... ultimate that even if the whole world is against it, it makes no difference at all. You don't need any validity from anybody else. The last question: Question 4: BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I ALWAYS FEEL THAT SEX AND MONEY ARE SOMEHOW DEEPLY CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER? Nirmal, they are connected. Money is power; hence it can be used in many ways. It can purchase sex, and down the ages that has been the case...

... were numbered, and it depended on how much money you had. In fact, in the old days, that was the only way to know how rich a man was; it was a kind of measurement. How many wives has he? Now, Hindus, particularly ARYA SAMAJIS, criticize Hazrat Mohammed very much for having nine wives - and they don't think of Krishna who had sixteen thousand wives. And he is not an exception, he is the rule. In this...

... country, as in other countries, down the ages, the woman has been exploited - and the way to exploit is money! The whole world has suffered through prostitution, it degrades human beings. And what is a prostitute? She has been reduced to a mechanism, and you can purchase her with money. But remember perfectly well that your wives are not very different either. A prostitute is like a taxi, and your wife...

... is like your own car, it is a permanent arrangement. Poor people cannot make permanent arrangements, they have to use taxis. Rich people can make permanent arrangements - they can have their own cars. And the richer they are, the more cars they can have. I know one person who had three hundred and sixty-five cars - one car for every day. And he had one car made in solid gold.... Money is power, and...

... power can purchase anything. So, Nirmal, you are not wrong that there is some connection between sex and money. One thing more has to be understood. The person who represses sex becomes more money-minded, because money becomes a substitute for sex. Money becomes his love. See the greedy person, the money maniac: the way he touches hundred-rupee notes - he touches them as if he is caressing his beloved...

...; the way he looks at gold, look at his eyes - so romantic. Even great poets will feel inferior. Money has become his love, his goddess. In India, people even worship money. There is a particular day to worship money - actual money - notes and coins, rupees, they worship. Intelligent people doing such stupid things! Sex can be diverted in many ways. It can become anger if repressed. Hence the soldier...

... has to be deprived of sex, so that the sex energy becomes his anger, his irritation, his destructiveness so he can be more violent than he ever was. Sex can be diverted into ambition. Repress sex: once sex is repressed, you have energy available, you can channel it into any direction. It can become a search for political power, it can become a search for more money, it can become a search for fame...

..., name, respectability, asceticism, etcetera. Man has only one energy - that energy is sex. There are not many energies within you. And only the one energy has been used for all kinds of drives. It is a tremendously potential energy. People are after money in the hope that when they have more money, they can have more sex. They can have far more beautiful women or men, they can have far more variety...

.... Money gives them freedom of choice. The person who is free of sexuality, whose sexuality has become a transformed phenomenon, is also free of money, is also free of ambition, is also free of the desire to be famous. Immediately all these things disappear from his life. The moment sex energy starts rising upwards, the moment sex energy starts becoming love, prayer, meditation, then all lower...

... manifestations disappear. But sex and money are deeply associated. Your idea, Nirmal, has some truth in it. A wizened little client in a fancy whorehouse is heard shouting from the upper floor: "No! Not that way! I want it my way, the way we do it in Brooklyn. So quit it! Do it my way or forget it!" The madam climbs the stairs and erupts into the girl's room. "What is the matter with you, Zelda...

... different about it?" "In Brooklyn I get it for nothing." People can be so obsessed with money, as much as they are obsessed with sex. The obsession can be shifted towards money. But money gives you purchasing power and you can purchase anything. You cannot purchase love, of course, but you can purchase sex. Sex is a commodity, love is not. You cannot purchase prayer, but you can purchase...

... priests. Priests are commodities - prayer is not a commodity. And that which can be purchased is ordinary, mundane. That which cannot be purchased is sacred. Remember it: the sacred is beyond money, the mundane is always within money's power. And sex is the most mundane thing in the world. A man enters a modern Chicago whorehouse-nightclub run by the gangland syndicate which is now planning to...

... streamline its image. The whorehouse takes up various floors of a skyscraper hotel, and he is received by a lovely young receptionist in a sexy uniform, who sits him at a teakwood interview desk and asks how much money he wants to spend. She explains that prices range from five dollars up to one thousand dollars, depending on the quality and number of girls wanted. Everything is shown on the television...

...?" he asks at last. "Of course," says the receptionist. "Seventh floor - roof garden. One dollar a shot. Self- service." Money is certainly associated with sex, because sex can be purchased. And anything that can be purchased is part of the world of money. Remember one thing: your life will remain empty if you know only things which can be purchased, if you know only things...

... have traveled so far. In your own capital I have a follower who has attained to the same state, and he is so poor that he may be willing to sell it. I am not willing, because I don't need any money. You can see I am naked, I don't need any clothes, I am utterly satisfied - I don't have any needs, so what will I do with your money? Even if you give me your whole kingdom I am not going to accept it. I...

... had my own kingdom - that I have renounced. I had all that you have got!" And Bimbisara knew it, that Mahavira had had all and had renounced, so it was difficult to persuade this man to sell. Certainly, money meant nothing to him. So he said, "Okay, who is this man? Give me his address." And Mahavira told him, "He is very poor, lives in the poorest part of your city. You may...

... can die for you right now, I can cut off my head - but how can I give you my samadhi? It is not sellable, it is not purchasable - it is not a commodity at all. It is a state of consciousness. Mahavira must have played a joke on you." Unless you know something which cannot be sold and cannot be purchased, unless you know something which is beyond money, you have not known real life. Sex is not...

... beyond money - love is. Transform your sex into love, and transform your love into prayer - so one day even kings like Bimbisara may feel jealous of you. Become a Mahavira, a Buddha, become a Christ, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu. Only then have you lived, only then have you known the mysteries of life! Money and sex are the lowest, and people are living only in the world of money and sex - and they think...

