Blessed are the rich

Question 1:

Jesus!

Jesus used to teach his disciples, particularly the two fishermen who became his first disciples, how to catch men instead of catching fish. I teach my people how to catch clergymen, instead of catching simply men and women. This is going to be a great feast. We are not cannibals, otherwise we would have tasted Christianity, but still, some vegetable salad can be made.

I have heard a small story.... In a school the teacher was telling the little boys and girls how God created the world, man, woman, and how he created these two sexes in trees, in birds, in animals.

And when she was telling all this - that there are two sexes, man and woman - a small boy stood up.

He said, "No! There are three sexes: man, woman and clergyman." It is a totally different species.

I have read his letter - it is so long, many questions in it. Start asking them one by one.

I MEAN THAT YOU HAVE FALLEN DOWN IN THE SAME PIT, HOLLOW, LIKE OTHER GREAT MASTERS AND LEADERS, TO TELL BULLSHIT ABOUT OTHERS. 2 2 First, he was sad because I criticized Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa wrote to me saying that she prays for me every day, and asks God to forgive me. Now, this is an absolute trespass.

I wrote her back, "Who are you to pray for me? - and to a God who does not exist at all. And even if he existed, you have no right to pray for me! I don't want any interference in my life, in my ways of thinking. This is violating the freedom of the individual. You stop praying to God - at least for me. I am perfectly happy, and my happiness is based on knowing that there is no God, that man is free."

God was a monopolist, a fascist, an imperialist; he dominated everything. If God is there, there is no possibility of freedom; you are just puppets in his hand. He wants to create you - he creates you; he wants to destroy you - he destroys you. There is no court of appeal against him. He is the final and absolute authority. Christianity is an anti-democratic religion. And all the religions who believe in God are fascist. They have accepted slavery.

The clergyman... I don't know how to address him, Mr. Clergyman or Mrs. Clergyman - because his sex is neither. So please forgive me, I will just use the address, clergyman.

These people are strange - so programmed, so conditioned that they cannot listen to the truth. I have no enmity with Mother Teresa. But if she writes to me that she prays to God to forgive me.... I have not committed any sin, I have not committed any crime - why should I be forgiven? And I have not given her my power of attorney to pray for me. And if I say this, you are disturbed that I criticized Mother Teresa.

This clergyman was leaving yesterday; he had packed, he was so angry. But then he decided to write all these questions, and decided to listen to what I am going to say. I think after today it will be difficult for him to remain one more day.

Mother Teresa has many orphanages in India. Why in India? Why not in Christian countries? A simple fact.... Those orphans in India she collects from the streets - urchins - and then converts them to Catholicism. It is a politics of numbers. In each of her orphanages there are hundreds of orphans who are being taught Christianity - Catholicism more particularly.

Those orphans are born either of Hindus or Mohammedans; none of them belong to Christianity.

But to increase the numbers of Catholics in the world - because numbers mean power - she feeds them, clothes them, provides medical facilities; hence even stupid Hindus and Mohammedans think she is a saint. She is a sheer, dirty politician.

One man with his wife, from America, went to Mother Teresa to adopt a child, because they were childless and the doctors had said that there was no possibility - physiologically they could not have a child; it would be better to adopt one. Mother Teresa said, "You can choose. We have beautiful boys, girls - seven hundred." But she forgot to ask what their religion was. She assumed they must be Catholics; only Catholics come there.

And as she remembered she had not asked their religion, she asked them. They said, "We are Protestant Christians." Now there was a great silence. She said, "Excuse me. Right now we don't have one orphan to give you." Just a moment before there were seven hundred orphans; now there is not even a single one. And the man and the woman, the couple, were neither Mohammedan, nor Buddhist, nor Hindu. They were Christians - but they were not Catholic Christian, they were Protestant Christian.

They wrote a letter to the newspapers describing the whole story, and saying, "This is strange. We were turned away, we were not taken in. We had no idea that those children are only provided for adoption by Catholics."

When I wrote to her, asking, "What is this nonsense? What is going on?" she tried to convince me that what she had done was right. She said, "Yes, there were orphans, but because they had been brought up according to Catholicism, they would not fit into a Protestant family."

