Love is its own reward

The first question:

Question 1:

Prembodhi, the ego can exist only if you take yourself and everything seriously.

Nothing kills the ego like playfulness, like laughter. When you start taking life as fun, the ego has to die, it cannot exist anymore. Ego is illness; it needs an atmosphere of sadness to exist. Seriousness creates the sadness in you. Sadness is a necessary soil for the ego. Hence your saints are so serious, for the simple reason that they are the most egoistic people on the earth. They may be trying to be humble, but they are very proud of their humbleness. They take their humbleness very seriously.

The real saint cannot be serious. The really religious person has to be a celebrant. Just look around... look at the trees - are they serious? Look at the birds, listen to them - are they serious? Look at the stars, the moon, the sun - are they serious? Existence is utterly nonserious; it goes on dancing. It is an eternal celebration, it is a festivity.

Only man is serious, because only man has been trying to create a separation between himself and existence. He doesn't want to be part of the whole, because then he disappears. He wants his own identity, his own name, his own form, his definition.

Even if it creates misery it is okay, even if he has to live in hell he is ready for it.

Once George Bernard Shaw was asked where he would like to go after he dies - to hell or to heaven. He said, "Wherever I can be the first, I don't want to be the second" - and in heaven there is no chance to be the first, because so many saints have already reached there: Jesus and Zarathustra and Mahavira and Buddha. Who will take note of poor George Bernard Shaw? He is willing to go to hell if he can be the first there.

Ego wants to be the first, ego wants to put everybody below itself; hence it takes itself seriously. Hence it is perfectionist: it demands perfection, which is impossible. Nobody is perfect; nobody can exist for a single moment if he is perfect. Imperfection is the way of life, because it is possible to grow only if you are imperfect. If you are perfect there is no more growth, no more evolution. If you are perfect you are stuck. Perfection means death; imperfection means flow, growth, movement, dynamism.

The ego demands perfection of oneself and of others too. It asks for the impossible, and because the impossible cannot be achieved it can go on living. It is not happy with the ordinary; it wants the extraordinary, and life consists only of the ordinary. But the ordinary is beautiful, the ordinary is exquisite. There is no need of anything extraordinary. The ordinary life is sacred, but the ego condemns it as mundane. It demands extraordinary life. Hence all the religions go on inventing stories about their founders which are all untrue: Moses separating the sea, Jesus walking on the water...

all these stories are inventions, lies, created by the followers just to prove that their master is extraordinary; he is not an ordinary human being.

In fact, the truth is that you cannot find a more ordinary human being than Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Moses, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. They are so simple! They have accepted themselves as they are. They live in suchness, in TATHATA. They don't hanker for any perfection. They are perfectly at ease with the imperfect world, utterly contented with it. And they don't take themselves so seriously that they have to attain to great heights, great peaks, that they have to surpass everybody. They are not insane! They are beautiful people, and their beauty consists in having accepted the ordinary as the extraordinary, the mundane as sacred.

Prembodhi, you ask, "Why do I take myself and everything so seriously?"

Everybody takes himself and others seriously. That's the way of the ego to exist. Start being a little more playful and you will see ego evaporating. Take life nonseriously, as a joke - yes, as a cosmic joke. Laugh a little more.

Laughter is far more significant than prayer. Prayer may not destroy your ego; on the contrary, it may make it holy, pious, but laughter certainly destroys your ego. When you are really in a state of laughter, have you observed? - the ego disappears for a moment. You are again a child, giggling. Again you have forgotten that you are special.

You are no longer serious; for a moment you have removed your fixation.

That's why I love jokes - they are poison to your ego! You would like me to talk about serious things: astral planes and how many bodies men have, seven or nine, and how many chakras. And every day there are questions - esoteric, occult. These are the serious people. They have fallen in a wrong company!

I am not serious at all. I don't laugh with you because that is part of telling a joke: the person who tells it has to be very serious, he cannot laugh with you. All my laughter I have to do alone. But my approach towards life is utterly nonserious, playful, because in my experience this is how the ego disappears.

