Man is a Becoming

The first question:

Question 1:

HEIN,

Man is not a being, man is a becoming. This is one of the most fundamental things to be understood.

The trees, the animals, they are all beings. Man is different: he is a becoming, he is a process. And with the process the problem arises: you can fall below the animals, you can rise above the gods.

No dog can fall below doghood, neither he can become a Buddha; both are impossible. He is neither stupid nor a genius; he has no growth. He is born the way he is born; he will live, he will die the same - between his birth and death there is going to happen no evolution.

Man is different. That is man's privilege, his prerogative, but there lies also great danger. Man is not born fully complete; he is not born entire - birth is only a beginning of a process. Now, the process can take any form: it can become deformed, it can take a wrong route, it can go astray. Man begins his life as freedom but freedom has its price; you can't have it free. No other animal has any freedom except man.

Hence for centuries the mystics have said that man is a bridge between two eternities: the eternity of the unconscious and the eternity of the conscious, and man is always moving between these two polarities. He is like a tightrope walker. Each moment is full of danger, but full of possibilities too.

No possibility comes alone; it has its own danger. You can miss - you can fall from the rope into the abyss.

Man has been called by the mystics a ladder. Now, the ladder can do two things: you can use it to go upwards, and the same ladder can be used to go downwards. You use the same ladder for both the purposes, just your direction changes. When you are moving upwards your direction is different; when you are moving downwards your direction is just the opposite of it. But the ladder is the same, the result will be totally different. Man is a ladder between heaven and hell.

That's why, Hein, it is only human beings who repress, who manipulate, who kill, who try to conquer the natural flow in nature, who are stupid - because they can be Buddhas. Because man has intelligence, that's why he can be stupid. Stupidity simply means you have not used your intelligence; it does not mean absence of intelligence. If there is no presence of intelligence you cannot call man stupid. You cannot call a rock stupid; a rock is a rock - no question of stupidity.

But you can call man stupid because with man there is hope, a ray of great light. With man, a door opens towards the beyond. He can transcend himself and he is not transcending - that's his stupidity. He can grow and he is not growing, he is clinging to all kinds of immaturity - that is his stupidity. He goes on and on living in the past, which is no more - that is his stupidity. Or he starts projecting in the future, which is not yet - that is his stupidity.

He should live in the present with deep passion, with great love, with intensity, with awareness, and that will become his intelligence. It is the same energy: upside down it is stupidity; put it right, rearrange it, and it becomes intelligence.

Intelligence and stupidity are not separate energies. The same energy functioning in harmony is intelligence, functioning in contradictions is stupidity. Man can be stupid - don't think that it is unfortunate. It looks on the surface that it is unfortunate, but hidden behind it is great glory, great splendor which can be discovered.

But the society, the so-called religions, the state, the crowd, they all want you to be stupid; nobody wants you to be intelligent. They all condition you to remain stupid your whole life for the simple reason that stupid people are obedient. Intelligent people start thinking on their own; they start becoming individuals. They start having their own life, their own lifestyle, their own way of seeing, of being, of growing.They are no more parts of the crowd - they cannot be. They have to leave the crowd behind, only then they can grow. And the crowd feels offended; the crowd does not want anybody to be more than the average person - it is against the average person's ego. The crowd, the collectivity, has a great involvement: the involvement is that anybody becoming more intelligent, more individual, more aware, will not be any longer part of the mob psychology.

You cannot force Buddha to follow the stupid people. And the stupid people are many, the majority, ninety-nine point nine percent. They have a great power with them - the power of violence - and they show it whenever it is needed. They showed it to Jesus, they showed it to Socrates, they showed it to Mansoor... they would like to show it to me.

The man who threw a knife to kill me just few days before was simply a representative of the ninety- nine point nine percent people. He was not a single individual; the whole crowd psychology is behind him, he has the support of the crowd. The crowd also thinks in the same way; there is no difference about it. He is a leader; he is fulfilling the desires of many. They would like to remove me from the scene; I am becoming a disturbing factor to them. I am going against their taboos, I am going against their inhibitions, I am going against their past. They call it their culture, their heritage, their religion.

The man who threw the knife, before he threw the knife he shouted, "You are talking against our religion, our culture! We cannot tolerate it!" He is simply a mouthpiece. He is trying to show that the crowd can be violent if you try to be an individual; it will not tolerate your existence even. All the vested interests would like everybody to be stupid.

