Prayer -- your psychological armor

Question 1:

Everybody has that kind of armor.

There are reasons for it. First, the child is born so utterly helpless into a world he knows nothing of. Naturally he is afraid of the unknown that faces him. He has not yet forgotten those nine months of absolute security, safety, when there was no problem, no responsibility, no worry for tomorrow.

To us, those are nine months, but to the child it is eternity. He knows nothing of the calendar, he knows nothing of minutes, hours, days, months. He has lived an eternity in absolute safety and security, without any responsibility, and then suddenly he is thrown into a world unknown, where he is dependent for everything on others. It is natural that he will feel afraid. Everybody is bigger and more powerful, and he cannot live without the help of others. He knows he is dependent; he has lost his independence, his freedom.

And small incidents may give him some taste of the reality he is going to face in the future.

Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by Nelson, but in fact the credit should not go to Nelson. Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by a small incident in his childhood. Now history does not look at things in this way, but to me it is absolutely clear.

When he was just six months old, a wild cat jumped on him. The maidservant who was looking after him had gone for something in the house; he was in the garden in the early morning sun and the fresh air, lying down, and the wild cat jumped on him. It didn't harm him -- perhaps it was just being playful -- but to the child's mind it was almost death.

Since then, he was not afraid of tigers or lions; he could have fought a lion without any arms, with no fear. But a cat? -- that was a different affair. He was absolutely helpless.

Seeing a cat he was almost frozen; he became again a six-month-old small child, with no defense, with no capacities to fight. In those small child's eyes that cat must have looked very big -- it was a wild cat. The cat may have looked into the eyes of the child.

Something in his psyche became so much impressed by the incident that Nelson exploited it. Nelson was no comparison to Napoleon, and Napoleon was never defeated in his life; this was his first and last defeat. And he would not have been defeated, but Nelson had brought seventy cats at the front of the army.

The moment Napoleon saw those seventy wild cats his mind stopped functioning. His generals could not understand what had happened. He was no longer the same great warrior; he was almost frozen with fear, trembling. He had never allowed any of his generals to arrange the army, but today he said, with tears in his eyes, "I am incapable of thinking -- you arrange the army. I will be here, but I am incapable of fighting.

Something has gone wrong for me."

He was removed, but without Napoleon his army was not capable of fighting Nelson, and seeing the situation of Napoleon, everybody in his army became a little afraid: something very strange was happening.

A child is weak, vulnerable, insecure. Autonomously he starts creating an armor, a protection, in different ways. For example, he has to sleep alone. It is dark and he is afraid, but he has his teddy bear, and he believes that he is not alone -- his friend is with him. You will see children dragging their teddy bears at airports, at railway stations. Do you think it is just a toy? To you it is, but to the child it is a friend. And a friend when nobody else is helpful -- in the darkness of the night, alone in the bed, still he is with him.

He will create psychological teddy bears. And it is to be reminded to you that although a grown-up man may think that he has no teddy bears, he is wrong. What is his God? Just a teddy bear. Out of his childhood fear, man has created a father figure who knows all, who is all-powerful, who is everywhere present; if you have enough faith in him he will protect you. But the very idea of protection, the very idea that a protector is needed, is childish. Then you learn prayer -- these are just parts of your psychological armor. Prayer is to remind God that you are here, alone in the night.

In my childhood I was always wondering... I loved the river, which was just close by, just two minutes walk from my house. Hundreds of people used to take a bath there and I was always wondering... In summer when they take a dip in the river they don't repeat the name of God -- "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama" -- no. But in cold winter they repeat, "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama." They take a quick dip, repeating, "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama."

I was wondering, does the season make a difference? I used to ask my parents, "If these are devotees of `Hare Krishna, Hare Rama,' then summer is as good as winter."

But I don't think that it is God or prayer or religion; it is simply the cold! They are creating an armor with "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama." They are diverting their minds. It is too cold, and a diversion is needed -- and it helps. In summer there is no need; they simply forget all about what they have been doing the whole winter.

