You'll never find a lion in the lion's club

Question 1:

MAN'S mind is a Pandora's box.

It contains the whole of evolution from the lowest creature to the highest genius. They are all living together in man's mind simultaneously, they are all contemporaries. It is not that something is past, something is present, something is future: as far as mind is concerned everything is simultaneous, contemporary.

It has to be understood very clearly because without understanding it the question will remain unresolved. The idiot is in you, so is the genius. Of course the idiot is much more powerful because it has a longer history, and the genius is a very still, small voice. From Khomeini to Einstein you are spread; and the trouble is that Khomeini is in the majority, much more in you than Albert Einstein, who is in a very poor minority.

Think of man's mind as a pyramid. The base is made up of Khomeinis, millions of Khomeiniacs, and as you go upwards there are fewer and fewer people. At the peak they are not in millions, not in billions, only in dozens - and at the very peak, perhaps there is a single individual.

353 But remember that the difference between Khomeini and Einstein is not of quality, it is only of quantity, because part of Khomeini is Albert Einstein, and the major part of Albert Einstein is also Khomeini.

Just the other day the results of a three-year long research on Albert Einstein's brain was published.

It took three years just to count the cells of his brain. There are millions of cells in every brain doing different kinds of specific work: it is a very miraculous world.

How a certain cell functions in a certain way is still not known. A certain cell thinks, a certain cell dreams, a certain cell poetizes, a certain cell paints. What makes the difference between these groups of cells? They are all alike as far as chemistry and physiology is concerned; there seems to be no difference at all. But there are cells which think, there are cells which imagine, there are cells which are mathematical, and there are cells which are philosophical. It is a whole world.

Three years counting the cells of Albert Einstein's brain - the result is very significant. A certain kind of cell has been found in his brain - twenty-seven percent more than in the average brain. That certain kind of cell has only one function: to feed, nourish, the thinking cells. It has no direct function, it is a nourishment to the thinking cells. And that nourishing cell has been found to be twenty-seven percent more numerous than in the ordinary, average man.

Now the difference is of quantity, it is not a qualitative difference: those twenty-seven percent cells can be grown in you. And why only twenty-seven? Two hundred and seventy percent more can be grown because it is well-known and an established fact how those cells grow.

In white mice they have been growing all kinds of cells. If the white mouse is given more things to play with, he starts growing those nourishing cells, because he has to think. If you put him in a puzzle box and he has to find the way - if you put him in a box where food is hidden somewhere and he has to find the way through all kinds of labyrinths to reach the food, and he has to remember the ways that he has followed - of course a certain kind of thinking has started. And the more he thinks, the more is the need for the nourishing cell.

Nature provides you whatever you need.

Whatever you have got is not given by any god, by fate; it has been created by your need.

But one thing out of this whole research is very shocking and shattering: that the difference between Einstein and Khomeini is only of quantity. And that quantity also is not something special, it can be created: old Khomeini just has to start playing chess, cards.... Of course he won't, but if he starts playing chess and cards and other things he will have to think.

Religions kill this very nourishing cell because they tell you to believe.

Believing means:

Don't think, don't play with ideas.

Don't try to find out on your own.

Jesus has already found it, Buddha has already said it - why should you be unnecessarily concerned? Then naturally that part which makes a man an Einstein does not develop: you remain average. And average means the basement of humanity.

Hence, I call man's mind a Pandora's box. And for another reason also - because whatsoever has happened in evolution has left its traces within you. You are still afraid of darkness. That fear must be millions of years old; it has nothing to do with the modern world. In fact it is difficult in a place like New York to find a dark corner, everything is so lighted. People may not be enlightened, but places are.

Why this fear of darkness? Because in modern life you don't come across darkness in any fearful way. If you meet darkness at all it is soothing, relaxing, rejuvenating. Rather than being afraid of it you should have a certain love for it. But the very idea of loving darkness seems absurd. Somewhere deep down in your heart is still the caveman who was afraid of darkness.

The fear of darkness comes from those days when fire was not discovered. Those were the days of darkness, and darkness became almost synonymous with evil. Everywhere evil is painted as dark, black. Darkness became synonymous with death. Everywhere death is painted as black.

The reason is very clear: before fire was discovered, night was the most dangerous time. If you survived one night you had done something really great, because in the night all the wild animals were ready to attack you. You could not sleep, you had to remain awake - just the fear of the wild animals was enough to keep you awake. And still they would attack in darkness, and man was helpless.