... they are living. They are not living, they are only vegetating, they are only dying. This is not life. Life has many more kingdoms to be revealed, an infinite treasure which is not of this world. Neither sex can give it to you, nor money. But you can attain to it. You can use your sex energy to attain it, and you can use your money power to attain it. Of course, it cannot be attained by money or by...

... sex, but you can use your sex energy, your money power, in such an artful way that you can create a space in which the beyond can descend. I am not against sex, and I am not against money, remember it. Always remember! But I am certainly for helping you go beyond them - I am certainly for going beyond. Use everything as a step. Don't deny anything. If you have money, you can meditate more easily...

... than the poor person. You can have more time to yourself. You can have a small temple in your house; you can have a garden, rosebushes, where meditation will be easier. You can allow yourself a few holidays in the mountains, you can go into isolation and live without worry. If you have money, use it for something which money cannot purchase, but for which money can create a space. Sexual energy is a...

... is possible only through meditation, not through sex alone. Use sex, use money, use the body, use the world, but we have to reach God. Let God remain always the goal. Enough for today. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

...: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. ONE EVENING AS SHICHIRI KOJUN WAS RECITING SUTRAS A THIEF WITH A SHARP SWORD ENTERED, DEMANDING EITHER HIS MONEY OR HIS LIFE. SHICHIRI TOLD HIM: 'DO NOT DISTURB ME. YOU CAN FIND THE MONEY IN THAT DRAWER.' THEN HE RESUMED HIS RECITATION. A LITTLE WHILE AFTERWARDS HE STOPPED AND CALLED: 'DON'T TAKE IT ALL. I NEED SOME TO PAY TAXES WITH TOMORROW.' THE INTRUDER...

... GATHERED UP MOST OF THE MONEY AND STARTED TO LEAVE. 'THANK A PERSON WHEN YOU RECEIVE A GIFT,' SHICHIRI ADDED. THE MAN THANKED HIM AND MADE OFF. A FEW DAYS AFTERWARDS THE FELLOW WAS CAUGHT AND CONFESSED, AMONG OTHERS, THE OFFENCE AGAINST SHICHIRI. WHEN SHICHIRI WAS CALLED AS A WITNESS HE SAID: 'THIS MAN IS NO THIEF, AT LEAST AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. I GAVE HIM THE MONEY AND HE THANKED ME FOR IT.' AFTER...

... just on the right hand of God - then who is going to be next to him? Their worry comes out of their greed and comes out of their fear. They are not much concerned that Jesus is going to be crucified tomorrow, they are much concerned with their own interests. All other religions are based in very ordinary greed and fear. The same greed that you have for money one day becomes transformed into the greed...

... for God. Then, God is your money; now, money is your God - that's the only difference. Then God becomes your money. Now you are afraid of the state, of the police, of this and that - and then you start being afraid of hell, and the supreme court, the suprememost court of God... the last day of judgement. The so-called Christian saints, even in their last moments of life, are constantly trembling...

... do it perfectly, it is impossible. It cannot be done really, he can only pretend. And then some times or others when he is not pretending, when he is a little relaxed - he is in a holiday mood and he is on a picnic - the reality asserts. Then you think you have been deceived; this man is a deceiver. You were thinking he is good, and today he has stolen money from you. And for years you have been...

... thinking he is good, he is a saint - and now he has stolen money from you. You think he has deceived you? No, it is your labelling that has deceived you. He is moving according to his reality. Enough he tried to fit within your frame - but one day or other one grows out of the frame. One has to do things one wants to do. Nobody is here to fulfill your expectations. And only very cowardly people try to...

... MONEY OR HIS LIFE. SHICHIRI TOLD HIM: 'DO NOT DISTURB ME. YOU CAN FIND THE MONEY IN THAT DRAWER.' THEN HE RESUMED HIS RECITATION. No condemnation, no judgement. Simple acceptance - as if a breeze has come in, not a thief. Not even a slight change in his eyes - as if a friend has come, not a thief. No change in hi. attitude. He says, 'DO NOT DISTURB ME. YOU CAN FIND THE MONEY IN THAT DRAWER. Can't you...

... see I am reciting my sutras? At least you should he that much respectful, not to disturb a man who is reciting his sutras, for such a foolish thing as money. You go and find it yourself! And don't disturb me.' Now see: he is not against the thief because he has come to steal. He is not against the thief because he is after money, obsessed with money - no, nothing of the sort. A simple acceptance...

... will trust you. He simply said: 'DON'T TAKE IT ALL. I NEED SOME TO PAY TAXES WITH TOMORROW.' THE INTRUDER GATHERED UP MOST OF THE MONEY AND STARTED TO LEAVE. 'THANK A PERSON WHEN YOU RECEIVE A GIFT. Now, see the compassion of the man. He does not call it theft; he says, 'Thank a man when you receive a gift.' He is transforming; his vision is totally different. He does not want this man to feel guilty...

..., AMONG OTHERS, THE OFFENCE AGAINST SHICHIRI. WHEN SHICHIRI WAS CALLED AS A WITNESS HE SAID: 'THIS MAN IS NO THIEF, AT LEAST AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. I GAVE HIM THE MONEY AND HE THANKED ME FOR IT. ' You see the point? How respectful! What immense respect! What unconditional respect towards a man - towards a thief! If this Shichiri was a Christian saint, he would have threatened him to be ready to...

... suffer hell - and hell for eternity. If he was a Hindu saint, he would have preached him a long sermon on no-theft, and he would have made him very frightened that he will be thrown into hellfire. And he would have painted a very nightmarish picture of hell. And he would have preached the uselessness of money. Look: the Zen master does not say anything about the uselessness of money. In fact, instead...

... he says, 'Leave a little for me; in the morning I will need it.' Money has a purpose. One need not be obsessed, this way or that, for or against. Money is utilitarian. You need not be only living FOR money, and you need not be against money. It is just utilitarian. That's why my attitude towards money is: Money has to be used. It is very very instrumental. In the world of religion, money is...

