old can be perpetuated again with new labels. Old wine in new bottles will not be allowed while I am here.

It is good that you brought it to my notice. Anything that you feel, bring it to my notice, so whatsoever is needed can be done.

Okay?