... indeed the most powerful single individual in all Jewry. He was a suave and politic planner and plotter. He desired to direct the matter of disposing of Jesus; he feared to trust such an important undertaking wholly to his brusque and aggressive son-in-law. Annas wanted to make sure that the Master’s trial was kept in the hands of the Sadducees; he feared the possible sympathy of some of the Pharisees...

...:1.3 When Jesus was young, Annas had taken a great interest in him, but now his revenues were threatened by what Jesus had so recently done in driving the money-changers and other commercial traders out of the temple. This act had aroused the enmity of the former high priest far more than had Jesus’ teachings. (1979.2) 184:1.4 Annas entered his spacious audience chamber, seated himself in a large...

... purchased the property and we have paid more money than needed. All your ancestors from Columbus onwards entered America without any visa, without any green card. So what right these people have to decide about me? Q:* YOU HAVE (UNCLEAR) THAT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE THIS GROUP, THE RAJNEESHEES, BECOME AN INTRINSIC PART OF THE STATE OF OREGON, BUT HAVEN'T THE ANTAGONISMS REALLY IN THIS LOCAL AREA GONE SO FAR...

... IS THE COMMUNE? A:* Not at all. Q:* SO SHE DIDN'T RUN OFF WITH ANY...? A:* No, she managed the money that was to come to the commune during these three years slowly slowly from European communes, donations, small parts she started accumulating in a Swiss bank. Q:* HOW MUCH...? A:* In her own name. Forty-three million dollars. Q:* YOU CAN PROVE THAT THROUGH THE BOOKS, THAT IT IS INDEED FORTY-THREE...

...-three millions are very heavy on her and she wants to give us the whole details. Q:* SHE'S GOT FACTS, FIGURES, PAPERS...? A:* Yes, everything. But commune has not missing anything, because though that money never reached commune, so it is not in commune's papers. So commune is not in debt. But Sheela has stolen that much money on the way, and she has done many kinds of crime which slowly are...

... HAVE A TENDENCY TO MAKE THE OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT. WOULD IT BE MORE POLITIC TO, PERHAPS, NOT MENTION MOTHER TERESA IN THE SAME BREATH AS HITLER...? A:* I am not a political person. I am not a politician. I simply call a spade just a fucking spade. Q:* WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF ALL THIS, THE RELIGIOUSNESS, THE COMMUNE, THE STATE OF BEING WITH YOUR FOLLOWERS? A:* What is the purpose of your life? Is there...

... give you a feeling of separateness from life, that idea will give you an enmity towards life, that idea will never allow you to surrender to the whole. The fifth question: Question 5: WHAT IS MONEY AND WHY ARE MOST PEOPLE DEEPLY UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT IT IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER? It is a touchy question, because money is not what it appears. Money is more deep-rooted. Money is not just there outside in the...

... currency notes, it is something to do with your inner mind and attitudes. Money is your love of things, money is your escape from persons, money is your security against death, money is your effort to control life, money is a thousand and one things. Money is not just in the currency notes otherwise things would have been very easy. Money is your love - love of things, not of persons. The most...

... not allow anybody to possess it. People who cannot love persons start loving money because money is a means to possess things. The more money you have, the more things you can possess; and the more things you can possess, the more you can forget about persons. You will have many things but you will not have any contentment because deep contentment comes only when you love a person. The money will...

... not revolt but it cannot respond also, that is the trouble. That's why miserly people become very ugly. Nobody has responded to their love ever. How can you be beautiful without love falling on you, without love showering on you like flowers - how can you be beautiful? You become ugly. You become closed. A man who possesses money or tries to possess money, is miserly and he will always be afraid of...

... freedom because only love can give you freedom; and love can give you freedom only if you give freedom to love. People who are afraid of love become possessive about money. People who love become non- possessive, money doesn't matter much. If it is, it is okay, it can be used; If it is not, that too is okay, because love is such a kingdom that no money can purchase it. Love is such a deep fulfillment...

... that you can be a beggar on the street and you can sing if you have love in your heart. If you have loved and you have been loved, love crowns you, makes a king of you. Money simply makes you ugly. I am not against money. I am not saying: 'Go and throw it away,' because that is another extreme. That is also the last step of the miserly mind. A man who has suffered too much because of money, who has...

... clung to money and could not love anybody or become open, becomes so frustrated in the end that he throws away the money, renounces and goes to the Himalayas, enters a Tibetan monastery and becomes a lama. This man has not understood. If you understand, money can be used, but people who don't understand are either misers, they can't use the money, or they renounce the money, because in renouncing they...

... are also saving the same mind. Now there will be no difficulty in using it: you renounce all and escape. But they cannot use the money, they are afraid of using it. They can renounce, remember this. I have seen misers renouncing completely, totally. A man founded a university in Sagar in India, I was a student there. This man was a rare specimen, his name was Dr. Hari Singh Gaur. I have never come...

... in China. He was one of the best lawyers in the world. He accumulated so much money and then in the end he donated his whole life's savings. The whole university of Sagar is created by a single person's donation. It is one of the most beautiful universities. But when he donated, he donated all. You will be surprised to know that he donated so absolutely that he did not leave a single paise for his...

... children. Now they are fighting in the courts, they have nothing, they are beggars on the street. The miser remains a miser to the very end, even when he renounces. He couldn't give to his children even a single paise but he could renounce the whole. First you can accumulate money like a madman, then one day you understand that you wasted your whole life. When you understand this you become afraid, but...

... the old habit persists. You can give the whole and forget about it and escape, but you cannot share it. If a man of understanding has money he shares it because money is not for itself, it is for life. If he feels that life needs it, love needs it, he can throw it away completely, but it is not a renunciation, it is again using it. Love is the goal for him; money is never the goal, money is the...

... means. For people who are after money, money is the goal, love becomes just a means. Even their prayer is for money; even prayer becomes a means to money. Money is a very complex phenomenon. Why do people get so much into it, and so many people at that? It has a certain appeal, a magnetic appeal. Money has a hypnotic appeal in it and the appeal is that you can possess it completely. Money is very...

... docile, it becomes a slave. The ego feels very fulfilled. Love is not docile, love is rebellious. You cannot possess love. You can possess a woman, you can possess a man, but you can never possess love. If you possess a woman, the woman has become money, a thing; if you possess a man, the man has become money, a thing, an instrument. A man is a man and a woman is a woman only when they are an end unto...

... themselves, not a means to anything else. Money is the means, and to become obsessed with the means is the greatest foolishness that can occur to a man and the greatest curse. Money should not become the goal, but I am not saying at the same time that you should renounce it and become beggars - use it, it is a good means. I'm not against money, I have nothing to say against it. I am saying something about...

... you and your possessiveness, not about money. Money can be beautiful - if it is not possessed, if you don't become obsessed with it. It can be beautiful. Money is like blood circulating in the body: in the body of society money circulates, it is blood. It helps society to be enriched, to be alive - but it is like blood. You must have heard about diseases in which the blood stops and cannot circulate...

..., clots of blood come into existence and they become blocks and the blood cannot circulate in the body. Then you are paralyzed, and if the clots happen in the heart you are dead. If money circulates, moves from one hand to another, goes on moving, the more movement the better, then the blood circulates well, then life is healthy. But when a miser comes in, a clot has happened; somewhere somebody is...

... accumulating, not sharing, and that is a clot in the blood circulation. The man disturbs, he does not live himself and because of his blocking he does not allow others to live. The money has stopped circulating. Blood circulating is life, blood stopped, blocked, is death. Money circulating is life, money stopped, blocked, is death. I'm for a society where money moves fast, nobody clings to it, everybody uses...

... it, and you remember that the simple law of money is: the more you use it, the more valuable it is. For example, we are sitting here. If ten persons have a hundred rupees in their pockets, and they keep it to themselves, then ten persons have only one thousand rupees, dead. But when those rupees circulate, if they make two rounds, ten thousand have become twenty thousand; if they make three rounds...

