.... By money, by power, by prestige, by social conformity, by belonging to a herd -- religious, political -- by being part of a family, a nation, what are you seeking? Just an unknown fear surrounds you, and you start creating as many barriers as possible between you and the fear. But those same barriers are going to prevent you from living. Once this is understood, you will know the meaning of sannyas...

... a dance becomes involved in creating more money, more power, more ambition, more security. The same energy that could have been a tremendously beautiful flower of love becomes just an imprisonment in a marriage. Marriage is secure -- by law, by social convention, by your own idea of respectability and what people will say. Everybody is afraid of everybody else ... so people go on pretending. Love...

... people can do ... the community is very rich and very intelligent; all are educated people. Just talking to him I came to know that in their society, when somebody dies, his friends and his family give money to the high priest. Sometimes lakhs of rupees are given to the priest as a representative of God; because the man is going on a pilgrimage, his life after death should be taken care of. The priest...

... writes a letter to God, a letter of recommendation: "This man has to be taken care of. A good place" -- according to the donations -- "should be arranged for him in heaven." That letter is put in the pocket of the dead man, the dead man is put in the grave, and the money -- of course -- goes in the pocket of the priest. I asked the friend, "Do you think that money in some...

... whole life's money to have a secure place in the other world, but they have not lived HERE." He could not deny it to me: "This is not good -- but I am just a representative of a long heritage. My father was a priest, my grandfather was a priest. It is our family profession." I said, "It may be your family profession, but it is more of a crime than a profession. You are an...

... intelligent man, you should expose this hypocrisy." But he said, "I have thought about it many times. As far as I'm concerned, I'm already too rich ... centuries of accumulation. I can expose it -- that the whole money goes into the pocket of the priest -- but I stop myself because this gives people great consolation and security. I don't want to disturb their consolation and their security."...

... THERE'S SOMETHING CONSIDERED IMPORTANT, IT BECOMES A NEST." The moment you think something is important -- money, knowledge, power -- it becomes a cozy nest, and you start living within that small nest. You become a prisoner. A man of ambition cannot be a free man. A man of desires cannot taste the beauty of freedom. His desires are his chains. And whatever has become important -- Yen T'ou is right...

... forgotten themselves. Words have become their whole life; they go on accumulating more and more beautiful quotes, statements, but what they are? -- just imprisoned in scriptures. THOSE WHO TAKE DELIGHT IN THE VERBAL MEANING OF THE SCRIPTURES TAKE THE SCRIPTURES AS THEIR NEST. It does not matter what it is -- it may be money, it may even be enlightenment -- if you make it a distant goal, something to be...

... been prohibited by Prophet Mohammed that interest is a sin, so never give money on interest, one thing. Never take money on interest. This is the reason they are poor, because they cannot take money on interest and they cannot give money on interest. And the whole economy functions on interest. You take money from the bank on interest, you take loan from the government on interest, but they cannot...

... cannot do anything, they cannot be well educated because the money is not there. They have to do very unskilled work which cannot pay much. Now who is responsible for this? And why Mohammedan priests go on telling them to marry four women? Because that increases the number of Mohammedans. That's how they have become the second biggest religion in the world. Christianity is first, Mohammedanism is...

... efficiently, in a far better way. And only very few people are involved in the work. Few people can take care of the whole commune's laundry. There is no need for them to worry about it. Few people can take care of the cleaning of the whole commune. Economically it saves much. Economically money becomes irrelevant. In the commune there is no transfer of money. There is no need. Clothes we purchase wholesale...

... because they know they are working for themselves. If they are making houses, they are making for themselves. In the outside world everybody is working for somebody else. That makes work a burden, a necessity, a slavery. You have to work because you need money. Here you work because you want your commune to live more comfortably, have all modern equipments available. The world has passed the family. It...

... going to attend any class or anything. My father is going to send me the money and I am going to enjoy, and I am going to ask him for more and more. He has enough, and I am the only son so I am not wasting anybody else's money. It is my own, I am going to inherit it anyway." I gave him my fountain pen and he filled in the form. He even had to look at my form for the spelling of the words that he...

