The Light of Disbelief

Discourse date: Fri, 14 August 1969 00:00:00 GMT

This discourse was given to students.

Just as an individual becomes old, the society also becomes old. Just as an individual dies, the society dies and civilizations also die, but no individual can refuse to become old or refuse to die.

But a society, a civilization, can refuse to become old and to die if it so desires, although the society which refuses to die will cease to have a new life. It is easy to refuse to die, but if a new life is not available a sort of dead life begins.

The civilization of this country has long since ceased to have a new birth. We are as we have been for thousands of years. Even if there are a few changes, they have come from outside; changes have not happened from within ourselves. If we have progressed it is due to our being pushed by others, not to our own inner push. We have moved ahead out of compulsion, but our soul is shackled to our past.

Our society is as good as dead. Since ages sprouts of new life have ceased to grow. But we are neither unhappy nor anxious because of this; indeed we feel happy and fortunate because of it. We go on continuously claiming that there are no scriptures older than ours, that no temples are older than ours. We never feel concerned for the fact that all this fuss about our being ancient is the proof of our having ceased to have a new life.

Those who are capable of being new let the old disappear; those who are unable to have a new life go on praising the old and go on telling old stories. They go on carrying old names and old scriptures in their heads. But this is all dead weight and results in destroying the soul and dignity of the country. Therefore there is no sadder community than ours on this earth. Our sadness is like that of some old ruined society; our mind has been like some old building, old and dilapidated, full of layers of dust and rubbish.

Where the streams of life cease to flow, the life becomes sad, stinks and becomes dirty. If we dam the flow of a river, the water will become dirty and stinking. It is not only that the streets of our town are full of filth and dirt, but the condition of the whole country has become like those streets. The streets of the town look dirty, but the streets of the mind cannot even be seen. A day may come when we shall clean the streets - if not today then tomorrow - but since the streets of the mind cannot be seen, who can clean them? The outer roads may soon become clean, but the inner roads will remain dirty. Just by the outer roads becoming clean, nothing of the inner can change. In our country many new things are coming and we are becoming modern. New children are being born daily, but our mind continues to remain old. It is thousands of years old, not just ordinarily old.

If we study the rules and regulations of our society, we will find that we have not made any progress since Manu Maharaj. Manu happened about three thousand five hundred years ago, and the Shudra that was given birth by Manu is still living. Even today the talk of making a Shudra free of his stigma is considered revolutionary. If the talk of removing the stigma of a Shudra is still considered revolutionary, it means that the Shudra is still very strong and very much feared by the higher castes.

How can a rule made by somebody three and a half thousand years ago, continue to live, and cannot be removed?

It is not known at what point of time in our history we decided that a man lives according to his fate. Man has changed the whole world, including those things that were considered predestined; the longevity of man is increased, the fatal diseases have been cured, many other things have been changed - but India continues to live according to its fate. Our attitude towards destiny has not changed. Even today we can see a student studying in a university, showing the lines of his palm to an astrologer sitting on the footpath, and paying twenty - five paise! What will happen to this country if a university student still shows the lines of his palm...? Sometimes he denies this fatalism, but at the time of his examination he can be found standing in front of the Hanuman Temple with folded hands.

Our mind is very old. Our exterior is becoming new. Our mode of clothing has become as new as it is anywhere in the whole world, but our inner being is old. Our equipment has become new - not because of us, but because of the pulls and pushes of others, unavoidably, out of compulsion. But in the inner life, where there can be no pushes from the outside, where nobody is persuading us, we continue to remain old.

I was staying in Calcutta with a doctor who had passed his F.R.C.S. examination in England. He was very famous in Calcutta. One evening, when he was taking me to a meeting and when we had come out under the porch of the building, his daughter sneezed. The doctor asked me to stop awhile because of this sneezing: it is considered a bad omen.

I asked, "What relationship could there be between my going out and her sneezing? Why should the sneezing prevent me from going?"

He said he knew the causes of sneezing, but still where was the harm in waiting for a minute or two?