Our prayers, our chantings, our mantras, our scriptures, our gods, our priests, are all part of our psychological armor. It is very subtle. A Christian believes that he will be saved -- nobody else. Now that is his defense arrangement. Everybody is going to fall into hell except him, because he is a Christian. But every religion believes in the same way that only they will be saved.

It is not a question of religion. It is a question of fear and being saved from fear, so it is natural in a way. But at a certain point of your maturity, intelligence demands that it should be dropped. It was good when you were a child, but one day you have to leave your teddy bear, just the same as one day you have to leave your God, just the same as one day you have to leave your Christianity, your Hinduism. Finally, the day you drop all your armor means you have dropped living out of fear.

And what kind of living can be out of fear? Once the armor is dropped you can live out of love, you can live in a mature way. The fully matured man has no fear, no defense; he is psychologically completely open and vulnerable.

At one point the armor may be a necessity -- perhaps it is. But as you grow, if you are not only growing old but also growing up, growing in maturity, then you will start seeing what you are carrying with you. Why do you believe in God? One day you have to see for yourself that you have not seen God, you haven't had any contact with God, and to believe in God is to live a lie: you are not being sincere.

What kind of religion can there be when there is no sincerity, no authenticity? You cannot even give reasons for your beliefs, and still you go on clinging to them.

Look closely and you will find fear behind.

A mature person should disconnect himself from anything that is connected with fear.

That's how maturity comes.

Just watch all your acts, all your beliefs, and find out whether they are based in reality, in experience, or based in fear. And anything based in fear has to be dropped immediately, without a second thought. It is your armor. I cannot melt it. I can simply show you how you can drop it.

It is not a simple thing; there are many things around it.... In India there are so many temples. Many people don't have houses, but there are so many gods -- thirty-three million gods -- and they all need their temples. In some places, like Varanasi, you will find two houses then one temple, three houses then another temple... the whole city is a city of temples. In Khajuraho, which is a ruined city, still there are one hundred temples, and hundreds of other temples are in ruins. Once it must have been a big city, but looking at the temples, I could not figure out where men were living, because the whole city seems to be composed of temples and temples. There seems to be no space.

I used to go for a morning walk in Jabalpur, in a silent street, and one man used to follow me -- because we were the only two who used to go for a walk in the morning. His habit was to pay respect to every god on the road, so this temple will come and he will pay respect, and that temple will come and he will pay his respect.

I told him, "Just listen, if you have to come with me then you cannot continue this stupidity; otherwise you are free -- you can do it, but I cannot wait at every temple. It looks embarrassing: you are doing this idiotic act and I am standing by your side!"

But he loved me. He said, "I also think that it is useless. Nobody else does it, but my father used to do it, and because of him it has become almost a heritage: I am doing it, my children are doing it. And now there is great fear... my father has left it with me, perhaps his father had left it with him. The fear is that if you pass the temple of any god without paying respect, he may be angry at you. And gods are very revengeful; they are not going to leave you alone. You will suffer. So the fear is, why unnecessarily make enemies, powerful enemies against whom there is no other defense? It is better to pay respect -- it costs nothing."

I said, "Then you can do it, but you cannot come with me."

And he loved to come with me, so he said, "Tomorrow I will try -- just give me one chance, because I can see that you don't pay any respect, and nobody takes any revenge.

Nobody else is paying respect -- thousands of people are passing and only I am... It seems all the gods are waiting for me to pay respect, otherwise I will suffer revenge. They are not concerned with anybody else."

I said, "That's what I am saying -- they are not there. There is nobody in the temple; all temples are empty. There are no gods and there is no need to be afraid. You come with me, but tomorrow this habit has to be stopped; otherwise our friendship for this morning walk is at an end."

He said, "Just one day..." He tried hard, and I could see how psychological chains exist.

