Today we claim the rainbow

Question 1:

There is a great difference. Judas betrayed Jesus, nobody can betray me - because Jesus asked for faith, and I don't ask for any faith from you.

Jesus asked people to believe in him; he is the savior. I do not ask you to believe in me but to believe in yourself, because nobody can save you except yourself. There is no other savior than yourself.

How can you betray me?

You can only betray yourself.

That's what Sheela and her gang have done. They have betrayed their own spiritual growth.

And the remaining people - you mentioned Siddha, Deeksha, Makima - these people were forced to leave by Sheela. They still love me, as they have always loved me.

Just the other day Richard came back from Santa Fe, the city of the camels, and he was surprised that they are all immensely happy that Sheela has left, and they all want to come back. Hundreds of others who have left will be coming back. This time they will find a totally different climate, fresh air.

Now one can breathe; otherwise, people were getting suffocated.

They tried hard to live under Sheela and her gang, but there is a limit to human patience. Finally they decided it is better to leave. How much can you tolerate humiliation, and humiliation by someone who was nobody. Sheela was just a waitress in a hotel in America before she came to me. And I made her a queen of a whole kingdom of sannyasins all over the world.

It was great for Makima to have tolerated her for almost three years. Makima comes from one of the most super-rich families, and Sheela was forcing her to drive trucks. She had always been chauffeured, and now she was driving big trucks; but she accepted it out of love for me, because she wanted to remain here. Amrit, her boyfriend, was a doctor.

But Sheela's assistant, and the mastermind in this whole gang of fascists, was Puja, who has been harassing all the doctors, all the nurses, everybody, in every possible way. She would write prescriptions and force the doctors to sign them. It is illegal. Patience is one thing, but to be forced to do illegal things is not right.

Puja herself was capable of prescribing medicines - she was a perfectly educated nurse, had a license to prescribe medicines just like any doctor, but she was absolutely cunning.

The doctors were not willing, because the things that were prescribed were not relevant to the sickness, to the person at all. But those prescriptions were not for the sickness, they were punishments. Amrit did not become part of all the crimes that they were doing; he left with tears in his eyes. And I know Makima: whatever happens, her love for me cannot change.

These people have not betrayed me. These people have been forced to go away from here. Sheela was afraid of all those people who were more intelligent than her - and almost everybody is more intelligent than her. She is not educated; I had to teach her each and every thing. From a hotel waitress, I made her a celebrity all over the world. And this is the reward and gratitude that she has shown me.

Naturally, anybody who is in power and feels that there are people who are far more intelligent remains in a kind of phobia, wanting somehow to get rid of these people.

The chancellor of the university, Amitabh, left. The vice-chancellor of the university, Siddha, left.

Both were unique individuals, but both will be back soon.

Shiva, who had been a guard for many years - she forced him to leave. And the way to force him was through humiliation, giving him jobs which the man had never done. The day he left.... I used to go driving outside the commune. Just near Krishnamurti Lake, at the end, he was kneeling down on his knees, tears in his eyes, to say goodbye to me. He has not betrayed.

And they are all informing me that they want to come back, because the reason that they had to leave has disappeared.

So remember, these people were not Judases - except Sheela, who proved really poisonous. But I can understand her problem. She had come to power, she had never seen so much money in her life passing through her hands.

She had a bank balance in Switzerland. She slowly slowly siphoned money coming here from European communes - forty-three million dollars. It is in the name of Sheela and Savita - it was said in front of Hasya and Savita promised that before she left she would give all the details to Hasya. She has not given any details, she simply escaped.

The only person who has betrayed is Sheela.

I have always respected women. Sheela has betrayed that respect.

The whole commune I had given into the hands of women. It will not be so anymore. Now men will have an equal share of power in everything.

It is a crime against womankind. I was trying to give some compensation to women because they have suffered so long, for thousands of years. But I am having second thoughts: perhaps they needed that suffering.

One of India's great poets, Tulsidas, writes in one of his poems, "Animals, untouchables, and women, once in a while need a good beating." I have always condemned that man, but Sheela and her group have proved Tulsidas was not wrong. I was not right; perhaps Tulsidas is right. I have been always a supporter of women's liberation, but Sheela and her gang have proved that if women are in power, Hitlers will be forgotten.

Even one FBI person was overheard to say here that when he saw all the bugging devices he was amazed, he could not believe it. He said that whoever has done this has surpassed Nixon and Watergate, because the way it was done was far more sophisticated.

And how many houses have they bugged? The whole hotel - all the rooms were bugged. Anybody staying in the hotel was staying in an imprisonment. Even bathrooms were bugged. You could not be allowed to have your thoughts or just sing a song of your own without it being known to Sheela immediately.

