Just to be Born is Not Enough to be Alive

Question 1:

I wonder why they do not ask why we live at all. That should be the right question.

Life means abundance, richness, in every possible dimension. Just look at existence. Do you think it is poor? Look at the millions of flowers, their fragrance; look at the millions of stars. Man has not been able yet to count them, and I don't think he is ever going to be able to count them. With your bare, naked eye you only see, at the most, three thousand stars - and that's nothing. And these stars are expanding. Just as a flower opens up and the petals start going away from the center, the universe is continuously flowering, blossoming, opening - and with a tremendous speed. The stars are going farther away from the center. We don't know exactly where the center is; but one thing is certain, that the whole universe is running fast, moving, alive.

Those people who come to visit here don't know what life is for. They have never lived. Yes, they have been born; but just to be born is not enough to be alive. They will vegetate and think they are living. And one day they will die, without ever having lived at all. These are the miracles that go on happening all around the world; people who have never lived, die - such an impossibility! But it happens every day. And many have recognized it at the moment of death, and have said it is so, that "it is strange; for the first time I am realizing that I missed life."

If you live, for what? To love, to enjoy, to be ecstatic - otherwise why live at all?

And what is 'richness'? - just making life more and more enjoyable, more and more lovable, more and more comfortable, more and more luxurious.

The man who knows nothing of the great world of music is poor; he is missing one of the greatest luxuries of life. The man who does not know how to enjoy Picasso, van Gogh, does not know anything about the colors. If he cannot enjoy Leonardo da Vinci, how can he enjoy a sunrise, a sunset? Millions of people go on living, never recognizing a sunrise, never stopping for a moment to look at a sunset and all the colors that the sunset leaves behind in the sky. Millions of people never raise their eyes towards the sky and the splendor of it.

Living can only mean one thing: living life multidimensionally - the music, the poetry, the painting, the sculpture... but it is all luxury. I am not a worshipper of poverty; I worship luxury. And existence is luxurious, abundantly luxurious. Where one flower will do, millions of flowers blossom. Have you ever felt that existence is miserly? What is the need of so many stars?

If these fools who ask you the question, if they meet the creator they believe in, they will ask, "What is the need of so many stars? Why this luxury? A few less won't do? What is the need of so many birds, animals, human beings?"

And do you know, now the scientists have recognized the fact that on at least fifty thousand planets life is existent. We don't know what colors it has taken there - what shape, what beauty, what kind of beings have evolved there - but one thing is certain, that existence is overflowing. With everything it is luxurious. It is not a poor existence, no. Poverty is man's creation.

And the people who come here to see the commune must be coming with a certain idea in their mind. Perhaps they have just seen the film "Gandhi" - they have heard about the ascetics of the East. I am not an ascetic. I am not that stupid. I am not a Mahatma Gandhi. I am absolutely against him. People like Mahatma Gandhi are responsible for poverty in the world.

Yes, nobody can ask such a question in Gandhi's commune. If you go there you will simply feel sad and sorry. Still the small ashram exists where Gandhi used to live. Gandhi's son Ramdas was very much interested in me, so once he invited me. I went there - it was after Gandhi's death.

Thirty, thirty-five people were there - the whole group was there that had lived with Gandhi - and I told Ramdas, "Why are you torturing these people? This is sheer masochism and nothing else. In the name of poverty, in the name of simplicity, you have deprived these people of life completely."

What they were eating was absolutely tasteless, because taste, in India, for the religious man, is one of the things to be abandoned. Mahavira has given five great principles: one of the five great principles is tastelessness. Great principles! With truth, nonviolence, nonpossession, nonstealing...

TASTELESSNESS.

And of course Mahatma Gandhi improved upon it. It is not only tasteless, it is nauseating. In India there is a tree called the neem, which is the bitterest tree in the whole world. Its leaves are so bitter, once you have tasted it you will never forget it for a few lives at least. Now, it was a rule in Gandhi's ashram that neem chutney - neem sauce - should be provided for everyone. Another rule for the ascetic in India is that nothing should be left on your plate; you cannot leave anything, you have to eat everything. So it was not possible that you could leave that big cup full of neem.