You will be surprised to know that your schools, colleges, universities don't exist, in fact, to help you to become intelligent - no, not at all. I have been associated with universities as a student, then as a professor, for many years. I know the very inner structure of your educational system: it is not concerned with creating intelligence in people. Of course it wants to create efficiency, but efficiency is not intelligence, efficiency is mechanical. A computer can be very efficient, but a computer is not intelligent.

Never think that intelligence and efficiency are synonymous; intelligence is a totally different phenomenon. Efficiency is not intelligence, it is mechanical expertise. The universities are concerned to create efficiency so that you can be better clerks and better collectors and better stationmasters and better postmasters, et cetera. But they are not concerned to create intelligence in fact they are all against intelligence. The whole structure of your educational system all over the world is to make you more and more capable of memorizing things because memory is a biocomputer.

Intelligence is a totally different phenomenon. Intelligence arises out of meditation, intelligence arises out of rebellion intelligence arises not out of memory. But your examinations only take care about your memory. Whosoever has better memory is thought to be more intelligent. But it happens many times that stupid people have beautiful memories, and intelligent people are not so good as far as memory is concerned.

Edison was not good as far as memory is concerned. He discovered one thousand scientific gadgets; nobody else had discovered so many things. Just the quantity of his discoveries is enormous, unbelievable. You may not be aware that you are using Edison's discoveries every day:

the gramophone record, the radio, the electric bulb the fan, the loudspeaker; everything that you are using comes from one single person, Edison. But as far as memory is concerned, his memory was very lousy, very sloppy, so much so that once he forgot his own name which is really very difficult; almost impossible to forget your own name. If you can forget your own name you can forgot anything! This seems to be the last thing. He managed to do the last thing.

In the First World War rationing came for the first time into existence, and he was standing in a queue to take his ration card. Slowly slowly he came closer to the window. Then the last person in front of him moved and they called his name: "Thomas Alva Edison!" And he looked around as if they are calling somebody else; he looked in the queue.

One man recognized his face because many times he has seen his pictures in the newspapers. He said, "As far as I remember, you seem to be Thomas Alva Edison. Why you are looking here and there?"

He said, "You are right! I had completely forgotten! Many many thanks that you reminded me. Yes, I am Thomas Alva Edison."

His wife used to keep everything in order because his whole room was in constant chaos: thousands of papers, research papers, and whenever he would like a single thing it w ill take days to find it out, where it is. He will go on forgetting everything. He may have discovered something and he may start discovering again. And his wife will remind that, "You have done it! It is already in the market!"

He used to keep loose papers and will go on writing whatsoever thought will come to his mind. Then those loose papers will be lost here and there. His wife told him, "You better keep a notebook."

He said, "That's beautiful idea! Why it never happened to me?" But then he lost his whole book! He said, "Look, your suggestion I followed. With loose papers one thing was good: once in a while I used to lose few papers, but not all; now all papers are lost!"

Albert Einstein was not a man of memory. He failed in his matriculation simply because he could not memorize anything. This greatest mathematician of all the ages, and for ages to come, was incapable of counting small amounts of money; he will have to count again and again.

Once he was traveling in a bus. He gave the conductor some money; the remaining money was returned to him. He counted it once, twice, thrice, and each time the result was different, so he started counting the fourth time.

The conductor was looking and he said, "What is the matter with you? Don't you know figures?

Thrice you have counted, now you are counting fourth time! Don't you know figures?"

He said, "Yes, I am a little lousy about figures!"

This man who has worked out greatest figures possible was incapable of counting small amounts of money. He will go into his bathroom and will not come out for hours because he will forget that he has to come out.

One of my friends, Doctor Ram Manohar Lohia, went to see him. He was telling me that, "I had to wait six hours because he was in the bathroom! And his wife started apologizing again and again and she said, 'He is in the bathroom, he is in the bathroom.' I said, 'But what he is doing in the bathroom?' The wife said, 'Nobody knows but if you disturb him he becomes very angry - he starts throwing things! But he always forgets; whenever he goes in he forgets to come out. Now we have to wait, whenever he comes out... When he will feel hungry or thirsty or something, then he will remember.'"

Doctor Lohia asked, "But what he goes on doing there?"