... they have become thirty thousand; and if they make four rounds.... The more they circulate, the more money there is, because when one hundred rupees are kept by one man those hundred rupees are dead. If he uses them they go to somebody else, then they come to him again because others are also using them; now he has two hundred rupees, and again three hundred, four hundred, five hundred.... The more...

... you use it, the more money floats and circulates, and the richer society is. America is richest because America is the least miserly country in the world. Money circulates fast; everybody is using that money which he has, and even that money which he is going to have in the future, he is using it too. The country is bound to become rich. A country like India is bound to remain poor because people...

... cling. If you cling to money the country will remain poor. When nobody uses it, money becomes like clots in blood. India has two types of people: misers and renouncers. Both these types are wrong, ill, abnormal, neurotic. One should have money, earn money, produce money - and use it. One should hold it only to use and one should use it only to hold; it becomes a circle. Then a person is both, a miser...

... and a renouncer together. When you are miser and renouncer together you are neither miser nor renouncer, you simply enjoy whatsoever money can give. Money can give many things and money cannot give many things; when you use it then you know what money can give. Money can give all that is outward - things of this world, nothing is wrong in them. Nothing is wrong in having a beautiful house. Nothing...

... is wrong in having a beautiful garden - money can give it to you. But money cannot give you love, that is expecting too much from poor money. One should expect only that which can be expected, one should not move in the impossibilities..Just asking poor money to give you love - poor money cannot do it. But nothing is wrong, don't get angry with the money! Don't burn it and throw it in the river and...

... go to the Himalayas. In the first place you asked something which a man of understanding would never have asked - you are foolish, that's all. Nothing is wrong with the money. A wandering monk came to see me two or three years ago and he was very much against money. He would not even touch it - this is a neurosis. There are people who only count money the whole day, and in the night also, in their...

... minds, they go on counting. They touch only money with a loving hand, they never touch anybody else with a loving hand. When they look at their currency notes, watch their eyes - they sparkle. They are hypnotized. These are neurotic people. Then there are other neurotics... This wandering monk came to me, he would not touch money. So I said: Then it must be very difficult for you. How did you come to...

... Bombay to see me? He said: There is nothing difficult. He showed two other men, his disciples: they could touch, they were not such evolved beings. What foolishness! They could purchase the ticket and they could keep the money, but for him, he said: I don't touch, I have gone far beyond it. I said: But what is the point? Now you are not only using money, you are using two other persons as your pockets...

.... You have reduced two persons, alive persons, to pockets; you have murdered. What was wrong in keeping it in your own pocket? And the man said: So it seems you are in favour of money? What can money give? Can money give love? Can money give God? I said: You are foolish if you ask love and God from poor money, your expectations are false. Money never promised them to you, but whatsoever money promises...

... it can give. It never promises that it can give you love. If you expect it you are idiotic. These people who have been expecting too much from money one day become enemies of money. Then they escape, then they don't touch money. Even Vinoba closes his eyes if you bring money to him, he will not see it. What nonsense! What is wrong in money? Something still seems to be miserly inside, something...

... still seems to be like a wound, otherwise why close your eyes? What is wrong in a currency note? It is just paper, and these spiritual people go on saying that it is just paper. If you put ordinary paper in their hands, they touch it, but when you put a currency note there they throw it away as if it is a scorpion or very deadly disease. Neurosis can move from one extreme to another. Use money. Money...

..., ordinary, and just create more understanding so that you can see. Money can be used, should be used, it can give you a beautiful world. Otherwise, sooner or later, if you are against money you will create a dirty country like India: everything is dirty - but they think they are great spiritualists. Everything has gone ugly but they think they are great spiritualists because they have renounced. That's...

... comes in an unnatural form. First it is difficult to recognize it - that it is sex. A person too greedy for money - can you think that this greed for money can have anything to do with suppressed sex? It is so far-fetched it needs a Sigmund Freud to see it. An ordinary person will not be able to connect them at all. How? - money and sex seem to be so far away. They are not so far away. If you repress...

... rich man. He was a bachelor and he had no interest in women at all. His only interest was money - day in, day out he was working for money - but because I was living in his house, somehow he became interested in my ideas. He had a big house and he was alone; his father and mother were dead. He was unmarried with no children - just servants. I liked the place because there was no disturbance, no...

... children, no old people in the house, and no fighting because he had no wife. It was really quiet, and the servants would go in the night, and it was such a big house that we two were almost alone. He was not interested in anything except money. So he would close the doors of his room - there was nobody except me, but he would lock his room from inside and start working: counting how much he had gained...

... with this money? You are not extravagant, you are a miser. You don't have any children for whom you are going to leave the money. You are not so generous that you give it to your friends or to those who are in need. You are not in any way parting from a single pai. What are you going to do? Are you going to take it with you when you die? What is the purpose of this money?" Because money really...

... is meaningless if you don't use it; its whole meaning is in its use. You may have the same amount of money as I have but you can use it in such a way that you are richer than me. The value of the money is in its use. Certainly those who know how to use money use it a thousandfold more than those who don't know. They have the same amount of money, but they are poor. Now this man was a poor man...

.... Money was in the safe, money was in the banks, money was in shares - but he was a poor man. I asked him, "There seems to be no reason for you now to go on earning; you have enough. If you live even two hundred years, it will do. The miserly way you are living, it will do for two thousand years... two hundred I am saying, if you live like me; otherwise two thousand, and still you may not be able...

... to spend it all. You may go on living just on the interest from it forever. Why are you so worried?you cannot sleep well, you don't have any time for anything - and have you ever thought about how this disease happened to you, where you got this cancer?" He said, "I have never thought about it, but you are right. I have enough money, and I can live.... Certainly I am not going to live for...

... two thousand years - even seventy or eighty will be enough. My father died at seventy, his father died at seventy, so I cannot live more than seventy or perhaps eighty years. Yes," he said, "this makes sense. But can you tell me why I am doing this?" I said, "For a simple reason: you have avoided women in your life." He said, "But what have women and money to do with...

... problem. Seeing the situation of his grandfather, uncle, father, neighbors and then listening to the Jaina monks, it became a decided thing in his mind that he was not going to get involved in this constant headache. I told him, "That's from where your interest in money arises. The energy needs some object, some infatuation." And I told him, "You may feel hurt, but I have to say it: I...

... me - even the notes of other people. For example, sometimes he would come into my room and if there was some money on the table - because that was the only place for me to keep it - the first thing he would do was count it, and I would tell him, "This is simply foolish. That is not your money, why are you counting it?" He said, "I simply enjoy it... it is not so important to whom it...

... belongs." Can you see the point? If you become interested in somebody else's wife, do you think of who she belongs to? There is no question of whom she belongs to - she looks beautiful, that's all, so you are interested. Whomsoever she belongs to is not your business. Exactly this was the case with him: money is money, it is nobody's really. And just to touch it, to count it, to play with it.... I...

... told him, "If you want to get rid of this infatuation with money, which is absolutely idiotic...." I am not against money, I am against the infatuation. The man who is infatuated with money cannot use it. He is really destroying the money, its very purpose. In every language, in all the languages of the world money's other name is currency - that is significant. Money needs to be a current...

... gets it immediately uses it - so it passes through one hundred hands - then it is one hundred dollars multiplied by one hundred; then that much money is here in this room. The miser is really anti-money. He is destroying its utility because he is stopping it being a "currency". I told him, "You do one thing: become interested in a woman." He said, "What!" I said, "...

..., "Why?" I said, "Because of all the money! She is not going to be interested in you, she is going to be interested in your money. And once you become interested in the woman, you will start spending money; you will relax. The energy that has become perverted will start moving in the natural way. And you can't find anybody better than a woman to finish your money. You will not need to...

... live two thousand years; long before that the money will be gone. And once you become interested in a woman, your infatuation with money will drop to its natural state." He said, "I will have to think it over." I said, "You can think it over, but don't waste too much time because right now you are almost forty- five. Once you are over sixty, then it will be difficult even for me...