When one American, Louis Fisher, was visiting Mahatma Gandhi - and he was very much attracted to his philosophy; he wrote the most beautiful book on Gandhi - he was a special guest, so Gandhi himself took him to the kitchen. That was a great privilege - somebody sitting by the side of Gandhi to eat. He saw this cup full of something green; he asked, "What is it?"

Gandhi said, "This is the most precious thing. Taste it." He tasted it; he had never tasted anything like this. And he saw Gandhi eating it so happily, and everybody else eating it happily.

So he thought, "It is better to keep silent about it, not to say anything; it will look bad." And he thought that rather than spoiling the whole food - because all these people were dipping their bread in it and eating - he thought, "It is better to finish it in one gulp and then take the food; that is easier." So he took one gulp, with closed eyes, with closed breath - just somehow to finish it, because nothing could be left. And do you know what Gandhi did? Gandhi called the cook and said, "Look how much he liked it! Bring another cup; he loved it!" So the cup was filled again.

To live the life of the poor, Gandhi would not allow anybody to use a mosquito net; that is luxury. And the place where he used to live, Wardha, is a very hot place, exactly in the middle of India, exactly in the center - one of the hottest places. And so many mosquitoes all around, that even in the daytime you had to use a mosquito net and sit inside it if you wanted to do any work: reading, writing, or anything. Even in the day, hundreds of mosquitoes are all over your body; how can you sleep in the night? But the idea of poverty... how can you use a mosquito net? That is a great luxury.

So Gandhi had discovered - and he was a great discoverer of such things - he discovered that kerosene oil, if you put it on your face, your hands, then mosquitoes cannot come close to you because of the smell. Certainly they don't come, they are not so foolish as you are; but because of the smell you cannot sleep! I simply refused to stay there. I told Ramdas, "This is not the place for me. What kind of nonsense is going on here? And you are torturing these thirty-five people in the name of asceticism. You are glorifying all this."

Gandhi was doing this his whole life. He was absolutely a masochist, who enjoyed torturing himself - and also a sadist. It is a rare combination, very unique. There are people who are masochists, there are people who are sadists, but to be a sado-masochist is a very unique phenomenon. There are very few people - but there are some - who enjoy both: torturing themselves and torturing others. In the name of religion it is very easy because you can give a motivation to people - that if you torture yourself, you will gain much in the other life.

That motivation, that greed... they don't call it motivation or greed, and they don't call torture what I am calling torture - they call it tapascharya, sadhana, 'spiritual discipline'. But just giving a good name to an ugly thing does not change its nature. It is not a spiritual discipline, it is simple torture.

But under the name of spiritual discipline you can torture yourself.

Down the ages, in how many ways have religious people tortured themselves? If you come to know the whole story you will be simply amazed. There have been Christian ascetics whose practice consisted - still consists, they are still in existence - in beating themselves, early in the morning, naked. And the person who managed to beat himself the most was thought to be the greatest saint.

The blood would be oozing out of the body, and they would go on flagellating. And the crowd would gather around their monastery to see this scene. And that crowd would support them, appreciate them, clap them, and help them to beat themselves more. And of course when a big crowd is appreciating you, you can go to any limit. Many times a person would die beating himself. Then he would be declared a saint by the pope. These people are still in existence.

There has been a Christian sect which uses shoes with nails inside, going into the feet, so there are wounds in the feet, and the nails are going into the feet, and they will walk on these shoes.

And those nails will keep those wounds alive, bleeding. They cannot heal; there is no way of their healing, nothing is being done to heal them. On the contrary, the nails are put in the shoes in such a way that they go on and on creating the wound, so the wound may not be allowed to heal naturally.