Cannot I be allowed to ask her, "Why in the first place have they been brought up according to Catholicism? They were not born Catholics. If you want to teach them religion, then the Hindu orphans should be taught according to Hinduism. If they are Mohammedan, they should be taught Mohammedanism.

"And what a poor argument! You can convert a fully grown-up Hindu, who has lived his whole life as a Hindu, into a Catholic, and there is no problem. But those small children who have been taught the Catholic catechism cannot be accepted in a Protestant family which is Christian? There is not much difference between Protestantism and Catholicism. So where is the problem?" She stopped writing to me.

And if I say these things publicly, this poor clergyman is offended. He wanted to leave.

Read the first question again.

I HAVE MADE YOU SAD, BUT STILL I DON'T LIKE YOU TALKING BULLSHIT ABOUT MOTHER TERESA. 3 3 I like it! And I am going to talk as much bullshit as possible. And what is wrong with bullshit? It is divine. And all this bullshit will fall on the clergyman, remember. He will not be able to find his way back to the church.

What do I care whether you like it or not? I am not here to convert you, convince you. And I am not talking to a single religion. Here are people from all religions, from all countries, all ideologies.

And if my talking against Mother Teresa hurts you, it is your problem. It is not hurting anyone else.

And why does it hurt? You should ponder over it. Why does it make you sad? It is your programmed mind. And my effort is simply deprogramming. So whenever I deprogram a Hindu he will also think I am talking bullshit.

You should rather contemplate why it hurts you. You are not Mother Teresa. And whatever I am saying, I am giving you absolutely valid arguments. If you were really hurt, sad, you should have given arguments in favor of Mother Teresa. You have not given a single argument in your long letter.

You don't have any! You cannot deny what I am saying, that's what makes you sad. Try to deny it, accept my challenge. It will help you. Whatever I say, I say with full conviction, and I give you my argument, why I am saying it.

To trespass somebody's garden is illegal, to trespass somebody's house is illegal. And she is trespassing my being - praying for me, giving me no answer. This is her answer - praying for me, to a God in whom I don't believe.

Please try to find something in favor of Mother Teresa.

HE SAYS, "I LOVE JESUS MORE THAN ANYONE." 4 4 He also says - you have forgotten - that I have fallen in the same hollow pit as other great masters and leaders. I am neither a great master nor a great leader. I am a simple, ordinary man. I don't want to be categorized with all those fools.

Being simple and ordinary has one beauty: you cannot fall. To fall, one thing is absolutely necessary, that you should be high, great, on the top of the world. I do not belong to that category. I live a simple, human life, with all its weaknesses, frailties, mistakes. I cannot fall, there is nowhere to fall. If you want to fall, first go up a ladder. I have been walking my whole life on the plain ground.

This is strange. First you make me a great master, a great leader, just to make me fall from there.

I know enough logic.... From the roots I cut things. I don't claim to be great. Only people who are suffering from an inferiority complex claim to be great masters, great leaders of men. I don't have any inferiority complex. I don't want to be superior to anybody in the world.

Whatsoever I am, I am tremendously happy and at ease with it. So please show me how I can fall.

An infallible pope may fall, but I am fallible, and not a pope. But I cannot fall in his pit. And why does he say I have fallen in a pit? - because I am "talking bullshit about Mother Teresa." Yes, there is a mistake. I should talk cow dung about Mother Teresa. Bullshit is male; cow dung is female - and she is very old, dried cow dung.

And I can say these things because I don't want any respectability from anyone. The clergyman will be in a difficulty because he has dealt with people whom you can exploit by the simple strategy of giving them respectability. When you give respectability to somebody, he becomes afraid to say anything that may destroy his respectability.

I do not care at all what people think about me. I am not dependent on them. If I hanker for respectability, then certainly I will not say anything that may destroy my respectability.

I am going to say exactly what is the truth to me. If it brings me notoriety - it has brought me notoriety in these thirty years - I enjoy it.

HE SAYS, "YOU TELL ABOUT JOY, LOVE, LIFE, CELEBRATION, FREEDOM, ET CETERA.