Watch when you laugh: where is the ego? Suddenly you have melted, suddenly you are liquid, no more solid, but flowing. You are not old, experienced, knowledgeable.

Listen to this joke and try to find out whether the ego remains or not.

Shortly after arriving at their honeymoon suite, the still nervous groom became worried about the state of his bride's innocence. Deciding on the direct approach, he quickly undressed, pointed at his exposed manhood, and asked his mate, "Do you know what that is?"

Without hesitating, she blushed and answered, "That's a wee-wee."

Delighted at the idea of instructing his naive wife, the husband whispered, "From now on, dearest, this will be called a prick."

"Ah, come now," the girl chided, "I've seen lots of pricks, and I assure you, that's a wee- wee."

The second question:

Question 2:

Jayananda, it depends. It depends on you, on your state of consciousness or unconsciousness, whether you are asleep or awake.

There is one famous maxim of Murphy. He says there are two types of people: One, who always divide humanity in two types, and the other, who don't divide humanity at all.

I belong to the first type.... Humanity can be divided in two types: the sleeping ones and the awakened ones - and, of course, a small part in between.

Happiness will depend on where you are in your consciousness. If you are asleep, then pleasure is happiness. Pleasure means sensation, trying to achieve something through the body which is not possible to achieve through the body, forcing the body to achieve something it is not capable of. People are trying, in every possible way, to achieve happiness through the body. The body can give you only momentary pleasures, and each pleasure is balanced by pain in the same amount, in the same degree. Each pleasure is followed by its opposite because body exists in the world of duality, just as the day is followed by night and death is followed by life and life is followed by death.

It is a vicious circle. Your pleasure will be followed by pain, your pain will be followed by pleasure.

But you will never be at ease. When you will be in a state of pleasure you will be afraid that you are going to lose it, and that fear will poison it. And when you will be lost in pain, of course, you will be in suffering, and you will try every possible effort to get out of it - just to fall again back into it.

Buddha calls this the wheel of birth and death. We go on moving in this wheel, clinging to the wheel... and the wheel moves on. Sometimes pleasure comes up and sometimes pain comes up, but we are crushed between these two rocks.

But the sleepy person knows nothing else. He knows only a few sensations of the body - - food, sex. This is his world; he goes on moving between these two. These are the two ends of his body: food and sex. If he represses sex he becomes addicted to food: if he represses food he becomes addicted to sex. Energy goes on moving like a pendulum.

And whatsoever you call pleasure is, at the most, just a relief of a tense state. Sexual energy gathers, accumulates; you become tense and heavy and you want to release it.

The man who is asleep, his sexuality is nothing but a relief, like a good sneeze. It gives you nothing but a certain relief. A tension was there, now it is no more there; but it will accumulate again. Food gives you only a little taste on the tongue; it is not much to live for. But many people are living only to eat; there are very few people who eat to live.

The story of Columbus is well-known. It was a long trip. For three months they saw nothing but water. Then one day Columbus looked out at the horizon and saw trees.

And if you think Columbus was happy to see trees, you should have seen his dog!

That's why the Siberian dogs are the fastest in the world: because the trees are so far apart.

But this is the world of pleasure. The dog can be forgiven, but you cannot be forgiven.

During their first date, the young man, looking for ways to have a good time, asked the young lady if she would like to go bowling. She replied that she did not care to go bowling. He then suggested a movie, but she answered that she did not care for them.

While trying to think of something else he offered her a cigarette which she declined.

He then asked if she would like to dance and drink at the new disco. She again declined by saying she did not care for those things.

In desperation he asked her to come to his apartment for a night of lovemaking. To his surprise she happily agreed, kissed him passionately and said, "You see, you don't need any of those things to have a good time!"

It depends on people what can be called happiness. To the sleeping, pleasurable sensations are happiness. He lives from one pleasure to another pleasure. He is just rushing from one sensation to another sensation. He lives for small thrills. His life is very superficial; it has no depth, it has no quality. He lives in the world of quantity.