They used belts also around their waist, with nails going into their body... with wounds all around. And these people have been worshipped. You have been worshipping mad people; these people needed psychiatric treatment. They were not religious; they were simply mental cases, tremendously sick, suicidal. And the person who was their leader was a unique person. He was torturing himself, and he was the leader because he tortured himself more than anybody else; that was the only criterion of who was going to be the leader. And he was teaching others to torture themselves in every possible way.

All around the world poverty has been respected for the simple reason that people had no idea how to get rid of it. And why was it respected? If you are born poor, then nobody will respect you; if you are born a beggar, nobody will respect you. But if you are the son of a king and you renounce the kingdom and become a beggar, then the whole country will respect you. Do you know that all the twenty-four tirthankaras of the Jainas are kings who have renounced their kingdoms? Why does not a single one come from another profession? - for the simple reason, if you are already poor what can you renounce? First you have to have it to renounce. And these kings were respected because they had never walked; they were carried in golden chariots. They had never suffered anything, and now they were standing naked in the hot sun of India, burning.

The Jaina tirthankara is not allowed to take a bath; that is considered to be a luxury. A bath is a luxury! And in India, where you are perspiring the whole day.... And a naked monk perspiring the whole day, and India is a country full of dust - he remains in filth. Only once in a year - and then too, he is not to take the bath - his followers pour water on him... not to give him a bath, because that will be a sin, to drag him into luxury. No, that is not the purpose; the purpose is that they want that holy water. You cannot find more unholy water. A man who has not taken a single shower in the whole year - has been naked, perspiring, collecting all kinds of dust, and all kinds of germs - is now being given a bath, and that water is collected. And people, the followers, drink it, because it is the purest water, from a tirthankara!

These people have strange ways. In India, to avoid luxury these people are walking in the nude, eating once a day - and very little food; they are starving. You see their bodies, their faces, their eyes - everything has faded, has lost color and life. And what kind of life are they living? What are they doing? They don't create anything. They don't paint, they don't compose music, they don't create poetry, they don't make beautiful sculpture. They do not make anything. They do not discover: they are not scientists. They do not help humanity in any way. They are simply burdens, exploiting the poor and making them even more poor.

How many Hindu monks do you think there are? Five million right now. Five million Hindu monks, continuously exploiting the poor masses... because they have to be fed. The masses themselves are starving, and they have to feed these parasites. But these parasites are respected, for the simple reason that they give consolation to the poor.

Each religion has found some way of consoling the poor. Jainas, Hindus, Buddhists - these three great Indian religions, they say to the poor, "You are poor because in your past life you committed sins. Accept your poverty, just as a punishment. If you try to avoid it you will be spoiling your next life too. It is better to be finished with this in this life so that in the next life you will not be in such pain, in such suffering. The rich people are not rich because they have created wealth, or exploited, or done something; they are rich because in the past life they were virtuous. And what is virtue? To be poor, to torture yourself, to commit a slow suicide - that is virtue. "So you are fortunate that you are born poor; you have been given a great opportunity to exercise virtue. Don't miss it; accept it."

Hence, there has been no revolution in India. India must have been the oldest country which has been suffering for thousands of years in poverty - but not a single revolution from the poor, not even the idea of a revolution. Nobody in ten thousand years has even mentioned the idea that the poor should rebel against their situation. No, if you rebel against your situation you are missing an opportunity.

You will be surprised: there is a Jaina sect still alive, and very prominent - Terapant is the name of the sect. They have seven hundred monks and one head, Acharya Tulsi, who is just like a pope to the sect. I have been fighting with him for years on each and every point. Their philosophy is the logical conclusion of the theory of karma, so nobody can speak against them; I must have been the only person who has challenged Acharya Tulsi. He was surprised. He said, "But this is what the whole country believes, we have just brought it to its logical conclusion."

What is the logical conclusion? You will be surprised. They believe that if a person is drowning in the river, and shouting, "Help me! Save me!" you simply go on your way. He is suffering because of his past life's bad actions. Don't disturb him, because if you save him he will have to suffer again.