MY QUESTION JUST NOW IS, CAN YOU FEEL IT IN YOUR OWN LIFE - REPEATEDLY SHOWING YOURSELF IN ROLLS ROYCES AND FEMININE CLOTHES, SAYING, REPEATING WORDS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, MOTHER TERESA ET CETERA, HAVING BODYGUARDS - ANY FREEDOM, CELEBRATION, JOY?" 5 5 It really amazes me to know that clothes also have genitals! This clergyman is saying that some clothes are female and some clothes are male. Mr. Clergyman, are you nuts? Clothes are either comfortable or not comfortable. I use what is comfortable to me.

In fact, just on the way coming here I enquired about the clergyman to my secretary: "Has he got a beard and a mustache?"

She said, "No."

I said, "That is feminine."

Why have you cut your beard and your mustache, which God has created in you? That's what so many men have done. Just think of a woman with a big beard and mustache. And it is not only a mustache and beard....

As I have told you, Christianity is the worst of all religions - I never say anything without supporting it with valid reasons. Before the communist revolution in Russia, there was a big Christian sect - Russia was one of the most orthodox Christian countries. The most famous and the most respected Christians were those who used to cut off their genitals. Every year men would cut off their genitals, women would cut off their breasts.

Whatsoever wrong communism has done in Russia, at least one thing good they have done: they have stopped these idiots doing such an utterly insane thing. And this gave those Christians respectability; they became saints.

I looked at my dress and I could not find that it is feminine; it is comfortable, it is beautiful. I am not a soldier who has to be in clothes so tight that just his tight clothes make him kill somebody, so tight he just wants to get out of the clothes.

I am a lazy person. My clothes are nothing - just a loose robe. Without any effort I can take it off, put it on. And strange, that a clergyman should indicate to me that this is feminine. I am reminded... I lived for a few months in a place called Raipur in India; I was a lecturer at Raipur University. Just near my house two trucks collided and killed somebody who was crushed so badly that it was impossible to recognize who it was.

Somebody came running to me and asked me, "What can be done now? A woman has been crushed, and she has died."

I went there. I said, "Why do you say this is a woman?"

It was a Mohammedan area where I lived. Mohammedan women wear a black mask over their face and a black robe over their whole body. You cannot see a Mohammedan woman's body. She can see through small holes in front of her eyes. So they thought that this must be a Mohammedan woman. It was a man - not a man, a Christian clergyman in his black habit.

I wonder why Christian clergymen call their dresses habits, black habits. And why have they chosen the black color when there are so many beautiful colors? In fact, black is not a color at all. Black is an absence of all colors.

If you see a rainbow, there are two colors you will not find there: black and white. White is a combination of all the seven colors of the rainbow; it is the richest color. Seven colors meeting and merging create the white. And black is not a color, it is the absence of all seven colors. That's why down the centuries, around the world, death has been conceived as black - because it is the absence of life, the absence of everything.

Why have Christians chosen the black robe as their habit? They are not messengers of God on the earth, they are the messengers of death! Their black robe indicates their intention. They are all Reverend Jim Joneses; they want to turn this whole earth into a Jonestown.

He is talking about my clothes. I use all the colors. The rainbow is my love. I want finally to give all my sannyasins rainbow dresses. I am waiting for the right time. First I want you, through your red dress, to be identified: that you are not part of any old, rotten religion, that you don't belong to the blind society that surrounds you, that you are asserting your individuality.

You may have wondered why I don't use red - because I don't want you to be my imitators. I don't want anybody to say, "Why do you imitate Bhagwan?" My seamstresses - Gayan, Veena, Arpita, Ashu - I have told them to avoid red as far as possible in my clothes. I don't want you to imitate me.

I don't want you in any way to lose your individuality.

The red color is just to shock the outsiders. The color red has some mysterious quality. Nobody can ignore it; it just hits the eyes. Go in a red robe anywhere in the world, and everybody will look at you.

Even if you pass people, they will stop and look again: what is the matter with this man?

Do you know the meaning of the word "respect"? It is not honour, it means seeing again - re-spect.

The red color creates great respect.

HE ASKS FURTHER, "AREN'T YOU SPEAKING IN ONE WAY AND LIVING IN ANOTHER WAY?