So darkness became evil, bad, and synonymous with death. And the fear has entered so deep in the heart, that still today, when darkness has gone through a complete transformation.... Neither wild animals attack you in the dark, nor does darkness bring any evil or death to you. It only brings soothing sleep, takes all your tiredness of the day; makes you again young, alive, full of energy, ready to meet tomorrow's morning sun. But our attitude remains the same. So is the case with everything.

In the past, throughout the whole of evolution, man had to become part of a certain group, organization, society, tribe, for a simple reason: because alone he was so helpless. Alone, and the whole wilderness against you - it was difficult to face it. Together, with a crowd, you felt more protected, more secure.

You have to remember that man is the most weak and helpless animal in the world, and because of this helplessness and weakness our whole civilization and culture has grown. So don't think of it as a curse; it has proved a great, the greatest, blessing.

Lions cannot create society, lions cannot create culture, because a lion has no need of the group.

He alone is powerful enough. Sheep move in groups; lions don't move in groups. Each lion has its own territorial imperative. They have a specific technique to declare their territory. All the animals - they piss on a certain area. Its smell makes others aware that this is the boundary line, the fence.

Outside it, everything is okay; just a single step in, and there is danger.

Lions like to be alone for the simple reason that they are enough for any enemy. Now if you think about man... his body is not so strong as that of an animal. His nails are not so strong that he can kill any animal just with his nails. His teeth are not so strong that he can eat the raw meat of an animal killed by his own hands. Neither can he kill with his hands nor can he eat raw meat directly with his teeth. All his limbs are weaker than other animals. He cannot run with a horse or with a dog, or with a bull, or with a wolf, or with a deer: he is just a nobody.

It is good that these people don't participate in your Olympic races; otherwise your great runners will just look silly. You cannot move like monkeys from one tree to another tree. They go on jumping from one tree to another tree for miles; they need not touch the ground. You cannot fight even with a monkey.

This has to be accepted: that man is the weakest animal on the earth. And this is the foundation of his whole behavior, his commitments, his groupings. He has to be part of something bigger than himself; only then does he feel safe.

He had to invent all kinds of weapons. No animal has bothered to invent weapons. There is no need; their hands, their teeth, their nails, are enough. From the earliest days man had to invent weapons - first made of stones, rocks, then slowly slowly with metals.

Then he had to work out that even with a weapon in his hand he could not fight with a lion or an animal at close quarters. He had to invent arrows - that is, shooting from a distance - coming close was dangerous. You may have a weapon but it won't be of much use against an elephant. He will take you and your weapon both together and throw you half a mile away.

Shooting from a distance in some way or other became necessary. That's how we have arrived at nuclear weapons. Now we have taken man completely out of it; you just push a button and a rocket shoots. You need not know where the rocket is; it goes on its programmed course. It will reach to the Kremlin or it will reach to the White House; that program is in-built.

Who pushes the button does not matter; he can be miles away. He has to be miles away because after all man is not a pope, he is fallible: things can backfire. The rockets may be somewhere in Texas, and the buttons, the switches, may be somewhere in the White House.

Man has created distance between himself and the enemy, and finally he had to create distance between himself and the weapon too, because the weapon became too dangerous. To keep it close is taking an unnecessary risk.

But everything has grown in a very logical way. Man has become the conqueror of all the animals.

Only in this sense can it be said, "Blessed are the weak for they shall inherit the kingdom of the earth." They have inherited it only in this sense, but in no other, spiritual sense. Man's weakness has proved his strength.

Man had to think, he had to work things out. There were so many problems, and he had no natural way to find out solutions - hence, thinking. Thinking simply means you are faced with a problem and nature has not given you the clue to it. All the animals are provided with clues. They never face any problem. Whenever they have to encounter something they know exactly what they have to do; hence thinking does not grow.

Man was left without any solutions, - with immense problems surrounding him: he had to think.

Over millions of years his thinking cells became more and more efficient, but on the way he was gathering all kinds of dust, all kinds of fears. It was necessary, it could not be avoided; but the trouble is that time has passed, you have passed through that way, but the dust is still clinging to you.

Now man can be alone. Now there is no need for him to be fanatically committed to any religious group any political ideology - Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, communism, fascism - there is no need.

But the majority consists of the idiots. They go on living their past again and again. It is said that history repeats itself. That is true as far as ninety-nine percent of humanity is concerned; it can't be otherwise. It has to repeat itself because these people go on clinging to their past, and they go on doing the same again and again.