She had bugged my room. She was continually insisting for many days that a switch for a buzzer was needed - a buzzer for the guards who are on the roof of my house - so "if you see any emergency you can inform them."

I said, "I live in the room. The curtains are drawn almost the whole day, except only for one hour - half an hour when I take my lunch, half an hour when I take my supper. And anyway, if somebody is coming towards the house the guards on the roof will see him first. Their visibility is bigger.

And I mostly sit with closed eyes. It is absolutely useless; but if you want to put it in, just for your satisfaction you can."

But it was not a switch for the buzzer only. Yes, on the surface it was a switch for the buzzer to the guards, but inside the switch was a microphone. Now the guards have come crying to inform me, "We were seeing it every day: Julian continually coming to change the tape" - the tape was in the bathroom of the guards. "We could not open our mouths because Sheela convinced us that it was for the master's safety: 'If anybody enters the room - he sits with closed eyes - if something happens in the room, you will immediately know.'"

Since that buzzer was fixed I was puzzled only about one thing, that whenever she wanted to talk about something that she thought was very secretive - she used to sit at least four, five feet away from me - then she would come close.

I could not understand, because even if it was secret, there was nobody in the room: what was the need to come so close? But she was not coming close to me, she was coming close to the microphone so that everything she said would be picked up exactly, and whatever reply I gave her would also be picked up. She proved a real snake.

And now she is giving interviews to magazines, to television. And she is repeating two things: first, that she had to leave the commune because there was a power struggle. We had never heard about that power struggle. Who was struggling for power?

And the second thing was, "I have so much information with me, almost as much as the ocean, but I will not reveal it." That is a message to the attorney general of Oregon, to the FBI - that she is willing to reveal it if they give her immunity. Then she can save all those twenty criminals who have escaped from here, and she can point to any people and say that these are the people who did all the wrong deeds.

And remember it, it is a simple principle of dirty politics that the government, FBI, and the state police do not seem to be interested in the crimes. We have given them solid proofs, and they have not taken a single step; otherwise, they could inform Interpol to arrest these twenty people and bring them here.

They could inform the Swiss government, they could inform the German government that these people are criminals and they should not be given shelter, before they escape into a country where the American government will have no power at all. For example, if they enter East Germany, then you will not be able to catch hold of them. And they are giving them time. The simple reason is, perhaps their agents are meeting them and finding a way that the whole thing can be forced on innocent sannyasins.

It has been overheard from FBI people that they would like at least five hundred sannyasins imprisoned. Strange - we give you the people who have done the crime, the people themselves have proved that they are criminals by escaping, and you want to imprison five hundred sannyasins.

For what reason? To destroy the commune.

They will choose people who are absolutely necessary for the commune's existence: doctors, legal experts, people who prepare your food, people who drive your buses - anybody who is in any way essential for the commune's existence. With five hundred, they can destroy the whole commune.

Their interest is not the crime that has been committed. They want to commit a bigger crime: their interest is in destroying the commune.

And now Sheela is trying her last strategy: if immunity is given to her she is ready to reveal all the names of the people who have committed the crimes.

Just the other day, STERN magazine wanted somebody from here to go to Germany for a discussion on the television with Sheela. I sent the message, "Why should anybody go there? Sheela can come here; I will face her myself, and I will see how much guts she has." I am ready for an open discussion on television, and I am ready to expose everything she has done. Nobody else can do it. Nobody else knows her and her mind the way I know her.

She is telling lies to the press, unbelievable lies. I don't possess a single thing. Everything that I use belongs to the commune, has been donated by sannyasins from all over the world. It was their gift to me. But I told her that I do not want to have any gifts, so make trusts; all those gifts should go to the trust. I want to remain exactly as I was born, without anything and that's the way I want to go from the world - without anything. But if people love me around the world, and go on sending gifts, then make separate trusts for everything.

There are now ninety Rolls Royces. And she is saying in an interview with STERN that for one Rolls Royce I threatened that if she did not bring one Rolls Royce more I would commit suicide. It is simply so absurd. And it is against the law of economics. Everybody knows the law of diminishing returns: If you have one Rolls Royce, you may have great joy - but with ninety Rolls Royces, each Rolls Royce becomes less valuable.

In the whole world there is nobody else who has ninety Rolls Royces. So whether I have ninety or ninety-one does not make any difference: I am already on the top! And now, after ninety Rolls Royces, one more Rolls Royce - what value can it have to me? And for that one Rolls Royce I will commit suicide? She is going almost insane. She looks on the television completely drugged. If she has any courage, she should come here - no harm will be done to her. She should just face me, and let it be known to the whole world.