Then the people who are in between, who are neither asleep nor awake, who are just in a limbo, a little bit asleep, a little bit awake. You sometimes have that experience in the early morning: still sleepy, but you can't say you are asleep because you can hear the noise in the house, your wife preparing tea, the noise of the samovar or the milkman at the door or children getting ready to go to school. You can hear these things, but still you are not awake. Vaguely, dimly these noises reach to you, as if there is a great distance between you and all that is happening around you. It feels as if it is still a part of the dream. It is not a part of the dream, but you are in a state of in-between.

The same happens when you start meditating. The nonmeditator sleeps, dreams; the meditator starts moving away from his sleep towards awakening. He is in a transitory state. Then happiness has a totally different meaning: it becomes more of a quality, less of a quantity; it is more psychological, less physiological. He enjoys music more, he enjoys poetry more, he enjoys creating something. He enjoys nature, its beauty. He enjoys silence. He enjoys what he had never enjoyed before, and this is far more lasting.

Even if the music stops, something goes on lingering in you. And it is not a relief.

The difference between pleasure and THIS happiness is: it is not a relief, it is an enrichment. You become more full, you become a little overflowing. Listening to good music, something is triggered in your being, a harmony arises in you - you become musical. Or dancing, suddenly you forget your body; your body becomes weightless.

The grip of gravitation over you is lost. Suddenly you are in a different space: the ego is not so solid, the dancer melts and merges into the dance. This is far higher, far deeper than the joy that you gain from food or sex. This has a depth. But this is also not the ultimate.

The ultimate happens only when you are fully awake, when you are a buddha, when all sleep is gone and all dreaming is gone, when your whole being is full of light, when there is no darkness within you. All darkness has disappeared and with that darkness, the ego is gone. All tensions have disappeared, all anguish, all anxiety. You are in a state of total contentment. You live in the present; no past, no future anymore. You are utterly herenow.

This moment is all. Now is the only time and here is the only space. And then suddenly the whole sky drops into you. This is bliss. This is REAL happiness.

Seek bliss, Jayananda; it is your birthright. Don't remain lost in the jungle of pleasures; rise a little higher. Reach to happiness and then to bliss.

Pleasure is animal, happiness is human, bliss is divine. Pleasure binds you, it is a bondage, it chains you. Happiness gives you a little more rope, a little bit of freedom, but only a little bit. Bliss is absolute freedom. You start moving upwards; it gives you wings. You are no more part of the gross earth; you become part of the sky. You become light, you become joy.

Pleasure is dependent on others. Happiness is not so dependent on others, but still it is separate from you. Bliss is not dependent, is not separate either; it is your very being, it is your very nature. To attain it is to attain to God, to nirvana.

The third question:

Question 3:

Yoga Chetana, selfishness is the shadow of the idea of a separate self. It is a shadow of a shadow, a reflection of a reflection. It is as if you see the moon in the lake and then you see the moon reflected in the lake in a mirror. It is far far removed from reality. Even the reflection in the lake is not real, but the reflection of the lake in the mirror is even more unreal.

The ego is a reflection in the lake of your true being. Your true being is the moon; the ego is only a reflection in the lake. The reflection in the lake can be disturbed even by a small pebble. Throw a small pebble and you will see: the moon is disturbed, distorted.

Ripples arise and the moon is broken into thousands of pieces.

Selfishness is the shadow of the ego, even more unreal. You are not a self. In Buddha's words, you are not an ATTA - a self; you are ANATTA - a no-self. Hence, Buddha does not teach you altruism, neither do I teach you altruism. This point has to be understood well: I don't teach you to be altruistic. That's what the priests of almost all the religions go on doing. They say, "Selfishness is bad." They don't say, "Selfishness is false." They say, "Selfishness is bad, selfishness is sin." But they accept its reality, they don't reject its reality. If it is unreal, then they cannot condemn it as a sin. How can you call anything unreal a sin? If it does not exist in the first place, how can it be sin and how can it be bad? So they go on saying, "Selfishness is bad, selfishness is sin." And to avoid it they teach you to be altruistic: "Serve others, be servants of humanity, public servants."

Many times people who have been conditioned by these priests and missionaries come to me and, of course, they are shocked because I never talk about altruism. And they ask me why I don't teach my sannyasins to be altruistic.

