Prologue part 5

THESE WORDS OF Zarathustra have always struck me very deeply for the simple reason that each of the statements seems to be my own, as if not Zarathustra's, but I am speaking, because whatever he is saying is my experience, too.

I have been speaking for almost three decades. I had started with a great hope for the whole of humanity. Slowly, slowly humanity itself has destroyed it. Now, I only hope for a small fraction of humanity: I call them "my people."

Talking to millions of people has been such a painful experience, so unexpected and so shocking, because people have ears but they do not listen. At the most, they hear. They have to hear because they have ears. But for listening, something more is needed - a silent mind behind the ears, a receptive mind, non-interfering, non-judging.

Then hearing becomes listening. It does not mean that you have to agree with what you listen to, nor does it mean that you have to disagree. When the wind blows through the pine trees, do you agree or disagree? - you simply listen. When the water comes down from the mountains, dancing and singing, the sound of water is heard by you but do you agree with it or disagree with it?

The same is true about the inner experience; you are not expected to agree or disagree. If you simply listen with a silent mind, that which is true will be immediately recognized; that which is untrue, will also be immediately recognized. This recognition has nothing to do with the mind; this recognition comes from your very being.

You know the truth; you have forgotten it.

When you listen, suddenly the memory arises; that which was asleep becomes awake.

Suddenly, there is a rapport. It is not a question of agreeing; it is a question of discovering within yourself the same truth that you have heard. And if nothing stirs in you, nothing awakes in you, that means whatever you have heard has no content in it, has no life in it, it is untrue.

This will give you an idea that there are two kinds of experiencing truth: one is only logical, when the mind agrees with the argument. It is bound to be very superficial because another argument, finer and sharper, may destroy the first argument and the agreement disappears; that which you had thought to be true, is no more true.

The second is totally different. It is not a logical, intellectual, rational agreement. It is a rapport between two beings. Suddenly, a recognition arises in you: "This is my truth, too. I have not been awake about it - that's another matter - but now I have been provoked, challenged." Then it is not an agreement with me, it is your own truth. No argument can destroy it, because no argument has proved it. No logic can make even a dent in it, because logic has not been the cause of its finding.

Speaking to millions of people, it was becoming more and more clear that I am talking to the walls:

there is nobody who is listening. At the most, a few people are hearing but most of them are so full of their own prejudices, so full of unproven thoughts, they have so many beliefs without any basis in existence, that whatever you say to them is lost in the crowd of beliefs, ideas, religions, philosophies.

When they report about you, they say something absolutely different. Whatever you had said, has gone through such a distortion, so much has been left out, so much has been added to it; it has taken a totally new color, a new meaning which was not intended. So either they don't listen at al, or even if they manage to hear, it creates only misunderstanding, not understanding.

For listening, one needs a discipline of being silent, of being in the moment, of putting aside one's mind with all its garbage - making a way for whatever you are listening to. If it is true, bells will start ringing in your heart; if it is not true, nothing will happen within you. This is a different kind of knowing: through the heart, not through the mind. This is the only true way that one can understand.

It is because of this fact, that all these statements are so absolutely mine, and I don't feel they were said by a man twenty-five centuries ago.

WHEN ZARATHUSTRA HAD SPOKEN THESE WORDS, HE LOOKED AGAIN AT THE PEOPLE AND FELL SILENT. His falling silent shows his sadness; shows the hopelessness of man; shows the unintelligence of the crowd.

THERE THEY STAND (HE SAID TO HIS HEART), THERE THEY LAUGH: THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND ME, I AM NOT THE MOUTH FOR THESE EARS.

MUST ONE FIRST SHATTER THEIR EARS TO TEACH THEM TO HEAR WITH THEIR EYES?

In fact, masters have been doing exactly that: shattering your ears, shattering your mind, so that you can hear from your eyes - so that you can understand from your heart.

A great philosopher had come to Gautam Buddha to discuss truth. This was a traditional thing in the East; philosophers used to move around the land, challenging other philosophers for open discussions. Those were beautiful days, in a way; those were the days of real freedom of thought.

Every kind of philosophy, every possible conception of existence was respected, discussed - and not with antagonism. The discussion was only a means to discovery; it was done with great love, with great friendship. The one who was defeated in the discussion, naturally became the disciple of the victorious.