... to make an arrangement. So don't waste fifteen years. Think about it tonight and tomorrow morning when we meet, you tell me." He could not sleep the whole night. He thought about it again and again, and slowly the thing became clear to him: "Yes, deep down it is women, and I am constantly keeping myself occupied with money in order to avoid women, because if there is no space, no time...

..., then from where can the woman enter? And why I am so infatuated now makes sense. It is a substitute woman." So this greed for money, this greed for power, this greed for fame... sex can take any form, it will depend on the type of person. You will be aware of the fact that although poets continually write poetry about women, most of the poets have remained away from women. Most of the great...

..., why should poets write about women? - they don't have much experience, they are almost monks. Why do painters go on painting nude women? Why do sculptors go on making marble statues of nude women? For what? This is all perversion! It is better than collecting money or going into politics, but still it is a perversion. They are satisfying their natural instinct in an unnatural way. So on the one hand...

... to open the door, and that will be their fall. I told this friend, "You just try - there is no harm. The women who come to me are not poor and they will not ask for money or any costly present from you. And I will be introducing you only as a friend, just so that you can have a little acquaintance with women." Next morning he said, "I am ready. And perhaps you are right, I will lose...

... my interest in money. The whole night I thought about it, weighed it up: what should I do? But finally I thought that perhaps it is right, that what I am gathering is rubbish." I introduced him to a woman to whom he got married within six months - and I finished his career! He was thinking of becoming the richest man in the city... but then the woman started using his money. Every day he would...

... see me, and he would say, "You have got me into trouble, there is no end to her demands. And I have lost interest in money, so I am no longer after it as madly as you have known me to be. If it comes it is okay, if it doesn't come I don't bother; but she is continually spending. Now, two hundred years or eighty years... I think she will finish me nearabout sixty or before. But you were right...

...." I said, "Now there is a possibility; before that, there was no possibility. If you had renounced money, you would have been renouncing something which is not at all a natural instinct in you. You would have been renouncing only a path of perversion without knowing that it was a perversion, and the perversion would have taken another path. You may not have been after money, you may have got...

... involved in politics - then power would have become the same problem. But now you are on natural ground. "Any transformation can happen only when you are a natural human being." The philosophy of renunciation is that you renounce money.... I know - because money is an artificial thing, man-made - that even renouncing it is not going to lead you anywhere. These people will say, "Renounce...

... through the window. A beggar came and told me that his mother had just died and he needed some money for her funeral rituals, so I gave him one rupee. He could not believe it, because he must have been begging his whole life and nobody gives one rupee. He looked at me. I said, "I have given it to you knowingly. Your mother is dead. You go home and do something." The man thought, "This man...

... would I get money? So this was the arrangement: one of my students used to take my car and park it in the same place where I would normally park it. The car was always parked there; that was a symbol that I was in the university. I told him, "So park the car there at two o'clock and at four o'clock take it away - just two hours. Everybody should know it is there because that is the rush hour...

... him to come." He said, "You don't understand - I have renounced money." I said, "You are making it more and more of a puzzle! You have renounced money, perfectly good, but what has that to do with this man and his engagement tomorrow morning, and your coming to my meditation group?" He said, "Are you not aware of a simple thing: "I cannot touch money, so he keeps...

... the money for me. And in Bombay you have to go in a taxi - then who will pay? I cannot touch money, I have renounced it. He keeps the money: he pays out the money and if somebody donates money to me, he receives it. I am completely out of it; I have nothing to do with money." I said, "Good arrangement! You have nothing to do with money, then what have you to do with this man? You will go...

... to heaven and this man will go to hell, and he, poor man, is simply serving you continually, following you everywhere - and yet he is going to hell! If you have renounced money, then live without money, then suffer without money. Why send this man to hell? You will be responsible for sending this man to hell. You will fall into a deeper hell than this man." People can find strange ways because...

... they have not understood what they are doing; they are simply following a dead creed, a dead dogma. Because for centuries money has been condemned by the religious people, they are renouncing it. I said, "But it is becoming more complicated. It would have been simple to put your hand in your own pocket; now you have to put it in somebody else's pocket. That is pickpocketing." I said, "...

...;You are also a thief What are you doing? And you are a bigger pickpocket than others because at least they use their hand - you use his hand, picking up money from his pocket. His pocket, his hand, and you are completely above it - superior." I said to the disciple, "You escape right now, leave this man here. I will not allow him to go with you. Just escape as far as you can, where he...

... cannot find you again, because he is managing and arranging for your hell. And whatever money you have, it is yours, because he has renounced money. He cannot claim it." He said, "Is it so - all the money?" I said, "What do you mean by'all the money'?" He said, "Right now when we go somewhere, I keep just two or three hundred rupees in my pocket - but at our temple we have...

... thousands." I said, "All that money is yours. You simply go. I will keep this man here, so you take all that money and escape. And if this man leaves here I will give him to the police because he has renounced money. He cannot even report to the police that his money is stolen." The monk said, "What! I came here to learn meditation." I said, "I am teaching you what...

... Available: N.A. Length: N.A. THE MASTER SEISTSU REQUIRED LARGER PREMISES AS THE BUILDING HE WAS TEACHING IN WAS VERY OVERCROWDED. UMEZU, A MERCHANT, DECIDED TO DONATE FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW BUILDING. UMEZU TOOK THE MONEY TO THE TEACHER AND SEISTSU SAID, "ALL RIGHT, I WILL TAKE IT." UMEZU GAVE THE SACK OF GOLD TO SEISTSU, BUT HE WAS VERY DISSATISFIED WITH THE...

... ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHER AS THE AMOUNT HE HAD GIVEN WAS VERY GREAT - ONE COULD LIVE FOR A WHOLE YEAR ON THREE PIECES OF GOLD, AND THE TEACHER HAD NOT EVEN THANKED HIM. "IN THAT SACK THERE ARE FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD," HINTED UMEZU. "YOU TOLD ME THAT BEFORE," SAID SEISTSU. "EVEN IF I AM A WEALTHY MERCHANT, FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD IS A LOT OF MONEY," SAID UMEZU. "...

...;DO YOU WANT ME TO THANK YOU FOR IT?" SAID SEISTSU. "YOU OUGHT TO," SAID UMEZU. "WHY SHOULD I?" SAID SEISTSU. "THE GIVER SHOULD BE THANKFUL." There are only two ways to live your life, only two ways to be: one is the right way, the other is the wrong way. The right is to give, to share, to love. The wrong is to snatch, to exploit, to accumulate. Love and money are...

... the symbols of these two ways. Love is the right way and money is the wrong way. Everybody is living the wrong way. Why does it happen? What are the dynamics of it? Why does everybody go wrong? Where are the rules? So we will have to penetrate deeply, only then will you be able to understand this beautiful story. And if you cannot understand this story, you cannot understand Buddha, Jesus, Mahavira...

.... No, it is impossible, because they moved on the path of love, you move on the path of money, and these two ways never meet. They cannot meet. Sometimes, even if you try to understand Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, you try to understand them in terms of money. Jainas go on relating how much Mahavira renounced - 'how much' is the point. If Mahavira had been the son of a beggar, no Jaina would worship him...

.... He was the son of a great king. He had a big kingdom, much money, gold, diamonds - and he renounced them. Suddenly he becomes important to you. The importance is in the money that he renounced, not in him. Even if you approach Mahavira, you approach him through money. What an absurdity. And then Jainas go on emphasizing the fact, exaggerating it, because the kingdom was really not so great. It was...

... a small principality - because in India at that time there were two thousand kingdoms - it was just like a small district. And Mahavira's father was also not very rich, but rich, of course. When first they looked at Mahavira because he had renounced the money, he became very important. Then they started to exaggerate the amount of money that he had renounced. And now they have gone to fantastic...