I cannot, because in the first place the self is false, so to tell them to be unselfish is absolutely wrong. To tell them to serve others, to be altruistic, is taking them deeper and deeper into unreality.

My effort here is to help them to see that the self is false. Hence I am not against the self - it does not exist. How can I be against something which does not exist? And I don't teach you altruism. If the disease is false, what is the point of giving you some medicine?

I simply tell you to look within yourself, watch silently... and you will not find the ego at all. The self disappears. In fact, to say "disappears" is not right; it has never been there, but you had never looked in. When you look you don't find it.

It is like you say, "In my room there is darkness," and I give you a lamp and I tell you, "Go and search with the lamp where the darkness is." You go with the lamp and you search - and you can't find it! You come back and you say, "I can't find it!" So I say, "It is finished! Don't be worried about it. Whenever this itching arises in you, this urge, this doubt, take the lamp and go again and search." Slowly slowly, the truth will settle in you that there is no darkness; it is only absence of light.

Ego is absence of your attention, absence of your awareness, nothing else. If you move in, if you look in, it is not found at all. And with self gone, where is selfishness?

And then your life is a life of love, of compassion. Then your life is truly altruistic. I will not call it "unselfish," I will call it "nonselfish," because in the word 'unselfish' the reality of the self is recognized. I would like to use the Buddhist word, 'nonselfish' - anatta, no- self.

Buddha's insight is tremendous, very significant. There is no need to teach people to be unselfish. Just let them know that there is no ego, and then their whole life, without any effort, becomes a life of love. They will not become missionaries because they will not be doing anything in particular. They will not brag that they have done so much for humanity; they have done it because they enjoyed it. They are already well rewarded.

The reward is not somewhere in a future life, after death, in paradise; the reward is in love itself. Love is its own reward.

When you live out of love, your life is tremendously joyous, ecstatic; that is the reward.

And when you live out of a false ego, your life is a misery, it is a suffering, it is hell; that is the punishment. There is no need to wait - that after death you will be thrown into hell. Forget all these stories! They are good to tell to children because they can't understand anything else; they can understand only stories. But to mature people those stories are irrelevant.

Each act is either its own punishment or its own reward. If it is arising out of your reality it brings great joy, beauty, bliss, benediction. If it is arising out of some false idea it brings misery, pain, suffering. That's what hell is.

Yoga Chetana, selfishness is the shadow of a self which does not exist at all. But don't accept what I say just because I am saying it. You will have to look in, let it become your experience. You will have to become a little more awake to look in. You will have to come out of your slumber.

It was down South in a dry state. The railroad station was packed with a party on their way to a football game. Over at one side of the waiting room stood Baxter, a quiet little man, fidgeting about and attempting to hide himself from the crowd.

A federal agent, assigned to this moonshine-making area, noticed Baxter had something under his jacket from which drops were falling in slow trickles. The fed, with a gleam in his eye, walked over to him, put a finger out under one of the drops, caught one, and tasted it.

"Scotch?" he asked.

"Nope," said Baxter. "Airedale pup."

You missed it! Taste it again... it is not Scotch, it is an Airedale pup.

There was a big alcoholic party on at this flat in San Francisco. Everything was at its drunkest and wildest when it happened - an earthquake. Chimneys toppled in the street, water mains were broken. All the guests rushed outside from the wild party. But one man was missing. The heroic host dashed back and there in the bathroom he found the missing man, knee-deep in water. The inebriated guest could only mumble, "Honest, Paul, I swear all I did was pull the handle."

Yoga Chetana, you will have to become a little more conscious, that's all. Come out of your drunkenness; it is very ancient. For many many lives we have lived in a drunk state. You will have to make a little effort to pull yourself out of the mud of unconsciousness. And then the ego disappears and a pure space is left behind.

Out of that pure space, lotuses bloom - lotuses of compassion, of love, of joy. Not only are you blessed, but you become a blessing to the whole existence.

