Contentment is a state of consciousness

Question 1:

No. The religions of the world have tried to create the contented man. The contented man is really the repressed man. He has all the desires, all the ambitions, but he is repressing them. He is very disturbed inside.

So I cannot say that the contented man is the alternative. I say contentment is the alternative. Don't misunderstand me. The point is a little delicate.

Contentment is a state of consciousness. And when there is contentment, there is no man, no woman. There is no ego, there is no "I." There is only contentment.

It is just like when you are silent. Is there a silent man? No, there is only silence. When you are in meditation, is there a meditator? No, there is only meditation. You disappear, you have to disappear, because you are discontent, you are disturbance. You are anguish, anxiety, despair.

Christians say that there is only one sin God will not forgive, and that is despair. Perhaps that is the only statement I can agree with - not with the idea of God, but that despair cannot be forgiven.

Despair simply means all these things together: anxiety, anguish, discontent, frustration.

Contentment is the answer. But the religions have been trying to create a pseudo type of contentment. They tell you that if you are poor, you are blessed; be contented with it: "God must have a design behind it, and you will be rewarded soon." If there is any reward in the future, then your contentment is false. You are really suffering and waiting for the reward.

All the religions have been giving you rewards - or punishments. If you don't listen to them, you will be punished; if you don't follow them, then you are bound to go to hell. And the Christian hell is the worst, for the simple reason that you will be there for eternity. It is so illogical, so absurd, that even an idiot can understand it.

Christianity believes in only one life - that means seventy years, eighty years, a hundred years. In a hundred years can you commit so many sins that the punishment will be for eternity, forever? Even Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse-tung - all three combined cannot manage to commit so many sins.

Bertrand Russell is right. He says, "If I count all my sins that I have committed, and also count all the sins that I wanted to commit but have not committed, even then, four or five years in hell would be enough - more than enough."

Do you know the psychological fact, that when you are in pain each moment becomes longer? Have you been at the bedside of a dying man in the night? It seems it is not going to end ever.

Time is a relative phenomenon; it changes with your psychology. In pain, despair, anguish, it moves very slowly; in utter despair it seems that the clocks have stopped. When you are happy, blissful, time moves faster. Suddenly time appears to have wings. When you are with a friend, hours pass, and it seems you have just met. When you are with your lover, your beloved, then the night becomes very short. In fact, life seems so small to a lover that seventy years look like seven days or seven hours.

Each moment in hell - Bertrand Russell is not aware of it - will be an eternity unto itself, what to say about being in hell for eternity? And what sins have you committed? Not many people are murderers, not many people are thieves, dacoits.

What sins are you committing? Even to call them sins is wrong. They are only mistakes - human, expected. Because you are not all-knowing, mistakes are bound to happen. Because you are not omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, mistakes are bound to happen. To err is human. Anybody claiming infallibility is a criminal. Perhaps that is the only sin that you can commit.

The religions have created a false contented man - false because the man is trying to be contented, waiting for the rewards in heaven, in paradise. He is repressing here. He knows this life is small, much has passed, the remainder will also pass. He has become accustomed to its pain, its suffering, its frustration, its poverty. And deep down there is great hope that soon he will be in the blissful paradise - and forever.

Have you ever considered that any pleasure, any happiness, if it continues forever, will not remain happiness anymore? Just think... kissing your woman forever. You will curse God.

Change is beautiful, it keeps you moving. But the old religions are against change, they preach permanent things. And there is nothing which is permanent except change, because anything permanent becomes dead. If you are permanently in heaven, heaven will turn into hell. The very idea of permanence is non-existential.

Yes, the old religions have tried to create a contented man. It is a strategy to keep the poor, poor, a strategy against any rebellion, revolution. It is a strategy to keep the suffering, suffering; to find explanations for why he is suffering. Adam and Eve disobeyed God - that's why you are suffering.

Strange logic! You have never met Adam and Eve, it is simply a myth. Have you met serpents giving sermons?