..., absurd lengths; whatsoever they say is simply wrong. And then Mahavira becomes important through the money he renounces. What is really important in your eyes? Why does it happen that not a single tirthankara of the Jainas comes from an ordinary family? - all the twenty-four are the sons of kings. Why does it happen that not a single poor man could become a Hindu avatar? Why only Rama, Krishna - the...

... be through the money he renounces. Buddha is worthless - the money he renounces is the real thing. That attracts you, that hypnotizes you. A man on the path of money cannot understand the man on the path of love - it is impossible, they never meet. You can worship, but you will worship for the wrong reasons, because you cannot understand. Your worship is going to be based on something wrong. What...

... is the mechanism? First try to understand why love becomes so impossible, because that is the root - why you cannot love. If you can love, then money will never be the attachment, can never be. Why can't you love? From the very beginning, something goes wrong in the mind of a child so he can't love. One thing: love is a spontaneous phenomenon, you cannot manipulate it. If you start manipulating it...

... will become a gimmickry; it will not be real, it will become artificial. When love becomes artificial, money becomes important. This is to be understood. Why does money become important when love is artificial? Because love gives you an inner security. When you are in love you are safe - no other safety is needed. When you are in love you are absolutely secure - no other security is needed. Love is...

... to love. If you are ready to die, you are ready to meet the divine. There is no other way, death is the door. What do I mean when I say death is the door? You have to not be there, you have to dissolve, you have to lose yourself. What does security mean? Whatsoever happens, you have to be, you have to persist in your ego. That's why money is so meaningful, because money helps you not to live. A...

... perform the marriage ceremony." And when the ceremony was finished, they went into the room and both took poison and were dead. What manner of man is this? But this manner of man you will find everywhere. When there is fear, nobody can be a friend. Then everybody is the enemy and you have to protect yourself. A rich man can protect himself more; that's why there is so much emphasis on money, so...

... much madness! You cannot even understand what is happening. Why this neurosis about money? Mulla Nasruddin was dying. He opened his eyes, he looked at his wife. His wife said, "We are here, Mulla. You go to the divine silently, in peace and prayer. We are all here." Mulla Nasruddin looked at the faces - his eyes were dim, he was almost gone, it was difficult to see. He asked, "Where is...

..., "Then who is minding the store? If everybody is here then who is minding the store?" And he was on his deathbed; just a moment later he died. No, neither life is meaningful nor death... the store, "Who is minding the store?" Even at the last moment, no temple is there in the mind - just the store, the market, the money. Why is money so important? It is your protection against love...

..., against life, against death, against God. Hence, Mahavira and Buddha renounced it. The renouncement is simply coming to understand that this whole arrangement is against life, against love, against God. They simply renounce! It is not because of money that they are renouncing it, but just because they have come to understand that through this protection they have been killing themselves, this was poison...

.... So they simply escaped from the palaces. Then a new life starts when you understand that money is neurosis. Security, the hankering after security and safety, shows that you are already dead, that life has left you. Continuous effort to be secure means you have not yet been able to love; otherwise, love is enough security, no other security is needed. One moment of love is eternity - no fear of...

... moment of love, for eternity and eternity you will be thankful and singing songs of gratitude to the divine. Then there is no death - love knows no death, love knows only life. You know only death. Love... you have bypassed it, somehow you have not been through it; you have bypassed it, and now money has become significant. Money is symbolic of a dead man, money is the love of a dead man. So look at a...

... miser. It is not simply money when he takes notes in his hands. I have seen one miser - so much romance in his eyes when he would look at the notes; never so lovingly has a lover looked all over the beloved. He would feel and touch... and look at his eyes! The radiance that came to his eyes, the poetry that took over his being. He became a completely transformed man. No, Majnu was not so happy when he...

... looked at Laila. No, Shiri was not so happy when she looked at Farhad. This man was a relative, so I had many chances to see him and understand him. He was the perfect man of money, a buddha on that path. He never got married; he would always say, "It is so expensive and I cannot afford it. Some day I will get married." He is now dead. He never got married - he remained a bachelor. But he...

..., rationalizations, and go on hiding the basic fact that you are killing your feeling. If you are on the path of money - and almost everybody is, more or less - then see the whole phenomenon of what is happening within you; you are killing yourself. And life cannot be prevented from moving, life will reach up to death. You cannot withhold it, it is not in your control. It has to go - as it has come, it has to go...

... understand through the heart: THE MASTER SEISTSU REQUIRED LARGER PREMISES AS THE BUILDING HE WAS TEACHING IN WAS VERY OVERCROWDED - he must have been in the same situation as I am. UMEZU, A MERCHANT... he has not yet come to me... UMEZU, A MERCHANT, DECIDED TO DONATE FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW BUILDING - five hundred pieces of gold is real money. UMEZU TOOK THE MONEY TO THE...

... of money, he should not go. But I know the reason - that too is part of fear, that too is making security in the other world. He must have been nearing death, he must have become an old man. And people of money are always old, they are never young - because death is always near and they are trembling. He must have been feeling any day death can come; he has to make arrangements for the other world...

... through money. See the mind: he thought that through money life can be purchased, now he thinks through money God can be purchased. He thought through money love can be purchased. Now he thinks that through money heaven can be purchased. But his mind remains focused in the neurosis of money. He is still mad, money still remains the means. Anything that he is going to do is to be done through money...

.... That's why the master behaved in such a way. He said, "All right, I will take it," as if it was nothing. That is the meaning of it; as if it was nothing, five hundred pieces of gold - just dirt. The master said, "ALL RIGHT, I WILL TAKE IT," as if it is a burden and he was obliging this Umezu. Always remember that if you go to a master with money, this is going to be the treatment...

.... It is very easy to understand in the story. It is very difficult when the treatment is given to you. Just a few days ago somebody phoned; he used to give some money for the ashram. Then he said, "Now I will stop, because there seems to be no gratefulness about it. I am not even allowed a special interview with Osho so I am not going to give it." He is here, he should try to understand...

... THE AMOUNT HE HAD GIVEN WAS VERY GREAT - ONE COULD LIVE FOR A WHOLE YEAR ON THREE PIECES OF GOLD, AND THE TEACHER HAD NOT EVEN THANKED HIM. Look at the mind, the mind which is neurotic about money. What he is saying? He is saying, "This sack of gold I have given - a man can live on three pieces of gold for one year." He thinks life is through money. Money may be needed, but nobody can live...

... through money. Money may be necessary; it is not enough. And if there is only money and nothing else, it is better you die, the sooner the better. Because you are living unnecessarily, you are just passing the days - it is not life. Jesus is reported to have said: "Man cannot live by bread alone." He also knows that bread is needed - nobody can live without bread, that's right. But there is a...

... higher dimension of life where nobody can live by bread alone. If there is only bread, commit suicide! - because eating the same bread again and again is useless. But the man who lives through money thinks that a man can live for a whole year on three pieces of gold, and these are five hundred pieces - a man can live forever and forever! Eternal life is possible through five hundred pieces of gold. And...

.... What can you give to him? All comes to you through him. At the most you are returning back... at the most. You should be thankful that you have been accepted. But a money-mad man cannot understand this. He wanted the master to be obliged because he had done this, and this is so much. For him it was so much. As far as his attitude was concerned, it was such a great amount - five hundred pieces of gold...

...? I have heard it." This was even worse, no thank you coming from the man. Rather, he would not even take the hint, and he felt a little angry it seems, because he said, "You have told me that before. No need...." "EVEN IF I AM A WEALTHY MERCHANT, FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD IS A LOT OF MONEY," SAID UMEZU. This is the problem of the mind. He says, "EVEN IF I AM A...

... WEALTHY MERCHANT... I have enough money with me, but even then... FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD IS A LOT OF MONEY. So to you, just a beggar, it is the whole world. To me it is a lot of money, and you are treating it as if it is nothing. You are insulting me." A man who is focused on money cannot understand a man of love. The man of love will always appear like a beggar, a madman, not of this world...