Don't fight with selfishness, remember. Fighting with it is what you have been told again and again. Don't fight with it. Fighting with it means you have already accepted its reality; hence I don't teach you to fight with your ego. If you fight with your ego you will become humble, but then in your humbleness the ego will hide. Then the ego will go on bragging about its humbleness. The ego can even say, "I am the most humble person in the world, the greatest humble person in the world."

Three Christian priests were talking; they met on a crossroad. One belonged to a Trappist monastery. He said, "As far as asceticism is concerned, nobody can compete with us. We are the most ascetic people in the whole Christian kingdom."

The second belonged to another monastery. He said, "That may be so, but as far as scholarship is concerned you are nowhere. Our people sacrifice their whole life for the scriptures to find out the truth and the gems."

The third one smiled and said, "You both may be right, but as far as humbleness is concerned, we are the tops!"

"As far as humbleness is concerned we are the tops...."

Hence, Yoga Chetana, I will not say fight with your selfishness. Fighting has not been of any help; it has only created pious egoists all over the world. My suggestion is watch it, look at it, observe it. Observe how it functions, how you go on creating it - because it IS your creation.

It is very arbitrary. It is a fiction that you maintain and manage. And the maintenance is very costly because it keeps you in hell; it destroys your whole life just to maintain something false. Watch it. The moment you will see its falseness it is gone. You need not drop it, it simply drops on its own accord. It is not found at all.

And then a totally new life begins. You are reborn. That's what I call sannyas.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

Sandesh, it is really true. I am the original hippie! You may not know it, but I am the founder of the whole movement!

The shop foreman, irritation showing plainly in his face, strode over to Sheldon, a hippie.

"Listen," he grated, "do me and everyone else in the shop a big favor and quit whistling while you work."

"Hey, man," retorted Sheldon defensively, "who's working?"

I have lived, I have not worked! Whatsoever I have done I have enjoyed it; it was not work, it was my joy, it was play. I loved it, that's why I did it. I was not doing any service to anybody, I was not working for any other motive; hence it was not work at all, it was my joy.

I am talking to you. It is not work, it is my joy. I enjoy - yakkety, yakkety, yakkety...

this is not work! I simply love it. To call it work will not be right - it is fun!

Whatsoever I have done in my life, it has never been work. I have been simply whistling!

The fifth question:

Question 5:

Hans Peter Finger, there is no tomorrow. Today you are here, and that's more than enough; that's more than one can ask for. Who knows about tomorrow? I myself may be leaving, even before you leave!

And it is not a question of BEING here. If you have found me, you have found me; wherever you are you will be with me, I will be with you. The whole thing is once you have found the right person with whom you fit together, with whom you find absolute harmony, communion, then no space can divide you. That's why you are feeling happy.

I can understand your problem.

You say, "And I am happy, too. Why?"

Ordinarily, if you have fallen in love with me and are going tomorrow you should have thought, expected to be miserable, because "Now here is the man I have been looking for, for twenty years and now I have found him, and I have to leave tomorrow." But you are not miserable. That is a clear-cut indication that you have really found me. To find me AND be miserable is impossible!

There are a few people who are here AND miserable, because they have not found me.

And there are people who are not here but are immensely joyous because they have found me, wherever they are.

You will belong to me from now onwards.

A single moment of deep harmony is enough, a single moment of love is eternity.

Then time does not matter, space does not matter.

Your heart knows it, but your mind is questioning because it seems illogical. Your mind says, "If you are really so much in love, then why are you leaving? If you are really enjoying, then why should you go at all? For twenty years you have been searching!

You wasted twenty years and now you have found - and you are going! And still you are happy! What is happening to you?" This is your mind which is creating a question mark, but your heart knows you have found me. Now wherever you are, this communion will continue.

Whatsoever has transpired between me and you is something beyond time, beyond space. So you can go happily, you can go joyously. And whenever you will close your eyes and remember me, you will be now and here.

My buddhafield has not to become confined to the commune; it has to spread all over the earth. So wherever a person exists who loves me deeply, he creates a small buddhafield around himself.