The wife said, "Yes, I have also been curious my whole life what he goes on doing. So in the beginning I used to peep through the keyhole - what he is doing? He sits in his bathtub and goes on playing with soap bubbles! And when I asked him, 'What are you doing?' he said, 'Don't disturb me, never disturb me, because it is playing with soap bubbles that I have discovered the Theory of Relativity, and the theory that the universe is expanding just like a soap bubble: it goes on expanding and one day it will burst - just like a soap bubble!'"

Down the ages you will find thousands of geniuses with very bad memory and thousands of people who had tremendous memory with no intelligence at all, because memory and intelligence come from different sources. Memory is part of the mind, intelligence is part of NO-mind. Intelligence is part of your consciousness and memory is part of your brain. The brain can be trained - that's what universities go on doing. All your examinations are tests for your memory, not for your intelligence.

But universities give you the wrong impression - as if memory is intelligence. It is not.

This whole educational system exists to destroy intelligence or to divert you from intelligence towards memory. Memory is useful, utilitarian. Intelligence is dangerous; it has no utility for the status quo, it has no utility for the vested interest. Intelligent people have always proved to be difficult people just because of their intelligence; they cannot bow down to any stupid thing. And our society is full of superstitions, stupidities; all kinds of nonsense prevails in the name of religion, in the name of politics, in the name of literature, art.

Each child is distracted, is diverted. Hence so much stupidity, Hein. It is really a miracle how few people have escaped from this prison - a Buddha, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Jesus, a Pythagoras - very few people. It is almost impossible to escape from this prison because the prison is all around and it begins from the very beginning; from your very childhood you are conditioned to be a prisoner: a Christian, a Hindu, a Mohammedan - these are all prisons. And when you are prisoners of churches, nations, races, then naturally there is going to be violence.

No animal is as violent as man. Animals kill but they kill only when they are hungry, otherwise not.

Man is the only animal who enjoys killing for no reason at all, as if killing in itself is a blissful activity.

One day in a restaurant a lion and a hare entered. The manager was shocked; they could not believe their eyes. A great silence fell over the restaurant. Many people were there eating, talking, gossiping; all became absolutely silent. What is happening? The manager rushed to the new customers. Somehow he managed to stammer to the hare, "What would you like, sir?"

The hare asked for coffee. The manager asked, "And what your friend would like to have?"

The hare laughed and he said, "Do you think if he was hungry I will be here? He is not hungry; otherwise he would have taken his breakfast - I would be gone! We can be together only when he is not hungry."

In a zoo in Moscow they have kept a lion and a sheep in one cage to show the philosophy of peaceful coexistence. Everybody goes to see the cage. It is a miracle! The sheep and the lion sitting side by side - sometimes the sheep fast asleep - just so close to the lion, her head resting on lion's belly.

This is something!

A very curious young boy asked the zoo-keeper that, "How do you manage? How you have trained them?"

The manager was getting retired that very day, so he told the truth. He said, "There is no miracle in it. All that we have to do is to change the sheep every day - a new sheep every day, that's all. There is no miracle. And when the lion is no more hungry there is peaceful coexistence."

But a lion won't kill if he is not hungry. It is only man who kills for no reason at all - for stupid ideas. One can understand if somebody is hungry, one can understand, but one cannot understand Hiroshima and Nagasaki - destroying one hundred thousand people within three minutes, a sheer joy of destruction.

This is happening because we have not allowed man's intelligence to flower. And whenever it has happened in any society that intelligence was allowed a little freedom, that society becomes weaker than other societies. It happened in India: India remained a slave for two thousand years for many reasons. One of the reasons was the great revolution that was brought by Krishna, Patanjali, Saraha, Mahavira, Buddha. These people brought such a great revolution, such a radical change in the consciousness of this country that many people were released from the bondage of stupidity; a great intelligence was released. The result was this: that the intelligent people stopped killing, they became non-violent; they refused to be recruited in the army. Buddhists and Jains refused to be recruited in the army, the BRAHMINS refused to be recruited in the army. Now, this was the cream, and the cream refused to fight. Then very stupid countries and very ordinary people - Hunas, Turks, Moghuls, who were far backward in every possible way - ran over the country. And because the most intelligent part of the younger generation was no more interested in killing and violence there was no resistance, no fight. They conquered the country. A big country was conquered by very small countries. For two thousand years this country remained in slavery for the simple reason...