Let it be finished, once and forever. If you save him, in his next life maybe he will again have to fall in a river and drown. So why prolong his suffering? Let him close the chapter. He had done the bad action, now he is reaping the crop. He has sown the seed somewhere in the past, who are you to disturb and interfere? You simply go on your way.

And moreover, they say, "If you save him you have disturbed his life pattern; you have disturbed his whole opportunity of being finished with a bad, evil act. And you have done something more: if this man saved by you tomorrow commits a murder, you will be also responsible." Naturally - if you had not saved him, who would have committed the murder?

So you have disturbed his life, you are disturbing your life, and you are disturbing the life of somebody else, who can be murdered. He may rape a woman, he can do anything, and his whole life he will be doing something or other. You will be responsible for everything he does, you will be a partner in it. Knowingly, unknowingly, you have become an inactive partner in his life that you have saved, so why take such a risk? You are not helping him, you are not helping yourself, you are not helping anybody. You just go on your path, and let him go through whatever is his fate.

Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, all have been teaching India that poverty is a byproduct of your past life. So is richness. It has nothing to do with this life. So, revolution...? The question does not arise.

Against whom? You cannot undo your past actions, you have to suffer them; you have to fulfill the existential law of karma. You committed the sin, now who is going to suffer the punishment? You are responsible for it. Against what are you going to revolt? Against whom? The past is no more there, you cannot undo it. You have to simply accept whatsoever you have done and whatsoever it brings to you. Hence there has been no revolution, no possibility at all.

The Christians, the Mohammedans, the Jews, they all have been giving some explanation. It is not an explanation; it is just to explain away the situation, and make people feel that whatsoever is happening is destined to happen. Nothing can be done about it. It is God's will in some religions. In some religions it is your fate, which is written before you are born. In some religions it is your past life. But all the religions agree that it has nothing to do with the present, because once you raise the question that something has to do with the present, then something can be done. Then the situation can be changed.

And all these people have been giving respect to poverty. Why this respect for poverty? Why this respect for suffering? This is just to satisfy the poor man's ego, to make him feel that although he is poor, he is in a respectable situation. So condemn the rich, respect the poor: in this way you keep the poor remaining poor and you keep the rich becoming richer. The rich understand perfectly well:

"Go on condemning, that doesn't matter; in fact it is needed." That condemnation takes away the possibility of revolution.

And what is the condemnation? The rich will not be allowed in the kingdom of God. And the rich are far more educated than the poor, far more sophisticated; they understand. Most of the rich people don't bother a bit about your kingdom of God. They may go to the church, just to show that they are good Christians; to the synagogue, just to show they are good Jews; but they know perfectly well that it is just social conformity.

Synagogues and churches are nothing but social clubs, like the Rotary club, the Lions club. They help you. They are good meeting places, and they give you a certain respect. The rich man comes to the synagogue, and the poor man feels that although he is rich he is so humble: bowing down before the cross in the church... how humble. And to the rich man it is all hypocrisy. He knows it is good diplomacy: to go on pretending to be religious, to go on giving some donations to the churches, to the temples, to the mosques. It helps in every possible way. It helps his taxation problems, it helps his otherworldly problems, it helps his respectability. The poor people think that he is really a nice, good man.

And the rich man also says, "Although I am not so capable, I am a weak person, at least I can respect the saint who has renounced, the saint who has renounced things which I cannot renounce." So he goes to touch the feet of the saint who has renounced. Kings go, rich people go to touch the feet of the saint in India - just to show to the crowd that, "Although we cannot renounce, we are not strong enough, or perhaps it is not yet time for us, deep down this is our goal. If not today, tomorrow; if not in this life, then in the next life - but this is our goal."

Sheela, those people who come to visit here, they come with an idea, a fixed idea. They think this is a religious commune, so it must be like a Catholic monastery or a Hindu ashrama. And when they find it just the opposite they are shocked, and they ask you, "Why do you live so rich a life?" you have simply to tell them, "It's because we cannot manage a little richer life, that's why. The day we will be able to manage a little richer life, we will live that life. For the time being, forgive us."