And disobedience is something very essential for every human being in becoming an individual. Not disobedience for disobedience's sake - but when you see something irrational being imposed upon you, and you go on obeying it, you are going against yourself. You are destroying your humanity, you are murdering your individuality. You are becoming a slave.

Obedience is beautiful if it is in harmony with you, with your understanding, with nature. But disobedience is also beautiful. If man had continued to disobey the politicians and the priests, we would have been in a far more beautiful, peaceful, loving world. They don't want you to disobey.

They don't want you to rebel, because of their vested interests. They want you to cling to the past, because that is the only way to exploit you.

The Hindu priest goes on exploiting millions of Hindus in the name of Krishna, in the name of Rama, who cannot be said even to be religious people - there is no question of their being incarnations of God. They have committed everything that is inhuman, ugly. And still Hindus go on worshipping them, because the priest is the mediator between the worshiper and the worshipped - nobody knows whom they are worshipping. The priest knows! The priest pretends to know, and imposes the idea on you that you don't know, so whatever he says has to be obeyed.

In this twentieth century, in India, if rains are not coming, then all over the country jagnas - fire worship - is arranged. Millions of dollars are wasted to feed the brahmins, to pay their fees, because by their ritual... which is absurd - throwing into the fire valuable food, in a poor country which is starving, and repeating mantras from ten thousand-year-old Vedas.

Nobody understands what those mantras mean. Brahmins have been insisting that they should not be written in any language other than the original Sanskrit, because once they are translated you will laugh; they are stupid. And they have no connection with rain. They cannot persuade the clouds to come; there is no relationship at all.

There are mantras in the VEDAS.... A brahmin is praying to God, "This year let your clouds rain only in my field, avoid the fields of my neighbors." They are praying to God, "My cows should give more milk, and the cow of my enemy should not give any milk." Great prayers! But in ancient Sanskrit, which is not understood, which has never been used as a language by people.... People have not been allowed to use it. It has never been a living language; it has been the monopoly of the priest.

Out of hundreds of jagnas, rituals, sometimes rains come, and they say, "Look! The VEDAS are still significant, they are not outdated. Existence still listens to the prayers."

But out of hundreds of rituals, ninety percent of the time rains are not going to happen. Then they are always ready to say that something has gone wrong. Mantras have not been chanted as accurately, as exactly as they should be. Brahmins have not been fed, have not been given their fees. Something must have gone wrong in the ritual; God is not happy.

I am reminded that when I was in Poona.... Poona has seen its glorious days: ten thousand sannyasins were always there; all the hotels were packed, business was great. Although they were all against me, they never suspected that I am a very unreliable man. One day suddenly I left Poona.

I live in the moment. I don't care for the future. For me the present is enough.

Suddenly I called my secretary and told her, "I want to leave this ugly place - dirty, full of lousy people." Naturally when I left, slowly all the sannyasins left. Now Poona is in ruins.

Just by the Poona commune there was a five-star hotel, the Blue Diamond. Before we reached Poona it was on sale because they were not making money, they were losing. It was a beautiful, big building, but only fifteen percent of the rooms were ever filled. They were not even able to pay the servants, the manager. When we were there, the Blue Diamond was overfull.

They had offered it to me, they were ready to sell it as cheap as possible. But when sannyasins started coming, and we needed space and enquired, "Are you still ready to sell it?" they said, "No, not at any price."

The owner of the hotel is one of the richest men in India, Kirloskar. He was very much against me for a simple reason: his daughter is married to Morarji Desai's son, and my friendship with Morarji Desai seems to be going on for many lives. I had to tell you this, otherwise you would not have understood.

I have heard that Kirloskar himself arranged a vedic ritual - a hundred brahmins for seven days, throwing wheat, rice, milk, butter, into the fire and praying, "Bring Bhagwan back to Poona." But it is not going to happen; there is no God who can order me to go to Poona. What I have left behind, I have left behind. I go on breaking the bridges that I pass. Once is enough-the world is vast. But Poona became a world-famous name. Now all that glory has disappeared; no vedic ritual can help it.