The same thing happened in Athens. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, these were the people who released great intelligence, and a climate was created of freedom, of free thinking. And the whole Greek civilization disappeared. It was destroyed by stupid people who were surrounding the civilization. It was one of the most beautiful phenomena that was happening on the earth.

Now the same thing is happening again in America. If America and Russia are ever in conflict, there is every possibility America will be defeated for the simple reason because American youth is far more intelligent than the Russian youth. American youth has started thinking; Russian youth is absolutely conditioned - they function like machines. In these two world wars and in many small wars it has been noted down that American young soldiers are very disinterested in fighting. Otherwise, how you can explain the phenomenon of Vietnam? America with all its sophisticated arms could not win a poor country with no scientific sophistication at all.

It has been found that thirty to forty percent American soldiers never used their weapons. They will go to the war field every day but they will not kill. It is beautiful, it is something to be appreciated, but dangerous too because thirty to forty percent is a big percentage and soon it will be fifty to sixty percent.

If Russia and America are ever in conflict, if the clash ever happens, there is every possibility that America will be the first to lose. The difference will not be much, maybe ten to fifteen minutes' difference, because now the question is not of human beings fighting, the question is of releasing atomic energy, hydrogen bombs and missiles, and they are all controlled by computers. If Russians attack America, then it will take ten minutes for American computers to react and reach Russia.

And the same will happen if America attacks Russia: it will take ten minutes for Russian computers to react and to reach America. The difference will be only of ten to fifteen minutes; both will be destroyed. But if it ever happens, then that difference of fifteen minutes will be predictable. America will be the first to go for the simple reason that great intelligence is being released. Always higher cultures have been defeated by lower cultures, hence no culture can afford to release intelligence.

My own suggestion is, unless we create a world government, intelligence cannot be allowed. And the time has come for a world government. National governments are no more needed: they are things of the past, they are part of our stupid past. Nations are no more needed, just a world government. And if there is a world government it will have a totally different quality for the simple reason because armies will have to be reduced, because there will be no question of fighting with anybody.

Now seventy percent money, wealth, income goes to the army - seventy percent; only thirty percent is left for other purposes. That means seventy percent of our energy is to kill, to be violent, to be destructive. A world government is an absolute necessity to save humanity. And the quality of the world government will be totally different because it won't need great armies; just small police forces will be enough. It will have all the functions - the post office, the railway, the airplanes, et cetera - but they are not destructive; they serve people.

And once army disappears from the world great intelligence will be released because it is army that is destructive of intelligence. It recruits the most healthy people and destroys their mind, because a real soldier is possible only if one becomes just absolutely mechanical.

Man kills for no reason. Man tries to repress rather than to understand, manipulate rather than to relate, because to relate with somebody needs great understanding; manipulation needs no understanding. Repression is easy, very easy - any fool can do it.

That's why if you go to the monasteries you will find all kinds of repressions and you will find all kinds of fools gathered together there. I have never come across intelligent monks and nuns; if they are intelligent they will not be monks and nuns anymore. They will renounce that nonsense, they will come out of their so-called religious prisons. But repression needs no wisdom; it simply needs a powerful ego, so you go on suppressing everything into the unconscious. But whatsoever you suppress will have to be suppressed again and again, and still it will never be eliminated. It will become more and more powerful as you grow older because you will become weaker. The suppressor will become weaker and the suppressed will remain fresh and young because it has never been used.

The real problem arises in old age when suppression starts exploding and creates all kinds of uglinesses. It is five thousand years suppression that is creating all our neurosis, all our perversions.

Suppress sex and you will become more sexual; your whole life will be colored with sex. You will think always in terms of sexuality and nothing else. Suppress sex and the ugly institution of prostitution will arise, is BOUND to arise. More suppressive a society is, more prostitutes will be found there; the proportion is always the same. You can count your nuns and monks and you can know by counting them how many male and female prostitutes will be in the country. It will be exactly the same number because nature keeps a balance. And perversions... because sexual energy will find its ways, its own ways. Either it will create neurosis or hypocrisy; both are ill states. The poor will become neurotic and the rich will become hypocrites.

It is told that when Moses in his rage smashed the tablets of the Ten Commandments, everybody rushed to grab a piece.