... was filling in. But this way we became friends. I liked the boy, he was sincere, and not a hypocrite in any way. We became friends. He needed me and I needed him, because I needed so much money for books and he had so much money that I said, "This is good." And he was not interested in books at all. But I was his first friend in the college. And he had everything: a car, a driver, a...

... founded the university was acquainted with all the best professors around the world. Sagar was his birthplace; Doctor Harisingh Gaud was his name. He was a world-famous authority on law, and earned so much money - and never gave a single pai to any beggar, to any institution, to any charity. He was known as the most miserly person in the whole of India. And then he founded the university and gave his...

... work is really a piece of art. Single-handedly, with his own money, he put himself at stake. So I loved the place. I said, "You need not be worried, I will be coming - but you have seen me only in the debate competitions. You don't know much about me; I may prove a trouble for you, a nuisance. I would like you to know everything about me before you decide." Professor S.S. Roy said, "I...

... don't want to know anything about you. The little bit that I have come to know, just by seeing you, your eyes, your way of saying things, your way of approaching reality, is enough. And don't make me frightened about trouble and nuisance - you can do whatsoever you want." I said, "Remember that financially I am always broke, so I will be continuously borrowing money from you and never...

... returning it. Things have to be made clear beforehand; otherwise later on you can say, 'This you never said.' You will have to lend me money whenever I want. I am not going to return it, although it will be said I am borrowing - but on your part you have to understand that that money is gone, because from where can I return it? I don't have any source. "Second, you have to make arrangements in the...

... doing perfectly well. When I last saw him in 1965, I had just gone to inaugurate a social gathering. I had no idea that he was a professor in that college, and when he greeted me there, I said, "What are you doing here?" He said, "What am I doing here? - the same." I said, "What, the same? Now nobody can help you." He said, "Money can do everything. I never bother to...

... teach, I pay people to teach for me. I never examine people's papers, I pay teachers to examine their papers. Money can do everything." Perhaps by now he may be a principal, one day may rise to become a vice-chancellor. If money can do everything, there is no problem. And I have seen people .... I told this boy when we were departing after six years of being together, "Umakant, have you ever...

... hundred dramas. And he was not capable of writing a single drama! He was not capable of even writing a single speech - his speeches were written by that poor Shrivastava. Govindadas has published one hundred dramas. By and by I came to know those people who had written them - for money - poor people, poor teachers, professors. So I told Govindadas, "I know what your D.Litt is: one hundred dramas...

... he is a spiritualist, but I will call him a materialist, and a very primitive materialist. His concern is food and sex. Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter - your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money - because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing...

... through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and...

... they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying to hoard money, the communist is against it. He wants that nobody should be allowed to hoard money except the state. But his concern is also money, he is also continuously thinking about money. It is not an accident that...

... Marx had given the name 'Das Kapital' to his great book on communism, 'the capital'. That is the communist Bible, but the name is 'the capital'. That is their concern: how not to allow anybody to hoard money so the state can hoard, and how to possess the state - so, in fact, basically, ultimately, you hoard the money. Once I heard that Mulla Nasruddin had become a communist. I know him... I was a...

... ages, but we don't yet have that insight to see into things. The fourth door was self-extension. The word 'mine' is the key word there. One has to extend oneself by accumulating money, by accumulating power, by becoming bigger and bigger and bigger: the patriot who says, "This is my country, and this is the greatest country in the world." You can ask the Indian patriot: he goes on shouting...

.... And I never miss a chance - if I can hit you, I hit! The fourth question: Question 4: BELOVED OSHO, I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY REPEATEDLY THAT WE SHOULD REMAIN IN THE WORLD, IN THE MARKETPLACE. YET MOST OF THE PEOPLE I MEET HERE ARE PLANNING TO LIVE WITH YOU IN GUJARAT, ONLY RETURNING TO THE WEST TO GATHER ENOUGH MONEY TO DO SO. A LARGE COMMUNITY IS BEING PLANNED. PLEASE COMMENT. YOU EMPHASIZE THE...

... to him, "I wait for you but you do not come. I expect you daily." The boy said, "What do you have? Why should I come to you? Have you any money? I am looking for money." The ego is always motivated. Only if there is some purpose to be served will the ego come. But love is motiveless. Love is its own reward. The startled tree said, "You will come only if I give something...