The philosopher, Maulunkputta, had defeated many, many philosophers throughout the country.

His great desire was to defeat Gautam Buddha, because that was the greatest name in those days. He had come with five hundred disciples and those five hundred disciples were five hundred philosophers that he had defeated. He challenged Gautam Buddha:"I want to discuss truth." Gautam Buddha said to him, "You are welcome, just a few preliminary things have to be settled. One is, do you know the truth; otherwise, how are you going to discuss it?"

Such was the sincerity of people that Maulunkputta said, "I do not know truth; I am a seeker."

Buddha said, "I also used to be a seeker. Now I am no more - only truth is. Do you want to discuss truth, still - with truth itself? And how will you discuss? I am feeling compassionate towards you.

My suggestion is: sit by my side for two years in silence - just drinking my presence, feeling my presence, absorbing my presence. For two years you are not even to speak a single word, and after two years you can start your discussion."

It was a strange condition: two years he has to sit in silence. But he was an authentic seeker, not just a thinker, but one who wanted to realize truth - not as a logical conclusion but as an existential realization.

He agreed. And that very moment, a disciple of Gautam Buddha, Mahakashyapa, sitting under a tree, started laughing, almost madly. Maulunkputta could not understand. He said to Gautam Buddha, "What has happened to this man? Suddenly, without any reason he started laughing."

Buddha said, "You can ask him yourself."

Mahakashyapa said to Maulunkputta, "If you really want to ask the question, ask now. After two years, you will have found the answer. Who will ask the question? You will have disappeared. This man is dangerous. I had also come to discuss with him and he played the same trick with me. Sitting two years silently by his side, I disappeared. Now, I am the truth, but discussion is impossible. I laughed because I thought: again, he is at his old tricks; that poor fellow will sit two years, thinking that after two years there is going to be a great discussion. I still tell you: that if you are interested in discussing, this is the moment."

But Malunkputta agreed with Buddha and he said, "Whatever Gautam Buddha is saying is relevant.

I don't know anything about truth; how can I discuss it? Let me sit for two years. I have wasted fifty years roaming around the country, discussing with thousands of people, arguing and arguing; and what is in my hands? - they are empty. I have wasted fifty years; I can risk two years more. And the very presence of Gautam Buddha, his silence, his serenity, his fragrance... a subtle aura around him which is almost tangible, makes me sure that he cannot deceive me, that he cannot deceive anyone."

Two years he waited in silence; but in two years, he disappeared. His mind became so silent that he forgot even to count months, days, weeks. When two years had passed, he was not aware that two years had passed. It was Gautam Buddha who said, "Maulunkputta, have you forgotten our agreement? Two years have passed. This very day, two years ago, you came to me. According to the agreement, I am now ready to discuss; you can ask the question."

Instead of asking the question, there were tears of joy in his eyes and he put his head on Gautam Buddha's feet and he said, "Please, forgive me. Mahakashyapa was right. I have fallen in such a rapport with you, that now there is no need for me to ask anything, or for you to answer anything.

I know you exactly in your innermost being. I have seen your light and I have seen your love and I have experienced your truth. The most amazing thing is that when I experienced them, suddenly inside me, the same experiences started flowering.

"Your truth was only a triggering point; it triggered something in me and I became aware of my own truth - and they are the same. Please forgive me. I was ignorant, egoistic, even to have the idea of discussing truth with you - truth cannot be discussed, but in silence it can be experienced."

MUST ONE FIRST SHATTER THEIR EARS TO TEACH THEM TO HEAR WITH THEIR EYES?

MUST ONE RUMBLE LIKE DRUMS AND LENTEN PREACHERS? OR DO THEY BELIEVE ONLY THOSE WHO STAMMER?

THEY HAVE SOMETHING OF WHICH THEY ARE PROUD. WHAT IS IT CALLED THAT MAKES THEM PROUD? THEY CALL IT CULTURE, IT DISTINGUISHES THEM FROM THE GOATHERDS.

Everybody in the whole world is proud of one thing: his culture. I have been condemned by so many countries, so many governments, so many churches, but the reason has been always the same - that I am dangerous to their culture. Twenty-one countries have made it a law that I cannot enter their land. The reason? - that I can destroy their culture, their morality, their religion. And it seems to be such an idiotic idea that on the one hand, they claim their culture is four thousand years old - in India, they claim their culture is ninety thousand years old; they have made a culture in ninety thousand years - and a single man can destroy it.