I FEEL MUCH MORE FREE, JOYFUL THAN YOU, YOUR SANNYASINS - YES, EVERYONE IN RAJNEESHPURAM. WHEN I SEE YOU, I SEE A PRISONER IMPRISONED IN YOUR OWN PRISON." 6 6 Great! Then why are you here? If you think you are more happy than me, more blissful than me, more free than me, then what are you doing here? Why have you been coming here year after year, each celebration? Are you crazy?

I don't go anywhere. There is nothing anywhere which can make me happier. And what criterion are you using? When you say that you are more blissful than me, there must be some criterion, some way to decide who is more blissful. A blissful person does not go in search of bliss - and you are here in search of bliss. Why are you listening to me, wasting your time? You must be miserable. You want to get rid of that misery.

And still you address me as "Beloved Bhagwan." You don't know the meaning of "Bhagwan," it seems. It means the blessed one. There is no possibility of being more blissful then the blessed one. Perhaps your addressing me as "Beloved Bhagwan" is just Christian hypocrisy.

And you call me "Beloved." On what grounds? A man who is talking bullshit - are you in love with bullshit? A man who is talking against Mother Teresa and Jesus - are you in some way against Mother Teresa and Jesus but afraid to say so, because it will go against your vested interest? You are a clergyman - that is your job; you are getting money for it, respect for it. I am not getting anything, no salary, no money. I don't have a single cent with me. I don't have even pockets in my robe.

Twenty years ago I told my tailors to drop the pocket. It is unnecessary, because I don't have anything to put in the pocket. And for twenty years I have lived without any money. You cannot find a single man in the world who has lived twenty years without money. I have not even touched money for twenty years - not that I am against money. I have not seen a dollar yet, although for years I have been in America. And I don't think there is any possibility for me to see a dollar before I die.

You talk about Rolls Royces. I don't own them. And why do you ask about Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ, Rolls Royces? Is there some connection? There is bound to be in your mind. You seem to be jealous, utterly jealous. I don't own any Rolls Royces. Those Rolls Royces are owned by my sannyasins; out of their love they provide a Rolls Royce for me for one hour every day. I don't even know which Rolls Royce they are going to bring today, it is up to them.

And why have they chosen Rolls Royces for me, just for one hour? Because my back is bad. They tried all other cars; only the Rolls Royce seat suits my back. Now what can I do? It is the fault of the Rolls Royce people. And anyway, I am a man of very simple taste. I am utterly satisfied with anything which is the best.

But why should a clergyman be concerned? Poor fellow, he needs a four-wheeler Ford.

It is a good strategy for me to move in Rolls Royces - and not just one. I would like the clergyman to burn even more - there are ninety Rolls Royces. And it is not the end! My sannyasins are trying to have at least three hundred and sixty-five Rolls Royces, so only once in a year, for one hour, do I get the the same Rolls Royce. And I know they will be able to manage, because I am not a poor man's savior. I am the rich man's savior.

So many people are saving poor people, nobody is looking after the rich. They are completely ignored. This is inhuman. There are thousands of saints looking after the welfare of the poor. I am the only one - and I am not even a saint - who is looking after the welfare of the rich.

I will manage, if there is any heaven anywhere - I know there is none, but just for the argument's sake.... If there is any heaven anywhere, then a camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but not a poor man through the gates of heaven.

A poor man in heaven will look out of place. Only the people who have lived in luxury will be able to become part of paradise. They are already disciplined to luxury. If you have never tasted wine and you enter the Mohammedan paradise, where water is not available and you have to drink only wine, what will happen to you?

If you have been celibate, as this clergyman must be pretending - because all celibacy is pretension, you cannot go against nature.... And foolishly he has himself admitted that he has four girlfriends. To his congregation he must be a celibate man, and behind the curtains he has four girlfriends. Are you a Mohammedan, by the way? A poor man... you cannot think of his misery when he finds himself in paradise, with everybody singing, "Alleluia! Alleluia!" and doing nothing, because there is nothing to do.

I teach my people the art of non-doing - that is the preparation for paradise. I teach my people to sing, "Alleluia" - that is the preparation for paradise.