These religions go on giving you hope. Hope is the poison; it keeps you dragging, waiting for the moment when the hope, the promise, will be fulfilled.

Christians are waiting for Christ to come back. He said to them again and again, "I will be coming soon on the clouds of glory, with a divine body, for the salvation of all those who believe in me." He has not come, and I can say to you categorically: he is not going to come again. What did you do to him when he was here? That experience is enough to prevent him - because I know if he comes back, you will crucify him again. But the hope....

Hindus are hoping, because Krishna has promised - all these prophets go on promising - Krishna has promised that whenever there is misery, whenever there is irreligiousness in the world, whenever virtue disappears, whenever things are not as they should be, "I will be coming." For five thousand years everything has been wrong - but there is no sign of his coming back. But Hindus still go on living in hope, still they go on repeating the promise of Krishna, that soon he will be coming. This keeps people unconscious of the reality. It is opium - very subtle, very psychological.

The contented man has been created by this opium: here be contented, and there you will be immensely rewarded for your contentment. Don't be bothered about the rich and the luxurious. It is just momentary; soon the rich will be suffering in hell. Don't be jealous of them and don't be competitive with them. Be contented.

India, perhaps, is the oldest country in the world; its religions are certainly the most ancient religions.

But in India not a single revolution has happened, and it has been suffering for thousands of years.

Starvation, poverty, sickness - it has been living in a nightmare, but with the opium of hope: that the Hindus are the privileged people of God, and this is only a momentary life. The suffering is just a test of your faith. Once you have passed through the test, all the joys of heaven are yours.

That's why I said I don't want the contented man. That is false, pseudo, sick, retarded, believing in lies.

I teach contentment. And the basic principle of contentment is to drop your ego. Don't think for a single moment, "To be or not to be." Just not to be is the rule. What have you gained by trying to be? Just for a change try not to be, and you will be amazed. The moment you are not, there is contentment, there is silence, there is beauty, there is bliss.

Meditation is only a methodology to make you aware that your only disease is your ego, and your only health is egolessness.

The discontented man is suffering from his ego. He is comparing his ego with others. Somebody is more beautiful than you, somebody is stronger than you. Somebody is richer than you, somebody is more powerful than you. All around there are people who have something which you don't have.

You have to complete against the whole world - by any means, right or wrong, but you have to reach the top.

Sometimes I think of Edmund Hillary standing on the highest mountain, the Himalayan peak, Everest. There is not even space for two persons to stand together. And whenever I think of it, I think of poor Edmund Hillary. He must have looked silly. Now what to do? You have reached the top of the world, but what now? Jump and commit suicide.

Whatever you can attain, you will remain discontented.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not a very tall man, he was only five feet five inches. But I don't see any problem. I am five feet five inches. I have tried to figure out why he was puzzled; I am not puzzled.

Even if I were seven feet, my feet would touch the ground. At five-five they still touch the ground, so what is the problem? But Napoleon was very much disturbed, because his soldiers were taller than him, his bodyguards were taller than him. That was giving him a continuous feeling of inferiority.

One day it happened, he was trying to put a nail in the wall to hang a picture. His hand was not reaching to the right spot, and his bodyguard said, "Sir, you need not bother about it, I can do it - I am higher than you."

Napoleon Bonaparte imprisoned that guard, and told him, "You used wrong language. You are taller than me, but not higher than me!" That poor guard had unconsciously used a word that touched a deep wound in Bonaparte. Bonaparte had everything, but discontent was there.

There are ordinarily two types of people in the world: the discontented and the repressed discontented. I need the third type of man to evolve: the man who has no ego; hence, he cannot be discontented.

Contentment is not something to be practiced. When discontent disappears, you find contentment has always been your nature.

Do you think a small bush is discontented because just by the side of it a tall cedar tree is standing, reaching to the stars? Do you think a small rose bush is discontented? There is no discontent in nature anywhere, except in the mind of man. It has been created by the politicians, by the priests, by the educationalists. Every child is being told to come first.