I have been deported from countries where I was only a tourist for three weeks, or four weeks. In Greece I was there for four weeks only. Two weeks had already passed and I had not left my house in those two weeks. I am so blissful to be just by myself; in my own room is the whole universe. But the archbishop of the oldest Christian church in the world, the Greek Orthodox Church, threatened the government, threatened me, threatened my host in whose house I was staying, on a small island...

he threatened that if I was not immediately removed from Greece, he was going to burn my house - me and the people who were staying with me would be burned alive.

And the reason? - I am a danger to their culture. A tourist who is going to stay two weeks more and who is not going to go out of his house, is capable of destroying a culture which has been there for two thousand years. Is such a culture worth saving? Is it not simply rotten? Even a small push and the whole palace of playing cards will fall down. You have created it in two thousand years, and you are afraid of two weeks.

Everybody around the world is proud of his culture. But what is your culture? Zarathustra is right:

THEY CALL IT CULTURE, IT DISTINGUISHES THEM FROM THE GOATHERDS. It is nothing much; it is just an invention of man's ego. You may be speaking a different language, you may be wearing a different kind of clothes, you may be making a different kind of architecture, you may be having a different kind of music - but there is nothing to be proud of: Even the nomads, who are wandering in the deserts, have their own culture and they are as proud as anybody else.

When Marco Polo reached China, he wrote in his diary, that the Chinese people could not be called human beings; they seemed to be a subhuman species. What was the reason? Small things...

Chinese eat snakes. In fact, once you cut off the head of the snake, it is just pure vegetable because the poison is only in the mouth, in a small gland. Once the mouth is chopped off, you have pure vegetable. And the Chinese consider it one of the delicacies. But Marco Polo could not believe it - man eating snakes. Certainly, they must be subhuman.

And what did the Chinese think about Marco Polo? They had heard of the West, but he was the first western man to enter China. There are books of that time, still available, which show that China was highly cultured, in a sense in which Western countries were far behind.

China had the printing press, China had paper currency, which are very latest developments in the world. Only a highly developed society can conceive that carrying hundreds of rupees in gold or silver is an unnecessary burden. There is no need. You can carry a one-thousand-rupee note in your pocket; it has no weight. The government promises that whenever you want, you can come to the treasury and take one thousand golden rupees. It is a promissory note; it is easier to carry, easier to exchange. You can carry thousands of rupees with you, but not in gold coins or silver coins.

When the Chinese saw Marco Polo, the contemporary writers in China wrote about him, "We have heard that man is evolved from monkeys - now we believe it. Marco Polo is just a monkey."

Every culture has its own pride but every culture is nothing but a certain style of life that the crowd has developed, and every culture destroys the individual. It forces everybody to be similar to others; to have the same belief system; to have the same god; to go to the same temple; to have the same holy scripture; to have the same moral code; the same etiquette, same manners - it reduces the uniqueness of the individual. It makes him a cog in the wheel. So whatever the culture is, it is a murder of the individual, it is different ways of murdering the individual. There is nothing to be proud of.

The world where the individual is not destroyed, but supported in his uniqueness, will be the world according to Zarathustra, the world of the superman. The superman cannot be a part of a crowd.

The superman can only be just himself, in his absolute naturalness, uncompromising, respectful of others but not allowing anybody else to humiliate him.

Zarathustra thought in his heart: THEREFORE THEY DISLIKE HEARING THE WORD 'CONTEMPT' SPOKEN OF THEM. SO I SHALL SPEAK TO THEIR PRIDE.

Up to now, he was saying that man, as he is, has nothing in him which needs to be honored. The only great thing is to transcend this kind of humanity and this kind of mankind which is full of competition, full of violence, full of war, full of jealousy, full of cruelty. This man is contemptible; this man is not honorable.

But he thought: "If I go on speaking, they are not going to understand me at all. I should drop the word "contempt" because they are very proud of themselves, although there is nothing in them to be proud of. Everything is ugly inside; they are but hypocrites; they don't show that ugliness; they go on hiding it - that is their culture. I should speak to their pride. Perhaps they may be able to listen.

He finds a device. He is going to say the same thing, he is going to indicate the same path, but if people are so foolish, why not use their pride. At least, they will be able to understand and ready to listen.