... condemned very much - the religious people are very much afraid of money. That fear is nothing but the greed standing on its head. It is the same greed which has now become afraid. If you go to Acharya Vinoba Bhave with money in your hand he will close his eyes. He closes his eyes, he will not look at the money. So much fear of money? Why should you close the eyes? And he goes on saying that money is dirt...

... - but he never closes his eyes when he looks at dirt. This is very illogical. In fact, if money is dirt he should have to keep his eyes closed twenty-four hours, because dirt is everywhere. Money is dirt? Then why be so afraid of dirt? What is the fear? Zen has a totally different and a very fundamental approach. The master does not say that money is dirt and you should not be looking for other...

... people's money. What does it have to do with people? Money is nobody's. So to say to somebody, 'You are a thief,' is to believe in private property. Is to believe that somebody can have it rightly and somebody can have it wrongly, somebody has the RIGHT to own it and somebody has no right. Stealing is condemned because of the capitalist mind in the world; it is part of the capitalist mind. The capitalist...

... mind says money belongs to somebody - there is a right owner, and nobody should take it away. But Zen says nothing belongs to anybody, nobody is the right owner. How can you own this world? You come into this world empty-handed, you go out of it empty-handed - you cannot own it. Nobody owns it; we use it. And we are all together here to use it. That is the message: 'Take the money! but leave a little...

... for me too. I am also here to use it, as much as you are here to use it.' Such a practical, such an empirical attitude! And so free of money! And in the court he said, 'THIS MAN IS NO THIEF...' he has turned this thief into a friend. He says '... AT LEAST AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. I don't know about others - how can I know about others? This much I know: I gave him the money and he thanked me for it...

... known that in this hut lives a master, he would not have dared at all. He had come only for the money; he had stumbled upon the master by accident. But even if you meet a Buddha by accident, it is going to change you utterly. You will never be the same man again. Many of you are here just by accident. You were not searching for me, you were not seeking for me. By a thousand and one accidents you have...

... fight with darkness, just light a candle. The master lighted a candle in the man. Exactly the same, but a little more Zen, there is another story out another master - almost the same, but still more Zenish. One midnight when Master Taigan was writing a letter a thief came into his room carrying a big naked sword. Looking at the thief, the master said, 'Which do you want - money or my life?' Now, this...

... is more Zen - he does not give a chance to the thief to say anything. Shichiri at least gave him the chance; with Shichiri the thief asked: A thief with a sharp sword entered into Shichiri's room DEMANDING EITHER HIS MONEY OR HIS LIFE. Taigan has improved upon it. Maybe Taigan followed later on - he must have come across Shichiri's story. He does not give that much chance to the thief. He says to...

... this thief, 'Which do you want - money or my life? Both are irrelevant - whatsoever you need, you can take. It is your choice.' 'I came for money,' replied the thief, a little afraid. This man - he has never come across such a dragon - he says, 'What do you want? - money or my life?' And so ready to give: 'You can choose.' No condemnation, nothing of the sort. Even if he had chosen his life, Taigan...

... would have given it. All that has to be taken, it is better to give it. And one day or other even life will disappear - so why worry about it? Death is coming: let this thief enjoy a moment. 'I came for money,' replied the thief, getting a little bit afraid. The master took out his purse and handed it to the man, saying, 'Here it is!' The master then returned to writing his letter as if nothing had...

... understand me at all, who must be a newcomer. The Indians think they are the most religious people in the world; all bullshit. They are the most irreligious people in the world - they just have an egoistic idea that they are very religious. If you are really religious, you will be ready to pay for your meditation with everything, even with your life. What is money? If you pay five rupees for something, and...

... if you earn ten rupees a day, then you have paid with half the day. Money is just a symbol that you have devoted half your day's labor for it. You go to the movie and you pay ten rupees for a ticket; you earn ten rupees per day. You are saying that this movie is worth it - "I can stake one day's labor for it." But you are not ready to stake anything for your meditation, prayer, for...

... life. Those few rupees that you have to pay are very symbolic, just symbolic, just token - they indicate something. If you are ready to pay something, then I know you will be persuaded to pay more. By and by, one day you will be able to stake your whole life for it. If you are not ready to even pay five rupees, it is impossible for you to stake your whole life. Gurdjieff used to ask much money for...

... his lectures; and not only money, he would create all sorts of obstacles. For example: no lecture would be declared beforehand. If the lecture was going to be this morning at eight o'clock, early - in the wee hours, at five o'clock - you would receive a phone call: "At eight o'clock reach a certain place" - and the place would be twenty miles or thirty miles or fifty miles away - "and...

... interested only in the few sincere seekers. They have to show their mettle. And, the money that you have to pay is just the beginning. It is just the alpha; by and by I will persuade you to pay with your life. Unless you have that much courage, nothing is going to happen. Religion is not cheap, certainly not free. But the Indian mind is very money-minded: they talk about being religious but they are very...

... money-minded people. Their whole outlook about things is money. No westerner has ever asked this; they understand: the ashram has to be maintained, the place has to be ready for you, some musician has to prepare for the music, somebody has to conduct the meditation, the gardens have to be looked after, the buildings have to be built. All needs money - from where is it going to come? And you know well...

... that I don't do any miracles. There are only two ways. One is: somebody else should donate for you. But why should somebody else donate for you? You will meditate and somebody else will donate for you? Why? If you want to meditate, you pay for it. And if you really want to meditate you will be ready to pay for it; there should be no hitch about it. If you don't have money, go and earn it. If it is...

... mean much. You have to show that you are sincere, you have to show that you are not just here out of curiosity. What is the way to check a person? The easiest way is money... because the greatest greed is for money. The greatest greed is for money, so whenever you have to lose your money you have to lose a little part of your greed. When you pay five rupees for entry, you are paying by dropping a...

... little greed. The money is not the problem, the problem is greed; you are dropping a little greed. And this is just a beginning - because meditation can happen only when all greed disappears. A slight greed inside you and meditation is not possible. For a greedy mind there is no meditation; meditation happens only in a non-greedy mind. If you don't have money, then work. Pay by your work and show your...