My father was a very simple man. He was not even aware - because he had eleven children - who was in which class and where. If some visitor, some guest asked him, he would have to call me and ask, "In what class are you?" He never asked me, "Have you passed or failed?"

When I came first in the whole university, I thought, "He will be happy, I should inform him." I told him, "I have come first in the whole university."

He said, "So what! That simply means your whole university is full of stupid people; otherwise, how could you manage to come first?"

I said, "That seems to be right" - and I threw the gold medal given to me by the university into the well.

My father said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I am simply destroying the gold medal, because I don't want to be first amongst thousands of stupid people. I am perfectly okay as I am."

He said, "But don't burn your certificates. You will need them for employment."

I said, "Okay. For employment I will need them, but the moment I leave employment, the first thing I am going to do is to burn them all" - and that's what I did.

For nine years I was a lecturer in the university. Then one day I left, because when I can share my silence, my ecstasy with millions of people, why should I waste my time with a dozen students, teaching them something which is of no use, something I am against?

I had to teach Aristotle, and I think Aristotle is one of the most criminal minds in the whole of history.

But I used to say that too. I would teach Aristotle, and then I would say, "Now, what I feel about Aristotle I have to say to you."

Aristotle created a logic of duality: yes and no, and there is nothing in between; either something is or it is not. This is not true.

Life is a rainbow... all the colors.

Between yes and no there are many stages.

Life cannot be divided and cut into two separate parts. Life is an undivided rainbow - one color melting into another. Yes and no are two ends of the same rainbow, two colors of the same rainbow.

They are not opposite to each other - that is Aristotelian logic - I say they are complementary to each other.

But it was a tedious job, first to teach Aristotle and then to contradict him. And my students became confused. They complained to the vice-chancellor, "What are we going to do? This man is strange. He teaches Immanuel Kant and contradicts him, he teaches Hegel and contradicts him. How are we going to answer in our examinations?"

The vice-chancellor told me, "You are creating trouble for those poor students."

I said, "I am not creating any trouble, I am simply giving them the whole picture. Now they can choose. To give them only one side just to avoid their confusion is cheating."

Mulla Nasruddin was made a judge. The first case came before him; he heard one side and started writing the judgment. The court clerk could not believe his eyes. He whispered in Nasruddin's ear, "What are you doing? You have not even heard the other party."

Nasruddin said, "I am not going to allow myself to be confused. Right now I am perfectly clear. Why should I listen to the other party and be confused?"

I told the vice-chancellor the story of Nasruddin. I said, "Do you agree with Nasruddin?"

He said, "You are just impossible. Do whatever you want to do." But I could not manage to remain confined in a university when the whole universe was available to me; soon I left. The first thing I did was, I burned all my certificates.

I left Poona forever. Now they are praying for me. When I was there, they were trying to throw me out. Now they know all the joy and the dance and the beautiful people from all over the world no longer come there; they are coming here.

Had you ever heard about Oregon before? It never existed. It has come to life for the first time, and you have brought your joy, your meditation, your contentment.

My sannyasins are contentment, not contented men. My sannyasins don't care about politics. I have sometimes out of necessity to force them. Look at poor Krishna Deva. I had to persuade him to become mayor of Rajneeshpuram. Somebody has to be mayor. If you find somebody not dancing, looking sad, you have found K.D. Nobody is interested in politics here, nobody is on a power trip.

Contentment is a state of consciousness.

I teach contentment.

And out of contentment comes real progress.

The discontented man has created the world - ugly, disgusting. This is not progress. The repressed, so-called contented men - the monks of all the religions - what progress have they brought to the world? Yes, they have contributed something: homosexuality, lesbianism.

Homosexuality, lesbianism, are very religious matters, because when you confine only men in a monastery, and you confine only women in a nunnery, what are they going to do with their sexuality?

- which is natural, simple, not a sin. You are born out of it.

Everything in existence is sex energy. Yes, it can be transformed, it can be raised higher, but you cannot deny it. The contented man created by the religions has denied it. But your denial will not make any difference to your physiology, your chemistry, your hormones. Your body is neither Christian, nor Hindu, nor Mohammedan. That's why the same medicine works for all; otherwise there would be a Mohammedan cancer, and a Hindu cancer, and they would have different treatments for them. Your body is part of existence, it is existential. And my philosophy is pure existentialism.