I said it was not a question of my waiting due to her sneezing, but that the belief in this superstition stops the whole country's soul from beginning some work. This belief is dangerous. Waiting for a minute or even for an hour is not the question; the question is of our thinking and believing in such a superstition in the twentieth century. When a doctor believes it, it becomes highly objectionable.

But our ways of thinking have become so rigid that we do not change. In fact we have ceased to think - for thousands of years we have been taught not to think. A person who thinks is not considered good, because he is creating a spirit of rebellion. Those who do not think are like sheep rather than men, following one after the other: the only reason for their walking is that the one in front of them is walking. The whole crowd is continuing to walk that way.

If some Indian begins to think and asks, "Why are you walking like this?" the reply will be, "My father also walked like this." This is not only our humiliation, but it is the humiliation of our forefathers also.

Even if we regress for a thousand years the reply will be the same. Because this was being done then we are continuing to do like this.

Now people know how rain happens. Rain has never come as a result of doing religious sacrifices, nor can it ever come, but we are still trying to get rain through religious sacrifices! The whole world knows that if water is not coming from the tap, no religious sacrifice can bring it. How much more difficult to get rain from the sky. If well water has dried up, it is not possible to get water in the well through a religious sacrifice. The sky is far away - how can we make it rain? But people in India are still trying to get rain from the sky through religious practices! However, through scientific means there are countries who get rain from the clouds and who can drive away the clouds if they do not want the rain.

But we can do such things only if our old ideas can be removed. We think it is only necessary to do incantations in the presence of the holy fire; we think only by throwing rice, wheat, ghee etc in the fire - things which are in short supply - more such things can be had. This has never been possible.

Otherwise, we have done so many religious sacrifices that India should have been the richest society in the world. We have not heard that America ever did any religious sacrifices, but a lot of wealth rained from the sky there. Perhaps in Russia, they would send such believers in sacrifices to mental hospitals. And we? we go on doing such sacrifices since the last five thousand years, but nobody is ready to question our madness. If now the government of Gujarat does not allow such sacrifices, destroying grains, it is not because the government believes that the sacrifices are wrong or sinful or irreligious, but because the government does not have enough wheat to fulfill the commitments of rationing. The government does not allow burning wheat in the sacrificial fire just because of the commitments of rationing. The government should say that even if we do have enough wheat, we will not allow such sacrifices. But that much courage the government does not have; therefore they say, "We do not have enough wheat to fulfill the rationing commitments."

But the people doing such sacrifices are clever. They say, "We will do sacrifices without wheat - but sacrifices cannot stop. We will do incantations and put something else in the fire instead, but sacrifices will continue." Those who are against such sacrifices do not give convincing arguments; they do not challenge them to justify such things in a laboratory. How can world peace be achieved through such religious sacrifices? One person is restless: can he attain peace through a sacrifice?

Go to a mental hospital: prove that a madman can be cured through a sacrifice. Where the whole world has become crazy, can it become peaceful by your sacrifices? Nothing is clear. The greatest damage is not done because of wastage of wheat; as long as we remain involved in the wrong remedies, right solutions cannot be found.

If people believe that by tying an amulet diseases can be cured, medical science cannot be developed. The damage is not caused by the amulet as such - maybe one man may die or ten men may die - but the greatest damage will be the nondevelopment of medical science. Medical science can be developed if we really look for the causes of the disease - from where and why the disease arises. We can develop medical science through scientific means, not by asking an exorcist or a charmer or a scholar of scriptures. To cure the disease, we must know the causes of the disease and destroy those causes.

In America, Sweden, Switzerland, and other first world countries, the percentage of killer diseases has been reduced so much that one can say that man was never so healthy before. The longevity has increased. In Russia during the 1917 revolution, the average age of a Russian was twenty- three years! We can say that after every year they added one more year to their life. In Sweden and Switzerland the average life expectancy is eighty-two years. The scientists and thinkers there say that if we wish there is not much difficulty in giving man an average life span of one hundred years.

When that one hundred years becomes the average, you can find an old man aged two hundred and fifty years. In our country, where the average age is only thirty years, we can find an old man of ninety years - three times the average - so it should be easy to find an old man of three hundred years if the average age rises up to one hundred. At this time in Russia there are over one thousand people who are a hundred and fifty years old.