He had promised me, and I was with him so he could not deceive me. On one side was the god... and he was caught between the two sides. I could see his feet stopping; I could see his hands getting ready to pay respect, but seeing me he would drop his hands.

It took almost double time that day, because he was stopping... almost an automatic break. And I had to stop and look at him severely, so he would say, "Okay, I will not do it. But are you certain there is no god?"

I said, "You just forget all about gods. We have come for a morning walk, and this continuous stopping... And there are so many temples; I am fed up!"

But you will be surprised. In the evening he came to see me. He was looking very happy.

He said, "Do you know what? I had to go another time. When I left you I went again to pay respect because I was so disturbed that so many gods would be angry. And I am a poor man, how I am going...? But now I am feeling at ease." So he said, "That's perfectly good: with you I will come and will not pay respect, but I can go twice -- the second time just to pay respect to the gods."

I said, "It seems you are incurable. You see me every day with you -- nobody is being angry, nobody is taking any revenge. You see thousands of people passing by."

He said, "I see everything, but what am I to do with my own mind?"

I said, "Then it is better you go one time and pay respect, and I will stop going on that street. I will go on another street, because I will not force you to go twice, wasting your time."

When people are psychologically in such a bondage they always find reasons. One day he came to me and told me, "Now I go walking alone, without you, the whole joy of the morning walk is gone. And I know you will not come with me unless I leave these gods; I have to choose. So today I tried it -- perhaps you are right! So I tried it on my own: I didn't pay any respect. And when I came home my mother was dead. Now it is absolutely certain that I angered so many gods."

But I said, "Everybody's mother is going to die. Do you think it is because the gods are angry that mothers die? and that only your mother is special? Everybody's father is going to die, everybody is going to fall sick, everybody is going to have accidents!"

But he said, "I cannot think of anything... when I had gone for the walk she was perfectly okay and when I came back she was dead. The doctors say she had a heart attack, but I know that really I have killed her by not paying respects."

I said, "If you had not paid respect, you should have died from a heart attack, not your mother. Can't you see a simple thing -- that your mother has nothing to do with it."

But the psychological conditioning makes you almost blind. He said to me, "This is a warning to me, `Look, this time we are taking your mother, next time you are gone!' They have given me an opportunity, a chance -- a chance because I have always been respectful. They are being kind towards me, but now I am not going to listen to you."

Your psychological armor cannot be taken away from you. You will fight for it. Only you can do something to drop it, and that is to look at each and every part of it. If it is based in fear, then drop it. If it is based in reason, in experience, in understanding, then it is not something to be dropped, but something to be made part of your being. But you will not find a single thing in your armor which is based on experience. It is all fear, from A to Z.

We go on living out of fear -- that's why we go on poisoning every other experience. We love somebody, but out of fear: it spoils, it poisons. We seek truth, but if the search is out of fear then you are not going to find it.

Whatever you do, remember one thing:

Out of fear you are not going to grow. You will only shrink and die.

Fear is in the service of death.

Mahavira is right: he makes fearlessness a fundamental of a fearless person. And I can understand what he means by fearlessness. He means dropping all armor. A fearless person has everything that life wants to give to you as a gift. Now there is no barrier. You will be showered with gifts, and whatever you do you will have a strength, a power, a certainty, a tremendous feeling of authority.

A man living out of fear is always trembling inside. He is continuously on the point of going insane, because life is big, and if you are continuously in fear... And there is every kind of fear. You can make a big list, and you will be surprised how many fears are there -- and still you are alive! There are infections all around, diseases, dangers, kidnaping, terrorists... and such a small life. And finally there is death, which you cannot avoid.

Your whole life will become dark.

Drop the fear! The fear was taken up by you in your childhood unconsciously; now consciously drop it and be mature. And then life can be a light which goes on deepening as you go on growing.