Homosexuality and lesbianism were born in monasteries. This is their contribution. AIDS is their contribution to the world - real progress! Who had heard about AIDS before? A great invention!

What have they contributed to the world? Neither the discontented man nor the so-called contented man have given progress. Progress is possible only out of contentment.

Just for a moment think that there is no ego in you, that you are simply nobody, and you will feel so clean, so pure. And out of that cleanness, purity, you will start growing, growing to be what your potential is. You may become a painter, you may become a musician, you may become a poet. You may become anything - a scientist, a dancer - but it will come naturally to you. When something grows naturally in you, there is progress. And if the world can be rich with music....

I say to my people, "Don't listen to Jesus, who says everybody has to carry his cross, no." I say to you, "Everybody has to carry his guitar." Why carry a cross when guitars are available?

Just grow to your potentiality - not according to any discipline, because then you will never be yourself; not according to any dogma, because that is distracting you from yourself. Without any dogma, without any religion... can't you have a little courage just to be yourself? Part of this vast universe, nobody special.... And you are in for a great surprise.

Yes, there have been painters before: Picasso, Van Gogh, and hundreds of others. But have you ever thought that the paintings of Picasso are sick, insane? If you go on looking at a painting by Picasso, continuously for one hour sitting before it, meditating over it, then you will know what I mean. This is not a painting, it is a vomiting! That man was crazy, he vomited.

Of course, if Picasso had been a contentment, a painting would have grown; it would not have been insane and crazy. Looking at it, you would have felt a serenity descending upon you. Watching it, you would have felt peace surrounding you. But this is not possible with Picasso's paintings - he is a very discontented man.

This is not possible with George Bernard Shaw's books. You cannot find a bigger ego than George Bernard Shaw. He writes a play of fifty pages and gives it a one hundred fifty page preface. Can you think this man sane - a small play needs such a big introduction? Something is wrong with the man.

When he got the Nobel prize, one day he remained silent, made no comment. He was in the headlines of all the third-class newspapers of the world. The second day, he rejected it; he said, "I don't want to receive the Nobel prize because it is far below me! Give it to some amateur writer, a beginner. I have passed that stage long ago." Again he was in the headlines.

It was an insult to the Nobel prize committee, which is presided over by the Norwegian king or queen.

From all over the world, all the royalty, all the significant, powerful, important celebrities, thousands of telegrams poured in to Bernard Shaw, saying that this was an insult to Norway, an insult to the king, an insult to the Nobel prize committee.

He waited for two or three days, made a great fuss, and finally agreed to accept it. And all these days he was in the headlines. He accepted the Nobel prize - that was a great relief for all the royalty, and all the presidents, and all the premiers. And the next moment he donated it to a society; again he was news.

For almost two weeks he maintained himself as the most important news in the world, because it was discovered that the society to which he had donated the prize was his own society - he had named it the Fabian Society - and he was the only man in the society. He was the president, and he was the secretary, and he was the membership.

Again he was in the news. And when he was asked why he did it, he said, "When you get a Nobel prize you get headlines for just one day. I managed to have myself in the headlines all over the world for two weeks. Nobody can beat me!" His ego was like a balloon which went on getting bigger and bigger.

These people cannot create real art. Their art is going to be a reflection of their mind.

Progress out of contentment will be totally different. Poetry will arise in you, just like a rosebush grows. It will give flowers to the world, and the fragrance - and without any claim for any reward, because contentment is its own reward. What more can you want than to come to fruition, to flowering? What can give you more blissfulness than just to grow into your real potential?

I do not promise anything to you. I have no theology of hell or heaven - those are all bogus, created by fools for other fools. In my vision the very contentment is the reward, the very silence is the reward, the very meditation is the reward.

And nobody can feel inferior to you. A contented man, if his contentment is of the old pattern, is going to feel either inferior or superior - which are not different, they are two sides of the same coin.

