... dead; he has purchased it from the market. It is nothing but stone, carved into the shape of some unknown god who has never been seen by anyone. The god is just a thing. Of course, the richer the man, the costlier will be the god. But whether costly or not, it is a commodity. And on top of that, even the priest is a salaried servant. He has nothing to do with God - he has something to do with money...

.... I have seen priests running from one temple to another. If a priest can manage to pray in twenty temples, then he is a rich priest. The whole idea is so absurd and unbelievable. It is just as if you have a paid servant to love your beloved on your behalf. Perhaps one day it is going to happen - because the time you waste in loving your beloved can produce much money, much power. This game of love...

... playing chess according to his own laws.... But the chess player was paid enough to suffer it, and after one year the king was back to his sanity; but the chess player became mad. The psychoanalyst remembered the parable and thought, "This is going to happen to me too. This man has so much money it does not matter to him; he can continue his psychoanalysis for years. But listening to him every day...

... was starting to enter into the mind of the psychoanalyst; even in his dreams he was listening to him. Then he became really freaked out, saying, "Some way has to be found. The patient cannot be lost, because he is giving so much money - but he cannot be heard, because my own sanity is in danger." So he devised a simple thing. He came with a tape recorder and put it by the side of the couch...

... lying on the couch, talking to your tape recorder. So you are free, I am free - nobody is at a loss. You will get your money, I will get my psychoanalysis." The priests have been doing this from the very beginning: They invented the god, they invented prayers, they found their customers who were eager to have some bank balance in the other world. This is how millions of priests and priestesses...

... whether to get married or not because the pros and cons were all equal. He would come out of his house, lock the door, go a few yards, come back again to check the lock - perhaps he has forgotten.... He used to come out of his house only one time every month. Seeing his situation, his father deposited money in the post office - "Every month a certain amount has to be given to him, because I don't...

... postmaster said, "Now you need not bother to come again; the money your father has deposited is finished with this installment." Hearing this - you will be surprised - the man fell down and died, because that money was the only thing that he had in the world. He lived in a dark house, dismal, dirty, alone... he would not even open his windows because those urchins were continuously torturing him...

... shoes. My father asked me one day, "I always see new shoes, and you never ask for the money. From where are you getting these shoes?" I said, "I have found that in the town there are at least thirty temples. Once I get fed up with one pair of shoes, I simply go to the temple. I never go in, I simply sit outside watching, because I have to find my size. And there is no trouble, even if...

... things like money you are still searching for God. Because money gives a feeling of unlimitedness. When you don't have money you feel very much limited - you want to purchase a thing and you cannot. Your money gives you a certain freedom - only so much freedom, but your freedom is hampered from everywhere. Hence people fall in love with money. They are really searching for freedom, and freedom is with...

... God. They are searching for an experience of expansion, they are searching for some spiritual experience, through money. It is not possible through money - they have misunderstood, they have misinterpreted. Yes, money gives a certain freedom - you can purchase more, you can shop more, you can do many more things. But you are not more. Having is not being. You possess more, but you are not more...

... mind deeply, their observation is that whatsoever you fall in love with, you are really searching for God. Searching in a wrong way, in a wrong direction, but still searching for God. WHO IS IT WE SPEND OUR ENTIRE LIFE LOVING? IT IS TIME TO PUT UP A LOVE-SWING! KABIR says: Enough is enough. You have searched in money, you have searched in power, you have searched in men and women, you have searched...

... teaching you charity, they have to be given to. They are telling you, "Money is dirt!" and then they are asking you, "Give us money so that you can earn virtue in the other world." Strange! If money is dirt, then give as much dirt as you can give to your priests. Don't give money, give dirt! Collect all the dirt ever; day early in the morning and go and donate it to the bhikkhu and to...

... the munis and to the brahmin because money is dirt, so dirt is money! It is a simple logic. Money is dirt; but by donating it, it becomes valuable. "Do good deeds." And what are good deeds? Obedience to the society, to the established order of things. Never be disobedient. That's why Adam and Eve were punished, thrown out of paradise, because they disobeyed. Disobedience is the greatest...

... to postpone it, it can be postponed ad infinitum. Then it will only be up to you to decide when you want to die. Just as people right now write their wills, their last testaments, saying what will happen to their property, to their money after their death, in the future when life can be prolonged, people will write their wills saying that "At this time, in this season, on a particular day, in...