... - he doesn't understand. He is behaving in a crazy way. Howsoever you may worship Buddha and Mahavira, if you meet them somehow, somewhere, you will think they are mad. Even if you don't say it, because it will be so impolite... but you understand well that this man has wasted his life sitting under a tree. He could have earned a lot of money - this was said to Buddha many times. Buddha left his home...

..., he has not reached anywhere. This man says, "IN THAT SACK THERE ARE FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD. EVEN IF I AM A WEALTHY MERCHANT, FIVE HUNDRED PIECES OF GOLD IS A LOT OF MONEY" - and you are just a beggar; it is not said, it is implied. "You should know the meaning of it, what I am doing. Such a great donation and you simply say, 'Okay, I will take it.'" "DO YOU WANT ME TO...

... new has come into being in you. Your being is renewed through it. You are being made young again and again, the more you give. The giver remains always young. The non-giver is always old, dead, rotten. The master says, "THE GIVER SHOULD BE THANKFUL. You should be thankful to me that I accept - and that I accept a thing like money. You should be thankful, because money means nothing to me."...

...; It may be necessary in the world, because a master has also to live in the world; it may be the means of exchange in this mad world, because a master has to live in this mad world - but it is nothing. It is just an invented means, agreed upon by all, so that we can exchange things. The society can live without money; for thousands of years society lived without money. And sooner or later a day will...

... come when society will again live without money, because living through money is so burdensome and so useless and so unnecessary. But because the world was poor up to now, that's why money has had to be used; but the more affluence grows.... America will be the first to drop money. When there is enough money, there is no need to carry it - why carry it? Then it is foolish, then it is burdensome. Soon...

... the earth will not need money. But masters have always known it, always, that this is just a market device; but a master has to live with you. If you go to a madhouse, it is better to pretend that you are also mad, otherwise you will be in difficulty. If you try to prove that you are a sane man, the madmen will kill you. They did this with Jesus, they did this with Socrates, they did this with...

... small amount of money, and then he was to be sent to the jail - and he was an enlightened man! Twenty-six times in his whole life he was jailed, but those who were his disciples, they knew him. The last time he came out of jail he was seventy-eight, and the disciples said, "Now don't do such a thing... and why do you go on doing such things?" He said, "Then who will go inside the jail...

...! But if you are ready to understand the neurosis of money and the ecstasy of love, then you will be able to understand this: the giver should be thankful. Give and be thankful - because the other could have refused. That possibility does not exist for this miser. He cannot conceive of anybody refusing five hundred pieces of gold. He does not know he could have been refused. The master may have thrown...

... even more rudely. He said, "So okay, go to the Ganges and throw it all in." The man could not do anything, because Ramakrishna has said so - he became afraid. It was impossible for him to go to the Ganges and throw in five hundred pieces of gold. But when Ramakrishna says.... Still he hesitated. Ramakrishna said, "Why are you hesitating? Haven't you given the money to me? Then it is my...

... money. Just go and throw it into the Ganges, because right now I don't need it, and the Ganges needs it." So the man went, very slowly of course, and he didn't come back. One hour passed, two hours passed, and Ramakrishna sent some disciples to see what had happened to that man. Had he drowned himself and saved the money? Misers are doing that. So the disciples went to see what he was doing...

.... If you can follow this rule the old pail will fall down, the water will flow out. The whole maya, illusion, disappears. No water, no moon. Then you can look at the sky, at the real moon. It is always there, but you are caught in the reflection. Love is the real moon; money is the reflection. Enough for today. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

... accepted the condition he was in. After many years, one day he was sitting outside a hotel, begging. It was hot summer and he wanted enough money to purchase a pair of shoes -- secondhand of course -- because the earth was almost like fire, and to walk without shoes was becoming impossible. He had wounds on his feet, and he was crying out for just a few coins. At that very moment a golden chariot stopped...

... revolution should happen before our eyes. It is contentment enough that you were part of a movement that changed the world, that you played your role in favor of truth, that you will be part of the victory that is going to happen ultimately. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS MONEY SUCH A LOADED ISSUE? IT SEEMS AS THOUGH WHEN WE HAVE MONEY, EITHER WE FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT, AND THUS COMPELLED TO SPEND IT, OR...

... INSECURE, AND THEREFORE WANT TO HOLD ONTO IT. OBVIOUSLY IT AFFECTS A MULTITUDE OF AREAS THAT REVOLVE AROUND THE PIVOT OF POWER AND FREEDOM. THE CURIOUS THING IS THAT EVEN TO DISCUSS THE SUBJECT OF MONEY IS SOMEHOW AS MUCH A TABOO AS DISCUSSING SEX OR DEATH AT THE DINNER TABLE. PLEASE COMMENT. Money is a loaded subject for the simple reason that we have not been able to work out a sane system in which...

... money can be a servant to the whole humanity, and not the master of a few greedy people. Money is a loaded subject because man's psychology is full of greed; otherwise money is a simple means of exchanging things, a perfect means. There is nothing wrong in it, but the way we have worked it out, everything seems to be wrong in it. If you don't have money, you are condemned; your whole life is a curse...

..., and your whole life you are trying to have money by any means. If you have money it does not change the basic thing: you want more, and there is no end to wanting more. And when finally you have too much money -- although it is not enough, it is never enough, but it is more than anybody else has -- then you start feeling guilty, because the means that you have used to accumulate the money are ugly...

..., inhuman, violent. You have been exploiting, you have been sucking the blood of people, you have been a parasite. So now you have got the money but it reminds you of all the crimes that you have committed in gaining it. That creates two kinds of people: one who starts donating to charitable institutions to get rid of guilt. They are doing "good work," they are doing "God's work." They...

... are opening hospitals, and schools. All they are doing is trying somehow not to go mad because of the feeling of guilt. All your hospitals, and all your schools and colleges, and all your charitable institutions are outcomes of guilty people. For example, the Nobel prize was founded by a man who earned money in the first world war by creating all kinds of destructive bombs, machines. The first world...

... war was fought using the means supplied by Mr. Nobel. And he earned such a huge amount of money... Both the parties were getting war material from the same source; he was the only person who was creating war materials on a vast scale. So whoever was killed, was killed by him. It doesn't matter whether he belonged to this side or to that side; whoever was killed was killed by his bombs. So in old age...

..., when he had all the money in the world a man can have, he established the Nobel prize. It is given as a peace award -- by a man who earned the money by war! Whoever is working for peace receives a Nobel prize. It is given for great scientific inventions, great artistic, creative inventions. And with the Nobel prize comes big money -- right now it is near about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars...

.... The best award, and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars with it; and it goes on increasing because money goes on becoming less and less valuable. And such a fortune that man must have created that all these Nobel prizes that are distributed every year are given only out of the interest. The basic money remains intact, will remain intact forever. Every year so much interest accumulates that you...

... this, because for two thousand years nobody even mentioned or bothered to comment on why Pontius Pilate washed his hands. It was Sigmund Freud who found out that people who are feeling guilty start washing their hands. It is symbolic... as if their hands are full of blood. So if you have money, it creates guilt. One way is to wash your hands by helping charitable institutions, and this is exploited...

.... Each breath becomes heavy. And the strange thing is that he has worked his whole life to attain all this money, because the society provokes the desire, the ambition, to be rich, to be powerful. And money does bring power; it can purchase everything, except those few things which cannot be purchased by it. But nobody bothers about those things. Meditation cannot be purchased, love cannot be purchased...

..., friendship cannot be purchased, gratitude cannot be purchased -- but nobody is concerned with these things. Everything else, the whole world of things, can be purchased. So every child starts climbing the ladder of ambitions, and he knows if he has money then everything is possible. So the society breeds the idea of ambition, of being powerful, of being rich. It is an absolutely wrong society. It creates...