SO I SHALL SPEAK TO THEM OF THE MOST CONTEMPTIBLE MAN: AND THAT IS THE ULTIMATE MAN. You are not the most contemptible man, the ultimate man. The words look beautiful, THE ULTIMATE MAN. But if you think about it, the ultimate man means that all that is ugly in you has come to its full growth; that you cannot be more ugly than the ultimate man - you are just the beginning, a movement towards the ultimate man.

AND THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA TO THE PEOPLE: IT IS TIME FOR MAN TO FIX HIS GOAL.

These things people like - their minds are goal-oriented. Everybody is brought up in such a way that he becomes an achiever: achieve more in any field you are, reach to the top.

IT IS TIME FOR MAN TO FIX HIS GOAL. IT IS TIME FOR MAN TO PLANT THE SEED OF HIS HIGHEST HOPE. Perhaps these words may be heard. He is using the language of man's pride: of goal, of hope. That's how everybody is living; for some goal: he wants to be the most famous man in the world; he wants to be the richest man. He wants to be the most powerful man. Everybody has Alexander the Great inside him, in different ways.

HIS SOIL IS STILL RICH ENOUGH FOR IT. BUT THIS SOIL WILL ONE DAY BE POOR AND WEAK; NO LONGER WILL A HIGH TREE BE ABLE TO GROW FROM IT. So don't waste time: Fix your goal; make your hope clear; focus your whole energy on the goal with absolute hope because the soil is still rich - soon it will not be possible. It will become weak and poor, and then no longer will a high tree be able to grow from it. And that's what everybody wants - to be the highest tree, reaching to the stars.

ALAS! THE TIME IS COMING WHEN MAN WILL NO MORE SHOOT THE ARROW OF HIS LONGING OVER MANKIND... And now, in an indirect way, he comes to his point: ALAS! THE TIME IS COMING WHEN MAN WILL NO MORE SHOOT THE ARROW OF HIS LONGING OVER MANKIND... Again, he is saying, "Transcend mankind," but he has changed his words... AND THE STRING OF HIS BOW WILL HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO TWANG!

I TELL YOU: ONE MUST HAVE CHAOS IN ONE, TO GIVE BIRTH TO A DANCING STAR. I TELL YOU: YOU STILL HAVE CHAOS IN YOU.

He is saying exactly the same thing: but a man of tremendous intelligence.... If you are not very alert, you will think he is saying totally different things: only his words are different; his meaning is the same.

I TELL YOU: YOU STILL HAVE CHAOS IN YOU. Rather than saying that you are a chaos, contemptible, he is saying that stars are born only out of chaos. One must have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star. But you are only to be a chaos, just a womb, to give birth to a dancing star.

For what he was calling the superman, man has to be just a womb, so that the superman is born.

Man has to be just an arrow, but the target is the superman.

ALAS! THE TIME IS COMING WHEN MAN WILL GIVE BIRTH TO NO MORE STARS. ALAS! THE TIME OF THE MOST CONTEMPTIBLE MAN IS COMING, THE MAN WHO CAN NO LONGER DESPISE HIMSELF. Zarathustra is an immensely wise man. If you cannot understand his language, he will speak your language, but will make you experience his meaning.

THE TIME OF THE MOST CONTEMPTIBLE MAN IS COMING, THE MAN WHO CAN NO LONGER DESPISE HIMSELF.

BEHOLD! I SHALL SHOW YOU THE Ultimate Man.

'WHAT IS LOVE? WHAT IS CREATION? WHAT IS LONGING? WHAT IS A STAR?' THUS ASKS THE ULTIMATE MAN AND BLINKS.

The ultimate man is the death of mankind. Now there is no question of any love, no question of any creativity and no question of giving birth to stars. The ultimate man has forgotten the very language of transcendence. He will think that he is the goal of the whole existence; he will think that he has arrived, the journey is finished.

Zarathustra is saying: "The idea that I have arrived is suicidal. Life is a pilgrimage." In fact, there is no goal to it. You are always arriving and arriving and arriving, but you never arrive. All goals are just to keep you moving, growing. All goals are like the horizon which seems so close, just a few miles away. You think you can reach it, but you cannot ever reach it, because it is only an appearance.