Question 2:

It is possible you may get it in spite of yourself. But your question is very significant. If you look at it, you can see what is going wrong. You listen to me talking about living totally, intensively... moment to moment, living now, living here and you say to yourself, "Of course, that is it! I am going to do it." It is not that later on you forget it; you have already forgotten it. By saying, "Of course! this is it," by deciding that you are going to do it, you have already postponed it for tomorrow; by deciding that you are going to live this way, you have already missed the point.

You have missed the point now.

You think that later on you find you have forgotten it just a moment afterwards. You are not forgetting it just a moment afterwards; you have not listened to it at all! Otherwise you would not say, "Of course! This is it!" You would simply understand it non-verbally.

You would not verbalize it, because in verbalizing it you are missing the moment... the moment is a very small thing.

Your mind is really deceiving you. Your mind is saying, "I have understood it, don't be worried. Of course, this is it! We are going to live this way." But when? The question was now, and your mind has already postponed it. The question was here, and the mind has already brought the future in. It is not that you forget later on; later on you only recognize that you have forgotten. But the truth is that you have not even understood, because if you understand it there is no possibility of forgetting it.

A truth has a quality: understood, it is impossible to forget it. That's why if you are a man of truth you need not remember it, but if you are accustomed to lying then you need a very good memory, because then you have to remember continually what lie you had told this man yesterday, and you have to repeat the same lie -- because meanwhile you may have been lying to other people, about other things. A liar has to be very very alert, and if he is caught, then he has to be very logical, almost a sophist, so he can manage.

One Sufi story is that Mulla Nasruddin was chosen by the Shah of Iran to go to the king of India as his messenger, to make a friendship between two great countries. All the other important people in the court of the Shah of Iran were very jealous. They were trying in every way to spoil Nasruddin's journey, to create in the mind of the king antagonism against Nasruddin, and they were spying on Nasruddin to find out what he was doing.

What Nasruddin did was this: he went to the emperor of India, and before the whole court of the emperor he said, "Seeing you is a great privilege to me. My king, the Shah of Iran is just a young moon -- just two days old. You are a full moon."

The emperor was certainly very much impressed -- that the ambassador of Iran is comparing him not with a two-day old moon, which is rarely visible for a few minutes, but with the full moon! He gave him many presents to give to his king and said, "Let him know that I am very much pleased with his messenger."

But the spies of the Shah's court, the conspirators against Nasruddin, had reached the Shah's court before him. They told everyone that Nasruddin had insulted the Shah of Iran, calling him just a young moon, two days old, and had compared him with the emperor of India by saying that the emperor of India is a full moon, perfect in its glory!

Naturally the Shah of Iran was very much offended. He said, "Let that Nasruddin come! I used to think that he is a wise man, but he seems to be very cunning." Nasruddin came with big, valuable presents, but the Shah was angry. He said, "I don't want any presents.

First you have to give the explanation to me: is it right that you compared me with the emperor, saying that I am just a two-day old moon, and he is as the perfect full moon?"

Nasruddin said, "Yes, and the emperor is a fool! He did not understand my meaning."

The Shah said, "What is your meaning?"

He said, "My meaning is that the full moon is on its deathbed, from tomorrow it will start declining. The two-day old moon is on the increase: tomorrow it will be bigger, the day after tomorrow it will be even bigger! So my Shah of Iran is expanding, becoming bigger and bigger. The emperor does not have any future -- my Shah has a future; he has only past, and his future is death."

The Shah of Iran was very impressed. He gave all the presents that were given by the emperor of India for him to Nasruddin, and he gave many more presents to Nasruddin, and told him, "You are really a wise man." And the whole court was silent, seeing that the whole thing had changed completely: "This Nasruddin is really a strange fellow; we had never thought that he would interpret it in such a way."

That night they went to see him, because now he had become the most important man in the court, second only to the Shah, and they all praised him. He said, "Don't be bothered - - I am just an incurable liar! Whatever the situation is, I manage somehow to interpret it in such a way that it appeals to the party concerned: both the India emperor and the Shah of Iran are idiots! And I am just an incurable liar. I don't mean anything!"