Of course the rich and the politicians were the first. They got all the good pieces on which was inscribed, "Commit adultery," "lie," "steal." The poor and all the rest got only the pieces that said, "Thou shalt not," "Thou shalt not."

Repression creates cunningness. You lose authenticity, you lose naturalness, spontaneity, you lose truth. You start lying to others, you start lying to yourself. You start finding ways how to lie and how to go on lying. And a single lie will need thousand other lies to protect it, to support it.

Two mediaeval knights are leaving on a crusade. Since they are old friends, the one asks the other, "Explain something to me. You are always complaining that your marriage is finished, that your wife is a bore, and that she has become as ugly as a witch. Is that right?"

"That's right," answers the other.

"So then tell me," says the first, "why did you lock her in a chastity belt?"

"Because on my way back," he explains, "I am going to tell her that I lost the key!"

Either lying, hypocrisy, deception, or madness...

The safari had been in the remote African jungle for months, capturing animals for the zoo.

Smedley's sexual frustration had risen to a point where he decided to try sex with a huge, ferocious female gorilla.

His friend helped chain her down and put a bucket over her head, and Smedley started making love right away, when suddenly the gorilla broke the chains and wrapped her arms around Smedley.

The others grabbed her arms to rescue him, as Smedley moaned incoherently. When, with three men on each arm, they finally freed him, he shouted, "No. The bucket, you fools! Take off the bucket!

I want to kiss her!"

In madness you can do anything!

Repression means a method of creating conscience instead of consciousness. Consciousness is non-repressive; it depends on understanding, it depends on meditativeness, awareness.

Conscience is repressive: it simply goes on giving you orders, "Do this. Don't do that." It does not change you but it poisons your life.

Friedrich Nietzsche is right when he says, "Religions have not been able to transform man but only to poison his joys." I perfectly agree with this man about this - religions have really poisoned all your joys. If you are eating, religions there are which condemn everything that you eat, and great guilt arises about sex, about food, about clothes, about everything.

Jainism even teaches... particularly its monks and nuns don't take any baths; they are not allowed to take a bath because to take a bath means you are trying to make your body look beautiful. That is sex, nothing else. You may never have thought about it that taking a bath has something to do with sex, but perversions know no limits. Jain monks and nuns are not allowed to brush their teeth because that means you are trying to make yourself beautiful. There is no need - the body is dirty.

There is no need to give it an appearance of beauty, freshness, fragrance - no need. It has to be hated: it is disgusting. it is nauseating.

But then I have come across Jain monks and Jain nuns who will take a sponge bath, but they have to lie about it. They will keep their toothpaste hidden in their bags - they have to hide it; nobody should know about it. They used to come to see me when I used to travel around the country and I will immediately know in whose bag there is toothpaste because their mouth smells so foul if they don't use any toothpaste or any kind of cleaning their teeth. Then to talk with them is almost a torture. So I will immediately know if some nun... particularly nuns because women after all are women; even if they are jain nuns it makes no difference. They are more body-oriented, and nothing is wrong about it; it is perfectly good, it is perfectly healthy. So I will immediately know - if the foul smell is not coming I will immediately know - and I will tell them that "I know that your bag has toothpaste in it!"

And they will be surprised. They will say, "How you came to know about it? Nobody knows about it!

Can you see inside our bags?"

I said, "Yes! I can see inside you; what about your bag?"

They will say, "You are the first person who has immediately discovered."

I said, "There is nothing much in it. Don't think that there is some miracle or anything.Just I am so tortured by Jain monks and nuns that whenever somebody from your company comes and is not smelling bad I immediately know that there is something in the bag. You must be taking a sponge bath."

Now, even to take a sponge bath seems to be doing a crime. Cleaning your teeth looks like you are getting ready for hell. It has poisoned your life, it has not transformed your life.

Repression cannot transform. Either it makes you hypocrites... if you are a little intelligent, just even a little intelligent, you will be a hypocrite. If you are utterly stupid then you will go insane.

"How was your boat trip to Europe?" asks Pedro to his friend.

"Fantastic! Imagine, on the first night I met a girl, one of the most beautiful I ever seen. We chitchatted for a while and it was love at first sight. We were soon in each other's arms. It was only the next morning as I held her in my arms that I found she was the wife of one of my best friends. It was such a shock that we both felt tremendously guilty, both cried and cried and cried."