... sincerity. But the person who has asked must have money, otherwise he would not have been allowed to enter here. He must have paid... must be greedy, must want to have everything free - at least about God. Because nobody bothers about God. I have been moving in the masses for years. I have not decided in a hurried way to drop out of the mob - I saw that it was absolutely absurd: you go on talking to...

... it ends in death. And there is nothing else to do. You have become aware. the fourth question: Question 4: MY GREED FOR MONEY, TO HAVE MONEY AND TO SEE THAT I AM ABLE TO MAKE MONEY, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It simply means that you are greedy. There is no need to go into great philosophy about it. It does not mean anything else than what it means: you are greedy. And greed says that you must be empty, so...

... you want to stuff yourself with something or other. Money is a way to stuff oneself with things. Money can purchase everything, so money becomes very important. Then you can stuff your emptiness with everything: you can have as many women as you want, you can have as many palaces as you want, as many cars, airplanes - whatsoever you want. You can go on stuffing yourself with things. You are empty...

... will not increase. In fact it may start decreasing - because each time you run after money you lose some soul. It is a great risk. By losing your soul you earn money; by destroying your inner purity, your inner virginity, you go on selling your inner for the outer. You go on exchanging. In the end you have piled up much money and many things, but suddenly you realize that inside you are a beggar. The...

... inner can be fulfilled only by the inner. I am not saying to renounce your money; that too is foolish. To continuously run after money is foolish, to renounce money is also foolish - because nobody can fulfill his inner emptiness with money, and nobody can fulfill it by renouncing money... because both are outside. Whether you accumulate any money or renounce, both are outside. That is not looking...

... into the problem directly. You are empty inside: something has to be done there. A prayer has to fill it, a meditation has to flower there - only God's fragrance will be able to give you a fulfillment. So I am neither for money nor against money. Money can purchase many things: all that is outside can be purchased with money, there is no problem about it. But money cannot lead you to the inner...

... contentment... and that is the problem. You have to work for that. My own observation is this: that the more money you have, the more is the possibility of becoming aware of the inner emptiness, because the contrast makes things very clear. A person who is poor inside and poor outside does not know his inner poverty. That's why poor people look more happy, beggars look more happy than rich people, than...

.... So I am not against money. In fact, my whole approach is that only rich people can be religious. A poor person cannot be. It is very difficult for a poor person to be religious. To be poor and to be religious needs great intelligence, very great intelligence, unique intelligence. Only then can you be religious. To read something written with white chalk on a white wall you need very penetrating...

... they remain greedy; even DEATH does not make them aware. Solomon and Irving were both partners in the dress business. They had the worst season of their careers, and were at a complete loss as to what to make that would sell. There was not a dress to be cut in their cutting-room. They both decided: the only way out to leave their families any money was to agree to a suicide pact. They drew straws and...

... kicked him and pushed him into the gutter. Finally he got up, brushed himself off, and said to a man at the end of the line, "If they do that once more, I am not going to open the store." Still he is ready to open the store! They have thrown him in the gutter! But people go on rushing, almost insane. Greed is a sort of insanity. Use money, but never be greedy. As a means money is perfectly...

... suffering brings sympathy from people - which they cannot purchase with their money. Although sympathy is not love but a very poor substitute, something is better than nothing. These people have never been loved by anyone. Those who have loved them have loved their money; those who have been friends with them have been friends because of their money. I was a professor in a university and in the whole...

...;Although he has so much money, he is suffering. We don't have that much money but we are not suffering, we are still in a higher state of mind than him." There is no harm in sympathizing with the person... but the person cannot leave his suffering because the moment he leaves his suffering all those sympathizers will be gone. He is caught in a net. And his life has not been a total lie - he has only...

... been an earning machine. He has earned enough - at the cost of everything that is valuable, at the cost of everything which cannot be purchased with money. You cannot purchase love with money, you cannot purchase truth with money, you cannot purchase beauty with money, you cannot purchase understanding with money; you cannot purchase anything that has real value with money. He has wasted his whole...

... life in earning money and now he is at a dead end. Money is there and he is just a beggar. His whole life he has learned only one art: how to earn more and more. He has never paid any attention to great music, to great art, to great paintings, to great architecture, although there was time. His whole life was devoted to one thing - he had only one god: money. Now the money is there but he remains a...

... very primitive barbarous being - uncivilized, uncultured, unsophisticated. I have heard a small story which will help you.... Mulla Nasruddin was very rich - it is a Sufi story - and he had devoted his whole life to earning money. One day a friend said, "Mulla, you are getting old but you have never seen a movie." Mulla said, "I don't have any time." The man said, "I have...

... brought a ticket for you too. You don't have to waste money, just a little time." Mulla goes with him to the movie. In the movie there is a classical singer, and the whole movie is around the life of that classical singer. Indian classical music is totally different from that of the West; it is far more scientific. Each scale is played in a different way, and for each time of day there are...

... music! This is not classical music, I tell you. I had a goat which cried 'ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhh,' the whole night and finally died. This man is certain to die. Do something!" He had all the money, but only the money. The man was empty, no sensitivity for anything, no understanding for anything. The people you are asking about in Switzerland have beautiful houses, a beautiful land, all the money...

... that they need or perhaps more than they need, but they are stuck. From where is their misery coming? Their misery is coming because they have never learned anything else than accumulating money. Their being is hollow, empty. From that emptiness their misery is coming. And now they have lived with that misery their whole lives; that is their only companion, and that misery is the only thing that they...

... are not worthy to be an emperor. But that was the feudal world; in a capitalist world things have changed. You have to earn money, and you have to earn it fast because life is small and competition is hard. In earning money you forget that there is much more to life than money. Money is nothing; it is a good means of exchange, but more than that it has no value, no spiritual value. Somebody has to...

... point out to the rich people of Switzerland, "You are not rich, you are utterly poor." They have to be made aware that they have lost themselves and found money, they have sold themselves and gathered junk. Unless a rich man realizes his emptiness, there is no way for him to start working to gain the things that he has missed in his life. And it is never too late - because it is only a...