Truth has a quality, it has a validity which is intrinsic. You need not prove it; its experience is its proof. No other logic is needed.

So just look into your acts, into your thoughts, into your feelings: you will find the armor everywhere. Wherever you see fear, you have created it. It was needed at one time -- now it is no longer needed. A simple understanding that it is no longer needed... now it is a barrier, a hindrance, a burden. If you find something truthful, it will have its own validity.

But in the armor you will not find anything that has any connection with truth. The whole armor is made of fear -- layers and layers of fear.

The woodcutters and the scientists who work with wood count the age of the tree from the layers of the bark. When you cut a tree you will see layers of the bark on the trunk.

Each year the tree gathers one layer -- that's how they manage to know how old the tree is. There are trees which are four thousand years old; they have four thousand layers.

Your armor has also as many layers as you have lived. Not one every year; perhaps one, two, three -- it depends on conditions: what kind of upbringing, what kind of education, what kind of people you have lived with. But each year you are collecting layers, and the armor goes on becoming thicker and does not allow you to touch life. There is such a gap between you and life.

You are carrying an imprisonment around yourself. But because you yourself have created it, you are capable of dropping it any moment... this very moment. But don't postpone, don't say, "I will do it tomorrow." Tomorrow never comes. And when I am saying, "Do it..."in fact doing it is not needed; just seeing is enough. If you have seen it, don't verbalize it: "This is it," because in verbalizing it you will miss -- the moment is gone. Without verbalization, just see it and it will evaporate. It has no substantiality. It is not something real. It is something unreal that you have created, and this goes on happening every day.

I tell you to live intensely herenow, but the barrier which is there immediately shifts it into the future. You feel that you have understood it; right now it will shift it towards the future and give you the feeling of understanding. But next moment you will have forgotten it, because in the first place you had not understood it at all. Understood, it is never forgotten.

My professors in the university were very angry with me because I would never take any notes, and every other student was taking notes. They would see me just sitting, and they would ask me, "Don't you want to take notes?"

I said, "There is no need. I am trying to understand, and if I understand it, there is no need of any notes; the understanding will remain with me. Understanding becomes part of your blood, part of your bones, part of your marrow. These people who are taking notes are the ones who are not understanding. They are thinking that by taking notes they will be able to remember -- but what will they remember? They have not understood in the first place.

These notes will be dead. Perhaps they will be able to repeat these notes in the examination papers.

"You are responsible -- because these people will take these notes into the examination, and then they will be caught. In fact you are responsible; you should have stopped them from taking notes. It is a simple logic: they are not understanding and they are trying to take notes. They can't do two things together. In the end, only the notes are in their hands and no understanding, and in the examination, what will they do? They will try to bring in the notes in a thousand different ways."

People will write small notes on their hand, people will write on their clothes... and in India you wear a kurta, a very long robe, on the underside you can write big notes.

Nobody can see it; only when you want to see it you can just turn it up and look at the note, and you are not carrying any notes or anything. And the people who are a dangerous type, and are known to be dangerous, will bring their copies with them, with a knife.

They will put the knife on the table with the copy, and they will be copying from the copy before the teacher who is standing there. He knows that the man is dangerous and that the knife is symbolic, "If you prevent me or do anything wrong to me, I can do anything -- I can kill you." But who is responsible?

"And you," I used to tell them, "you are angry at me, who is trying to understand?"

In my own class, when I became a professor in my own turn, I prevented it completely...

nobody could take notes. I said, "The mind can do only one thing at a time, so try to understand so that you need not sneak notes into the examination."

First my students were very much puzzled. They said, "Every professor says, `Take notes, so you don't forget.'" I said, "The question of forgetting arises only when you have not understood. I am saying, `Understand, and don't worry about forgetting.' Anything understood is never forgotten, and anything not understood is bound to be forgotten."