The earth and the sky meet nowhere. The moment you reach to the point where the horizon was, the horizon will have receded farther away. The distance between you and the horizon will always remain the same, without any change. And this is the beauty of life, that it goes on growing, and it knows no end; that it goes on living and knows no death - that it is eternity.

But this eternity is possible only if man's longing always goes beyond himself, that he is always thinking: How to transcend? How to be farther away from the animal, and closer to God, if there is any God? That's why Zarathustra has said, "Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the superman. He is a bridge and you should not make your house on the bridge - the bridge is to be passed over."

One of the great emperors of India, Akbar, had a great dream which remained unfulfilled. But it is good to have great dreams, even if they remain unfulfilled. In fact, only small dreams can be fulfilled; the greater the dream, the lesser is the possibility of its fulfillment.

He wanted to create a new capital for India, the most beautiful city in the world, unique in every manner. The whole city was to be a piece of art; not just one palace, but a whole city of palaces.

He started working on it when he was very young. Thousands of workers, architects, stonecutters, continued to work for fifty years to make the city.

It is still there, incomplete; it's name is Fateh-pur Sikri. It is a ghost city - nobody has ever lived there because it was never complete. Akbar died and his successors thought it too costly a dream. Akbar almost emptied his whole treasury and they were not interested.

You enter the city through a bridge which passes over a beautiful river, and Akbar wanted some beautiful sentence welcoming people who would be entering the city. There was only one entrance.

He asked his people to look into books, into scriptures of all the religions and finally they found in Zarathustra the sentence:" Man is only a bridge; one should not make his home on it; it is something to be passed over". In Fateh-pur Sikri, this is the first sentence that welcomes you.

The ultimate man asked, 'WHAT IS LOVE?' He knows what money is, he knows what power is, he knows what respectability is, but he does not know what love is.

He asks: 'What is creation?' He knows technology, he knows science, he knows nuclear weapons, he knows how to destroy the whole of humanity - but he does not know what creativity is.

THUS ASKS THE ULTIMATE MAN, AND BLINKS.

THE EARTH HAS BECOME SMALL, AND UPON IT HOPS THE ULTIMATE MAN, WHO MAKES EVERYTHING SMALL. HIS RACE IS AS INEXTERMINABLE AS THE FLEA: THE ULTIMATE MAN LIVES LONGEST. Why does the ultimate man live longest? - because he has forgotten that there is much more to life. He has stopped; he has stopped growing; he has stopped dreaming; he has stopped hoping; he has no future, he is already a corpse - that's why he lives longest.

Obviously, the dead man cannot die again. The ultimate man is the death of man, that's why he lives longest. He is only a corpse, without love, without music, without songs, without dances, without creativity. Nowhere to go; he is simply stuck. There is only the grave and no possibility of resurrection. If this man, this mankind, does not listen to Zarathustra, what he had been telling twenty-five centuries ago is going to be true soon.

THE EARTH HAS BECOME SMALL.... Man has become immensely powerful as far as destruction is concerned.

In fact, people only talk about words like "love," but they do not know the meaning. They have never loved. Their hearts have never known the spring that is called love. They know marriage; they know how to produce children, but love is not the technique of reproducing children. Animals can do it without any love; man is also doing it without any love. Because to know love... it is not enough just to be born, love has to be learnt, it is an art. As an animal, man does not inherit it. It is not something biological. Sex you need not learn; it comes as a package deal. But love is something like meditation, is something like prayer. It is not necessarily the case that you will be acquainted with them. You may live without love, without meditation, without prayer, and you may die without ever tasting anything of these experiences.

Man has become immensely productive through technology and science; but his creativity is disappearing. Who cares about creativity? It is costly, takes too much time. When cars can be produced on an assembly line... the Ford factory manufacturing cars, produces one car every minute; those cars just go on moving on the assembly line, one by one, all exactly similar - who bothers about uniqueness?

The creative man is no longer valuable in the marketplace. The productive man is valuable and the difference between the two is great. The productive man is only a technician; the creative man is a genius.

'WE HAVE DISCOVERED HAPPINESS,' SAYS THE ULTIMATE MAN AND BLINKS. What is their happiness? They have all the money, all the power, all the prestige - Is that happiness?

THEY HAVE LEFT THE PLACES WHERE LIVING WAS HARD: FOR ONE NEEDS WARMTH.

ONE STILL LOVES ONE'S NEIGHBOUR AND RUBS ONESELF AGAINST HIM: FOR ONE NEEDS WARMTH. But that is not love.