The whole world is changing everything, but in India the traditional structures are decisive. We go on saying that we are short of wheat and clothes and we say it in such a way that we look helpless.

We are starving and naked since the last five thousand years - but our way of living is such that we may continue to remain so for a further five thousand years. In this the fault is not that of our land or the sky, but of our wrong way of thinking.

In 1940, Russia burnt wheat instead of coal in their trains, because they found that coal was more valuable than wheat. Wheat can be grown every year, but for coal to form in mines takes lakhs of years. Therefore coal must be burnt economically. Now in this world, in one country people burn wheat in their train engines and in another country people do not have enough wheat for their bellies!

In such a situation, one is forced to wonder what is the matter.

... And it is not the case that America was rich from the beginning; the wealth has been created there during the last fifty or sixty years. Otherwise they were as poor as we are. And remember, in America, the American Indians, the natives, are still poor. The richness is not just due to the land in America.

One German thinker, Count Keyserling, returned after visiting India. In his book he has made a strange observation. When I was reading it I was surprised. He has written that India is a rich country where poor people live! I was thinking, "How can this be? If the country is rich, how can the people remain poor, and if the people are poor, how can the country be called rich?." Then I realized that he was just being ironical. He was just trying to say that the people can become rich, but the intelligence, the mind and the thinking of the people living there is for remaining poor. They cannot become rich. If this country can get people like the Americans to live here, this country will become richer than America. We have everything, except the thinking mind. Our habits for thousands of years have been not of thinking, but of avoiding thinking. When it is a question of thinking, we would rather avoid thinking! If we have a problem we will go straight to the temple, but will not think of a solution for a problem.

Recently I was in Bihar. Thousands of famines have happened in Bihar since the time of Buddha, but the people of Bihar have done nothing. There is a lot of water underground in Bihar, but they do not dig wells. Every year they are waiting for the famine and begging for help to go on living. They do nothing! When the famine comes, they accept it and beg. When there is famine, the leaders of the whole country begin to ask for donations and help. When the famine is over, nobody bothers.

The same situation continues, there will be no change.

One eminent economist wrote a book called 1975. He has announced in that book that between Date: Fri, 1975 and 1980 00:00:00 GMT X-Location: there will be a great famine in this country, when ten to twenty crores of people may

die. He has forecast a great famine in India the like of which has not been recorded in the history of the world. But we will read this and continue to live as before. We shall see when the year 1978 comes. We will pray to God, make big religious sacrifices. God is always on our side! If God is not on our side, at least the sadhus and saints, the agents of God, are on our side. We will again pray to them. We are always praying to them, and they are always misguiding us. They will again go on telling us the same things as they have done thousands of times before, without any results. But we are not ready to think! Whenever calamity comes, the same teachers come and we go on only asking them! We have never thought of applying our own minds to the situation.

Now we will have to think; otherwise, in the near future we will not only be poor and hungry but our soul will also become poor and hungry. It can also happen that compared to those who have gone before, our soul and consciousness can fall backwards. If we continue to live like this it is very possible that there will be no difference between us and the primitives living in the jungle. During the next fifty years we may reach the condition where the present difference between us and the primitives will be the difference between America, Russia, Europe and ourselves.

Even now the whole world is afraid of us, because they see that the vastness of our begging country is so much that it is very difficult to satisfy the needs. Now they are also not ready to do anything.

Twenty years ago they had thought that if they helped us, everything would be alright. But with their help we only continued to increase our population. We are aggravating our problems. Now for them the situation will become very unhappy, if the poor Eastern countries, especially countries like India, go on increasing their population, and if they go on living without adequate food and clothing - because it is difficult to tolerate such great misery and poverty in one part of the earth, when the other part is rolling in riches.

... But what are we doing?

If we look at the problems of our life all around, if we take a newspaper and read, I do not think we are even thinking about any of the big problems of our country. What are we thinking? We are arguing about the water of the river Narmada: does it belong to Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat? It is very difficult to find as foolish people as us. Our newspapers are full of controversies regarding a district remaining in Mysore or Maharashtra! Bullets will rain on innocent people! Our problems are not problems but diseases. We are not trying to solve the problems of life that are facing us. When these problems catch hold of us, we cry and weep; then there is only one remedy and that is to pray to God! When we could do something, when we had time to solve the problems, we wasted our time in controversies, and when we become helpless later we have no alternative except to pray to God.