So that's what is happening.... I say, "Live now." You say, "This is it! Enough is enough, now I am going to live moment to moment." But why the decision?

Just start! Whatever you are doing here... you are listening here, just listen. There is no need to verbalize it. The mind is a commentator -- it goes on commenting -- but if you try intensely to hear, the commentating mind will stop because it is a question of energy.

You have a certain energy. If you stake the whole energy in listening, then this continuous commentary in the mind automatically stops. It has no more energy; you are not nourishing it.

And yes, it is true: it is going to happen in spite of you. How long are you going to not listen to me? Just tired, one day you will say, "Let us listen!"

Question 3:

I cannot say anything against Gurdjieff. I will still say, "Bravo, America!" for the simple reason that America has not mistreated me. The small group of bureaucrats who mistreated me are not America; they are mistreating America too. Don't say, "To hell with America!" say, "To hell with the American government!" Make it a clear distinction.

America has not much knowledge about me. It was the American government's behavior, mistreatment, that made me known to every American. And wherever I went in those twelve days -- I passed almost all over America -- I was greeted with love and respect by strangers. Everybody could see that the American government was behaving like a fascist government; everybody could see that this was religious persecution, that this was not democracy. Even amongst the bureaucrats who came in contact with me -- the jailers, the doctors, the nurses, the other attendants in the jail, the inmates -- there was not even a single exception.

I was surprised, because those inmates had no way of knowing me. They had just known what was happening with me from the television -- small bits and pieces. But they were certain that I was being persecuted by the Christian fanatics and by the bureaucracy; that the government was afraid for some reasons and the church was afraid for some reasons.

They simply wanted some excuse so I could not enter America, because they knew that if I was out of America my people, naturally, would disperse.

But from the American people I experienced great love. The first jail I was in, so many telegrams and so many telephone calls... in the thousands. I asked the jailer, "You must be getting tired?"

He said, "No, we have had to appoint three, four more people to receive phone calls, open telegrams."

The first day somebody from Germany phoned and asked the jailer, "Perhaps Osho must be the first in your jail who is a man of international standing?"

And the jailer said, "No, we have had cabinet ministers, leaders of political parties, and many celebrities."

I had no idea what had happened, but as the second day came and flowers started coming... There were so many that in that jail, a big jail -- they had six hundred inmates or more -- they had no place to keep them. They had only one room empty, a big room, bigger than this room, and it was full of flowers.

The jailer came to me, saying, "What to do with the flowers?"

I said, "Send them to schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, sick people in the city -- wherever you feel, just send them, from me."

He said, "One thing more, I am sorry and I want to apologize. I don't know the number of the man who called from Germany... you had come recently and I had no awareness of what kind of man you are. Now, in two days, I have seen that the whole world is interested in you. There is not a single country in the world from where we are not receiving calls and telegrams, and flowers. And from America everywhere people simply want to know why you have been arrested.

"So I cannot phone that man and apologize to him, but I can say to you what I want to say to him: please forgive me. Those cabinet ministers and political leaders -- you don't belong to their category. Perhaps we will never have another man like you in this jail.

These two days have been my life's most precious days."

The jailer used to take me to the court everyday, and returning he would say, "It is sheer injustice. I have never seen such injustice. They can't prove a thing against you, and still they are not ready to give bail. This is unprecedented," he said, "in my whole life -- and I have been here for twenty years."

On the street people were standing on both sides whenever I was coming to the court, going back from the court -- perhaps for hours, because they did not have any idea at what time I would be taken out -- shouting, showing two fingers for victory, throwing flowers on the police cars.

No, America has not mistreated me. The government -- and that is a totally different thing....

The politicians and the church conspired; both were in danger. And now they are trying to create the fear in all the other countries where they can have some pressure. Because they help the poor countries with money, the poor countries are under obligation, so whatever America says to them they have to follow. Their whole effort is not to let me settle again and create a commune, because that commune will be an answer that proves that all their accusations, allegations, are absolutely wrong.