... nonsignificant things, who is busy about the trivial, who is busy about the outside, who is busy about things, commodities, but not about himself. He has completely forgotten himself, he is lost in the world. He thinks of money, possessions, but never of consciousness, because consciousness is not a commodity, it can neither be sold nor purchased, it is useless. A businessman is one who is a utilitarian...

...: poetry is meaningless, religion is meaningless, God is meaningless, because they cannot be converted into saleable objects, you cannot earn money through them. And money is the most significant thing for this type. He can sell himself, he can lose himself, he can destroy his whole life, just to accumulate money. This is the first characteristic of the type. I have heard that two businessmen met in a...

... market. It was the peak of the season, of the year. And one said to the other, "Have you heard that Sheik Fakhruddin, the clothier, died this morning?" The other said, "What! In the middle of the season?" Neither is life meaningful, nor death, only the season. His measurement is money, he measures a man with money; how much you have got, not who you are - that is meaningless. If you...

... have money you are significant, if you don't have money you are nobody. If he pays respect to you, he pays respect to your possessions, never to you. If you lose your possessions he will not even look at you. Once it happened: A rich man became poor. He was in misery and he was saying to his wife, "I believed that I had so many friends. Fifty percent of them have already left me, and the other...

... fifty percent do not yet know that I have become poor." All of them are going to leave, they were never with you. You cannot have a friendship with a businessman. No, he is only friendly with the money that you have. The moment money is not there, the friendship disappears - it was never with you. You cannot relate to a businessman, that is impossible: you cannot be a wife, you cannot be a...

... husband, you cannot be a son, you cannot be a father to a businessman, because he relates only to money. Everything else is beside the point, his target is money. If your son starts earning money, the son is valuable; if your father is rich, then he is your father; if he is poor, you would not like people to know that he is your father. This actually happens every day in life: you will recognize a...

... father who is rich; if he is a poor man or a beggar, you will not recognize him - you recognize only the money. The businessman - the type - cannot love, because love is the most anti-money phenomenon in the world. Love is concerned with being. Love is a sharing, it is a giving away - not only what you possess, but what you are. A businessman can never be a lover, and a businessman always thinks that...

... lovers are a little crazy, they have gone nuts, they are not in their senses, they are doing nonsense. "Why are you wasting your time? Time is money!" - that's what a businessman says. I have heard about one businessman who purchased one hundred clocks and put them all around his house. Somebody asked, "What are you doing?" He said, "I have heard that time is money, so the more...

... of it the better!" His whole concern is about things, not about persons. Love is concerned with persons, the money- oriented mind is concerned with things. And this type of man is continuously busy; he is never at rest, he cannot be, because there is always more and more to be accumulated. There is no end to it. A man of love can rest. There is a fulfillment when you can rest. But a man after...

... money can never rest because there is no end to it. And there is never fulfillment because money cannot fulfill the soul; the soul remains empty, the inner remains a void. You go on throwing things into it but they never touch your inner emptiness. The more you accumulate, the more you become aware that you are empty, your hands are empty; money is with you but you have lost yourself. Your whole...

... effort is not to look at this fact, because this is very painful. The businessman runs after money more and more. He wants to completely forget himself in the money; money becomes an intoxicant. He is always busy, a businessman is always busy about nothing. I say about nothing, because in the end it proves nothing. All that you possess proves to be as if you were making drawings on water: they...

... moment it would crash. So the minister said, "Okay, there is no time left now. So you just behave as if you are in a church." The businessman walked down the aisle and collected money from people. The type - even at the moment of death he knows only one way to behave in a church: to collect money. At the last moment money still remains the focus. This is the first thing to be understood, then...

... achieve out of it?" And if I say, "Nothing," they simply cannot understand. Why are people coming to me? To learn nothing? To attain nothing? The businessman needs something visible, tangible. If he meditates and money starts falling on him, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and he becomes successful in the world, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and the illness disappears from...

..., "Why?" This 'why' cannot be understood by a businessman. He said, "Why? To earn some money!" The primitive started smiling and again asked, "Why?" This was impossible. The businessman became annoyed and he said, "Why? To have a bank balance so that you can retire and rest, and then there is no need to work." The primitive closed his eyes and said, "I am...

...; A businessman remains a businessman because the type cannot change so easily - unless you become aware of the whole fallacy of postponing, future, money, possessions; unless you become so intense in your awareness that the very intensity burns your type. And if you are not a businessman then you become a religious man. The invitation comes every day, it knocks at your door every day - every moment...

... man has so much time to enjoy and dance and sing that you cannot conceive of it. An ambitious man has no time. Even to love he has no time, because there is always the future, the bank balance, the money that he can get out of this time if this time is used. A businessman even dreams only of business, thinks only of business. HE CAME TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO...

... working out of love. While I was in Poona, thousands of centers around the world were working without any order, without any structure. Each had its own uniqueness its own individuality, and it was upon themselves what to make of it, how to make it. She dissolved all those small, beautiful centers and created big communes simply so that more money can be generated. My interest is not money. My interest...

... is how more consciousness can be generated. But her whole effort and her whole clique was concentratedly working at one goal: how to create more money. And this was necessary, that small centers should be dissolved, people should move into bigger communes, and there should be strict discipline, strict orders, and everybody should be dependent on the commune for everything. Naturally, more money can...

... be produced. But what we are going to do with the money? Money is not a value. It is useful, but it is not something that has to be worshipped, that you have to make a goal of it. So my situation now is that if you feel bigger communes are difficult to maintain -- they will be difficult -- without structures, without somebody dictating everything from higher up and you have simply to follow... now...

... there will be nobody else to do it. I have never ordered anybody to do anything and I have never dictated anybody -- that is against human dignity. So I would like that if your bigger communes are becoming difficult to run disperse them, let your small communes sprout up again in different places. And we have nothing to do by generating money. We have to generate more consciousness and more living and...