They cluster into groups; and this has to be a commitment because why should the group take on the burden of you? You have to pay something in return. Why should the group bother about your safety? You have to do something for the group - that is your commitment. You say, "I am ready to die for you. If you are ready to die for me, I am ready to die for you." This is a simple bargain.

And why are they fanatically committed? They have to be fanatically committed because if you start being conscious, alert, you will see that it is such an idiotic thing.

There is no need to belong to Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. But a country like Germany, one of the most educated, cultured, sophisticated - the country that has given the longest list of thinkers and philosophers to the world - falls victim to an utter idiot. And a man like Martin Heidegger, one of the most important philosophers of this age, perhaps the most important, was a follower of Adolf Hitler.

One cannot believe it. This is simply inconceivable about a man like Martin Heidegger, who has no comparison anywhere in the world: of his contemporaries, all look like pygmies. His thinking was so complex that he could never finish any of his books.

Heidegger would start, he would do the first part, and then the whole world would be waiting for the second part to appear; and it would never appear, for the simple reason that by the end of the first part he had created so many problems for himself that now he did not know where to move, where to go, what to do, or how to resolve it all. He simply kept silent and started another book!

And that's what he did his whole life. The first part, the second part; then the third part is missing - no book is complete. Yet even those incomplete pieces are simply miracles of the mind. The fineness of his logic and the depth of his approach.... But even this man could not see that this Adolf Hitler was a madman. And he was also fanatically committed to Adolf Hitler.

From where does this urge to be fanatically committed come?

It comes from your doubt:

You cannot really convince yourself that what you are doing is right, so you have to overdo it. You have to shout loudly so that you can hear; you have to convince others so that in return you can be convinced. You have to convert others, so that seeing you have converted thousands of people you are at ease: There must be some truth in what you are saying; otherwise, why are so many people convinced? You can be a fool, but so many people can't be foolish.

Just think of Adolf Hitler: he can think of himself as a fool, but what about Martin Heidegger? He has convinced Martin Heidegger; now no other proof is needed. This man is proof enough that what he is saying is right.

This is a very reciprocal process, a vicious circle. You become more convinced by having more fanatically committed people, and because you become more convinced you start gathering more people around you.

Adolf Hitler says in his autobiography that it does not matter what you are saying - whether it is right or wrong, true or false - just go on repeating it with conviction. Nobody is bothered about its rationality and logic.

How many people are in the world who understand what logic is, what rationality is? Just go on repeating with force, emphasis. Those people are in search of conviction, not in search of truth.

They are in search of somebody who knows it. And how can they feel that you know it if you say "if"

and "buts," "perhaps"...?

That's why Mahavira in India could not gather many followers - because he started every one of his statements with "perhaps." He was right, he was absolutely correct, but that is not the way to find followers. Even those who were following by and by disappeared: "Perhaps... this man is talking about 'perhaps' - perhaps there is a God." Can you gather a following committed to your "perhaps"?

They want certainty, they want a guarantee.

Mahavira was too wise a man for all these idiots. He behaved with people as if they were of his understanding. What he was saying can be understood by Albert Einstein, because what Albert Einstein says is also with a "perhaps."

That's the whole meaning of the theory of relativity: nothing can be said with certainty because everything is only relative, nothing is certain. Can you say this is light? It is only relative. In comparison to a brighter light it may look very dim. In comparison to a millionfold brighter light it may look like just a black hole, just a darkness.

What is darkness? - less light. There are animals, cats, in the night moving in the house perfectly well. In your house somebody else's cat can move better than you yourself can move in darkness.

You will stumble, but the cat has eyes which can catch dimmer rays of light.

The owl only sees in the night; the day is too bright. The owl needs sunglasses; without sunglasses he cannot see, the day is too bright. When it is morning to you, it is evening to the owl. Now what is what? Think of the owl, then you will understand the meaning of perhaps: perhaps it is evening; as far as the owl is concerned perhaps it is morning. As the night grows darker, the owl sees better. In the middle of the night it is the middle of the day for the owl.

Things are relative; hence to say anything with certainty is to show your stupidity. That's why Mahavira used a strange approach for the first time in the history of man, twenty-five centuries before Albert Einstein. His word for perhaps is syat. His philosophy became known as syatvad, 'the philosophy of perhaps'. You ask any question; he will never answer you with a certainty. You may have come with some certainty; by the time you leave him you will be more uncertain. Now who wants to follow such a man?