I teach you to live tremendously, ecstatically, in every possible way. On the physical level, on the mental level, on the spiritual level, live to the uttermost of your possibility. Squeeze from each single moment all the pleasures, all the happinesses possible, so that you don't repent later on that, "that moment passed and I missed." Do not think of the past, because in thinking about the past you will be missing the present moment, which is the only moment, which is all that exists. And don't think of the future: of another life, of the kingdom of God - all sheer nonsense.

Tomorrow does not exist at all. It is always today - always and always today.

It is always this moment. So squeeze it. Don't leave any juice in it. Once you learn to squeeze all the juice out of it, you will never think of the past. What is there left to think of? Then the past leaves no traces on you. It is only the unlived past which becomes your psychological burden.

Let me repeat: the unlived past... those moments which you could have lived, but you have not lived... those love affairs which could have flowered, but you missed... those songs which you could have sung, but you remained stuck to some stupid thing and missed the song.... It is the unlived past which becomes your psychological burden, and it goes on becoming heavier every day.

That's why the old man becomes so irritable. It is not his fault. He does not know why he is so irritable - why every thing and each thing irritates him, why he is constantly angry, why he cannot allow anybody to be happy, why he cannot see children dancing, singing, jumping, rejoicing, why he wants everybody to be quiet - what has happened to him.

It is a simple psychological phenomenon: his whole unlived life. When he sees a child start dancing his inner child hurts. His inner child was somehow prevented from dancing - perhaps by his parents, his elders, perhaps by himself because it was respected, honored. He was brought before the neighbors and introduced: "Look at this child, how quiet, calm, silent; no disturbance, no mischief."

His ego was fulfilled. Anyway, he missed. Now he cannot bear it, he cannot tolerate this child. In fact it is his unlived childhood that starts hurting. It has left a wound. And how many wounds are you carrying? Thousands of wounds are in line, because how much have you left unlived?

So the people who come here, they come here almost dead, carrying their own dead bodies here.

When they see you alive, they are shocked. They would have been immensely happy if they had seen ascetics sitting under juniper trees, naked, starving, praying to God, who does not exist.

They would have been immensely happy, because then you were far more dead than they were; in comparison they have managed better than you. They would have respected you because you helped them to feel better. When they come to visit here, seeing you, they feel themselves empty, spent - meaninglessly. It hurts. It hurts deeply, hence the question, "Why do you live so rich a life?"

But richness is your birthright.

You have not come with anything written on your forehead. You can go to the surgeon and let him look into your forehead. Nothing is written there, and nothing is written in the lines of your hand. You come in this world absolutely like a plain, unwritten, open book. You have to write your fate; there is nobody who is writing your fate. And who will write your fate? And how? And for what? You come in the world just an open potentiality, a multidimensional potentiality. You have to write your fate. You have to create your destiny. You have to become yourself.

You are not born with a readymade self. You are born only as a seed, and you can die also only as a seed. But you can become a flower, can become a tree. And out of one seed there can come millions of seeds. Do you see the abundance and richness of existence? One seed can make the whole earth green, the whole universe green - what to say of the earth! Just one seed... how much potential is carried in a single small seed! But you can keep it in your safe, bank account, and live a life which is not life at all.

I am all for richness in every possible way. And remember that richness is possible only if you allow it in all the ways.

Do not be deceived by the old idea that you will be spiritually rich if you starve your body; if you physically torture your body you will be spiritually rich - no. It is absolutely unscientific. I have seen people who have tortured their body their whole life, but I have not seen their soul being enriched by it. In fact their soul has died long ago.

Your body and soul are not enemies. They live in harmony.

You are a harmonious whole. Everything is integrated with everything else. You cannot make one part rich and another part poor. The whole becomes affected, becomes either poor or rich. You have to accept your wholeness.

So live, and live intensely. Burn the torch of your life from both the ends together. Only such a man can die blissfully, smiling.

A master was dying... it was just the last moment. His disciples had gathered. One disciple asked, "Master, you are leaving us. What is your last message?"