SICKNESS AND MISTRUST COUNT AS SINS WITH THEM: ONE SHOULD GO ABOUT WARILY.

HE IS A FOOL WHO STILL STUMBLES OVER STONES OR OVER MEN! The day man stops committing mistakes, he will stop learning.

Only machines don't commit mistakes; they are perfect, in a way.

The ultimate man will be just a robot. He will do everything efficiently, without stumbling on stones or on man; without committing a mistake, ever. But such a man has lost his humanity.

It is through mistakes that you explore new areas of life; it is through mistakes that you mature; it is through mistakes that you become wise; it is through mistakes that mankind has evolved.

But if we stop committing mistakes, then know that the ultimate man has arrived - he will be a robot.

He will live longest, but live without love, live without song, live without dance - his life will be worse than death.

A LITTLE POISON NOW AND THEN: THAT PRODUCES PLEASANT DREAMS. The ultimate man will discover drugs... they are being discovered.

A LITTLE POISON NOW AND THEN: THAT PRODUCES PLEASANT DREAMS. AND A LOT OF POISON AT LAST, FOR A PLEASANT DEATH.

THEY STILL WORK, FOR WORK IS ENTERTAINMENT. BUT THEY TAKE CARE THE ENTERTAINMENT DOES NOT EXHAUST THEM.

It is becoming a problem already. These words of Zarathustra are so true to our century that it seems his insight into the future is tremendous. Man is being replaced by machines. More and more work is being done by machines. Great philosophers in the world are concerned that soon, all work will be done by the machines. Then what is man supposed to do? And it is dangerous to keep millions of men without any work.

People ordinarily think that when they retire, they will rest and relax and enjoy. But when they really retire, they find rest is impossible, relaxation is impossible, because their whole life they have been practicing restlessness, anxiety, tension, anguish. Now suddenly, just because they are retired, their bodies cannot change their old habits, sixty-year old habits.

It is not an accident that old people become irritable or annoyed over small things. It is very difficult for children to live with old people, for the new generation to live with the older generation. The gap is not only of time, not only of knowledge, the gap is that the old man has nothing to do; and his whole life he has been doing something or other. Now he is looking all around to do something, and there is nothing left for him to do.

This whole energy that was involved into work, becomes a problem to him, a burden. He wants to release it, it becomes anger; it becomes irritation; it becomes condemnation of everybody. And the great thinkers in the world are of the opinion that we will have to provide old people with some kind of work, just for their entertainment. It may not be useful. Perhaps one group of old people makes something, another group of old people, the next day, demolishes it. But it is just for their entertainment.

And old age is becoming longer; in Europe, to be eighty, ninety, one hundred, one hundred and twenty, is not rare. In the Soviet Union, particularly in one part, in the Caucasus, there are people, thousands, who have passed one hundred and fifty years of age. And there are a few hundreds who have even reached the age of one hundred and eighty. They are still working in the fields, in the orchards, in the gardens - they demand work. You cannot retire a man who is going to live to one hundred and eighty years, when he is sixty. He has lived only one-third of his life; two-thirds are still there, remaining empty. You will have to give him some work.

There are even proposals by economists that the people who are ready to be unemployed should be paid more for their readiness to be unemployed; they should be paid more than those who ask for employment because you can't have both, employment and greater pay. You can choose. Because some poor fellow is going to suffer an empty life - he needs compensating for it. It has never even been conceived by the past economists that the unemployed would be paid more than the employed.

Work is going to be taken over by machines, because they do it better, more efficiently, more quickly.

Where one thousand people were needed, just one machine can manage. Where ten thousand people were needed, just one computer can manage the whole thing. But what about those one thousand or ten thousand people? Zarathustra is saying that these people would like to die.

There are movements around the world, in advanced countries, where old people are demanding a constitutional right to commit suicide - and you cannot say they are wrong. They say, "We have lived enough and now to go on dragging ourselves is unnecessary torture. We want to go to rest in our graves. We have seen everything, we have experienced everything. Now, there is nothing for us to hope or to dream or to desire. Tomorrow is empty and frightens us - it is better to die."