Hans-Peter, not only will you remain related to me, but you will become a bridge to many people towards me. You will become a messenger - not a missionary but a messenger. A missionary is bogus. A missionary is one who himself has not understood at all, who has not experienced anything at all. A missionary is a professional: he has chosen religion as a profession, he earns his livelihood out of it. You will be a messenger. You will be spreading the word to many more people - to your friends, to people you know, you love.

Yes, it is perfectly good - go and share me with others. And whenever it is needed you will be called forth, you will be back here again. And if it is needed to be here forever you will be here forever. Whatsoever is needful will happen.

Trust!

The sixth question:

Question 6:

Narendra, meditate over Murphy's maxim:

Nobody notices when things go right.

You must be going right. People notice only when something goes wrong. If everything goes absolutely right, people are not going to notice you at all.

It is said of Mahavira that he wanted to renounce his kingdom. He asked the permission of his mother. The mother said, "Stop this nonsense - never ask me again! Till I die I won't allow you. If you leave the house without permission you will be doing something very violent to me - and you go on talking about nonviolence. So remember!"

Mahavira never asked her again. After two years she died. When they were coming back from the funeral he asked his elder brother on the way home, "Can I leave now? - I was just living here because our mother said, 'Never ask again.' Now, fortunately, she is dead - so can I go?"

The brother said, "Stop all this nonsense! Such a calamity has fallen over us - our mother has died - and you want to leave me? Till I die you are not allowed."

And Mahavira was so obedient - he said okay. He started living in the palace as if he had renounced. He would meditate, he would be silent, he would move so quietly and so gracefully that, slowly slowly, he became almost absent. It is a beautiful story, that the family stopped taking any notice of him.

Then one day suddenly the brother realized, "For months we have not taken any notice of him." He remembered, "Where is he?" He went in search of him. He called the whole family and asked them, "What to do now? He has almost left! He has become so silent, so peaceful. He makes no noise, he never interferes, he never says anything to anybody.

He is as if he is not in the house at all! So what is the point of preventing him anymore?"

They all gathered together and requested Mahavira, "Now you can go. In fact, you have already gone because we have stopped taking any notice of you."

Mahavira said, "It makes no difference now. But if you say go, I will go."

Narendra, don't be worried. People take notice only when you are doing something wrong. When a dog bites a man it is not news, but when a man bites a dog it is news! So if you want to become news, bite a dog! Do something stupid, become some kind of nuisance. Only people who are a nuisance are taken notice of.

That's why you see in the newspapers all the politicians are covered every day, for the simple reason that they have nuisance value. You can ask any prime minister or any president of the world on what grounds he chooses his cabinet. It is nuisance value!

Whoever is going to create nuisance, if he is not chosen has to be chosen. The more you are a nuisance, the more you will be taken notice of, obviously. If you are a silent person living in deep harmony with yourself and existence, who is going to take any notice of you? Do something wrong, anything!

That's why your saints go on doing such stupid things - just to be taken notice of. Stand on your head in the M.G. Road market and a crowd will gather. People will stop wherever they were going. They may have been going on some urgent work, but now a greater thing is happening: a foolish man is standing on his head! They have to stop, they have to watch. Do something stupid.

Robert Ripley says that one man wanted to become famous. He asked Ripley what to do. Ripley is a famous man; he has written many books - BELIEVE IT OR NOT.... He used to accumulate all kinds of unbelievable things; he was an expert in unbelievable things - true but unbelievable. People used to ask him also... somebody asked him how to become famous.

He said, "You do one thing. Shave half the hair of your head and just walk silently all over New York. For three days go on walking and don't say anything, just let people watch."

And within three days he was in every newspaper! That a strange man is there, half his head shaved, walking all over New York, never saying anything. You ask him and he keeps quiet. Very strange!

That's why I have chosen orange for you, so that wherever you are - New York, Berlin, Paris, Rome, wherever you are, everybody has to take notice of you. It helps my work!

People start asking, "What has happened to you?" My sannyasins all look like Jesus is back!

Narendra, you must be doing everything right. Be happy that nobody is taking notice of you.