I have heard.... Three Christian monks met on a crossroad. One of them said, "I highly appreciate your monasteries, but our monastery is more scholarly than your monasteries." Remember the "more."

The second one said, "That's perhaps true, but my monastery is more ascetic. I have every respect for your monasteries" - this is all garbage, this respect, it is all phony - "but as far as ascetism is concerned, as austerities are concerned, you come nowhere close to us."

The third one said, "I also have great respect for your scholarship, for your austerities, but in humbleness we are the tops."

"In humbleness, we are the tops"! I am not talking about this kind of contented man. A real contentment will make you humble, but not the tops. Humbleness will come naturally to you. A real contentment will give you, without any effort, a respect for all that exists. It is not etiquette, it is not British; you will simply respect. How can you disrespect?

A tree, a bird on the wing, a cloud just floating, a river flowing to the ocean, a child smiling; an old man with all the experience of life; a child with all the freshness of life....

Whom can you disrespect? How can you feel superior to anybody? Can you feel superior to a rose?

Can you feel superior to a bird on the wing? How can you feel inferior to anybody? You have all the contentment, all the serenity, all the silence. Where can that dark wound - inferiority - exist in you?

You are all light.

This is the man who can bring beauty to the world - songs of silence, out of silence; really authentic poetry. This man will transform the whole nature of science. Progress will not stop, but it will have a different dimension to it.

Now the whole of science is devoted to destruction. Albert Einstein cannot be forgiven; he was the man who wrote to President Roosevelt that the atom bomb can be created, and that it is the only way to defeat the fascist forces in the world. He repented his whole life, but that repentance cannot restore Hiroshima. It cannot give life back to thousands of children, women, men, trees, in Nagasaki, in Hiroshima.

Einstein was an unconscious scientist - it was out of discontent. Basically he was a German, but unfortunately a Jew; he had to escape from Germany. He was doing the same work for Adolf Hitler.

If he had remained in Germany, perhaps there would have been no Nagasaki, no Hiroshima. There may have been London, New York, Washington, Moscow, but not Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Einstein escaped out of the fear that because he was a Jew he might get into trouble. And as a revenge against Adolf Hitler, he wrote the letter to President Roosevelt. He was not aware of what he was doing. He created the atom bomb, and he awoke only when Nagasaki and Hiroshima were finished. But it was too late.

I don't teach you repentance. Christians teach you repentance - naturally, because they don't make you alert, aware, meditative, contented. So out of your unconsciousness, out of your discontent, out of your tense mind, out of your anxiety, you are going to do something for which you will repent later. But it is always too late! It may help you to feel less guilty, but that does not change anything in existence; you have committed a crime. And Albert Einstein understood it. Before his death he was asked, "If there is another life after death, would you not like to remain a physicist?"

He said, "No! I would rather be a plumber, but never again a physicist."

This kind of science will disappear. Out of peace, the whole dimension will change. Progress will not stop, but progress will be for the benefit of humanity, for the benefit of the whole existence.

Science is capable, if it is in the hands of contented, meditative people, of feeding the whole earth abundantly, of creating everything that is needed - not just for survival, because survival is not life.

Life has to be overflowing, it has to be luxurious. A rosebush just surviving somehow is not going to give you roses.

The earth can become abundant with everything. Science just has to be creative and not destructive.

A contentment inside you will not allow you to be destructive.

If all the scientists of the world simply revolt against the politicians, the world will see a tremendous transformation. But there are very few scientists who have guts, because their guts have been destroyed by their educational system.

I am reminded of Sakharov. He was given the Nobel prize because he was the best physicist of his time. But he was a Russian. He was director of the Academy of Sciences in Russia, the highest post for a scientist - position, respect. The Russian government did not want him to receive the Nobel prize because it comes from capitalist countries, and in the Russian mind - particularly in the communist party and the people who are in power there - it is a kind of bribe, in the name of a prize.