Remember that even God does not listen to those who only pray. He listens to those who work so hard that even God feels that something should be done. If there is a God anywhere, he helps those who help themselves.

Swami Rama had gone to Japan. There was an old German aged ninety traveling on the same boat.

At that age he was learning the Chinese language. It is difficult to learn Chinese; perhaps there is no other language on earth as difficult as Chinese. The reason for this is that the Chinese language has no alphabet; it is a pictorial language, there is a picture for every word. If you desire to express a quarrel or a fight there is no word for it, but there is a picture showing two women sitting under one roof which means quarrel. Thus at least a lakh of words will have to be learnt just to have an ordinary acquaintance with the Chinese language. That man aged ninety trying to learn Chinese! - is he mad? Ramatirtha was wondering what could have happened to that old man. When he was studying since sunrise, he was not aware when sunset happened; when it was dark and when his old eyes were tired, he would return to his cabin.

After about three days Ramatirtha asked him if he ever heard that it takes about ten years to learn the Chinese language. He asked him what was his age. The old man replied, "God may be keeping count of my age; I have no time to waste knowing such futile things."

Ramatirtha said, "It is okay, but it will take ten years to learn and the possibility of your surviving ten years is small."

The old man said, "My experience of ninety years tells me that I have survived ninety years though I could have died any day; I have deceived death for ninety years. Because I have not died so far, I can live still more. But may I ask what is your age?"

Ramatirtha was very much embarrassed, because he was only thirty. He told him he was thirty years old. Then the old man said, "My son, I would like to tell you why your country has become old.

You are not doing anything in your country except awaiting death. You are bound to become old."

I feel that if there is a God somewhere, he will be merciful to this old man who is so persevering.

If there is no God we don't think of him; but if there is a God, he must be considering giving him a longer life. I heard later that he had lived fifteen more years. Not only did he learn the Chinese language and not only did he read Chinese books, he left behind a book written by him in the Chinese language! Ramatirtha died after only two years, but that old man lived a life of a hundred and five years. I believe that his liveliness played a valuable role in making him live longer. God should help him live longer - if there is a God somewhere - because he was struggling so much for life.

Elsewhere in the world people have converted deserts into green farms, and in India our farms are slowly getting converted into deserts. In many places God made everything grow where nothing ever grew before. Where there was no rainfall he let rivers flow abundantly; he made many things happen where nothing had ever happened. Where there were sand dunes yesterday, where man had never entered, he created beautiful townships. Therefore, if God is there somewhere, he must be listening to the prayers of the working people.

Our idle prayers are not listened to - to this day, nowhere are such prayers listened to, but still we go on making idle prayers. No, such idlers are never heard and can never be heard. But we are not willing to think, we have given up thinking. Our children also do not think. We just go on walking like a crowd of blind people. Is this right?

I am asking this question everywhere in this country, whether this is right and proper that we go on walking like blind people. Should we make some decisions or not regarding our life? Should we strive or not to make our life better?

But no, we have reached such conclusions that the question of making our life better does not arise.

We have invented such explanations for our present condition of life which tell us that there is no need to think, there is no need to work, and there is no need to change anything. If somebody is poor, we say he is poor due to his fate; if somebody is rich, we say he is rich due to his fate. Then we should conclude that all unlucky people are born in India, and God is very pleased with America, and he allows all lucky people to take birth there. If somebody is poor, we say he must have done some wrong deeds in past lives; if somebody is rich, we say he must have done good deeds in his past lives. Does it mean that God considers this country to be hell, and goes on sending all sinful people here? It should mean therefore that all sinful people are born in India and all virtuous people are born somewhere else. Does it look right that all sinful people should be born here?

No. Such conclusions are wrong. We have to think about eradicating poverty. We have not yet done so. We have invented only one explanation: that a person remains poor due to his past deeds. Now there is no need to think, the matter is over. Now you try to improve your next life. You cannot do anything in this life about your past life, because of which you are now suffering. Thus past is past; about the future, what can we do now? Therefore today we have not to do anything, not to think anything. In this way we have saved ourselves from doing anything today!