... thinking that she has been very clever because she has accumulated money in Switzerland -- that's why in Germany she has created these six communes, destroyed all small communes. And Germany has a tendency -- you have to be aware of that -- Adolf Hitler does not happen from nowhere. It comes from your consciousness, it is something in your unconscious that creates that monster. Why she concentrated on...

... Germany? She could see that Germany can be structured, people can be enslaved, disciplined... they love me. In the name of my love they will be ready to do anything. And all the money she was siphoning into Switzerland and it is just a guess -- American government thinks twenty million dollars she has in one bank account. Her own secretary who left her two years before because she had cancer and had to...

... go for treatment in California remembers that at the time she left she had forty-three million dollars in two bank accounts. And she left two years before. So there is every possibility that she may be having something nearabout sixty, seventy or eighty million dollars in her own name. But this is what I was saying. That money is not a value. Now she will rot in a jail her whole life and the money...

... will rot in a bank. And you all worked for that money and for Sheela unnecessarily. It was a sheer wastage. So now make it a point that no more of anything that Sheela may have left in your minds should remain in the communes, in the sannyasins -- it has to be cleaned. So if big communes can be run without destroying people's freedom, individuality -- good. If you feel it is difficult, make smaller...

... communes, smaller centers and let people live according to their own ideas. That's my whole message to the sannyasins. Now whatever Sheela has done has to be undone. And it has been in a way a blessing in disguise. It has been a good learning. It should not happen again. BHAGWAN, I KNOW THE MONEY SOURCE OF THE COMMUNES -- OF COLOGNE AND MANY OF THE OTHER COMMUNES -- TWO OF THE BIG COMMUNES, AND I KNOW...

... THAT THEY WERE HARDLY, OR WE WERE HARDLY ABLE TO GATHER THE MONEY FOR GOING TO THE FESTIVALS. SO JUST FROM THIS FACTUAL SIDE, I KNOW THAT THIS MONEY SHEELA HAS IS NOT COMING FROM THE BIG COMMUNES. JUST THE FACTUAL INFORMATION, I DON'T KNOW WHICH INFORMATION YOU GET. BUT KNOWING THE COLOGNE BUSINESS AND THE MONEY FLOW IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR HER OR FOR ANYBODY TO TAKE OUR MONEY BECAUSE WE WERE REALLY...

... WORKING HARD TO GET THE MONEY TOGETHER TO GO TO THE FESTIVAL. IT'S LIKE A COMMUNE OF THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE, WE COULD TAKE ABOUT ONE POINT FOUR MILLION DEUTSCHE MARKS TO BRING EVERYBODY OVER TO THE FESTIVAL. I can understand it may not be coming from the communes, then it must be coming from rich sannyasins directly of which you were not aware and you cannot be aware that, and she will not make anybody...

... aware. Money must have been coming because even in my case the government raised again and again the question that twenty million are there in Swiss accounts, in Sheela's name. And Sheela's old secretary says there were forty-three when she left. And it is possible because in the commune in Rajneeshpuram we have invested almost more than two hundred million dollars. So it is possible that from...

... individual sources... and more informations are coming that Sheela was also dealing in heavy drugs. These were just known to few people who were partners in it. That she was also dealing in gold and this dealing was continuing from Poona days and now everything that people who have been participants in those dealings are going to be witnesses in the court. So the money may have come from drugs, from gold...

..., from individual people -- it is difficult for us to figure out. It may not have come from the communes. But the effort was to structure communes in such a way that soon they can become sources of money. Money was some kind of phobia in her mind but now you have to start fresh from the scratch and don't expect anything that you have become accustomed with Sheela and her group. I will not be giving you...

... directions how to run your communes, how to make more money... I will not be dictating anything because I trust in your intelligence -- you should function out of your intelligence. It is better to fail, but work through your own intelligence. Rather than to succeed on somebody else guidance. That success is not of any value. So spread the idea that sannyas is reborn, it was a nightmare that is ended and...

... the power of the world, you have all the money of the world -- we don't have anything. If we can make a society for four years where there has never been a rape, a murder, a theft, any other kind of crime... why can't you make such a society? There is nobody unemployed, not a single beggar. America has thirty million beggars on the streets dying. We had accept two hundred street people and they...

... the world of crime, did not commit a single crime. We proved a far better communism in the commune because we stopped the circulation of money in the commune -- nobody should use money in the commune. You can donate to the commune but you cannot purchase by money. So you may have million dollars and somebody may not have a single dollar, but you are not rich by having a million dollars because you...

..., in the ultimate analysis, ordinary success proves to be a failure -- utter failure. I always say: Nothing fails like success. You may have accumulated much money, then one day suddenly you find life is gone. Money is there, but you are gone -- so what is the point of this success? You indulge with many women, with many men: energy is wasted, and suddenly there you are -- a desert land, a wasteland...

... Ganges into their mouths -- but they themselves are still thinking of sex, or money, or power. This is a very stupid way of living life. Kabir says: I don't live by sense, and I don't live by law. Then there is another way which is also stupid in the same way, but more respectable -- stupid, but more respectable: people who live by law, who always follow the authority -- the state, the priest, the...

...: I AM NEITHER BOND NOR FREE, I AM NEITHER DETACHED NOR ATTACHED. Both are wrong -- both are extremists. People are attached to money, and then they become detached from money. To have any attitude of attachment or detachment means you are still obsessed with the money. Somebody says, "I am detached from money" -- but why? What is the point of being detached from money? Is there still some...

... fear of attachment lurking in your consciousness? -- because the idea of detachment arises only when you are attached. When you are not attached it is perfectly okay... money is money! There are people who think that money is the only god: these are the people who are attached with money -- their only god is money. Then there are people who say that money is dirt; not much difference -- the have...