.... And then immediately they are against you. One woman used to send me books, money, magazines, presents from America - a very loving woman. Laxmi always used to think that: a very loving woman. She was not even a sannyasin. Then one day a letter came saying that she wanted to become a sannyasin, and I felt, "Now, things are becoming more and more dangerous." She became a sannyasin and after...

... but may be a criminal -- so whether to give to him or not? A person may be poor, needy, his wife may be suffering from illness, his children may be hungry, but he may be a drunkard. If you give him money, he will simply go and drink -- he is not going to purchase medicine with it. With whom to share? In Jainism there is a sect called 'Terapanth'. It has gone to the very logical end; it has...

... rationalized miserliness to the very extreme. This sect says: "Don't give because you don't know what the other person will do about it -- you give money to somebody; he may go and purchase a gun and kill a few people. Then? Then you will be responsible! It will be part of your karma. If you had not given him the money he would not have purchased the gun and he would not have killed so many people. He...

... very opposites. And it is appealing -- it is rational, it looks right. Then these Terapanthis say: "If somebody is poor, he is poor because of his past karmas -- who are you to help him? He is suffering from his past karmas and you are becoming a distracting force. If you give him money and you help him not to suffer, he will have to suffer some day or other -- so you simply postpone. Let him be...

... afterwards! In the very sharing you have enjoyed a climax of being. A Jewish couple were honeymooning at Niagara Falls. The boy's money ran out after a week, but he and his bride were having such a good time they wanted to stay longer. So he wired his father for more money. His telegram read: "Dear Dad. It's great here. Want to stay longer. Please send money. Love, Son." The father wired back...

... human body for thirty silver pieces? And thirty silver pieces two thousand years ago was a great amount of money. Red Indians sold New York for exactly thirty silver pieces to the foreigners who had invaded it. It was a good price. But Judas loved Jesus. Don't be surprised - he loved Jesus, he tried to prevent him, but when he saw the impossibility, just like a good Jew, he earned some money. But when...

... thousand dollars was not available even for one hundred thousand dollars. And seven thousand sannyasins were almost always there, and at moments there were ten thousand, fifteen thousand. All the hotels were full, overfull. People were renting houses, giving enormous amounts of money. They were becoming paying guests, giving enormous amounts of money. So on the one hand the Hindu chauvinist mind was...

... against me, because whatever I am doing goes absolutely against any kind of chauvinistic attitude - Hindu, Mohammedan or Christian - and on the other hand they were very happy that I was there. They were pressurizing the government of the state that I should not be given any land in the state; I should be living in Poona. Poona knew if I moved to some other place, all the beauty, the joy, the money...

... - particularly the money - would disappear. The Maharashtra government was preventing my moving from Poona. They found a way to prevent me. They would not say - politicians are cunning, they would not say, "You cannot go out of Poona"; that is against freedom. They continued to say, "You can find a place and you can go there," but in that place they would create trouble so that people in...

... the houses were not in our name! We had given the money to the previous owners, but the houses remained in the name of those owners. They were afraid that if a great commune happened, Poona's whole character, its whole atmosphere, would change. And they were afraid of that. Poona is a very Hindu-minded city. It is a strange coincidence that the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi was from Poona, and the...

... least once in your lifetime. So even the poorest Mohammedans collect money, sell their houses, their farms, because it is an absolute necessity that before they die they must go to Kaaba. Junnaid was getting old and he was very poor, so he collected money from his neighbors. Nobody refused because the money was for the journey to Kaaba; and everybody is told that if you support a Mohammedan on his...

... pilgrimage, you also partake in the virtue of the great pilgrimage. So people gave him money, gave him some food, clothes, so that he could go. He had to travel ... but people were surprised: the next day he was back. It was expected that he would be back in about six months, three months going and three months coming. This was too quick! -- people could not believe it. And also, he looked absolutely...

... crossroads outside the village. Junnaid asked him, "Which way should I go? I want to reach Kaaba at the pilgrimage time." At a certain time every year Mohammedans from all over the world try to reach Kaaba. Bayazid said, "Nonsense! Bring out all your money!" And he said it with such authority that poor Junnaid brought all the money that he had gathered. And Bayazid said, "There is...

... and go home! Your pilgrimage is complete." He could feel that something had changed. He was no longer the old person who had come just a few minutes before. So he told the villagers, "I met a man who said, 'I am the Kaaba!' and he took all my provisions and all my money and told me to make the seven rounds." A few people laughed. Those who were stupid laughed, but those who were wise...