Before me, she becomes just a mouse, starts crying and weeping - the same ancient female technology. It has happened so many times - crying and weeping and sobbing, so that just to get rid of her, I would say, "Okay, do whatever you want to do."

Just last night it happened - one interviewer went on and on, on and on. There seemed to be no end to his questions; he had almost a whole book of questions. Just to stop him somewhere.... It was getting to be ten at night, and he asked, "Do you agree with Socrates and his dictum, 'Know thyself'?"

I said, "I absolutely agree." And I had to stand up and tell him that I had to agree, otherwise this interview would never end! Otherwise, who is going to agree with that old Socrates, who was a homosexual?

But to bring up all that would mean the interview would continue: Is homosexuality the way to know thyself? Socrates is the most prominent homosexual the world has known. And now that we know about AIDS, he will have to take the responsibility for it. Knowing thyself turned into a very dangerous disease, AIDS. But to finish the interview.... It had become almost a torture; for three hours....

And that was the situation with Sheela. How can she manage to face me? And if she was courageous enough to face me, at least she would have come to say goodbye to me. She did not even come to say goodbye to me. She escaped like a thief, a murderer. She has degraded, in my eyes, the status of womanhood.

She could do anything. She deserted her husband when he was seriously ill, and began a love affair with another sannyasin. This was a great shock to her husband and may have caused his death.

She then married an American and, without divorcing him, or even telling him that she was divorcing him, she then married a Swiss sannyasin, so that when she escaped from here she had a home in Switzerland. This is bigamy - a big crime.

When she became aware there that she had committed a crime, she rushed to Nepal - a small Himalayan kingdom in India, very poor, with perhaps the poorest people in the world, where you can give a small bribe to any magistrate and you can get a back-dated divorce.

So now she has a Nepalese back-dated divorce. Strange - why should one go to Nepal for a back- dated divorce? It was necessary. You cannot get, in any cultured country, a back-dated divorce so easily. And when you are married to an American husband, you should divorce him in America.

There are possibilities - there are states where you can go and get a divorce. But she could not come back to America. The American husband perhaps still does not know that he is divorced. The poor fellow still believes that he is her husband!

So the only person who has proved a Judas is Sheela. But even Judas was better than Sheela, far better and far superior, because when he realized the crime that he had done he committed suicide - just within twenty-four hours. Handing over Jesus for thirty silver pieces to the enemies.... He must have been a man of conscience; he hanged himself from a tree.

Christians don't talk of him, his crucifixion is not at all discussed in churches. He crucified himself.

It was a great understanding that what he had done was wrong - a great repentance.

Sheela does not have even that conscience. And with a man like me... if she had come to me, even if she comes to me now, with her whole gang, and confesses that they had committed these things and they feel guilty, I will take all their crimes on myself - because to me, to live tomorrow does not mean anything. I have attained whatever life is capable of attaining. I have experienced the ultimate peak of life, love, light.

There is no problem, I can take the whole load of crimes, but at least I should know what the load is; otherwise, how can I take it on myself?

Those twenty people have not yet known anything, so rather than sending them to prison, I would prefer myself to be hanged. And they have committed enough crimes, enough for a death sentence for one single man. That will help the commune. That will help those people.

But instead of doing that, Sheela is lying to the press - which is not going to help. Lying has never helped anybody. It is truth that liberates.

And my love for all those criminals remains the same, because I have never loved anybody while asking them to be according to me, to my ideas. I have never put any condition on my love. My love is unconditional.

They can come and see what unconditional love can do. I will take all their burden on me, because to me it does not matter. But all those twenty people have still to realize themselves; they have not even found the blessed state in which I am - now no death can destroy it.

So I am the right person to be hanged for all their crimes. I would like them to confess, and I would like you to forgive them, because love knows infinite forgiveness.

Question 2:

Just old habit. Old habits die hard, but they do die. Don't be worried!

Question 3:

I have just answered that my way of bringing them here will not be fascist. It will be my love, my forgiveness, that will bring them here.

But whosoever is asking the question is an authentic camel.

Question 4:

Is there any need to comment?

Question 5:

That's something to be remembered: The rock can be shattered by a roseflower. And that is our power.

In the last press conference you heard a question from a journalist, and I said, "If any harm is done to my innocent people, then no American embassy anywhere in the world will be allowed to function.

And my people can hijack any American planes." But that was just a joke! We do not need to do such things.

Our power is of love, of innocence.

And whosoever will clash with our love and innocence will be shattered.

Even nuclear weapons are not more powerful than love, because death can never be more powerful than life. Guns can never be more powerful than laughter.