Hence, there is a movement and I am in support of it: the movement for euthanasia. Every government should provide, in every hospital, facilities for people who want to die. Perhaps you can make a limit. After eighty years, if somebody wants to die, you should make beautiful arrangements in the hospital so he can rest, invite his friends, meet with his friends, old colleagues, listen to great music, listen to novels or poetry, see the best films, because this is the last month.

Why unnecessarily harass people? Just give them an injection which takes them deeper and deeper into sleep, which turns finally into death. I am absolutely certain, governments will have to yield to it, and medical science will have to yield to it, because it seems so absolutely human that if someone has lived enough - his children have become old, his children are sixty, they are getting retirement - now it is time.

You are not free to be born but at least you should be given the freedom to die, to choose the date and the time. It should become part of our basic human rights.

NOBODY GROWS RICH OR POOR ANY MORE: BOTH ARE TOO MUCH OF A BURDEN. WHO STILL WANTS TO RULE? WHO OBEY? BOTH ARE TOO MUCH OF A BURDEN. For the ultimate man, everything becomes a burden. He simply wants to die.

NO HERDSMAN AND ONE HERD. EVERYONE WANTS THE SAME THING.... And it is happening, everybody wants the same thing; you can see it happening. Suddenly, a fashion arises about having a certain style of hair and you will see thousands of people are having the same style. Suddenly, a fashion arises for certain clothes and thousands of people are using the same clothes. Designers are continuously working to create new fashions because factories need to produce; otherwise, they would be empty. How can the workers be paid?

New soaps, new cigarettes... and nothing is new in them. Perhaps only the container is new, the color is different, but it becomes the fashion. It has been calculated that every fashion has an average life of three years. After three years, people start getting bored, they want something new.

This is not happiness. This is a desperate search for happiness but in wrong directions.

... EVERYONE IS THE SAME: WHOEVER THINKS OTHERWISE GOES VOLUNTARILY INTO THE MADHOUSE.

Just think a little differently from people and they become suspicious of you; something is wrong; you are crazy. Be part of the crowd and you are accepted as sane. The crowd may be insane, that is not the point. You simply be part of the crowd, behave the way they are behaving. Exceptions are not allowed. Individualities are not allowed. Individuals are being forced into madhouses. This is the ultimate man.

'FORMERLY, ALL THE WORLD WAS MAD,' SAY THE MOST ACUTE OF THEM AND BLINK.

THEY ARE CLEVER AND KNOW EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED: SO THERE IS NO END TO THEIR MOCKERY. THEY STILL QUARREL, BUT THEY SOON MAKE UP - OTHERWISE INDIGESTION WOULD RESULT.

THEY HAVE THEIR LITTLE PLEASURE FOR THE DAY AND THEIR LITTLE PLEASURE FOR THE NIGHT: BUT THEY RESPECT HEALTH.

Health should be a natural thing. One should not even be aware of it. That is the oldest definition of health: when you are not aware of your body at all. You are aware of your head only when you have a headache; otherwise, what is the need of being aware of the head? You are aware of your stomach when either you have a stomach-ache or you are pregnant; otherwise, what is the need of being aware of your stomach.

Only sickness makes you alert. But around the world, there is so much consciousness about health:

health foods, health clinics, natural food. This means we are desperately in search of something that will make us happy. We are miserable in our wealth, we are miserable in our education, we are miserable in a world full of all kinds of gadgets and toys.

'WE HAVE DISCOVERED HAPPINESS,' SAY THE ULTIMATE MEN AND BLINK.

The ultimate man, according to Zarathustra, is the full growth of all that is ugly in you and this ultimate man has to be avoided. He is coming; he is coming very forcibly. He is very close.

This ultimate man can be stopped only by one thing: if we can create a new man, a man deeply rooted in meditation; a man who has moved from the head to the heart; a man whose priority is no more logic, but love; a man who does not care to be rich on the outside, but is immensely interested in the inner treasures of our being - in short, a man who is fully awakened, enlightened, a man who is aware of a godly existence and is so overfull of joy that he wants to share it.

Unless we create the new man, the ultimate man is coming. The ultimate man is the death of mankind.

The new man can prevent that death. The new man can give you a new life, a new space to move, a new dimension, a new sense of direction. It is going to be inward. For thousands of years, we have been moving outward. We have gone too far away from ourselves.

It is time we should come back home and have a look inside our own beings, because within our own being is all that we are looking for outside. We will not find it on the outside, it is not there. It is here.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.