... high-caste Hindu temple. You will get more money." But he said, "It is not a question of money. I love the temple, I love the place, I love the silence surrounding it, the trees... and I love the goddess inside the temple." He was expelled, but he never cared about it. Even his family stopped visiting him -- because they would be expelled -- and they told him that he could not come...

... under the tree, lazy? You can earn money, you can become a laborer. We are in shortage of laborers. I can give you a good job." The man was not even bothering to sit up. He was lying down and talking with the officer. He said, "The idea is good, but I don't need money. I get food two times a day. My other brothers work on the farm. I have been always this way. And even if I earn money, what...

... I am going to do with it?" The officer said, "When you earn enough money, then you can retire and rest." And the man said, "This is strange, I am already retired, and I am resting! Why take this unnecessarily long route? First earn money, then get retired, then rest -- I am retired from the very beginning. And I am resting; I don't do anything except rest." There is no...

... doing it in different ways: somebody is running for money, somebody is running for power, somebody is running for respectability, somebody is running for virtue, saintliness. But if you look deep down, they are not running for anything, they are running from. This is just an excuse, that somebody is running after money madly; he is deceiving himself and the whole world. The reality is that money gives...

... him a good excuse to run after it, and hides the fact that he is running from himself. That's why when he accumulates money, he comes to a point of tremendous despair and anguish. What has happened? That was his goal; he has achieved it - he should be the happiest man in the world. But the people who succeed are not the happiest people in the world, they are the most miserable. What is their anguish...

... evolution. Intelligence is certainly rare but the people who have gathered around me - just the fact that they had the courage to be here is enough proof of their intelligence. Now you have to put your intelligence into action. "My God," sighed Paddy, "I had everything a man could want - the love of a gorgeous woman, a beautiful house, plenty of money, fine clothes." "What...

... help it. And even when you are helping, you will sometimes be thinking whether to help it or not - because it has no utility in the world, it is very non-utilitarian. It is beautiful but it has no utility. It is like a beautiful flower: you cannot eat it, you cannot earn much money out of it. You can enjoy it, you can have great celebration through it, but that is not utilitarian. Money-wise it means...

... nothing - and we live money-wise, that's why we cannot live wisely. So great help will be needed from your side. When the heart starts singing, pour all your energies into it. Help it to sing, so it sings and starts dancing - because its singing is going to be your joy; there is no other joy. And its dance is going to make your life a delight; there is no other delight. So find some time to sing and be...

... forgetting things, that simply means that somewhere interest is missing, or you have some other interest. Maybe you want to earn money out of it, your interest is in the money but not the work - then you will start forgetting things. So just watch your interest. And whatsoever one is doing, if one is doing it with deep interest, there is no need to worry about remembrance - it simply comes. You forget only...

... you go on crying unnecessarily. Things which are very simple have been made unnecessarily complicated, just to cheat you, exploit you. Religion has functioned in the world as the greatest business - greatest in two senses. It accumulates more money than any other business and it goes on selling things which are invisible. Now, selling things which are invisible is a great business. You purchase...

... paradise. And everything they give they see with their own eyes going into the pockets of the priests. But perhaps from those pockets there are invisible ways - the money that they are giving to the pope will reach. In the Vatican the pope has a bank. It is really a branch of the original bank; you deposit in the branch and it will reach the original bank. You need not be worried about it. And this pope...

... goes on wasting your money in unnecessarily traveling here and there. He came to India. And wherever he goes, the first thing he does is to kiss the earth. He could have done it in the Vatican. There was no need, the earth is the same everywhere, but certainly tastes are different.... When he touched down at New Delhi airport I was in Nepal, and I said to my people, "This is his first taste of...

... Hinduism." Because you cannot taste earth in India unless you taste cow dung, and that is the only essential Hinduism. And he wastes your money, which you think is going to be deposited in paradise. On a single trip to Australia he wasted six million dollars - twice the cost of the visit of the Queen of England, Elizabeth. And three times he has been around the world, wasting six million, eight...

... million dollars on each trip. This is your money. Once George Bernard Shaw was asked, "Do you think a man can live joyfully just keeping his hands in his pockets and doing nothing?" George Bernard said, "Yes, it is possible. Just one thing has to be remembered: the pockets must not be yours. Just keep your hand in somebody else's pocket." That has been the whole religion. And they...