We will have to give up such suicidal thinking. I do not say that what I am telling you is right; I am only saying this, that whatsoever anybody may say, nothing is going to be right just by anybody saying it. All of us will have to be ready to discuss and deliberate together. Every question will have to be raised again and again. All these questions should be put before the whole country. We should not let future generations be brought up in the same belief system. We have believed in everything for a long time; we have now to activate the process of thinking.

Our method of teaching in schools and colleges is such that when the students come back after their education, they do not have the capacity to think. When they come out after learning science, the structure of their mind continues to remain old. They catch hold of science like blind people; they are not aware of the fact that to catch hold of science like blind people is dangerous, because science is changing daily. When we come out of universities, or while we are still studying in universities, science continues to change. It is no use catching hold of science like blind people. One has to go on thinking and contemplating so that one can do something directly to solve the problems of life.

If in such a big country as ours the process of thinking becomes free, perhaps we shall be capable of changing our life in all directions. There is no necessity for us to remain poor. It is our ignorance that keeps us poor. Now we do not have to suffer from so many diseases; it is only our ignorance that has kept us sick. There is no necessity to make this earth such a hell. Science has opened up such great possibilities that if we think properly we can make this earth a heaven, with the help of new knowledge.

But this is not happening, because our minds are old and the structure is absolutely closed. All minds are closed, just as if a person closes all the doors and windows of his house and sits hiding within. He opens neither a door nor a window; neither sun rays enter nor fresh air comes. He is decaying inside and dying. We are closed in the same way.

No. Our mind must be open in all directions. We should be able to doubt the Gita, we should be able to doubt Ramayana; then our mind will be open and free. Then we will begin to think. But we say Mahavira was omniscient; whatsoever he has known is true for all time. Whatsoever is written in the scriptures about the moon is right - even the Shankaracharya says such things! He says that in the first place actually nobody has stepped on the moon, it is all false rumors; secondly, even if they have reached the moon, it is not the same moon referred to in our scriptures. That moon is far far away. Just see to what extent we have closed our minds!

One old woman came and asked me, "Have you heard what the Shankaracharya has said?"

I said, "I have heard, and if our country is sane enough, mental treatment of such people will have to be done. "

That old woman said, "What are you saying? He is our world teacher. Whatsoever he says should be right."

I said, "It appears right to you. It will continue to appear right to you, because your mind is as closed as his."

But this will not do any more. If not today, then tomorrow they will be proved mad, along with the whole groups of their followers. But we go on and on unchanged!

Very recently I was in Patna, where I was sitting with the Shankaracharya on the same podium.

The Shakaracharya said that it is not necessary to educate women. Why? - because Hinduism has given so much respect to women that there is no necessity to educate them! He said one more interesting thing, and everybody continued to listen to him without protest. He also said that in the West, if a woman wants to be a doctor she has to study medicine; our Hindu religion is so great that if a woman gets married to a doctor, everyone calls her 'doctorani'! There is not so much necessity to learn. And the women who were sitting in front of the dais clapped and praised the Shankaracharya.

They were very pleased to know how easy it is to become a doctorani in India. It is not necessary to learn medicine, it is enough to become a doctor's wife! If we are thinking this way, are we thinking or not thinking at all?

We are listening to such things and continue to listen to such things! We are doing such things that the whole world laughs at us. The whole world wonders what has happened to this country. Perhaps because the whole country has ceased to think for a long time, its mind has got rusted. It happens.

If you stop walking for a long time or if you bind your feet for two years, your legs will not be able to walk. In this the legs are not at fault. If for two years a man remains in darkness and closes his eyes, his eyes will not be able to see light; seeing light, the eyes will close. The eyes will lose their capacity to see. The light will become frightening. If a race or a society or a man ceases to think for thousands of years, the ability to think is also lost.