... psychologically sick, insane people. And when they have reached the goal that the society and the educational system have given to them, they find themselves at a dead end. The road ends there; there is nothing beyond. So either they become a phony religious person or they just jump into madness, into suicide, and destroy themselves. Money can be a beautiful thing if it is not in the hands of the individuals...

..., if it is part of the communes, part of the societies, and the society takes care of everybody. Everybody creates, everybody contributes, but everybody is not paid by money; they are paid by respect, paid by love, paid by gratitude, and are given all that is necessary for life. Money should not be in the hands of individuals; otherwise it will create this problem of being burdened with guilt. And...

... money can make people's lives very rich. If the commune owns the money, the commune can give you all the facilities that you need, all the education, all creative dimensions of life. The society will be enriched and nobody will feel guilty. And because the society has done so much for you, you would like to pay it back by your services. If you are a doctor you will do the best you can do; if you are a...

...; it will be a commune resourcefulness. It will be yours. It will be for you, but it will not be in your hands. It will not make you ambitious; it will make you more creative, more generous, more grateful, so the society goes on becoming better and more beautiful. Then money is not a problem. Communes can use money as an exchange, because every commune cannot have all the things it needs. It can...

... purchase from another commune; then money can be used as a means of exchange -- but from commune to commune, not from individual to individual, so that every commune is capable of bringing in things which are not available there. So money's basic function remains, but its ownership changes from the individual to the collective. To me this is basic communism: the money's function changes from the...

... charity, but you don't see from where charity comes, and why. In the first place, why should there be a need for charity? Why should there be orphans, why should there be beggars? Why in the first place should we allow beggars to happen and orphans to happen? And in the second place, why are there people who are very willing to do charity work, to give money, to give their whole lives to charity and...

... survived." If you go on digging at the roots -- which are ugly, which nobody wants to see.... That's why words like `sex' or `death' or `money' have become taboos. There is nothing in them that you cannot discuss at the dining table, but the reason is that we have repressed them deep down and we don't want anybody to dig them out. We are afraid. We are afraid of death because we know we are going to...

... that trivia to keep them engaged. It functions as a curtain: they are not going to die, at least not now. Later on... "whenever it happens, we will see." Sex they are afraid of because so many jealousies are involved. Their own life experiences have been bitter. They have loved and failed, and they really don't want to bring the subject up -- it hurts. And so is the case with money, because...

... money immediately brings in the hierarchy of the society. So if there are twelve persons sitting around the table, immediately you can put them in a hierarchy; the similarity, the equality, for the moment is lost. Then somebody is richer than you, somebody is poorer than you, and suddenly you see yourself not as friends but as enemies, because you are all fighting for the same money, you are grabbing...

... at the same money. You are not friends, you are all competitors, enemies. So at least at the dining table when you are eating you want no hierarchy, not the struggle of the ordinary life. You want for a moment to forget all those things. You want to talk only of good things -- but these are all facades. Why not create a life which is really good? Why not create a life where money does not create a...

... not worth it you can take your money back -- return the book -- but don't cut the uncut pages. Those one hundred pages are enough example." Even to understand those one hundred pages is a strange experience, particularly for those who don't know anything about mystics and their strange ways. Now he was not in any way able to compete with his own disciple Ouspensky. His books are so lucid, so...

... this looks strange -- with your blessings. I know this book: even while I was collecting and writing.... My purpose is to earn money -- this book is going to become a bestseller -- but now seeing you and your response, I feel perhaps I should not have done this." I said, "No, you continue. Let this book go into the market. Collect more, because while I am alive more and more lies will be...

... there, more and more gossips, rumors -- you can always earn money; this is a good way. It is not doing any harm to me. And the picture you have chosen for the cover is really beautiful." He said, "My God! I was thinking you would be angry, ferocious." I said, "Why should I be angry, why should I be ferocious? Life is too short to be angry, to be ferocious. Even if we can manage to...

... the cues, now it is their problem. If they fail they should be disappointed; why should I be disappointed? If they succeed, they should rejoice. I can participate in their rejoicing, but there is no way to disappoint me. Just include me out of the category of Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti and others. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, I HAVE TRIED FOR SO LONG TO WRITE A QUESTION TO YOU ABOUT MONEY. THE QUESTION IS...

... SO COMPLEX, I CAN'T EVEN GET IT ON PAPER. IT INVOLVES FRIENDSHIPS, SELF-IMAGE, INTEGRITY, TRUST, INTELLIGENCE, IDENTIFICATION, LETTING-GO, HOLDING-ON, GUILT, RELATIONSHIPS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, MY DISCIPLESHIP. PLEASE HELP ME WITH THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER. Money is a strange thing. If you do not have it, it is a simple matter -- you don't have it. There is no complexity. But if you have it...

..., then it certainly creates complexities. One of the greatest problems that money creates is that you never know whether you are loved or your money is loved, whether you are desirable or your money is desirable. And it is so difficult to figure out, that one would have preferred not to have had money; at least life would have been simple. Just a few days before, Hasya was telling me about Aristotle...

... Onassis' daughter. I remember seeing her picture when Onassis was alive, perhaps ten years ago. She was a beautiful, well-proportioned, charming young girl. But Onassis died and left her with a lot of money, and that created hell for her. Since then she has married three times, and each marriage fails because she thinks the person loves her money, not her. And this starts from the very beginning; the...

... day of marriage is really the day of divorce. On the day of marriage she takes a guarantee from the person -- a legal document before the court -- that he will not take her money. In case divorce happens, he will not ask for money. Now can you conceive a marriage to be worthwhile, when on the first day the woman is asking you to give in writing before the court that you are interested in her, and...

... not in her money; and that in case a divorce happens you will not ask for money? The divorce has already happened. In the fourth marriage she got into more troubled waters. Before I describe the fourth marriage, something else has to be said which was happening on the side. She was becoming fatter, uglier, as if deep down in her psychology she wanted to prove, "You love me whether I am...

... beautiful or ugly, shapely or fat -- you don't love my money." And she has become so ugly now that she avoids photographers, news media: she hides and does not want her pictures to be taken. Perhaps it is because she was uncertain whether she is loved, or her money. And most probably the people who have been with her were for the money, not for her. She did not receive love. The proof is that she...

... man. Perhaps because of his nose? Then you don't love the man. If you have any reason to love, then you don't love the man. So why are you making so much fuss about money? You should love and you should be loved, and you should be loved more because of your money. There is nothing wrong in it; you have something more than any other woman has. Otherwise, each thing will start creating problems: you...

... have a beautiful face, that's why this man loves -- he does not love you. If you had a face with pockmarks this man would not love you. Because you have eyes, this man loves you; if you were blind, this man would not love you. Then you are creating unnecessary problems for yourself. This man certainly loves you, in your totality, and your money is part of you. Why make it separate? You are rich, just...

...." And because of this she did not repeat the ritual of going to the court after marriage, and taking a certificate from the man, that in case of divorce he will not ask for money. Seeing that the man is so rich, it looked absurd to ask. But this man proved really cunning, and because there was no certificate he divorced her and took almost half of her fortune. Now, something like money, that...

... could have been a great pleasure, has turned out to be immense anguish. But it is not money, it is your mind. Money is useful. There is no sin in having money, there is no need to feel guilt; otherwise everybody should feel guilty. I should start feeling guilty -- "Why am I enlightened, when there are so many millions of people who are not enlightened? I must commit suicide, because the world is...

... full of unenlightened people, and I must be immensely selfish to be enlightened." I don't ask you, "Why do you love me? Do you love me or do you love my enlightenment? If you love my enlightenment then -- finished! Then you don't love me." But why make these divisions? This is how mind creates misery. You have money, enjoy it! And if somebody loves you, do not pose this question...

... because you are putting the person in a really bad situation. If he says he loves you, you are not going to believe it, and if he says he loves your money you are going to believe it. But if he loves your money, then the whole affair is finished. Deep down you will go on suspecting that he loves your money, not you. But there is nothing wrong: the money is yours, just as the nose is yours, and the eyes...