A poor man will be simply in a foreign land in paradise; he will not be able to make any connection with the situation that has been depicted as paradise. Rivers of wine, beautiful girls who always remain young... and the whole work is just to go on playing on your harp and singing.

I have heard... once it happened to a poor man. The poor man was a porter in Munich in Germany, drinking as much beer as possible, speaking language which is not included in dictionaries, fighting for any excuse - just ready to fight. By some mistake, he entered paradise when he died. It must have been a mistake - even angels of death are not infallible. Somebody else was wanted, but they took him there.

He was so miserable there! He had been a porter on the station, and he was very happy - the whole day working and then drinking, and then finding some woman. And doing everything.... In paradise there was nothing. Beer was not available. The women who were available were so beautiful he was afraid even to approach them. He had known only prostitutes, poor prostitutes; he had never known those beautiful prostitutes of paradise.

He was handed a harp and told, "Sit on a cloud and just say, 'Alleluia, alleluia.'"

He said, "This is a strange place. I was far better in my station, doing my job, waiting for the evening to go to the pub, then searching for a woman. This is a strange place. Sit on a cloud?"

He had never played on a harp, he had not even seen a harp in his life. He was so angry, but what else to do? - he started making an effort to play on a harp. It was not music, he knew nothing of music. He wanted to punch somebody on the nose. He was looking all around for this so-called God to ask, "What nonsense is this?"

In paradise you don't sleep at all. It is always day, it is always light. And he was habituated to using his language, so although he used to sing, "Alleluia, alleluia," in between he would say, "Fuck you all!" and again, "Alleluia, alleluia."

It was reported to the guard that this man is dangerous. He says loudly, 'Alleluia! Alleluia!' and in between he inserts, 'Fuck you all!' He was sent back to Munich. He was so happy you cannot conceive.

I said to you I am not a saint. To me the word "saint" is more obscene than "Fuck you all," because fucking is natural. Everybody is doing it - even the clergyman. What everybody is doing, how can it be obscene? When the whole of nature is doing it, how can it be obscene? When even your God was doing it, what is obscene in it?

But the word "saint" is obscene. You may not be aware of where it comes from. It comes from "sanction" - the pope gives the sanction to somebody, and makes him a saint. This is simply absurd.

Who can make me a saint? I don't accept anybody's authority. And a pope giving the sanction - then sainthood becomes something like a certificate.

It happened to Joan of Arc; Christians burned her alive. Christians have committed so many sins in the world that if there is any hell, it will be full of Christians: clergymen, bishops, archbishops, popes, Jesus Christ.

Burning living people, and particularly women - it seems to be a certain psychological revenge, because the priests of Christian communities were prohibited from any relationship with a woman.

They were really enraged. They wanted to do something to hurt the woman, because the woman was very attractive. Remember, whenever you are attracted to somebody immensely, you also feel to destroy that person or that thing. Why? - because your being attracted to it makes you a slave.

That's why men and women cannot live together harmoniously. Both are attracted to each other, and both are destructive to each other. All these husbands and wives are continuously fighting, nagging, harming each other in every possible way. The reason is, they are attracted to each other.

They cannot leave each other, and they cannot live together. They are in a fix.

The priest, the clergyman, is in an even more difficult situation. The woman attracts - attracts him more than anybody else, because others have some experience of woman and he has none. He would like somehow to force the woman to be destroyed, because deep in his heart is not Jesus Christ - it is Mary Magdalene. He goes on repressing Mary Magdalene by repeating some stupid prayer. But he knows perfectly well she is there, so he wants to destroy the woman.

In the Middle Ages, Christians burned thousands of innocent women - they just had to find an excuse. And the excuse was that the women were in a conspiracy with the devil.

Christians have been taught that the woman has been an agent of the devil from the days of Adam and Eve. The serpent did not approach Adam, he approached Eve. Since then the woman has been somehow in connection with the devil. In the Middle Ages the Christians accused thousands of women of having sexual relationships with the devil: "They are witches, and they are dangerous to the society. They should be burned."