...?" That which withholds is not love. The ego amasses, but love gives unconditionally. "We don't have that sickness, and we are joyful," the tree said. "Flowers bloom on us. Many fruits grow on us. We give soothing shade. We dance in the breeze, and sing songs. Innocent birds hop on our branches and chirp even though we don't have any money. The day we get involved with money, we...

... will have to go to the temples like you weak men do, to learn how to obtain peace, to learn how to find love. No, we do not have any need for money." The boy said, "Then why should I come to you? I will go where there is money. I need money." The ego asks for money because it needs power. The tree thought for a while and said, "Don't go anywhere else, my dear. Pick my fruit and...

... sell it. You will get money that way." The boy brightened immediately. He climbed up and picked all the tree's fruit; even the unripe ones were shaken down. The tree felt happy, even though some twigs and branches were broken, even though some of its leaves had fallen to the ground. Getting broken also makes love happy, but even after getting, the ego is not happy. The ego always desires more...

.... The tree didn't notice that the boy hadn't even once looked back to thank him. It had had its thanks when the boy accepted the offer to pick and sell its fruit. The boy did not come back for a long time. Now he had money and he was busy making more money from that money. He had forgotten all about the tree. Years passed. The tree was sad. It yearned for the boy's return - like a mother whose breasts...

... more money. I need a boat, to travel." Cheerfully, the tree said, "But that's no problem, my love. Cut my trunk, and make a boat from it. I would be so very happy if I could help you go to faraway lands to earn money. But, please remember, I will always be awaiting your return." The man brought a saw, cut down the trunk, made a boat and sailed away. Now the tree is a small stump. And...

... WILL COST YOU YOUR TAX-EXEMPT STATUS.... A:* It will not. It will not. Because our activity is still religious. We are not religion, but our activity is religious. And there is no need for one being a part of an organized religion. One can be simply religious. The quality of being religious is totally free from any organizational structure. I am.... Q:* YOU CLAIM SHEELA LEFT WITH A LOT OF MONEY. HOW...

... MUCH MONEY DID SHE TAKE FROM YOU? A:* I don't know. She has not taken from here, but the money that was coming from Europe to this commune as a donation, she stopped it somewhere in Switzerland and opened a bank account there. Her secretary has informed that it is forty-three million dollars. Q:* THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO THINK YOU ARE STILL COOPERATING WITH HER AND MAY GO TO EUROPE WITH HER. IS THAT...

... FOLLOWERS OF YOURS, THEY ARE THERE BECAUSE OF YOU. A:* They are because of me. That is their responsibility and their choice. Q:* WELL, THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED MONEY THAT HAS WOUND UP WITH YOU HAVING NINETY ROLLS ROYCES. A:* That too is their responsibility, not mine. I have not asked them. Q:* BUT IT CERTAINLY WOULD INDICATE THAT YOU WERE CONSIDERED BY THEM TO BE THEIR LEADER. DOESN'T THE LEADER AT SOME...

... exhibition, memorials. A few servants are kept to preserve them for visitors to see, for tourist purposes. Do you think it can be just a coincidence that they come to Wasco County? And do you know who is supporting them? The man who lives on the other side of our river - he is giving them the whole money! He purchased this place near The Dalles also just to create some commune against us, but he could not...

... thirty-four million dollars to help Ethiopia. On television and in newspapers they advertised widely all over the world, and thirty-four million dollars they collected. Not a single cent has reached Ethiopia: the whole of the money simply disappeared! The president of I.C.A. was asked, "what happened to the money? Thirty-four million dollars and nothing has reached Ethiopia?" They said, "...

...;Our policy is not to give to the government; we send the support from independent agencies, so we have sent the whole money through an independent agency in France, an association of doctors called 'Doctors without Borders.'" When the president of "doctors without Borders" was asked, he said, aWe have received not a single cent, and we don't know who these people are." This is...

... Christian association, again to help the hungry people of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is great! They should remain always hungry - they help so many people. They should be kept always hungry. And of course, all the money that was going to be earned by the Olympics was going to Ethiopia. Nobody knows how much money was collected - it must have been billions of dollars - but the whole of the money has simply...