Adolf Hitler is going to be followed because he takes uncertainty, which was like a wound, out of you. You were trembling inside; you don't know what this life is all about. But somebody knows, and you can follow that somebody: you are relieved of a great burden of uncertainty. All that is needed from your side is a fanatical belief.

The fanatical belief serves both sides. The leader needs it because he himself is just like you, trembling deep inside; he knows nothing. All that he knows is that he can shout better than you, that he is more articulate than you, that he can pose at least as if he knows, that he is a good actor, a very refined hypocrite. But deep down he knows that he is trembling. He needs a great following which will help him to get rid of his fear, which will convince him that he knows.

I have heard: it happened that a journalist died and reached the gates of paradise. Journalists are not supposed to go there; how it happened I don't know. The gatekeeper looked at him and said, "Are you a journalist?"

He said, "Of course, and as a press reporter I am allowed everywhere. Let me in."

The gatekeeper said, "There is a difficulty. In the first place, in paradise we don't have any newspaper because no news happens here - no crime, no drunkards, no rape. There are only saints, dried up, frozen from eternity till eternity. So what news is there? Still we have a quota of ten journalists, but that has been full from the very beginning. You will have to go to the other gate on the other side of the road."

The journalist said, "Can you do a little favor for me? I will leave after twenty-four hours, but just give me a chance, at least a tour. If you cannot allow me a permanent, residential green card, you can let me have a twenty-four-hour tour. That is not too much to ask. Coming from so far away, have mercy on me. And give me one promise: if I can convince those ten journalists, if one of them is ready to leave in my place, then will you let me be here?"

He said, "Then there is no problem. If you can convince somebody to go to the other place, you can be in his place. It makes no difference to us; the quota is ten."

The man said, "Then just give me twenty-four hours."

He went in and he started talking to everybody, whomever he met. "Have you heard that in hell they are going to start a new daily newspaper, the biggest that has ever been tried? And they are in need of a chief editor, editorial staff, and all kinds of journalists, weekly editors, and literary editors - haven't you heard?"

And they said, "We have not heard anything, but that is great. In this rotten place, only one issue of a newspaper was published, some way, far away back in the beginning of time, but since then nothing has happened, so only the first issue.... We go on reading it again and again, what else to do? This new paper is a great idea."

All the ten journalists became agitated. Next day, after twenty-four hours, the journalist reached the gate. The gatekeeper immediately closed the door and said, "Remain inside!"

He said, "Why?"

The gatekeeper said, "You are a tricky fellow. All those ten have escaped to the other place, now I cannot allow you to go. At least one journalist should be here.

The journalist said, "But I cannot remain here."

The gatekeeper said, "Are you mad? You spread that rumor which is absolutely false. They got the idea that they will get great posts, and became excited again - but for what are you going?"

He said, "Who knows, there may be something in it. I cannot stay. And you cannot stop me anyway because I am not supposed to be here; I am only a tourist for twenty-four hours. Remember, that was our basic decision - that for twenty-four hours I will be in, and then I will go out. You cannot stop me - you cannot go against your word."

But the gatekeeper tried hard: "You have spread the rumor; it is absolutely false. And don't bring trouble on me because the hierarchy, the bureaucracy will ask me, 'Where are all the ten journalists?'

Once in a while they take the census and, 'Not a single journalist? the whole quota is missing?

Where have they gone?'

"At least I can show the hierarchy that 'this is the man who convinced them; and they escaped. And because it has never happened before - anybody escaping from paradise into hell - we don't keep the doors closed from the inside. Nobody ever escapes; anybody can open them and look out, there is no problem. Who is going to go to hell?and there is no third place. So the doors were open as always and they escaped. They simply said to me, "Goodbye, we are not coming back again."' I cannot let you go."

But the journalist was stubborn. He said, "Then I will go immediately to the hierarchy and expose the whole thing: that I am not entitled to be here, I don't have a green card - I am just a tourist - and the gatekeeper is not allowing me to go out. You have committed two crimes: first, you allowed me in; second, you are not allowing me out."

The gatekeeper understood; that was perfectly right. He said, "Okay, you go. The census, it takes eternity - everything takes eternity here. Meanwhile maybe some other journalist may turn up. But this is strange, that you are convinced by a rumor that you created yourself."