The seventh question:

Question 7:

Niranjan, it is enough to poison people if they have to listen once a week to all kinds of nonsense. For centuries it has been propagated... it has come into the air, it has become part of the atmosphere. It is not a question of listening to them once a week only; their vibe is everywhere. They go on reminding you in every possible way. Whenever you pass, there is a church or a temple or a mosque. Do you think it does not remind you of something? And they go on tolling bells in the churches just to remind you, "Don't forget we are still here!" And the towering churches, you can see them from anywhere; they are reminding you. These are subtle processes of reminding you.

In India you cannot pass a street without coming across a temple - everywhere temples. And it is so simple in India to make a temple: you can just paint any stone. You can try! Just bring a rock from anywhere, put it under a tree, paint it red and just sit by the side with closed eyes. Within a few minutes you will see people are arriving.

Somebody will put flowers, somebody will bow down to the rock; they will think this is the statue of Hanumanji!

India does not believe in very costly things; it has made everything cheap. It is a poor country, you know, so things have to be cheap, within everybody's capacity. You can have as many gods as you want. Any stone will do; just, if it is round it becomes Shankara, Shiva. If it is not round, ugly in shape, paint it red; it becomes Hanuman! Just sit by the side and wait, and you will find worshippers have started coming.

I am not giving a bad time to the priests. In fact, the intelligent priests are immensely pleased with me.

Just the other day I received a card from a priest who is very happy because he has been listening to my tapes, reading my books. He is happy because I am here - a congratulation card from a priest! I am not giving a hard time to intelligent priests. No, I am simply showing them the exit! And a few have escaped. There are many priests, monks and nuns who have become sannyasins. And there is great fear now because if this goes on happening there is danger.

The Protestant authorities in Germany have ordered all the Protestant churches of Germany that my name has not to be mentioned in any sermon. There was an eighteen- page report published by a special commission appointed by the Protestant church to investigate what I am saying. They have read all the books... and my feeling is half of them will be converted because the report seems to be very confused! Sometimes they seem to be favorable to me, sometimes they seem to be against me. They are not in a situation to say whether this man is right or wrong. Their report is very revealing.

They say, "This man talks like Jesus - yet beware of him." Now I think more priests, particularly Protestant priests in Germany, will read the books. They have quoted all the books. They have given the names of the books. Even the priests who would not have known about me will be knowing about me now! This is how things happen in the world. This is a very strange world!

And I am not giving anybody a hard time. At the most, I told a few jokes about the priests. And my feeling is that reading them when they are alone they must be enjoying!

The pope stood before a hushed crowd of attentive villagers and spoke to them, "You must not use the Pill!"

A lovely signora stepped forward, shaking her finger. "Look," she chided the pontiff, "you no play da game-a, you no make-a da rules!"

The last question:

Question 8:

Neelam, madmen can do anything, obviously - they are mad! They can even say the truth. It is the so-called sane people who are unbelievable, who are expert in lying. Mad people are simple; they can say the truth. They don't worry, they don't care.

Listen to your husband. He is far saner than the other so-called sane people. If sometimes you find that he is telling you the truth, maybe at other times also he is telling you the truth, you are just not aware of it.

Mad people are beautiful people. They are mad only because they are so sensitive that they cannot live in this mad world. This mad world drives them mad! They are so sensitive and vulnerable that they become victims. They are not cunning; they are innocent, sincere and honest people. I know many mad people - in fact, I know only mad people - and I respect them.

You ask me, Neelam, "Can a madman do that? Is it possible for a madman to say the truth?"

Only madmen can say the truth.

Jesus must have been mad; otherwise he would not have said the truth. He would have played the game of the crowd and he would have become a famous rabbi, not crucified but crowned. But he was mad and he said the truth.

Socrates must have been mad, utterly mad; otherwise why bother about truth? Live as other people live, imitate them; lie as they lie, deceive as they deceive, be hypocrites as THEY are. Why try to be true? Why insist on truth? But he must have been mad.

The judges had asked him in the last moment... because they also felt sorry for the man, they knew his sincerity. They told him that if he was ready to leave Athens he could be forgiven - but he could not enter Athens again.

Socrates said, "That I cannot do. I have lived in Athens, I have taught in Athens, my disciples are here, my people are here. Now in this old age, where am I going to start my business again?"