... disappeared! And the great idea those people had! They had collected the whole of the money - all kinds of bills, small, big - the way you collect wheat or other foodstuffs, in big metal cans, just like we collect our own food here. It was so much money that small safes wouldn't do: it was collected in big, the largest possible, metal containers. And after the Olympics, when the containers were opened, the...

... money was missing. The newspaper cutting Sheela brought had a comment at the end: "Perhaps hungry rats have eaten it. What else?" So it has reached hungry people somehow - if not in Ethiopia, then hungry rats here. But I don't think rats are interested in eating money; and even if they eat it, they won't eat it so totally that not even a fragment of it is left. The containers were absolutely...

... clean. The hungry rats seem to be very hygienic: they must have eaten the money and then cleaned up. Now, it is thought that perhaps a second Olympics should be arranged because those Ethiopian hungry people are still hungry. These Christian associations and churches are serving people so desperately. They don't ask you whether you want to be served or not, they simply go on serving you. They remind...

... riches and you don't have such qualities, then within two or three generations you will be poor. It is possible that your father had the qualities to create money; he created the money and you simply inherited, and you don't have any qualities to create money. Remember, either you create, or whatsoever you have will be gone soon. You cannot remain static; either you grow upwards or you fall downwards...

... only for gamblers. I am reminded of a Japanese film actor. He lived in America, in Hollywood, before the second world war, earned much fame and earned much money... so much that now he had no need to work. He could live for lives in luxury. So he went back to Japan, but he wanted to see Paris first, so he went via Paris. He was staying in one of the most luxurious hotels, on the topmost floor. And...

... there was a casino in the hotel. He went there - it must have been late evening - and he staked everything that he had earned, not even saving money for the ticket to reach home. He lost everything, and he went back to the room. There was complete silence because never before had anybody staked such a vast amount of money. Kings had been there, emperors had been there - he defeated them all. And they...

... the passport they understood that he was Japanese. So we thought perhaps you were the person, because last night you staked everything and you lost everything, and these are the moments when people commit suicide." The actor laughed. He said, "I am not the one. I had earned, I had staked, I have lost. But it was only money; I have not lost myself. I can earn again; and believe me, if I...

... earn again, I will come again and stake again! I am not such a coward as to commit suicide - for money? - which any idiot can earn. It does not matter; if I had won the money I would have remained the same. I have lost the money - I am the same. "Before I became an actor I was with a master who taught only one thing: Remain the same in every situation, good or bad, success or victory, failure or...

... pay instead - give the daughter and pay enough money. The woman does not want - nobody wants - to be dependent. Nobody wants to be a slave. Nobody wants to be inferior because nobody is inferior. People are different; the question of superiority and inferiority is simply absurd. So she starts taking revenge unconsciously. She cannot love the man who owns her as property, who does not recognize her...

... given a chance to grow, to have its potential become actual. So mind is dominating everything. Mind is good where money is concerned; mind is good where war is concerned; mind is good where ambitions are concerned - but mind is absolutely useless where love is concerned. Money, war, desires, ambitions - you cannot put love in the same category. Love has a separate source in your being, where there is...

... mother and father, are waiting for him to return home. He has not done anything to you, and you are going to kill him. For what? - to get an award from the military academy? To get a promotion?" The heart will be a disturbance. It is better to make soldiers forget their hearts so they can simply go on killing like robots, without any feelings. The people who are after money don't want the heart...

... the way to do business. This is not a charity shop. You could have made so much more money - but first you tell a person the cost price! And he is not asking the cost price, he is asking the selling price." My father said, "It is impossible for me to cheat a man, to exploit him. And what are we going to do with the money? Whatever we need, we have. More money brings more troubles."...

... the system of charging interest. A society becomes richer if the money moves faster and does not remain stuck in one hand, but the money can move faster only if there is some incentive. Why should I give my money to somebody else unless I can earn something out of it? Interest is nothing but a strategy to make the money move from one hand to another hand. And the faster the money moves, the richer...

..., and they have remained poor for a single reason: that interest is thought to be a sin. No other society thinks interest is a sin. What is the sin in it? You take somebody's money, you have to pay something; otherwise why should he give his money to you? Interest is just a kind of rent. But the Mohammedan considers interest to be so unvirtuous that anybody who commits the sin loses all respect in the...