He said, "When ten other journalists are believing it - it may be that I started it, but there must be something in it. Some part of it must be true; otherwise how can you convince ten journalists, and that too to go from paradise to hell? There is bound to be some truth in it."

The leader is continuously in need of being convinced again and again that what he is saying is right For that he needs growing numbers of committed people. And the more fanatically they are committed, the more convincing they are to him. If they are ready tc die or to kill, to go on a crusade, do jihad holy war - that makes him certain.

And - in a circular way - his certainty convinces the followers, because he becomes more loud, he becomes more stubborn; he becomes absolutely certain. "Ifs" and "buts" disappear from his language: whatever he says is the truth. And this vicious circle goes on and on. It makes the leader fanatic, the followers fanatics. It is a psychological need of both; both are in the same boat.

I have heard... President Ronald Reagan had gone for a morning walk with his pet chimpanzee.

A man who was sitting on the beach looked puzzled and then said, "Mr. President, don't you feel embarrassed being seen with that chimpanzee in a public place?"

Ronald Reagan said, 4Why? Why should I feel embarrassed?"

The man said, "Who is asking you? I am asking the president."

The chimpanzee and the president are not very different, they are both in the same boat.

People have a psychological need to feel certain. To have shifting sand continuously underneath their feet makes their life difficult. It is difficult enough as it is - and then all around, uncertainty and insecurity - all around problems and no answers. This gives an opportunity to those few cunning people who can pretend that they deal exactly in the commodities you need. The only quality the leader needs is that he should always be ahead of the crowd. He should be constantly watchful of where the crowd is going, and be ahead of it. That keeps the crowd feeling that the leader is leading.

And the leader only has to be this clever, that he goes on watching the mood of the people, where they are moving. Wherever the wind starts blowing the real leader never misses the chance: he is always ahead of the crowd.

Thinkers are not needed because a thinker will start thinking whether that is the right course or whether the way he was going is the right course. If he starts thinking in that way then he will not be the leader any longer, he will be alone. The crowd will have moved with some idiot who does not bother where you are going: you may be going to hell - but he is the leader, he is ahead of you.

The only quality in the leader that is needed is a judging faculty which can feel the mood of the crowd. This is not very difficult because the crowd is saying loudly, continuously, what it wants, where it wants to go, what are its needs. You have just to be a little alert and put all these voices together; then there will be no problem, you will be ahead of the crowd.

And go on promising whatsoever they are asking - nobody is asking you to fulfill your promises; they are asking only to be promised. Who has asked you to fulfill your promises? Go on giving promises, and don't be worried that someday they will catch hold of you and ask about them. They never will, because whenever they catch hold of you, you can give them bigger promises.

And people's memories are very short. What you had promised five years ago, who remembers? In five years' time so much water has gone down the Ganges, who bothers? In five years so much has changed. Don't be worried, you just go on promising bigger and bigger promises.

Just now I read the news - since Indira Gandhi's assassination in India the whole country has been facing tremendous problems. It has been facing those tremendous problems for the last forty years but now suddenly, because of the assassination, everything has come to the surface.

For twenty-five years continuously, Indians themselves have been selling all their secrets to anybody who wanted to buy them - a common market. Indians are, in a way, very special people. Nobody in the world has ever done such a thing. America tries hard to send its spies into the Soviet Union, and then too they get caught and killed and imprisoned. The Soviet Union goes on sending spies into America....

Every country goes on putting spies everywhere because one never knows: he who is a friend today may be an enemy tomorrow. So every country has a network of spies around the world - every country that can afford it - particularly America and the Soviet Union. Both have a very tight network around the world.

But in India something special was happening. For twenty-five years a group of Indians, in which topmost members of Indira Gandhi's cabinet were involved were selling secrets to anybody who was ready to buy. And so cheaply that one cannot even conceive.... A five-hundred-million-dollar project - its whole secret has been sold for fifty dollars. And it is not that you were asking for them, the Indians were asking you. And this has been going on for twenty-five years!

One French agency which has been purchasing the secrets - they don't have any use for them right now, but they said, "They are so cheap, there is no harm. Any day India can be in a war with somebody; then we can get good prices for all these secrets." So they were collecting for a future time. Good business, because a fifty-dollar secret they will sell for fifty thousand dollars or even more. No business can be so well paying.

That French agency has said, "Indira Gandhi would decide something, and within four hours the secret was delivered to us." And only Indira and three members of her cabinet knew of the secret.