They declared Joan of Arc also a witch. Of course she is one of the most significant persons who has ever walked on this earth. Single-handedly she fought for the freedom of her country, and attained freedom for her country. Certainly it gave the clue to the clergymen that she must be deriving all her power from the devil; otherwise a fragile woman, a young woman - how can she be so powerful?

This was the reward that they gave to her: they condemned her as a witch and burned her alive.

This was the judgment of an infallible pope.

After three hundred years another infallible pope reconsidered the case - because people were not agreeing with it. It was such an ugly act in the name of God. You rewarded the woman who brought freedom to the country by burning her alive? To keep these people on the side of the church, after three hundred years another infallible pope - remember the word "infallible" - declared that she is a saint.

Nobody asks, if both the popes were infallible.... Then it seems to be impossible - how are you going to manage? One declares her a witch to be burned alive; another declares, after three hundred years, that she is a saint. Her bones were dug out from her grave and worshipped.

Many nuns were burned alive, many priests and monks were burned alive, but ninety percent of those who were burned alive were women. Even nuns - they were forced to confess, they were tortured to confess that they had had intercourse with the devil. Can you see how the mind becomes perverted when you go against nature? And they were tortured so much that they had to confess.

The same tactics have been used by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, but the whole credit goes to Christianity. Torture a person - there is a limit, and then the person thinks, that there is no point in being tortured and again and again with the same question. It is better to accept it and be finished with it.

They were tortured and asked, "Have you had any intercourse with the devil?" Now nobody today can even imagine that there is a devil and women are having intercourse with him. Of course because the devil is a man - and he is not a homosexual - that's why women were tortured. And they were told, "You have to confess the reality." Finally they confessed; and their confessions are very significant to remember. Mr. Clergyman, please remember what those nuns confessed.

After the confession they were burned, because they had admitted, they had confessed that they had had intercourse many times with the devil. But what was the proof? And Christian priests have been giving them proof: the proof was that the woman said that the devil has a forked prick, so that he can enter the woman's body from both holes. Great holy people! And the women - thousands in number - confessed. They were nuns. And they were burned.

Now the devil has disappeared completely. After Sigmund Freud, he thought it was better to leave this earth. The few men - monks - who were burned, were burned because they were making sexual approaches or contacts with nuns. You call this a religion?

And if these clergymen, priests, reach heaven, where beautiful men, beautiful women, are all living in absolute freedom, with no fear of sin, with no guilt.... I have not come across a single reference that in heaven there are churches, and there are clergymen, and there are congregations. All that stupidity happens only on this poor earth.

All the priests of all the religions are looking after the poor, exploiting them, exploiting their poverty to convert them to their religion.

I am taking care of the rich. Blessed are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And of course, in heaven you will get a Rolls Royce. Anything less than that would be a humiliation of paradise, of your God himself. What do you think - which car does your God use? I think it must be a Rolls Royce.

Why is this clergyman so worried about it? It is my problem. If I have to suffer for being in a Rolls Royce and go to hell, I am perfectly happy. In fact I don't want to go to your heaven, because the best people of the earth will be found in hell, if it is there.

Where will you find Gautam Buddha? He denied God; he must be in hell. Where will you find Mahavira? He denied God; he must be in hell. Where will you find all your great painters, singers, dancers, poets, musicians? They cannot enter heaven.

They have committed so much sin in the eyes of the Christian priests, they must be in hell. You will find all the geniuses in hell - if there is any hell. Of course, there is none.

This priest, this clergyman, must have forgotten my watches, thinking that the letter is becoming too long. But what is the problem? There are a few people who write to me, but they don't know at all about my watches. This is the cheapest watch in the world. These are not diamonds, these are stones, ordinary stones. It is made by my own sannyasins, it is not a Piaget. My own sannyasins, Ajito and Bodhi, out of their love make watches for me.

And I love everything beautiful. Look at this watch! I don't make any difference between a beautiful diamond or a beautiful stone. The criterion is beauty. Yes, a few of my sannyasins allow me to use real diamond watches. I have no objection.

In Jainism, which is one of the most ancient religions of the world, in their heaven, mountains are made of diamonds, gold, silver. If in your heaven you can have mountains of diamonds, can't I have a small watch? This seems to be absolutely consistent. Be rich, be luxurious, be comfortable, because whatever you are here, wherever you go you will be able to adjust to more luxury, to a higher standard of living.