They do the same on their own, so they know; they give the Lenin prize in capitalist countries. And by giving the Lenin prize they are bribing the person to reveal secrets. So they don't want any Russian to receive the Nobel prize, because that way he becomes sympathetic towards capitalist countries.

Sakharov is really an individual. The whole communist programming has not been able to destroy his spirit. He went against the Russian government, knowing perfectly well what had happened before to those who had not listened to the Russian government. Two other scientists had been given Nobel prizes before Sakharov. They did not listen to the government; they accepted the prize.

They were not allowed to go out of the country to receive it; on the contrary, they were imprisoned, tortured - and Russia has really progressive ways of torturing.

For fifteen days those two scientists were kept awake. They were given injections so they could not fall asleep. The mind is a very delicate thing; if for two weeks continuously not a single moment of sleep is allowed, the person starts losing his rationality, sensitivity. After fifteen days he has lost all interest in science. After twenty-one days he has lost interest in his family. After thirty days he has lost all interest in himself; the mind is dismantled. And then he is brought before a court. Of course, the court judges him to be mad.

First you make him mad, and then you bring him before a court! This had happened to those two scientists, and because they were mad and dangerous, they were both exiled in Siberia. Nobody knows what happened to them.

Sakharov knew what he was doing: when he accepted the Nobel prize the same would happen to him. And he accepted the Nobel prize, and the same happened to him. He was immediately removed from his power and position. His car was taken away.... A car is a great luxury in Soviet Russia, because only very powerful people can have their own private vehicle. Everybody else has to use the public system - buses, trains.

I am against communism, because if a person is deprived of his private possessions, something of his individuality dies. His private possessions are a kind of safety around him, that keep him alive as an individual.

Sakharov's salary was cut, his car was removed, he was not allowed to go out of Russia. And then finally he was sent to Siberia. He is still alive. The best physicist of the world is simply rotting in Siberia! - and nobody bothers about it.

Just this incident of Sakharov should have been enough for all the scientists of the world - not only of Soviet Russia - to simply disconnect themselves from their governments. And if the politicians are so interested in fighting, they can have wrestling matches and you can enjoy it. They can have boxing matches, and you can enjoy it. If those fools insist on fighting, perfectly good. The Soviet prime minister wrestles with Ronald Reagan - enjoy it, there is no harm. But these people should not be given power to destroy the whole humanity.

My people cannot in any way create anything that will be harmful. They can create only something which will be a joy to see. They have created this small commune which has become a nightmare to the politicians of America.

We are not doing anything except making this land, which has remained barren for years, green again. We are dancing, singing, meditating, farming, gardening. We are not doing any harm to anybody. Even deer understand it, but the attorney general of Oregon cannot understand it. You can see in the evening, deer moving on the road without any fear. You go on honking your horn and the deer does not care. He knows these people are not destructive.

My own peacocks in my garden make me come here late sometimes. They will not move from the road, they will walk just ahead of me. When I go back, they are all ready just in front of my porch, dancing. I have to stop the car and wait till they decide to give way to me. They know perfectly well nobody is going to harm them.

Deer have come, birds have come. Even the poor juniper has become a rich tree. When I came here these junipers were just dying, somehow managing at a survival level. The juniper is a very strong-willed tree. Where nothing else can exist, the juniper can. But no birds to sing, no people....

You have to understand: this existence is a cosmos, it is a deep harmony. When people moved here, suddenly birds started coming, deer started coming. Even junipers understood the presence of my people. They are far greener, far thicker, far bigger than they were when I came here.

There is a deep connectedness in life. You cannot live without trees, trees cannot live without you.

When you inhale, you need oxygen; when you exhale, you exhale carbon dioxide. The tree does just the opposite: when it inhales, it takes in carbon dioxide; when it exhales, it exhales oxygen.

Life is a harmonious whole. Everything is connected with everything else. The smallest leaf of grass is connected to the farthest star, a star you cannot see. Harming a small grass flower, you are harming the whole existence, because nothing is separate.