"That's really something! But how was the rest of the trip?"

"Well, you know, it was just fucking and crying, fucking and crying, fucking and crying!"

That's what is going to happen.

Hein, repression is one of... the greatest calamity that has happened to humanity. And it is because of repression manipulation comes in. Because you cannot be true with yourself, you cannot be naked with others. You lose all truth, all respect for truth. You lose all authenticity and you start being deceptive. Manipulation is a deceptive way of exploiting the other. You lose all respect for humanity because you have lost respect for yourself How can you respect yourself if you are lying, if you are not authentic, if you are not sincere? And if you don't respect yourself you cannot respect anybody else in the world. When you lose respect for others you manipulate, you start using them as means.

Respect means each individual is an end unto himself; disrespect means nobody is an end and you can use everybody as a means for your own purposes, for your own ends. The husband uses the wife as a means, the wife uses the husband as a means; this is manipulation. And because you use each other as means... even parents use their children as means and children use their parents as means. Religious people are using God as a means, what to say about others? Everybody is using everybody else as a means.

Then you are constantly afraid: somebody may take your means. Somebody may take your wife away from you so you have to create a wall around her, you have to put her in chains; you have to make her such deeply dependent on you that she cannot move even an inch beyond you, without you. And of course in return she does the same to you; it is tit for tat. She starts becoming jealous, very possessive. She is constantly curious about you. what you are doing, where you are going.

One day I saw Mulla Nasruddin almost crying, he was so sad. I said, "What is the matter? Why you are so sad?"

He said, "I am really sad. My wife has appointed a new secretary for me."

I said, "So what? What is there to be so sad about it? Is she blonde or brunette?"

He said, "Forget all about blondes and brunettes. He is bald! That's why I am crying!"

The wives keep an eye about everything... what is going on in the office. Many times they will phone:

"Where you are? What you are doing?" Continuously suspicious of each other, how can love grow?

It is impossible in such a poisoned atmosphere for love to grow. And when love is missing, all your love energies turn into hatred - your love energies go sour, that's what hate is - then you become destructive. Love is creative, hate is destructive. Then you go on finding excuses how to destroy.

I lave you watched it? Whenever there is a war people seem to be more joyous than ever. In India it has happened: When India and Pakistan went to war there was great life all over the country; otherwise this country is almost dead. People are dragging themselves somehow, tolerating life somehow; there is nothing for them to enjoy. But once the war was there and they were destroying each other, suddenly they became alive. There was life on people's faces - something was happening. Their talk became lively, their conversation became juicy. From the morning to the night they were continuously watching: "What is happening? Who is winning? How far we have entered into Pakistan? How far we have reached into Bangladesh? How our armies are winning?"

Whenever there is a war you will see people becoming alive, coming to life. Otherwise they go dull; their life loses all joy.

Why in destruction we are so much interested? And it is not only nations. If Christians and Mohammedans are in a crusade, in a JIHAD, in a religious war, see both are very alive. Then Christians feel a great brotherhood with all other Christians. Then the Protestants and the Catholics are no more enemies; then they are all Christians, followers of Christ. And Christianity is in danger, so who bothers about small theological matters? Mohammedans have to be destroyed! And when Mohammedans are at war with the Christians and killing Christians they lose all their inner conflicts; they become united. Then the Shiahs and Sunnis are no more enemies; they are friends, brothers, followers of the same religion, worshippers of the same prophet, of the same book, the holy Koran.

And Islam is in danger so there are no more any theological problems to be discussed.

Hindus and Mohammedans, whenever they are in a murderous mood, become united amongst themselves; otherwise they go dull, dead - they start vegetating again. It is very strange. Why people are so much interested in destruction? If you are going on the street and you see two people fighting - you may be going for a very urgent work - you will forget all about the urgent work; you will stop there. First you will see the fight; you cannot leave that place. The urgent work can wait; in fact there is no more any urgency than to watch the fight. Why? Why a crowd gathers when two persons are fighting? You become identified with the fight. And this happens in many ways. Just a football match or a hockey match and you see thousands of people shouting, going almost mad, jumping, ready to kill each other. Why so much interest? What is happening there?

If somebody comes from some other planet and watches a football match he will be puzzled. What is going on? People are throwing a football from this side to that side, kicking it and thousands of people are watching. Just a football is being kicked!