Don't listen to these idiot clergymen. If you live in a poor way.... And that's what all the religions teach - live in poverty; if you are not poor you will miss everything after life. I can't see the logic.

Here you practice poverty....

Mahatma Gandhi was practicing poverty. In his ashram even mosquito nets were not allowed; it is luxurious. And in India everywhere there are mosquitos, and particularly in Gandhi's ashram they had a great gathering - naturally, so much food, so easily available.

What did Gandhi invent to prevent the mosquitoes? He cannot allow them to be killed by Flit, because he is a non-violent man, he believes in non-violence. Mosquitoes are not to be killed, and a mosquito net is also not good, because it is a luxury. I cannot conceive, a mosquito net is a luxury?

So he told his disciples: "Before you go to sleep, put kerosene oil on your face, on your hands, or any part of your body that is exposed." Kerosene oil....

Mahatma Gandhi's son, Ramdas, used to be my friend. I asked Ramdas, "If even mosquitoes have enough sensibility not to come close to a person who is painted with kerosene oil - it stinks, even a mosquito is not ready, even though he may die without food - what about the man? How can he sleep with this smell?" But those who did that were great saints.

You will be surprised to know - particularly this clergyman - that in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram there was a man, Professor Bhonsali, who lived for six years eating only bullshit. And he was worshipped like a god. He had done a great act of austerity - just eating bullshit for six months.

This clergyman should try. At least for six days, eat bullshit, and you will forget all your Mother Teresas and all your Jesuses. And then you will remember me!

HE FURTHER STATES, "OSHO, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME PIECES OF HELL AND HEAVEN HERE IN RAJNEESHPURAM." 7 7 On one thing I can agree with you: I may have given you pieces of hell, that is my business. The other part I cannot agree with. I cannot give you pieces of heaven, you must have been hallucinating.

I know what is actually the case. Whenever I said something which was in agreement with his conditioned mind, he felt euphoric. It was not me, it was your conditioned mind feeling nourished, supported. Those were the pieces of heaven. And whenever I said something which gave you an electric shock, of course those were the pieces of hell. You cannot hallucinate and imagine shocks, electric shocks - that's why I must have given them to you.

You are hallucinating, imagining, projecting heaven. So whenever I say something which falls in tune with your conditioning, you feel great. You feel great that you are right, that your religion is right, that your BIBLE is right.

You are certain that your religion is right. You are looking for certainty, for guarantee. And strange - you are more blissful than me, and you are asking for my authority? I have never asked for anybody's authority, I have never asked for anybody's support. I have simply lived on my own. I don't belong to any religion, I don't belong to any philosophy.

It simply shows that whenever your belief system is supported, you will feel good, great; and whenever hammered, you will feel bad. But in fact, those moments that you feel I have given you of heaven are poisonous, because they are making you cling more tightly to your conditioning.

The moments that you call "of hell" are the real thing. Only those moments, if you are courageous enough, if you have guts - which is very rare in clergymen, because why should a man who has guts become a clergyman? - if you have any guts, then forget all those moments of heaven, and remember those moments of hell. They are going to help you.

My work is surgical. I have to cut so much crap which is clinging to you, and you are clinging to it. It hurts, I know. It hurts. You can forgive me for hurting you - but don't forget that this hurting is being caused by your clinging.

If you really listen to me, and you see that something is so and drop it instantly, you will not feel any pieces of hell, moments of hell. And the moment you drop all that is painful to part with, a new phenomenon will happen to you. The moments of hell disappearing will make you able to see that your moments of heaven are only hallucination. You have been drugged from your very childhood.

All religions are nothing but opium. And if you can drop both, you will be free for the first time.

You are saying that you are more free than me, you are more free than my sannyasins in Rajneeshpuram. Don't befool yourself. You say that I live in a prison. I don't live in a prison.

Yes, I live in my room almost the whole day. But the reason why I live there is because the world outside has nothing more to offer to me. And the world inside me is so rich, so overflowingly rich, that I need not go looking outside. Yes, roses are beautiful, but inside me I have seen bigger, more alive, more fragrant roses blooming. Now, what do you suppose I should do?