Four persons knew - but that didn't matter, because even of those three topmost cabinet members whom she trusted, perhaps one, perhaps two, perhaps all three were involved.

Most probably all the three were involved, then nobody could expose anybody else; then they would have to keep the secret of their sales intact. They were betraying - but all three were betraying, so who v as going to say anything? They would keep silent. If only one was betraying then the other two would be dangerous.

Now people are wondering if there are any secrets left in India, because for twenty-five years, every day, files were going out. And this was discovered because a whole truckload was passing the boundary line of Indian territory with all the secret files. It was caught; and it was found that it was carrying files. What kind of files? - top secret!

Because in India the government files are bound in an orange ribbon, this group of twenty-five people who have now been arrested was called the "orange ribbon circle." And it was known all over the world - except in India!

Rajiv is facing tremendous difficulties. The whole bureaucracy of every state with a separate language wants to be independent - and in fact there seems to be no reason why they should not be. Basically India accepted the division of the country into Pakistan and India on a religious basis, so there is a precedent: You have accepted already in the very beginning of your independence a division on the basis of religion, that two religions cannot live together, that they should have their own countries.

Now, Sikhism is a different religion and they want their own country. According to your own principle they should be given a separate country. And if they are not given one, then why did you agree to give one to Mohammedans?

Tomorrow the Parsees will ask, "We want Bombay as an independent country just of our own."

Certainly they have made Bombay and they are everything in Bombay. They are perfectly right: they are a different religion, a totally foreign religion. Sikhism at least is born in India; Parsees come from Iran - they believe in Zarathustra. They need a separate country on a religious basis.

Now Christians are the third greatest religion - hindus, Mohammedans, Christians - and they have two states in which the majority are Christians. In Kerala eighty percent of the people are Christians, why should they not have their own country? In Assam they are demanding a separate country, Nagaland, because all the aboriginals of Assam have become converted to Christianity.

Now soon Jainism will ask. "Although we are not many," they will say, "still we are a religion and one of the ancientmost, perhaps the most ancient religion in the world. We should be given a state, even if it is a small state; but we need our own country."

And if religion can become the cause for division, then why not language? I think that is far more important. We have seen it happen. When India was divided, Pakistan was in two parts: half was on one side of the country, Punjab and Sind, and half was on the other side of the country, Bengal.

That was a rare country, in two pieces, two thousand miles apart.

But soon Bangladesh became a separate country on the language issue. They are Mohammedans, and Pakistan is a Mohammedan country; but Pakistan uses three languages, Punjabi, Sindi, and Urdu - and Bengal uses Bengali. They said, "Our culture is different, our language is different, and we cannot be dominated by non-Bengalis."

There was war finally, and they separated. It was a language issue. And Indira Gandhi supported Bangladesh just to weaken Pakistan, because if it became two countries it would become weak, it would become half.

Now in India there are thirty languages, major languages, and each language has as big a territory as any country can have. Germany, England, Italy, France - these are small countries compared to those linguistic groups in India. For example, Tamil: Madras has a far bigger territory with more people than both Germanies together. Maharashtra is double the size of England.

And all thirty languages have a population and territory so big that each could become one country.

When you don't understand each other's language, why go on bothering keeping them together?

You can see: forty years have passed, and India has not been able to decide yet what its national language is how can you decide?

In their constitution they have decided that Hindi is the national language, but there are twenty- nine contesting languages. A strange thing: they are all ready to accept English as their national language rather than accept any Indian language as their national language for the simple reason that at least English would be foreign to everybody, but no Indian language is acceptable.

Because if Hindi becomes the language then the people whose mother tongue is Hindi will have a different weight in politics. Others who will have to learn Hindi will never be efficient enough to become national leaders, prime ministers, presidents - it will be difficult.

And it is true, because up to now all the prime ministers have been from Hindi-language provinces.

The whole power has remained in the hands of Hindi-speaking people. So forever, twenty-nine language groups are going to remain slaves.

Sooner or later they are going to separate themselves; they are already asking Assam and Punjab are already asking for independence. Soon others will follow.

And the poverty in the country goes on growing bigger and bigger and bigger. Rajiv knows perfectly well that his younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, tried to enforce birth control and the end result was that because of his stubbornness... and it can be only enforced. How long will it take to persuade Indians in favor of birth control? meanwhile they themselves alone will have created the whole world population.

You will go on persuading, and they will go on producing.