But as far as the people of that land are concerned, they are beautiful. And Gurdjieff was right.

This government is not going to last long. They have already started doing suicidal acts.

With the attack on Libya they have shown their real face. A small country like Libya, and a nuclear power like America -- there is no comparison... The only reason for attacking Libya is that the man who leads Libya, Kaddafi, is really a brave man, outspoken, and he says whatever is the truth. He is not a politician.

And he said that Ronald Reagan is Adolf Hitler Number Two. This statement was the root cause for attacking Libya; all other things were not of any consideration. But he does not know that before attacking Libya he should attack me -- fortunately I don't have any land -- because I have immediately corrected Kaddafi: "You are wrong. Ronald Reagan is not Adolf Hitler Number Two; he is Adolf Hitler Number One."

The poor Adolf Hitler of the second world war cannot be number one. He is now second, for the simple reason that Ronald Reagan has a million times more power than Adolf Hitler had. Now he is calling Kaddafi "the mad dog of the Middle East," calling him "the bad smell."

Ronald Reagan and his government started dying the day they arrested me. It takes a little time. Let them do a few more stupid things and let the American people understand what kind of a government they have got. It is not a democracy: it is not for the people, it is not of the people, it is not by the people.

It is a fascist gang that is ruling America, and it will be good that the American people get rid of it; otherwise.... People naturally think the government and the so-called political leaders are the leaders of the people. That is not so.

Just recently I have received news from Crete about a few incidents that happened after they arrested me. Eleven old people -- fifty to sixty years old -- just as I left the house with the police, reached the house and said, "This should not have happened without us.

Why did you not inform us? We have our hunting guns, we would have come and shown those police people what it means to misbehave."

One journalist had asked me, "Any message for the people who live here?"

I said, "Just tell them to reach the airport in the night to show that they are with me -- not with the church and not with the government." There were three thousand people at the airport They had waited for hours to support me, and to say that what the police had done and what the government had done was not right. Fifty people met one sannyasin; they were immensely angry about what had happened and were asking, "What can we do?"

Just poor people, simple people.... Another group of forty people met another sannyasin, and they were asking, "Show us... we want to do something. This thing should not be allowed to happen. And everything that Osho was saying was right, about the church; there was nothing wrong in it."

These simple villagers understood that what I was saying about the church is true; nothing was wrong in it. And even when I had left Greece, people from Crete sent a delegation to the president saying, "This behavior of the police and the government has disgraced us."

So always remember to make a differentiation between the government and the people.

The government is not necessarily the representative of the people. In most cases it has cheated people, exploited people. It is not for them.

I know... the question is from Milarepa. I can understand your anger. Every sannyasin would like to say, "To hell with America!" But just say, "To hell with the American government!"

America is far bigger, far more important, and I still hope that the new man will be born in America.

These governments come and go; the people remain. The people are the very soul. A country is not made of land, it is made of the people. In those twelve days in jail, moving from one jail to another, I came in contact with the common people and with the lowest of the low -- the criminals -- and I have seen so much love in their hearts. Whenever I entered into a new jail I was received... I did not feel that it was a jail because the reception was so warm.

Of course those people were behind bars, but they were shouting, "Osho, we know you, and you are right!" in the face of the jailer, the doctor and the other officials. They would line up, and whenever I reached my cell, soon inmates would start coming with fruits...

somebody with milk, somebody with soap, somebody with a toothbrush, somebody with toothpaste. They would say, "These people will not give you anything. They want to torture you. But as we had heard just the day before that you will be brought here, we have been saving; all these things are fresh."

These people are criminals, and Ronald Reagan is not a criminal?

And he killed unnecessarily Kaddafi's daughter, bombed his three houses which are in the civilian area. He himself is a mad dog -- and he is calling Kaddafi a mad dog!

I can understand your anger, but remember always to be careful to draw fine lines so that only the criminal is hit, not the simple, poor, innocent people.