The master smiled, opened his eyes, and said, "Do you hear the squirrel running on the roof?" Then he closed his eyes, died. The disciples were at a loss... what kind of message is this? "Do you hear the squirrel running on the roof?" But that was his whole life's message: just the moment. At that moment he was enjoying the squirrel. Who bothers about death? And who bothers about the last message? He was in the moment, herenow. And that was his message: don't move anywhere else, just remain here and now. Even at the moment of death... the sound of the squirrel on the roof, and he enjoyed it.

Now, such a man must have lived immeasurably, immensely, incredibly. No regret, sheer gratitude...

smiled - what else do you want as a last message? A smile is enough. And to smile at the door of death is possible only if there are not unlived moments standing in a row behind you, pulling, asking you, "What about me?"... those incomplete moments.

But if there is nothing incomplete, every moment has been completed, there is nothing; it is just silence. And if every moment is completed, there is nothing in the future either, because it is only the incomplete moment which asks for tomorrow: if you have not been able to fulfill it yesterday, fulfill it tomorrow. But if there is no yesterday incomplete, then there is no projection for tomorrow. Then this moment is all.

Question 2:

The same thing that I was saying to you: they cannot believe that people can be so happy. They cannot believe it, they have to find some explanation: "Perhaps these people are drugged? Perhaps they are hypnotized? Perhaps they are only pretending? Perhaps they have been trained, so that when visitors come they suddenly enjoy themselves, dance, sing, hug each other, become immediately loving." And the moment visitors go you are in your hell again. So once in a while, just to deceive the visitors, you come out of your hell.

That's what they are doing. They project the same thing onto you. The husband and wife quarreling... a neighbor knocks on the door; immediately something changes. The quarrel stops, they start smiling. The neighbor cannot see that they were just a moment before ready to kill each other; he cannot conceive of it. And he knows that's what he has been doing, but still he cannot conceive of it.

He is deceiving his neighbors; everybody is deceiving everybody else. He kisses his wife every day when he goes to the office, and he knows the kiss is phony, it does not mean anything. He has to do it. If he does not do it, then there is trouble. So it is better to do it and get finished with it - the sooner the better. He rushes to the office, as if there is something great going to happen. There is nothing great going to happen, only an escape from that ugly home: the wife, the kids, and the whole business of continual quarreling, nagging, jealousy, fighting. He is not going to the office, he is escaping from the house.

The office is good, a tremendously good help. At least he can fool around with the secretary, who looks as if she is of another world: no nagging, no quarreling. But get married to her... and people do that. In America, I think three years is the average time for people to change their job, to change their wives, to change their husbands. In fact, even three years is a long time. The honeymoon finishes very soon. And after the honeymoon it is all hypocrisy. Those people smile; those people laugh; those people go to parties with beautiful clothes, hiding, just wounds inside.

When they come here and see you all happy, how can they believe it? And when they stay here for longer times, two days, three days, four days, then they are even more puzzled, because for one hour you can pretend - they know how to pretend, and how to be nice - but two, three days continuously? And three thousand people? Impossible! There must be some trick behind it. These people are hypnotized.

But if hypnotism can give so much happiness, why don't you get hypnotized? It is strange, because if hypnotism can give so much happiness, then what is wrong with hypnotism? It is a simple process.

Get hypnotized! Who is preventing you? You want to be happy, and hypnotism is a very simple method.

But have you seen people who are hypnotized? They walk like zombies; their eyes don't have any luster. They may smile, but their smile will be just like Jimmy Carter's - just an exercise of the lips.

I don't know whether it is right or not, but I have heard that his wife used to close his mouth every night, because even in sleep... the whole day practicing, the muscles have become accustomed.

Have you seen his picture lately? No smile at all - he looks like another man, suddenly aged at least ten years. Where has that smile gone? It was phony. It was American.