By the end of this century, one person in every four will be Indian. Right now China is a little ahead but by the end of this century China will be far behind. Because in China they have enforced birth control it was almost done by the army and the military. Persuasion cannot help.

Sanjay did that but he had no support, and he was not the person to do it, it failed. Not only did it fail, because of it Indira lost the election for three years she remained out of power.

Now Rajiv cannot make that mistake again; he cannot enforce birth control. But without enforcing birth control the country is going to starve to death... within ten years millions of Indians will die, simply die from hunger.

All these problems.... What I wanted to point out to vou, is that all these problems are there but Rajiv is not talking about them at all. What he is saving.... And this was the slogan with which he won the election a landslide election.

Never before... neither his mother nor his maternal grandfather those powerful people, Jawarhlal, Indira nobody has had such a majority as he has. He can do anything.

Eighty-five percent of the parliament members are his.

And two provinces' elections have not been held in Punjab and Assam because of the continuing riots there. Once those people vote perhaps he will have more than ninety percent. You cannot imagine more of a majority... you can do anything!

But he is not talking about any problems because to talk about problems is fearful. He is giving promises. He has fought this election on a promise that "I want to lead my country into twenty-first century" if you survive! I don't think anybody has reminded him that "if you survive, you want to lead the country into twenty-first century."

But what about the twentieth century?

And people are so gullible. They were impressed that for the first time there is some leader who is saving that India is going to become a world power, in the twenty-first century.

He is talking about bringing the latest technology to the country, the latest scientific developments to the country - and the country seems to be convinced that he will be able to fulfill these promises.

From where is he going to bring the latest technology? Where is the money? Who are the people to operate it? Where are the scientists?

Because no scientist remains in India. As he becomes qualified, the scientist immediately escapes - because there is nothing to do.

I asked Doctor Korana, who is a Nobel prize winning mathematician, "Why don't you stay in India?"

He said, "What am I going to do here? What I need is a certain atmosphere for higher mathematics.

Here I cannot even talk with anybody about higher mathematics! I will commit suicide being here."

No great scientist, no great doctor, no engineer, no professor whoever becomes capable of helping the country has to leave, because the country cannot nourish the person. And the person cannot do anything in India, because there are no possibilities at all.

I have been in that country for so long. But Rajiv is not talking about all these problems, he is giving promises. And people are believing in those promises, people want to believe. They have nothing else, just hopes.

So the leaders go on giving opium, hope, and people become addicted. Fanatic commitment to groups and organizations political, religious, or any other kind is a kind of addiction. Just like any other drug.

A Christian feels at home surrounded by Christians. That is addiction, a psychological drug.

Seeing a red sannyasin something in the psyche of people immediately starts trembling: a question mark has arisen. There is a man who does not believe in Christ: "It is possible not to believe in Christ? It is possible to survive without believing in Christ?" Suspicions, doubts....

Why do they get angry at you? They are not angry at you, they are really afraid of you. And to hide the fear they have to project the anger.

Anger is always to hide fear. People use all kinds of strategies.

There are people who will laugh just so that they can stop their tears. In laughing you will forget, they will forget... and the tears can remain hidden.

In anger, their fear remains hidden.

They are very fanatic, defensive... You have not done anything, just being present is enough and they are immediately tense. They know their belief is not their experience, and they are afraid you may scratch, you may dig deep, you may bring the wound before their eyes Somehow they have been able to cover it up they are Christians and Christ is the savior, the only savior, the only real savior, and they have the Holy Book and God is with them so what is there to fear? They have created a cozy psychological home and suddenly, like a bull in a china shop, in comes a red sannyasin!

One of my teachers, who loved me very much... in my high school days he was the one teacher with whom I was very intimate. So when I went to university and would come back to my hometown on holidays, I would go to see him.

He said one day, "I wait for you. It is very strange that I wait for you, knowing that now the holidays are here and you will be coming. And your coming is just like a fresh breeze. In my old age you remind me again of my youth and my youthful dreams. But when you come, I become afraid and I start praying to God:'Let him go as soon as possible!' Because you create suspicion you are my greatest doubt. Just seeing you is enough for all my doubts to start arising. Somehow I keep them down, with you it is difficult."

He said, "It is strange that just your coming into my house is enough and all my efforts at repression fail and all my doubts stand up. And I know that I don't know God and I know that my prayers are just futile - there is nobody to hear them. Still I go on doing them three times a day: morning, afternoon, evening. But when you are here then I cannot do my prayers as peacefully as I do every other day."