... moved to another polarity: money is dirt. They won't touch money. There are such mad people in India -- they are worshiped by people as sages. They are simply perverted people; they won't touch money. Once it happened: I was staying in a village and a man came and he gave me nearabout five thousand rupees. A very rich man -- but very traditional. I told him, "Right now I don't need the money, but...

... if I need it sometime, I will ask you." He had come to examine me -- whether I would take the money or not. But this statement was puzzling for him because I had not said that I would not take it; I said, "When I need, I will ask you." And I had not taken and not accepted because I was in no need. So he was very much puzzled. He said, "You have confused me again. I had come here...

... with this money because my guru said, "You go, and you will see: take the money to this man -- that is the only criterion to know whether somebody has achieved or not. If he has achieved, he will say: Keep it away, don't bring it close to me, money is dirt. He will not touch it." You have not taken -- that's okay -- but you say that if you need, you will take it?" I said, "Yes...

... -- because money is neither God nor dirt; money is simply money. And money is a utilitarian thing -- when you need, money is valuable; when you don't need, there is no value in it. The value is not in the money; money in itself is not valuable. It is just a simple means of exchange -- and a perfectly good means of exchange. Nothing is wrong in it." He said, "You always puzzle. Why can't you give...

... me a certainty? -- either you take it or you refuse it." In India there are saints whose whole sainthood depends on this phenomenon -- that they don't accept money. If you bring money to them they will be very angry. They will be enraged, they will start shouting at you: "What do you think about me? Do you think that I am so low that I will accept your money?" And you will come back...

... full of deep respect for them. These are mad people, perverted people. They are the same people, now standing on their heads -- first they thought that money is God, now they think that money is dirt. But they cannot accept a simple phenomenon -- that money is money. It is neither God nor dirt; it is not the greatest value nor the lowest -- it is just a utilitarian means of exchange. Kabir says: I AM...

.... The arithmetic has no appeal. But we are not born here to be mathematicians. There are a few children who will not be interested in the cuckoo. The cuckoo may go on getting madder and madder, and they will be attentive to the blackboard. Then arithmetic is for them. Then they have a meditation, a natural meditative state. We have been distracted into unnatural motivations: money, prestige, power...

.... Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you money. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you power, prestige. Watching the butterfly is not going to help you economically, politically, socially. These things are not paying, but these things make you happy. A real person takes the courage to move with things that make him happy. If he remains poor, he remains poor; he has no complaint about it...

.... A small boy had been watching the proceedings with interest. As the man struggled to get out of the water, he turned to his father and asked, "Dad, is that man catching a fish or is that fish catching a man?" Man has gone completely topsy-turvy. The fish is catching you and dragging you; you are not catching the fish. Wherever you see money, you are no more yourself. Wherever you see...

... meditation going to do? what is it supposed to do? He will remain the same man: accumulating money, competitive in the market. The meditation may help in this way: it may make him a little more relaxed to do this nonsense even better. That's what TM is doing to many people in the West -- and that is the appeal of transcendental meditation, because Maharishi Mahesh Yogi goes on saying, "It will make...

.... You have to drop all those patterns that have been forced on you, and you have to find your own inner flame. Don't be too much concerned about money, because that is the greatest distraction against happiness. And the irony of ironies is that people think they will be happy when they have money. Money has nothing to do with happiness. If you are happy and you have money, you can use it for happiness...

.... If you are unhappy and you have money, you will use that money for more unhappiness. Because money is simply a neutral force. I am not against money, remember. Don't misinterpret me: I am not against money -- I am not against anything. Money is a means. If you are happy and you have money, you will become more happy. If you are unhappy and you have money, you will become more unhappy because what...

... will you do with your money? Your money will enhance your pattern, whatsoever it is. If you are miserable and you have power, what will you do with your power? You will poison yourself more with your power, you will become more miserable. But people go on looking for money as if money is going to bring happiness. People go on looking for respectability as if respectability is going to give you...

... happiness. People are ready, at any moment, to change their pattern, to change their ways, if more money is available somewhere else. I have heard: The treasurer of a black civil rights organization picked up the phone and heard a Southern voice drawling on the other end of the line, "Hey there, boy, I want to talk to the head nigger." Shocked and outraged, the treasurer said, "My dear sir...

....." "I want to contribute $50,000 to your cause, so let me talk to the head nigger," the redneck said. "Hold the line there, brother," the treasurer said. "I think I see that ugly jigaboo coming in the door right now." Once money is there immediately everything changes. I have heard: Mulla Nasrudin's daughter came home and she said she was pregnant and the richest man...

... -- but if a boy is born I have kept one lakh rupees in the bank for the boy. If a daughter is born I have kept fifty thousand rupees in the bank for the daughter." Mulla took his gun away and said, "Sir, if something goes wrong, if there is a miscarriage or something, are you ready to give her another chance?" Once the money is there, then suddenly you are no more yourself; you are ready...

... to change. This is the way of the worldly man. I don't call those people worldly who have money -- I call those people worldly who change their motives for money. I don't call those people unworldly who have no money -- they may be simply poor. I call those people unworldly who don't change their motives for money. Just being poor is not equivalent to being spiritual; and just being rich is not...

... equivalent to being a materialist. The materialistic pattern of life is that where money predominates over everything. The non-materialistic life is that where money is just a means -- happiness predominates, joy predominates; your own individuality predominates. You know who you are and where you are going, and you are not distracted. Then suddenly you will see your life has a meditative quality to it...

...-three lakh rupees are in the bank for your work whenever you want. Whatever the work, that money is there." I asked him, "Is there any involvement with the family? Have you settled with your brother?" He said to me, "Yes, the money is absolutely free now, just for your work." After three days I told Neelam, who was working from Bombay as my secretary, to ask Govind Siddharth...

... to transfer the money to one of the trusts, because I was going to move to Poona and tremendous forces were going to gather there. In three days his greed took over his great desire to work for me. He said, "Thirty-three lakhs is too much. I can only afford three lakhs." Neelam told me that in just three days he has reduced it from thirty-three lakhs to three lakhs. I said, "Don't be...