Whatsoever we do continues to be carried on; whatsoever we do, the edge sharpens. In whatsoever we continue to do we become more proficient and the skill gets developed. Whatsoever we do not do remains undeveloped. We have ceased to think, so our thinking has got rusted; therefore we are not able to think about anything. We are standing in the stream of life helpless, powerless, and getting pushed and pulled. If slavery comes we become slaves, if independence comes we will become independent. The independence is also taken for granted, like the slavery. Nothing happens within us. If tomorrow slavery comes we will again become slaves. We are not worried. If we fall sick we accept it; if we become poor it is okay; if there is famine and we die it is okay; if there are floods it is okay. Whatsoever comes we accept.

Are we human beings, or have we become like machines that whatsoever happens we allow it to happen and go on just looking at it? Have we got no challenges in life, have we no intention of changing our lives? Have we lost our soul within? We are talking about soul continuously - it seems soul is something available readymade in the market that we can just go and buy. Or did we just read the scriptures and get the soul? Or repeating "Rama Naama," did we get the soul? The soul is available only to those who continue to fight against the whole ugliness of life, all the miseries, ignorance and darkness of life. Soul is the fruit of struggle and strife.

Those who lose truth have only stories to tell. If you meet a poor man he will only be talking about money; if you meet a sick person he will be talking about health. Nobody talks about health except those who are sick. A healthy man just lives; when does he have time even to talk? Does a sick person ever sit quietly and talk about health? He reads a book on naturopathy to know what health is, how to become healthy, what is the definition of health. Once health is lost it takes time to again understand the meaning of health. A healthy person lives health - has he time to read about health?

When one loses his soul he goes on talking about soul everywhere. When God is lost there begins talk about God. One talks about whatsoever is lost.

But since we go on talking a lot about the soul there is a feeling that we are knowers of the soul. No, we are not knowers of the soul at all; we have not done anything towards knowing the soul. We have neither thought about it nor have we struggled for it. When we have not accepted any challenge for it, how will the soul be born? We have never called out for it. We just go on talking about the soul.

I will tell you an event and finish my talk.

A friend of mine sent me a pamphlet from America. In that pamphlet there was an amusing article.

In that article jokes about many races of the world were told. It was written that if you make an Englishman drunk he will become silent; you cannot make him speak a word. Actually in reality an Englishman is always silent. If you happen to travel with an Englishman in a train he will not even recognize your presence; even if you are together for twenty-four hours he will remain silent. He is like a man closed into himself: he will not talk to you. But when you make him drunk this quality of keeping quiet will be enhanced and he will not talk at all. If a Frenchman is made drunk he will begin to sing and dance, as is the case in life: he goes on singing and dancing. If a Danish man is made drunk he will become voracious by attacking food. As he is, when a Danish man sits for taking meals, it is not easy to move him away from the dining table.

In the same way jokes about all races were written in that article, but there was no mention of Indians. My friend therefore asked me, "What will happen if an Indian is made drunk?"

I replied that the answer is well known: if an Indian is made drunk he will begin to preach about the soul and God. Actually, due to his poverty an Indian cannot easily get liquor, so he has to talk about the soul and god even without liquor. We Indians are a talkative community; we have stopped living and doing because we have ceased to think.

Thinking is the most distinctive quality of man, the most foundational quality. Thinking is supportive of the very life of man. Only because of his ability to think is man different from animals. If man ceases to think he will become like an animal. The condition in India is very much like that. If you go to a small village you will find the people sleeping just where a cow is standing, where a buffalo or a bullock is tied to a pole. The man is just sleeping with them. If you look deeply you will see a great similarity between man and animal. They are staying together, and go on living together quietly. And people calling the cow "mother" certainly are not expected to be different from the offspring of a cow!

By giving up thinking we have given up the path of endeavor for humanity as a whole. We are just standing like animals. No development is happening, no progress - nowhere to go, we are standing silently, static and dead. This should not continue for long. It is not right to continue like that anymore. Let us change this. To break this habit a crowd is not necessary. Once every person begins to think for himself, all around thousands of things will begin to happen. When you begin to think, you will throw away an amulet that was tied on you foolishly. If you begin to think, you will ask if quarrels about a temple and a mosque can ever arise among good human beings? You will ask only if you think - hundreds of questions will arise if you think. And when questions arise, answers will have to be found. If you do not get answers you will have to be ready to give up that which is wrong. If you get answers, what is right will be in your hands.