Hypnosis can give you a smiling face, it can give you a sad face, it can give you an angry face, because hypnosis is only a simple method of putting your conscious mind to sleep. Then you are under the power of the person who has hypnotized you. Then whatsoever he orders... he says "Smile," you smile; he says "Weep," you weep. But who is hypnotizing anybody here? Who is ordering anybody, "You smile, you laugh, you weep, you do this, you do that"? They don't know what hypnosis is.

Drugs can make you happy; they can also make you unhappy, because no drug is guaranteed to give you happiness. The drug can only magnify your mood. If you are unhappy, you will be more unhappy with the drug; you will have nightmares. If you are happy, you will be more happy, madly happy. But a man who is happy under a drug you can immediately detect, for the simple reason that his happiness will be tense. It is just forced by chemicals on him. His face will be smiling, but as if somebody is putting a gun behind him and ordering him, "Smile, otherwise I am going to fire."

Chemicals can force you, but the forced smile, the forced happiness will show the tension. And it can last only for hours, and then you will fall back into a ditch, deeper than you were before, because all that tension has tired your whole system. All that happiness, which was false and forced and chemical, has taken even the little bit of natural happiness which was in you. And once it is gone you will fall into a deep darkness. And with drugs you will become addicted, so soon you will need more quantity, then more quantity, then more quantity, and a moment comes....

In India, we have experienced everything in these thousands of years. There are monks in India who can drink any amount of alcohol and it does not affect them, any amount of marijuana and it does not affect them at all, they remain just simply the same. The only thing that in the end they have to try when nothing else affects them is a cobra snake bite. So they keep cobra snakes with them. On their tongue they will take a bite by the cobra which can kill you - but to them it just gives a little.... What drugs give to you, only cobra poison can give them - and sooner or later they become accustomed to it.

In ancient India every kingdom used small girls, beautiful girls - they were called vishkanyas, poison girls; from the very first day of their birth they started to give them poison, small doses with the milk.

By the time they became young women their whole blood was poisonous. Snake bite will kill the snake, not the girl. And these girls were kept as detectives, or as murderers. If the king wants to kill another king, the neighboring king, he simply sends the girl, and the girl is so beautiful that the king is bound to get interested in her. Just one kiss from the girl and that is enough; the king is finished - not even a bite, just a kiss.

These people in your question cannot believe it, for the simple reason that they have never known happiness, simple happiness. They have known happiness which is caused by something: they win a lottery - for a few moments they are happy; they fall in love with a beautiful woman - for a few days they are happy. But they have never seen anybody happy without any reason - no lottery, no falling in love... and people are simply happy. Yes, I can understand their difficulty. But you have to help them to understand that happiness needs no reasons. Unhappiness needs reasons; happiness is simply natural.

It is one's very nature that one should be joyous.

To be unhappy, reasons are needed; but just to be happy, no reasons are needed. Happiness is enough unto itself. It is such a beautiful experience that what more do you need? Why should you need any cause for it? It itself is enough; it is a cause unto itself.

But it will take time for them to understand. Don't be angry with them if they cannot understand; just feel compassion for them, be loving to them. Help them to be happy with you, so they can have a little taste of happiness without drugs, without hypnosis, without any reason.

And remember, happiness is infectious. So just, if you are happy, pull them within yourself; when you are dancing, pull them within yourself. And perhaps, without their knowing, they may start dancing, and may catch themselves dancing, and be surprised by what has happened.

When you are singing, pull them within yourself. Let them stand; if they stand like a dead pole for few minutes, don't be worried. They are not dead, life is still there. You just dance around them, then fresh life may start arising in them; they may start dancing and singing with you. And unless you make them experience that happiness happens without any cause, they cannot understand. There is no way to convince them logically - but existentially you can convince them. And that's the whole purpose of the commune.

Three thousand people are a tremendous force. Pull those people within yourself. In the beginning they will be resistant; don't be bothered, don't take any note of their resistance. They are doing it without knowing that they are doing it. Don't take any notice, don't pay any notice. They think that to be serious is something respectable; let them think that.

You just dance and sing and enjoy, and soon they will be taken over. That's how we are going to take over the whole of America!

Okay Sheela?