Contentment brings you insight into this wholeness. And I call only that man holy who understands this wholeness of everything. I call that man holy who can understand that sex and silence are not separate, that sex and meditation are not separate. Nothing is separate. Everything is woven into everything else. All colors are mixing with each other.

I have an idea - I'm just waiting for the right time. I would like my sannyasins to wear rainbow clothes. But I have to wait a little and keep you in red clothes for two reasons: one, to shock the fools outside; and two, so that I can recognize you easily. But before I leave this world, you will be in rainbow clothes.

Question 2:

I am not even a Christian - why should I like to be a martyr? The word looks beautiful, but the reality is that those who would like to be martyrs are suicidal.

Jesus was suicidal; he was trying in every way to be crucified. He was not even courageous enough just to shoot himself. Why unnecessarily make other people responsible for your crucifixion? If Jesus had shot himself, the Jews would have lived in peace without any trouble. But he forced the Jews to do it.

It is to Sigmund Freud's credit that he discovered a suicidal instinct in man. It was always accepted that man has a deep lust for life; he wants to live and live, and live forever. But in existence nothing exists without its opposite. That was the discovery of Sigmund Freud, and it is absolutely right - with the life instinct there is a death instinct. There is not a single man on the earth who has not at least once thought of committing suicide. From where does that idea come?

But a man who is contented has all the bliss that is possible. Both the instincts simply disappear.

He has no desire to go on living; he has no desire to destroy himself by his own hands or by other people's. For him this moment is all. Whatever happens in the next moment is welcome.

I have no desire to be a martyr, but if somebody kills me, what can I do? It will be absolutely their responsibility. As far as Jesus is concerned, Jews are not absolutely responsible. Ninety percent of the responsibility is Jesus' himself. If Mansoor is killed by the Mohammedans, even more - ninety-nine percent of the responsibility is al-Hillaj Mansoor's.

If Gandhi is shot, one hundred percent of the responsibility is his, because before his death he is reported to have said many times, "Now I don't want to live. It will be a mercy if God takes me away from this body, because I have become absolutely useless."

Strange.... To think in terms of use is ugly. Neither do you have to use anybody - because to use somebody is to exploit them - nor do you have to allow anybody to use you. That is your birthright.

Gandhi wanted to die, and he was praying for death. That makes one thing very clear. When Nathuram Godse shot him.... It is good that Nathuram has "Ram" in his name: Ram was Gandhi's God.

Nathu is meaningless. In India, if a couple finds that their children die and don't survive, then something has to be done. So when a new child is born, either his nose is pierced - a hole is made so a ring of gold can be put through - or his ears are pierced and rings of gold are put in.

Nathu means nose, so if the nose is pierced, Ram becomes nathuram. If the ears are pierced, Ram becomes kunchiberam - kun means ears.

In fact he was just a "Ram" with a pierced nose - Gandhi's God. And when Gandhi was shot, he put his hands together, looking at Nathuram Godse, and the words he uttered were, "Hey, Ram." He was waiting for it; that's why I say one hundred percent. And he was rejoiced - he wanted to die, because his ideology was no longer listened to. Nobody was ready to follow his suggestions.

The country had become free. Gandhi was needed when the country was under slavery, under British rule, because he controlled the masses. The superstitious Indians cannot be controlled by logic, by reason. They can only be controlled by their emotions, sentimentality, superstitions, religiousness, and all kinds of rubbish. Gandhi was an expert in rubbish.

I have no desire to live the next moment, or to die the next moment. I have known and experienced everything that is possible. If existence allows me one moment more, I will create a little more disturbance in people. If existence feels that I am no more needed, it is perfectly good to go into eternal sleep. To me, death is not going to be a death, because I am not going to be reborn.

You are reborn if you have committed mistakes, and if you feel guilty. Albert Einstein must have been reborn, and of course, as a plumber, because the last desire becomes the seed for your future life. I have no desire. My death will not be a death.

In India we make a difference. When an ordinary man dies, it is death. When someone who has attained enlightenment dies, it is samadhi, it is not death. And the word "samadhi" is immensely significant. Samadhi means: one who has attained the ultimate harmony with existence.