... worried. Just go and get the three lakhs." And when she reached him Govind Siddharth said, "It is very difficult. My whole family is involved in it" - I had asked him that before, and he had denied it. And I know for sure that the money has nothing to do with his family. Neelam was shocked. She came running to me and said, "It is unbelievable that a man can turn about like this."...

...; I said, "Forget about that. You have another account of three lakh rupees, which has been donated from simple and loving people from all over the country. It is in your name and Govind Siddharth's name. It is not his money; please just take that money out of his hands." She said, "Do you think he will change his mind about that money also, which is not his?" I said, "Man's...

... blindness, his unconscious greed is vast enough. You just go, and be quick!" And Govind Siddharth started playing games, saying, "I cannot allow you to take all of the three lakhs, because while Bhagwan was not here I gave thirty-five thousand rupees for his work to the Bombay center. I will have to deduct that much money." I told Neelam, "Let him deduct it, if thirty-five thousand can...

... satisfy him" - which was not his money! Then too, it took almost one month to get the money out, leaving behind the thirty-five thousand without any reason except that his signature was needed. This money was paid for his signature. And now I don't see him here. Perhaps he is afraid to look into my eyes, straight. I will not ask him about the money. I have never asked anybody about money, but I...

...; (MEANING WISDOM PERVASION). AND FOR HIS STUPA, for his memorial, THE EPIGRAPH - given by the emperor himself - was MIAO KUANG (WONDERFUL LIGHT). That wonderful light brings me back.... You are full of wonderful light. You are made of it! But you wander around the world. The world is vast and life is short. Don't waste your time wandering around the world for small positions, for gathering some money...

... Father Finger, "I dreamt that I was in Jewish heaven. Man, Jewish heaven was a mess! Everybody was yelling and screaming, and eating, and waving their arms in the air; people were fighting about money - all kinds of chaos, and the noise was deafening." "Well," replies Rabbi Horowitz, "that's strange. Last night I had a dream that I went to Christian heaven, but it was very...

... the wedding to begin, he thinks of all the music played at his previous marriages. The first time, he had been twenty years old. The band played: "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight!" When he got married the second time, at the age of thirty, it was to the tune: "If You've Got The Money, Honey, I've Got The Time." At forty, they played the song: "Now and Then...

... - unless you don't want to pay the rent and only for that you want to disappear. That is another matter. Otherwise, what is the problem? You disappear and still pay the rent! IF I DISAPPEAR, WHO WILL PAY THE RENT? YESTERDAY YOU TALKED OF NATURAL AND UNNATURAL. MONEY, IT SEEMS, MUST COME INTO THE UNNATURAL CATEGORY. WITH THE EGO AND THE MIND, IT IS RELATIVELY EASY TO DEAL WITH IT. BUT IF WE ARE TO LIVE IN...

... THE MARKETPLACE AND TO LIVE NATURALLY, WILL MONEY NOT BECOME PROBLEM? Money is not a problem at all - unless you want to make it a problem. Down the ages, the so-called religious people have been very much worried about money. Such a foolish thing like money! and so much worried. Play with it! If you have it, enjoy; if you don't have it, enjoy. What else can you do when you don't have it? Enjoy...

...! When you have it, what else can you do? Enjoy! Don't make unnecessary problems about it. Money is a toy. Sometimes you have it - play with it. But my feeling is: people who can't play with money, they renounce money - they are very serious about it. Then they become very much afraid about money, because deep down clinging is there. Do you know? The chief disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave...

..., can't look at money. If you bring a one rupee note - which is worthless, which has no money in it, not at all - he closes his eyes. Now what kind of attitude is this? And this is thought to be very saintly; it is praised all over the country, that he is so free of money. If you are really free of money, why do you close the eyes? Is that one rupee note so attractive that you have to close your eyes...

...? Is there some fear that if you don't close your eyes you may jump upon the man? Something must be there. This looks a little obsessive. There is great fear - otherwise why close your eyes? So many things are passing and you don't close your eyes - just poor money. And money is nothing - just a device to exchange things. But people who are really misers deep down, clingers, because of their clinging...

..., their miserliness, they are very much in despair, in misery. Finally, one day, they think that it is money that is causing their misery. It is not money that is causing your misery. How can money cause your misery? It is miserliness that is causing your misery. Thinking that it is money that is causing misery, they renounce money, they escape from the world of money. Then they are continuously afraid...

...; then in their dreams they must be entering into banks and opening treasures and things like that - and making love to money. That is bound to happen. Money is not a problem! It can be used! If you have it, use it; if you don't have it, then use that freedom that comes when you don't have the money. This is my approach. If you are rich, enjoy; richness has a few things which no poor person can enjoy...

... nothing. Enjoy poverty when you are poor, and enjoy richness? then become a JANAKA, an emperor, and enjoy all the beauties that become available through money. My approach is total. I don't teach you to choose. I simply say: whatsoever is the case, the intelligent person will make something beautiful out of it. The unintelligent person suffers. If he has money he suffers because money brings worries; he...

... does not enjoy the music that money can bring, the dance that money can bring, the painting. If he has money, he does not go to the Himalayas for a rest, to meditate and to sing and to shout in the valleys and to talk with the stars. He worries, loses his sleep, loses his appetite - he chooses the wrong when he has money. And this man, if somehow he becomes poor, by God's grace if he becomes poor...

... use that as a great opportunity. And there are people who are under the sky, free, and not using that opportunity. Money or no money, house or no house... the question is not what you should have: the question is what you should do, whatsoever you have. See, my emphasis is totally different. You disappear... and then let things happen. If you feel good to be in the marketplace, then that is natural...

... quality to it - you will enjoy it. It is God's world! a beautiful dream. You will know those customers are dream customers, and the thing? that you are giving to them are just dream, and the money that you are collecting is just dream - but why not enjoy it? That enjoyment is not dream. Let me remind you again: everything is dream, but if you can consciously enjoy it, that joy is not dream - that joy is...