I said, "But, I never disturb your prayers!"

He said, "It is not that you disturb them. Just, you are sitting here and I am doing my prayer - it is impossible. I know that what I am doing is stupid and I know what you are thinking. You must be thinking that this old fool still goes on doing... I know that in your eyes this is not respectable what I am doing. And the trouble is, that deep down I agree with you. But now I am too old and I cannot change fear arises. I cannot stop. Many times I have thought, 'Why don't I stop praying?' but I have been praying for seventy-five years....

At that time he must have been nearabout ninety-two. "I have been praying for so long. And now, at the time of death, to stop? And who knows?... if this boy is around and God really does exist, then I will be in a fix: I will not be able even to raise my eyes before God, if at the last moment I dropped praying. So I think, now that I have done it all my life, let me continue right or wrong. If it is wrong, nothing is lost. Anyway now that I am retired, the whole day I am free. And if God is there, then perfectly good, my prayers have succeeded."

I said, "This won't help. Even if God is there, this kind of prayer is futile. Do you think you can deceive God? Won't he ask you? You were praying with this idea that if he does not exist, good and if he exists, you can say that... you think you can deceive God?"

He said, "This is the trouble. That's why I say to vou, please don't come! I cannot drop it, and I cannot do it. And now you have created a third problem: Even if I am doing it, it is useless! Because you are right, if God is there he will know this simple thing, that this old man is trying to deceive him."

I said, "This is far worse than not praying. At least be honest. And I don't think being honest is anything against religion. Just be honest; if you don't feel it, drop it!"

He said, "With you I again start feeling young, strong. But when you are gone I am again old, death is close by and this is not the time to change boats. One may fall in between. It is better to keep on with what you are doing... whatever is going to happen, let it happen Just continue. And I am not alone two hundred million Hindus are with me. That's the point, two hundred million Hindus are with me."

I said, "Yes, that's true. Two hundred million Hindus are with you and I am alone. But a single person can destroy your two hundred million Hindus' support, if it is based on a lie.

"You have taken a wrong step you should never have listened to me!"

That's what fanaticism is: Don't listen to anything that goes against you. Before anybody says something you start shouting so loudly that you hear only your own voice. Read only your own book, listen only to your church, to your temple, to your synagogue.

Fanaticism is simply a strategy to protect you from doubts.

But although doubts can be protected, they cannot be destroyed.

And now there is no need either.

Man has passed through those stages where he needed crowds. Now he can be individual. That does not mean that you don't have clubs, you don't have societies, but there is no need to be committed fanatically.

You can be a rotarian; that does not mean you are committed fanatically that you will die for the Rotary Club. That will be a really great martyrdom - somebody dying for the Rotary Club!

You don't have to die for the Rotary Club, Lions' Club... you need not die for Christianity, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, communism, socialism. You can have a rapport with people, you can have a dialogue with people, you can have meetings with people, you can commune with people who are of the same mind, but there is no need to make any fuss about it. No crusade, no holy war....

Yes, you can remain a nation but there is no need to make too much of those boundaries that you have created on the map. They are only on the map, don't start seeing them on the ground. That's where you become blind.

It is perfectly good there should be so many nations but there is no need for so many madnesses.

It is perfectly good, people can worship in their own ways, pray in their own ways, have their own book, love their own messiahs, there is no problem about it. But don't make it a problem for other human beings. It is your personal thing. You like something, you refer a certain perfume - perfectly good; if somebody else does not like it, it does not make him your enemy.

These are likings somebody can differ. And difference does not mean antagonism, it simply means one has a different way of looking at things, feeling things. There is no need for any fanaticism, there is no need for any commitment. If we can have organizations in the world without commitment, without fanaticism, it will be a beautiful world.

Organizations themselves are not bad.

Organizations without commitment, without fanatic attitudes, simply make an orderly world. And order is certainly needed.Where there are so many millions of people you cannot live without order.

I have called that order "commune." I have called it "commune" just to make it different from organization, political party, religious cult. I have called it simply "commune," where people of similar vision live in a friendliness, with all their differences.

They are not to erase their differences to be part of the commune, that becomes commitment. Their differences are accepted, those are the qualities of those individuals.

And it is in fact making the commune rich where so many people with so many different qualities, talents, creativities, sensitivities are joined, without crippling each other, without destroying each other.

On the contrary, they are helping each other to become a perfect individual, a unique individual...