... are yours, and the hair is yours, and this man loves you in your totality. The money is also part of you -- don't separate it, then there is no problem. Try to live a life with as little complexities and as few problems as possible. And it is in your hands; we go on creating unnecessary problems. At least being with me, you should learn that all problems are created; there is no real problem. This...

... question is from Avirbhava. She has suffered from this question her whole life, and absolutely unnecessarily. Your money should make your life richer, more lovable, and it is making it difficult. Whenever anybody starts loving you, you are constantly thinking about the money -- "this man is interested in the money, not in me." Even if he is interested in the money... who is not interested in...

... money? He is simply being human. He is not a Buddhist monk, he is interested in money. But this does not mean that he is not interested in you. He is interested in you more because you are not only a woman, but a rich woman. Enjoy the idea, and drop this problem forever. Question 3: BELOVED OSHO, HOW TO CATCH THE LIGHT FROM YOUR CANDLE? Just come a little closer. People are afraid of coming closer...

... FIRST THE SUFFERING HUMANITY AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD SHALL BE YOURS? A GERMAN GENTLEMAN, MR. RHEINER, WHILE SPEAKING TO ME VIOLENTLY ACCUSED THE RAJNEESH ASHRAM OF BEING A BIG MONEY-MAKING RACKET AND SAID THAT IT SHOULD CARE MORE FOR THE POOR AND THAT IT SHOULD SERVE THE DOWNTRODDEN. OSHO, HOW IS IT THAT EVEN PEOPLE FROM THE AFFLUENT WEST CONTINUE TO MISUNDERSTAND YOU? Ajit Saraswati, I AM NOT AGAINST...

... MONEY - I am against money-mindedness! I am not against possessions, I am against possessiveness. And these are two totally different dimensions, diametrically opposite to each other. To be against money is stupid. Money is a beautiful means - a means of exchange. Without money there cannot be an evolved culture, society or civilization. Just imagine that money has disappeared from the world. Then all...

... that is comfortable, all that is giving you convenience will disappear with it. People will be reduced to utter poverty. Money has done a tremendous work; one has to appreciate it. Hence I am not against money, but I am certainly against money-mindedness - and people don't make the distinction. The whole human past has lived in confusion. Renounce money-mindedness, but there is no need to renounce...

... money. Money has to be created, wealth has to be created. Without wealth all science will disappear, all technology will disappear, all the great achievements of man will disappear. Man will not be able to reach the moon, man will not be able to fly. Without money life will become very dumb, just as without language all art, all literature, all poetry, all music will disappear. Just as language helps...

... you to exchange thoughts, to communicate, so money helps you to exchange things; it is also a form of communication. But money-minded people cling to money; they destroy its whole purpose. Its purpose is to go on moving from one hand to another hand. That's why it is called 'currency': it has to remain like a current, moving. The more it moves the better, the richer the society becomes. If I have...

... only one rupee and it goes on moving and it moves to five thousand sannyasins, then one rupee becomes five thousand rupees. The more it moves, the more money is created. It has functioned as if there were five thousand rupees - just ONE rupee! But the moneyminded person grabs it; he stops its being a currency. He holds it, he clings to it, he does not use it. We certainly create wealth, and this is...

... only a beginning; it is not yet a money-making racket. Just wait... it will be! We are going to make as much money as possible, because I am not against money. But we use it, that's the point; we are not hoarding it. And the more we have the more we will be using; it will become more of a currency. One of the reasons India is poor is because people are hoarders. And they are hoarding with beautiful...

... rationalizations: they call it 'simplicity of living.' Sheer nonsense! If you have to live simply then give the money to somebody else who wants to live richly! Why are you hoarding it? Live simply, perfectly okay. It is your life; if you want to live simply, LIVE simply - but why are you hoarding money? Then give it to people who can USE it! But money should be used; it should be allowed to move as fast as...

.... Nothing is wrong in creating money. We are not begging, we are creating, and we will never beg. When we can create, why beg for it? We have never asked anybody to give money to us. Tell Mr. Rheiner he must be a greedy person, and a money-minded person. When the money- minded person comes here he sees only his own mind. This is a mirror! You will find it always: your face mirrored in thousands of ways...

.... But this has been the whole past. Mahavira renounced money, Buddha renounced money. I am AGAINST it - I am far more in favor of a man like Janaka who lived like an emperor and yet became enlightened. I am far more in favor of Krishna who lived the life of an emperor and yet was enlightened. These people are far more balanced. Renouncing money simply shows one thing: that there is some fear in you...

.... You are afraid that if you don't renounce you will cling. I am not afraid! And if you ask me... I don't have any money, not at all - not a single PAISE. I am just a guest in the commune, and of course you treat me like a guest - that's perfectly right: a guest should be treated as a guest - you are my hosts. But I don't have anything. That does not mean that I have to live like a beggar - that much...

... intelligence I have! I need not live like a beggar; without having money I can live like an emperor. Is not that proof enough of enlightenment? I don't earn, I don't do a thing, I never leave my room. I can't even count money properly - you know my counting. After the first question comes the third, after the third comes the second.... For years I have not seen money; I have not touched notes for at least...

... twenty years. I have not touched any - not that I am against touching them, but notes are so dirty, particularly Indian notes - so dirty, that even when I used to travel I had somebody to accompany me, because who would touch those notes? So many hands have touched them and made them so dirty. They must be carrying all kinds of diseases! And for ten years I have not even seen any, because no money...

... comes into my room and I don't go anywhere. Unless the money walks into my room... but the guards are there, they won't allow! But I am not against money. My commune has to be the richest commune that has ever existed on the earth. In fact, in the past many communes have come into existence and died because of this stupid idea that you should not create wealth. Then how can you exist? Now, fifteen...

... will your poverty go. It is very simple: bring more technology. Rather than opening orphanages bring more technology, bring more industry. That's what I am going to do - and that is called a 'money-making racket'! In my commune everything of the latest has to be used so we can produce MORE! A machine can produce more than one thousand men or ten thousand men - then why use men? Men can be freed from...

..., with money, with ambition. Live it - because that is the only way to know it. Go into the deepest hell the world can make available to you, know it - because only by knowing is one liberated. And then, suddenly a light will dawn on you. You will see the whole absurdity of it. And you start returning home; then you start returning towards the source. For thirty-five years go into the world, and then...

... greed. And if you talk about anger, that is not his problem. if you talk about sex, that is not his problem. You will be surprised to know: greedy; people have no sexual problem. That's why Marwadis have to adopt children. Greedy people don't have sex-energy: their whole energy moves into greed. Money becomes their love object: they don't care a bit about women. So if you tell a Marwadi to take the...

... vow of celibacy, he will be ready; it is not difficult. But don't tell him about renouncing his money or wealth: that is his problem. A politician does not bother much about women; his whole thrust, his sexual thrust, is his politics. He wants to reach Delhi, Moscow, Washington; his whole energy is involved in that. His ambition is his sex. He wants to penetrate the capital, the capital is his woman...

... is seducing them into neo-sannyas. And to help people somebody has put a notice on his door; that's how this question has arisen. Somebody has put a notice on Paritosh's door: Office of the Grande Seducer of the Oldies - just to help people, so those who want to find the office can find it easily. The sixth question: Question 6: WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE TO MONEY? I have lived without money, I have...

... lived with money, and I have one confession to make: it is always better to live with money than without. Money is useful. One should not be used by it, that's all. I'm not against money; it should be used. It is a good, utilitarian invention. It helps. It is tremendously useful; but use it, don't be used by it. Money should not be your master; you should be the master, that's all. And if you have to...

... choose, then my suggestion is: always choose to be with money. I am not saying that you will be more happy; I am saying only that you will have more choice to choose your misery according to your heart. A poor man has not much choice: he has to be miserable, whatsoever the misery happens to be. A rich man has much more choice. The poor man has to suffer in a limited way. The rich man suffers...