So if they want to destroy us they need not take unnecessary trouble and go in circles, give immunity to the criminals and force the innocent to be punished - there is no need. You can have a beautiful Hiroshima here, you can just drop a hydrogen bomb. And that will be something, because you don't have what Japan has: a Nagasaki, a Hiroshima - America is missing. You can also brag then, that you also have a Hiroshima.

But this Hiroshima will be totally different. People will be dancing, laughing, loving, and they will welcome death. There will be no despair, no anguish, no fear. Try it. That will become a precedent for the whole world. Our laughter, our dance, our song, our music, will remain haunting the politicians for their whole life.

Why take such long routes? It is so strange.... The KGB in Soviet Russia is persecuting my sannyasins there, and they are continuously hammering in their minds that I am a CIA agent. And the CIA and the FBI are trying to destroy this commune. Perhaps they think I belong to the KGB.

I am certainly a unique person! No other person has that distinction. Either you belong to the KGB or you belong to the CIA - and I am riding on both! And I am enjoying the ride, and seeing how stupid human beings can be.

I have no interest in politics, neither in the CIA nor in the KGB. My interest is in humanity, in values that can make man flower. I am certainly in love with the American Constitution, because it is the only hope for humanity. But American politicians are corrupting it as much as possible. So it seems that we will have to fight to save the American Constitution and its values against the Americans!

From all the courts of America the BIBLE should be thrown out. It is nothing but pornography.

And when you have a beautiful document like the American Constitution, why go to third-rate pornography, and keep it in courts for people to take the oath on? And still you go on thinking that you are not mixing religion with the government! You are mixing religion with government.

And politicians are in a difficulty - I can understand. The American Constitution was made by real, authentic lovers of humanity. But the reward for such people is assassination.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated - the only politician in the whole world of whom it can be said that he was not political. His only fault was that he was not political.

Twenty percent of the American presidents have been assassinated; and the American president has the most sophisticated security arrangements. And in these twenty percent were the best American presidents. The third-grade eighty percent nobody bothers about. Who bothers to assassinate Ronald Reagan? Why waste a bullet? Nobody bothered about Jimmy Carter.

Do you know where Jimmy Carter is, and where his smile is? Both have disappeared. In the last pictures of him I have seen there is no smile. And what happened to Jimmy Carter? You will know only one day when he dies. Then there will be in newspapers a small news item, that "Jimmy Carter, ex-president of America, died."

Who wants to kill people who don't have any high ideals? To have high ideals in your life is dangerous, because the world is full of retarded people; they cannot tolerate you, your presence.

Your very existence makes them feel that they are retarded.

Abraham Lincoln had to be assassinated. The Kennedys, both the brothers, had to be assassinated.

Something beautiful could have come out of those two Kennedys. The first Kennedy was a beautiful man - young, fresh, available for new ideas. And the second Kennedy was even more intelligent than the first.

It is a very strange world. You destroy your best flowers, and you preserve plants which never flower, never come to fruition.

I am not a politician, I am not a religious leader. But Sheela, while I was in isolation, had created a few things which have to be withdrawn.

First, the book of RAJNEESHISM is not my writing, nor my discourses; it was Sheela and her group's creation, so it should not be printed again. There is no thing like Rajneeshism - because then it becomes again another Christianity, another communism, another Hinduism. I have been fighting my whole life against all "isms," and these people made an "ism" out of me!

They created the word "Rajneeshee." You have to drop that word; otherwise, what is the difference between a Christian, a Jew and a Rajneeshee? I want you to be yourself, not a Rajneeshee.

You love me - that does not mean that you have to become a Rajneeshee. You can love me without becoming a Rajneeshee. And what these Rajneeshees have done, this gang of twenty Rajneeshees, is enough to condemn the word.

So now, there are no longer any Rajneeshees. You are individuals, totally free individuals. Out of your freedom and love you are here. There is no bondage, there is no contract. There is no surrender, there is no faith.

And today I would like to declare something immensely important, because I feel perhaps this helped Sheela and her people to exploit you. I don't know whether tomorrow I will be here or not, so it is better to do it while I am here and make you free from any other possibility of such a fascist regime.

That is, from today, you are free to use any color of clothes. If you feel like using red clothes, that is up to you. And this message has to be sent all over the world to all the communes. It will be more beautiful to have all the colors. I had always dreamed of seeing you in all the colors of the rainbow.

Today we claim the rainbow to be our colors.

The second thing: you return your malas - unless you wish otherwise. That is your choice, but it is not a necessity anymore. You return your malas to President Hasya. But if you want to keep it, it is up to you.

The third thing: from now onwards, anybody who wants initiation into sannyas will not be given a mala and will not be told to change to red clothes - so we can take over the world more easily!

Question 6:

Exactly!

Okay?