Yes, he actually used the word 'business'.

The judges asked, "What do you mean by your business?"

He said, "The business of telling the truth - that is my business."

The judges were really sympathetic. They said, "Then you do one thing. You can live in Athens, but stop talking, be silent."

He said, "That is not possible. It is better to die because then my death will speak. And let me remind you," he said to the judges, "even after centuries, when I am dead, my death will go on speaking to people about the truth. And you will be remembered only because of me; otherwise nobody will remember you. I cannot stop my business of speaking the truth. I am ready to die."

He must have been mad! Even his disciples thought that he was mad. Life is so valuable! But to a man of truth, truth is more valuable.

And mad people can do anything. Help your husband, don't hinder him. Help him to be authentic and true and don't call him mad. Who knows who is mad? In fact, no definition exists. Psychoanalysts call Jesus neurotic. Friedrich Nietzsche says Buddha is mad. Freud says Nietzsche is mad. Jung thinks Freud is mad. Who is to be believed?

The noted doctor opened the patient's stomach and a bunch of butterflies flew out.

"Say," the doctor said, "this guy was really telling the truth!"

And maybe he is just playing a role, just acting, because sometimes it is really beautiful.

I know one madman. When he was alone with me he was absolutely sane, and when he would go home he would become mad. I asked him, "What is the matter?"

He said, "This is very comfortable. I don't have to go to work, I don't have to bother about the family business, I don't have to worry about anything. I enjoy! I swim in the river, I lie down in the sun, and everybody thinks, 'He is mad!' My wife, my children, they have all taken all the responsibility. My wife runs the shop, my children about whom I was always worried - now they are worried about me! And I am enjoying, I am having the time of my life!" He said, "I have done enough. Now this is the only way."

There are many mad people who are simply pretending to be mad.

Just help your husband. Maybe it is just because of you that he is pretending to be mad!

Neelam, women are dangerous! You should see Aseema....

Aseema is a beautiful sannyasin. I have seen her two ex-husbands - both have gone crazy! Then I started thinking, what is the matter? And both are beautiful people - you know both. One is Sarvesh, the ventriloquist. He was perfectly okay before he met Aseema. Now this beautiful sannyasin has driven him mad! Another is Nikunj; Nikunj is mad. The whole credit goes to Aseema! Now, if anybody else is thinking to fall in love with Aseema, think twice! And then stop yourself!

A woman goes to a palm reader.

"Your husband will die a violent death," she is told.

"One more question," she asks. "Will I be acquitted?"

A group of hikers passing a hillbilly's cabin smiled as they saw the owner reclining in a rocking chair on the porch. They noticed his wife going into the house via the front, and only door. A few seconds later they saw a wildcat leap through the open window.

They rushed up to the mountaineer. "Do something quick!" someone shouted. "A wildcat just leaped into your house and your wife is in there."

"That's his tough luck," said the hillbilly. "I never did like wildcats, anyway."

So, Neelam, meditate a little about yourself. Why is this poor man behaving as if he is mad?

At the height of the unfortunate American involvement in East Asia, an owlish-looking young fellow approached the recruiting officer's desk.

"What must I do to get to Vietnam as soon as possible?" asked the prospective soldier.

"Well, first you have to sign up," exclaimed the officer with a grin.

"Do volunteers have to take a physical?"

"Certainly."

"Darn, that'll slow me up. I wanna get to the front lines right away."

"In any case, you'd have to go to boot camp for training," explained the officer. "Nobody goes where the fighting is until he's properly trained."

"Then at least will the army fly me to Vietnam? I'd hate to go there by slow boat."

"What are you so all-fired anxious about?" growled the army man. "Don't you realize you could get killed or wounded over there?"

"So I get killed or wounded. What's the difference, as long as I'm getting all the glory?"

"Listen, buddy," snapped the recruiter, "why don't you go home and forget the whole thing? You're crazy!"

The young fellow abruptly reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a paper and thrust it into the army officer's hands.

"Here," he said quickly. "Just sign!"

Enough for today.