... trying to choose to live with money or without, I would say to live with money. it will give you more experience, it will bring you to God sooner - because you will be tired sooner. A poor man is never tired of money, remember. Because he has no money - how to be tired of something you don't have? A poor man always hankers and desires and dreams about money. Only a rich man is finished with money. In...

... fact, that is the definition of a rich man: one who is finished with money, he is the rich man. he has known, he has seen what money can give. And now he would like to have something more that Money can never give. I am not saying money can give you God, or peace, or happiness. But there are foolish people... One MAHATMA came to see me a few years ago, and he said, "I have renounced money...

... because through money you cannot have bliss." But I said, "Who told you, in the first place, that you will have bliss? Through money you can have a beautiful house. Who told you that you will have bliss? Who has told you that you will have happiness? You will have a big car." There are foolish people who expect that through money bliss is going to happen. Then they become disillusioned...

... one day. Money is not wrong; their illusion, their projection, was wrong. Money is not at fault. If you go and try to squeeze oil out of sand, and oil does not come out of it, will you say that the sand is at fault? You were foolish, you were stupid. In the first place, who had told you that by squeezing sand you would get oil? Money cannot give you bliss, cannot give you peace, cannot give you God...

..., cannot give you paradise. But to come to know this, one has to have money. Then you become clearly aware of what money can give and what money cannot give. When a person has known what money can give, his efforts start moving beyond the money, beyond the world. Money is a beautiful invention, one of the most important inventions man has ever made, next only to language - the first is language, the...

... second is money. These are the two most important foundations for civilization, society, culture. I am not against it; I am simply saying what money can give and what money cannot give. If you are thinking that by hoarding money, one day suddenly you will become meditative, then you are a fool. Not bye hoarding money are you going to become mediative. And remember, not by renouncing money are you going...

... to become meditative. These are both foolish people. First they think that through money they will get God, then one day they think that by renouncing money they will get God - but in both cases they remain money-oriented. God has nothing to do with money. You can have God with as much money as you want, and you can have God without money, without as much money as you want. God has nothing to do...

... with money. A rich man can become meditative, a poor man can become meditative. But my understanding is thins: that if a poor man wants to become meditative, he will need TREMENDOUS intelligence - because he will have to see the futility of money which he does not have. He will need tremendous intelligence. Kabir must have been tremendously intelligent - I think more intelligent than Buddha and...

... Mahavir. My reason for saying so is this: Buddha had money, Mahavir had money. If they became fed-up, it is simple, it is logical. It is as simple as "two plus two are four." If Buddha had not renounced the palace, then it would have proved only one thing: that he was stupid. If he renounced, that does not prove that he was very greatly intelligent, that simply proves an average intelligence...

.... But Kabir, Christ, Mohammed - they are more intelligent people. They didn't have money, they didn't have anything, and still they became aware that money is useless. They didn't have a great kingdom, and without having it they renounced it. They must have been very sharp people, tremendously alert. They could see through things that they didn't have. Their transparency, their clarity, was tremendous...

..., WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE IN SHORT? Parinirvana -- better known in the commune as Paribanana -- Buddha's message in short is: Be a light unto yourself. And mine? Be a joke unto yourself! The sixth question: OSHO, WHY AM I ALWAYS THINKING OF MONEY? What else is there to think about? Money is power. Everybody else is thinking of money, don't be worried. Even those who are thinking of the other world... they...

... have different coins but they are also thinking of money. Money represents power, with money you can purchase power. Your saints are also thinking of money -- they call it virtue. By virtue you can purchase a better house in heaven, a better car, a better woman. A few people are not that greedy, they are thinking only of the money that is current in this world. A few people are more greedy, they...

... think of the other world. And if you are thinking of virtue to attain to paradise, what is it except money? A man stops thinking about money only when he starts living in the present. Money is the future; money is security for the future, a guarantee for the future. If you have a good bank balance your future is safe. If you have a good character, even life after death is safe. The whole world is...

... thinking in terms of money. Those who think in terms of power politics are thinking in terms of money, because money is nothing but a symbol for power. That's why you can go on accumulating more and more money, but the desire never leaves you to have still more -- because the thirst for power is unlimited, it knows no end. And people are thirsty for power because deep down they are empty. Somehow they...

... want to stuff that emptiness with something -- it may be money, power, prestige, respectability, character, virtue. Anything will do; they want to stuff their inner emptiness. There are only two types of people in the world: those who try to stuff their inner emptiness, and those very rare precious beings who try to see the inner emptiness. Those who try to stuff it remain empty, frustrated. They go...

... have the right way of seeing it. You see it through the mind; that is the wrong way. If you put the mind aside and look into your emptiness, it has tremendous beauty, it is divine, it is overflowing with joy. Nothing else is needed. Only then a person stops thinking about money, stops thinking about power, stops thinking about paradise -- because he is already in paradise, because he is already rich...

..., because he is already powerful. But ordinarily, Ramdas, it is not just to do with you; everybody thinks in some way or other about money. Two mothers were talking. One said to the other, "I haven't seen you in a long time. How is your son and what is he doing?" She replied, "My son is a famous actor in Hollywood and he's making a fortune. He just built a new home that cost three hundred...

... thousand dollars. What is your son doing?" Said the other mother, "My son is doing even better. He is gay and lives in Hollywood; he just moved in with an actor who has a three-hundred-thousand-dollar home." A young woman has decided to put aside some money for a rainy day and informs her husband that each time they make love she will expect him to put five dollars in the piggy bank. That...

... household, takes pity on him and gives him a hundred liras to visit the red-light district. When Sarah, the neighbor, sees Sammy running out of the house, she calls him, "Where are you running to like that? You look so very happy!" Sammy shows her the money and tells her that he is going to spend it on a beautiful young girl. "Give me the money!" proposes pretty Sarah. "You won't...

... regret it, you will see!" Rachel soon comes to know about it. Very indignant, she explodes, "The bitch! When she was pregnant last year, I did the same for Isaac, her husband, for nothing!" People are continuously thinking of money and money and money. It is nothing special to you, Ramdas, you are a normally abnormal person, as neurotic as everybody else. But please come out of this...

... neurosis. Live the moment, drop the future, and money loses its glamor. Live the moment with such totality and abandon, as if there is no other moment to come to you again, as if this is the last moment. Then all desire for money and power simply leaves you. If suddenly you come to know that today you are going to die, what will happen? Will you still be interested in money? Suddenly all desire for money...

... will leave you. If this is the last day, you can't waste it thinking about tomorrow, having more money in the world; there is going to be no tomorrow. Because we live in the tomorrows, money has become very important. And because we don't live, we only imitate others, money has become very important. Somebody makes a house, and now you are feeling very inferior. You were not at all dissatisfied with...

... your own house just a few days before, but now this man has made a bigger house: now comparison arises, and it hurts, it hurts your ego. You would like to have more money. Somebody has done something else, and your ego is disturbed. Drop comparing and life is really beautiful. Drop comparing and you can enjoy life to the full. And the person who enjoys his life has no desire to possess, because he...

... knows the real things of life which are worth enjoying cannot be purchased. Love cannot be purchased. Yes, sex can be purchased. So one who knows what love is will not be interested in money. But one who does not know what love is, is bound to remain interested in money, because money can purchase sex, and sex is all that he knows. You cannot purchase the starry night. One who knows how to enjoy the...

... night full of stars won't bother much about money. You cannot purchase a sunset. Yes, you can purchase a Picasso -- but one who knows how to enjoy a sunset will not be interested at all in purchasing a painting. Life is such a painting, such a moving, alive painting. But people who don't know how to see a sunset are ready to purchase a Picasso for millions of dollars. They will not even know how to...

... not be so much obsessed with money. The obsession is arising because we have forgotten the language of celebration. Hence money has become the only thing to brag about -- your life is so empty. I will not tell you to renounce money. That has been told to you down the ages; it has not changed you. I am going to tell you something else: celebrate life, and the obsession with money disappears...