Thinking is arduous, a difficult process. Thinking is not very convenient. Not to think is very convenient. If somebody is thinking for us, we just believe in him; we have nothing more to do.

We are in the habit of having all our work - our thinking - done by others... and we are using the work of those who lived long long ago. Ages have passed since Krishna. That poor Krishna may have done the thinking; we just carry on with what he had thought! We read the Gita; our great saints are looking into the Gita for answers. When some question arises in life we open the Gita and look into it. Has Krishna completed all thinking for us? And our work is only to continue to live on that borrowed thinking? If we do not begin to think we will not be able to create the Krishna within us. By listening to the Gita, Krishna will not be born. Only those who are able to think as quickly and clearly as Krishna will be able to give birth to Krishna-consciousness.

I am telling you this in the hope that perhaps this hammering may activate the process of thinking within you. I do not want you to believe in what I say. Those who want you to believe in them are not strengthening your thinking process, but are cutting the roots of all thinking. Do not believe any such talk. We have been believing in the talks of such people since lifetimes. Search within yourselves now. Make a firm decision in life: If I have no thought of my own, my life is uselessly spent. Before death at least I should have some thinking about myself, so that when I am brought before God I should be able to say that I had thought like this or that; I had lived according to my thinking; that my life was not just a borrowed life. Otherwise, if we come before God as we are now, there will be nothing else but the talk borrowed all along.

God may ask you, "What is your own? Have you yourself thought of anything? Have you lived your life? How much consciousness have you developed ?"

We would then have to reply, "No, we were only reading the Gita and the Ramayana, and we were believing in priests and were following the mahatmas. Where is the necessity for us to think? There are many mahatmas in our country; they are doing our work."

God will say that he had questioned those mahatmas also; they had replied that they were following some earlier mahatmas!

You have always been following someone. Why have you never thought for yourself? Those who do not think for themselves can never be themselves; they do not develop their being. Such persons cannot become individuals. One who has escaped being an individual, can he ever be religious?

How will he know the truth? How can he gain admittance into the temple of God? The first condition for getting admitted into God's temple is to be an individual. You will have to take something of your own to offer. God will ask you to surrender: you must have something of your own to surrender.

What have we got to surrender? Ask this question to yourselves. Search within and think, and perhaps you may find the answer. In this country, if only a few people begin to think the state of being old and archaic may drop, a new soul may take birth. The inertia will go away and consciousness may begin to develop. If that happens, perhaps we shall be able to stand on this earth on our own legs. Others have already set their feet on the moon and have come back, whereas our feet are shaky even on this earth, afraid of falling down. Others have already stood firmly on the moon - but what about us? We are not even able to stand on this earth! This does not become us. But we are clever: we do not see our condition, but go on repeating our old talk about being the world teachers.

We claim that we are the leaders of the world, that the whole world is looking at us for guidance!

Nobody is looking towards anybody; everybody is looking towards himself. Do not be in any such delusion that the whole world is looking towards you. Nobody has time to either look at you, nor is there any such necessity. Nobody is waiting for you to get knowledge.

Our present condition shows that we are under deep layers of ignorance. Who is going to come to you for knowledge? Is there any evidence about your ability to guide? Can those who are begging for their daily bread, ever give anything? Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not lie to ourselves.

Let us understand our condition and think.

I am addressing this to the new generation, to the young children, to the youth and the students. Do not just believe in the talks of your parents and teachers, but think for yourself. If you think they are right, you may agree; otherwise, fight. Do not just believe.

In the Sorbonne University in France, the students have written a few words on the front of a building.

Efforts have been made to remove that writing. The students however have refused to remove that unique writing. It is written there: "Professors, you have become old." The writing is very prominent and many efforts were made to remove it. The professors quarreled with the students, but the students said, "Every professor should pass by and read that he has become old, and he should kindly bear in mind that he should not make any attempt to make the students old."

Therefore, think a little....

I am grateful to you for having heard me peacefully, with so much love. Finally, I bow down to the God residing within all of you. Accept my greetings.