I was never interested in any game. When I was in my high school my principal called me. He said, "You never participate in any game."

I said, "You show me any intelligent game and I will participate."

He said, "What do you mean, 'intelligent game'?"

I said, "This is so foolish, volleyball. Why should I throw the ball over the net to the other side and they throw it to my side? They can have one ball, I can have one ball. They go home, I go home.

Keep your balls and do whatsoever you want to do with them - hug them, kiss them! Why this nonsense? And what is so much excitement about? I can't see any point!"

He looked at me, puzzled. He said, "Your point is right but I have never looked from this angle. Yes, what exactly is the excitement? But please don't say it to anybody. If you don't want to participate, don't participate, but keep quiet. Don't destroy others' joys."

So I was the only one in my school who was freed on the condition that I will not tell anybody that this is all nonsense, I will not propagate my idea.

In the university it was compulsory to have a certain military training. I refused. I said, "I am not that stupid! Some fool tells me, 'Right turn! Left turn!' Why? I don't have any need to turn to right or to left. I refuse on the grounds that this is stupid! And unless I am proved wrong I am not going to participate."

My vice-chancellor said, "You do one thing. We can free you only on health grounds; there is no other possibility. And I will tell the university doctor to give you a certificate, that your health does not permit you to participate in the military training."

I said, "Do whatsoever you want to do, but I am not going to participate and if you make trouble for me, I will create much trouble for you. I am going to convince others."

He knew me... He said, "You don't worry. You don't go to the doctor, I will manage. I will take the certificate from the doctor and I will do everything that is needed. You are freed, but don't say it to anybody. I can understand your point - you are right."

People can see, but still this goes on and on for the simple reason that so much energy is boiling within, it has to be thrown out somewhere. Now, a stupid game, a silly game like football, and thousands of people get so excited - so much ado about nothing! They start fighting... after each football match there is a riot. The police have to be called, tear bombs have to be thrown, the mob has to be somehow dispersed.

What is happening to humanity? It is a simple phenomenon, Hein. We have repressed everybody so much that the energy is ready to throw the lid any moment. It is like boiling your kettle and not allowing the vapor to get out any outlet, and sitting holding the lid tight. Then instead of making tea you may destroy the whole family! The tea kettle may explode; it may destroy. That's what is happening. For thousands of years man has been sitting on repressed energies. Now it is time:

either a Third World War or a new birth of man, either a Third World War or a new style of life has to be introduced.

And my work here consists in introducing a new life style.

You ask: WHY IS IT THAT ONLY HUMANS REPRESS, MANIPULATE, KILL, TRY TO CONQUER THE NATURAL FLOW IN NATURE, THE TAO? WHY ARE WE SO STUPID?

We have been made to function stupidly. We need a totally different gestalt, a different social structure, a different world view, a different philosophy of life in which intelligence. is respected, in which intelligence is supported, individuality is nourished. But we go on doing just the opposite.

The second question will show you what we go on doing...

The second question:

Question 2:

Okay, Sir. I will call you Reverend Banana! I hope that you won't feel offended - no offense is meant. It is only that I can't take anything seriously, particularly priests. And you will feel happy that you are nothing compared to one of my sannyasins. I had given him the name Swami Parinirvana; PARINIRVANA means transcendental freedom. But my sannyasins are so beautiful people, they have changed his name to Paribanana. Now it means "a transcendental banana"! So you are nothing compared to Paribanana. And to show respect I will call you Reverend Banana.

The first perversion is that you are so coward you cannot even write your name. What kind of truth- seeker you are? You cannot write to what religion you belong; you want to hide all these facts. You must be living a very cowardly life behind masks, behind a facade, a beautiful facade. But a man who is coward can never be religious; religion needs courage. A man who is coward can never be intelligent; intelligence needs courage, it needs guts, because intelligence will lead you into rebellion, into insecurity, into the unknown and finally into the unknowable.

You say: I AM A PRIEST. I DON'T AGREE WITH YOUR OBSERVATION THAT RELIGION CREATES SEXUAL PERVERSIONS.

Then from where sexual perversions come? There are aboriginal tribes where no sexual perversion exists. I have lived with an aboriginal tribe in Basta - no sexual perversion. You will not hear any homosexuality there, no masturbation; people have not heard even about these things. But missionaries are corrupting them; missionaries call them immoral. Just the opposite is the case because these simple people who live in the thick jungles of Basta have in their villages - small villages they have - a special place for youngsters.