I am the freest man in the whole history of humanity. It is out of my freedom that I am inside my room. Nobody is preventing me. On the contrary, my personal physicians, Devaraj and Shunyo; my caretaker, Vivek; my secretary - they are all trying to get me somehow to go out.

I am trying here for you to go in!

Yes, there are guards around me, because I am not a suicidal person. I am not as suicidal as your Jesus Christ was. He had absolute knowledge that that day he was going to be caught. What was the need for him to go to Jerusalem, unless he was attracted towards death? He had a very great death instinct in him. I don't have any suicidal instinct in me. Both things disappeared together: the desire for eternal life and the desire to commit suicide. They are two sides of the same coin. I threw away that coin thirty-two years ago.

Those guards around me are not placed by me but by my people. You have to remember that I must be the most fortunate person to have so many intelligent people around me. Just look at who Jesus had: fishermen, farmers, woodcutters, carpenters. He had only one man, Judas, who was a little literate and a little intelligent; otherwise, those so-called apostles needed adult education.

I am here to share myself with you. I have no concern with the moment that has passed, and I have no concern for the moment that is coming. But my people would certainly like me to be with them as long as possible.

It is their arrangement. Not only have they arranged the guards, they have arranged every medical facility in my house, every surgical facility in my house. Any moment, if anything happens, they don't want to lose time taking me to Portland or to Bend or to Redmond. And I never interfere with anybody. If this is their joy, they should do it.

Who am I to interfere? If somebody wants to kill me, I will not interfere even in that. But if somebody wants to save me, do you want me to interfere in it? And these guards have done no harm to anybody in four years. They are just standing there as a precaution. And it is not me who is responsible for them standing there. But my people are free to do anything they want to do for me.

It would have been beautiful if Jesus had also had some intelligent people around him. Only Judas was a little intelligent, and he betrayed. Perhaps he did well, because he must have seen this suicidal instinct in Jesus. He must have seen that Jesus wanted to be a martyr, he was not going to listen to anybody. He wanted to be on the cross, because by his teachings he had not been able to convert the Jews to Christianity. He was hoping, perhaps, that what he had not been able to do, his martyrdom, his crucifixion may do. And he was right - it happened.

There is no Christianity in the world; it is only "crossianity." The cross made a great impact, aroused sympathy towards him, just as my Roll Royces and my watches arouse in you jealousy, my clothes create jealousy. But if I was hanging on a cross, then this clergyman would have been at my feet praying to God.

It is strange but true, that you are sympathetic to misery, to poverty, to sickness, to death. Have you ever thought what it means? You are never sympathetic with somebody who is blissful, happy, joyous, dancing, singing, has no worry at all, no tension. Have you felt any sympathy with that man?

Have you gone to that man and said, "I have great sympathy for you"? You would look foolish. He does not need your sympathy in the first place. In the second place, his being in a blissful state creates jealousy in you, not sympathy.

The crucifixion of Jesus created great sympathy, and out of that sympathy was born this whole cancer of Christianity.

I am not asking for your sympathy; otherwise I would be carrying my cross on my shoulders. I do not care, because to ask for your sympathy simply means that I am empty within, that I want to fill that empty hollowness through your sympathy, your love, your compassion. No.

Why do people get angry with me? Why do they become arrogant, aggressive towards me? The reason is simple. I am so blissful that only great jealousy starts burning in their hearts. You have never loved anybody who is going higher and higher in his happiness.

If your house is on fire, even your enemies will come to sympathize with you, even those who were not on talking terms with you. But if you make a beautiful marble palace, even your friends will disappear. The jealousy.... That jealousy is all over the letter of the clergyman.

FINALLY HE SAYS, "BLESSINGS." 8 8 Please forgive me, I cannot accept it. I have so much blessedness in me, I am just blissed-out. What am I going to do with a poor man's blessings? And what blessings can you give to me? You don't have them in the first place to give. This is simply egoistic stupidity.

You should have asked for my blessings. I have them and I can give them to you, or to anybody. In fact, I am simply throwing them to everybody!

Please forgive me, this clergyman destroyed your whole morning.