The moment a boy or girl shows any sexual interest he starts living in a special house, a communal house where all the kids of the commune live - a kids' house; girls, boys, all live together. The moment any child shows any sexual interest he is transferred from the family to the communal house where girls and boys live together. The house is called GOTUL. There is only one discipline to be followed: no boy or girl have to sleep with each other more than three days together. Again after few months they can sleep for three days, so that all the boys of the commune and all the girls of the commune can come in contact with everybody.

Now this missionaries call prostitution. It is not prostitution, it is just a beautiful training and a discipline: it makes them aware of all possible relationships. All the boys come to know about all the girls, all the girls come to know about all the boys, so when the question of choosing for a husband or a wife arises it is very simple. They know with whom they fit totally well, with whom they feel the most harmonious. They have experimented with all the girls, all the boys. And because they can live only three days together at a time, no jealousy is created - no jealousy is possible. You cannot say, "This is my girl, and what you are doing with her?" After three days she is no more your girl. Nobody is nobody's. It is a temporary friendship - for three days you experimented with each other. Once they are sexually mature they get married. There is no divorce, no extramarital relationship either, and there is great harmony in their married life - it is bound to be so.

But the Christian missionaries have reached there to transform them. The Christian missionaries think that they are very corrupted people: their children are being taught prostitution. These children are falling in the hands of priests because they are poor. You can supply them bread and butter and clothes and medicine, so now hospitals and schools - and the Bibles, and slowly slowly...

I had visited Basta twenty years before, but now I hear that things have almost completely changed.

In many villages GOTUL has disappeared, because of Christian missionaries, because they have condemned it so much. But perversions have entered: now the children will be masturbating, because a boy becomes sexually mature at the age thirteen or fourteen, and you allow him to get married at the age of twenty-four or twenty-five. These eleven years, what he has to do with his sexual energies? Either he learns masturbation, which is a perversion, or he becomes homosexual, which is a perversion; the girls become lesbians.

And you say to me that you don't agree with my observation. It is not an observation, it is simply a statement of the fact. It is religion, the so-called religion that has existed up to now on the earth, that has created all sexual perversion. Your monasteries, your nunneries are all sexually perverted; they are full of sexually perverted people.

The wife of a Brazilian diplomat to be transferred to Japan was talking to an old monk in Japan.

"Sir," she asked, "do you have elections in Japan?"

The monk hesitated a little and then said, "Yes, madam, every morning."

A new monk joins into the monastery. An old monk asks him, "Do you enjoy a drink or two, old man?"

"Well, actually, I never touch the stuff, sir."

"Pity! But how about a good cigar, old chap?"

"Never smoked, actually."

"Pity! But you are a lady's man, eh what?"

"Could not say so, sir."

"Pity! Between you and me, are you - um - one of those?"

"No, sir!"

"Pity!"

Seven years of rigorous training and discipline had passed, and the ten young monks were about to take their final examination before being accepted into the Holy Order.

To test their control over earthly temptations, they were all lined up in a row, stripped completely naked, and a small bell was tied to each of the ten pricks.

Then out came a beautiful sensuous naked brunette who proceeded to walk along the line of the ten monks. Nothing happened until she got to the last monk, and then... ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling went his bell.

The poor embarrassed monk pleaded to his superior for another chance to prove his ability to control himself, and after some discussion it was agreed he would be given another opportunity to show he had risen above earthly temptations.

When the ten monks had again formed into a line, a lovely, naked, curvaceous blonde stepped out and sauntered along the line of men. Nothing happened until she got to the end of the line when again... ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling went the bell of the last monk, this time more excitedly than before.

It was only through the compassion of the Father Superior that number ten was allowed one final chance, but if he failed again he would be sent away with no further discussion.

When the ten monks lined up for the third time, a most beautiful naked redhead appeared and temptingly walked along the line. When she got to number ten it was more than he could bear, and his bell rang so violently that it broke its cord and fell to the ground.

Totally dejected, number ten had to accept his fate of being sent out of the Order.

As he stepped forward and bent over to pick up his bell, there was suddenly heard the sound of nine ringing bells - ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling...