... enjoyed it. He would not have been able to attain such great riches even if he had worked for hundreds of lives. Suddenly he got it without any effort - but he was not happy. He wanted more. Just money was not enough, he wanted to become a great leader too. And he had the money, so he fought the election and became a member of parliament. But that was not enough. Again more: he wanted to be a cabinet...

... minister. Because of his money he managed to become a deputy minister - but that was not enough. He told me, "I want to be a cabinet minister." I said, "Do you think that will be enough?" He said, "I think so." I said, "Right now you think so. Once you become a cabinet minister, you will not think the same way." He became a cabinet minister, and immediately when he...

... to the mind. As a poor man you were so happy, so joyous. You had nothing, but you had a beautiful being. I am not saying throw away your money. Just don't let your mind dominate you. Then wherever you are you will be peaceful." If your mind dominates you, even in paradise it will say, "This is paradise? - there must be something more!" All the houses look so old and rotten and used...

... needed - so God becomes the father. I know why they have not made God a mother. I know from my own experience that my mother would hide me in the house when my father was searching for me because I had done something and he was very angry. When my father would refuse to give me any money because I had done something that he had prohibited, my mother would manage to give me money. So I know that the...

... life? He may become a painter, he may become a musician, he may become a dancer - which are not very profitable professions - or he may become just nobody, a vagabond, enjoying his freedom. One of my friends, a very intelligent man I know, had a doctorate in philosophy, but he never worked. He always cheated people, borrowed money from this one and that one. He had a few things in him which attracted...

... people: he was a good card player, a good chess player, a good drinker, things like that. He would never get drunk; you could go on giving him drink and he would remain in his senses. He was a very friendly and loving person, so wherever he went he would always find friends from whom he would borrow money. I asked him once - because he used to come once in a while, when there was nowhere else to go he...

... always find somebody else who is willing to be deceived. If nobody deceives him he will feel bad, I tell you!" He is still doing that. He has become old and he has learned even more tricks. He is still doing the same, and the people he has deceived do not think badly about him, they understand him. "That man has so many qualities that if he has deceived us for a little money it is not bad. If...

... he had worked he would have been earning more money. If he had just been a showman showing his tricks with cards and other things, like our work, he would have earned more." Nobody felt hurt that he deceived them; in fact everybody knew that he was going to borrow money and never return it, because he had no money, no sources of income. I was the only person he never borrowed money from. He...

... said, "I will not borrow money from you because there are bad days in business and I need a shelter. You are my shelter - so I can at least come to the house, and food and everything is available, and I can rest here before I find new victims." So he used to come once or twice a year and stay one or two weeks, and then he would start moving again. He had no address; all his letters used to...

... leader, their chief priest, is in direct connection with God. So if you want to transfer any money from this world to the other world, you give it to the priest and he will give you a note saying, "I have received one million dollars" - or something - "from this man, and it should be given to him when he reaches heaven." The chief priest gives the note with a seal, and that note is...

... put with the dead man when he goes into his grave. Can you believe that? I used to stay in a house that belonged to the same sect. I said, "Do you think there can be more conmanship than what this priest is doing?" My friend said, "There is no conmanship; the money really reaches to the other place. People earn for their whole lives, save their money so they can have an account in the...

..., but I can dig." I brought out that receipt and showed him, and I told him, "The receipt is here. The bank account has not been transferred." He said, "My God, but we have all been believing.... I am not alone; thousands of followers all do this when they die. Before death they give as much money as they can." So one thing: the priests are the most cunning people in the world...

...; sometimes thinking perhaps it is money, sometimes thinking perhaps it is power, sometimes thinking perhaps it is prestige, sometimes thinking perhaps it is respectability. Inside you god is hidden The intelligent man first searches his own being before he starts a journey in the outer world. That seems to be simple and logical -- at least first look inside your own house before you go searching all over...

... certainly are of the greatest value -- although they don't have any price. You are not poor. Just not to have money does not make a man poor; not to have power, not to be a president or a prime minister of a country, does not make a man poor. What makes a man poor is not to have a soul. And your soul is so full of songs, so full of dance, so full of laughter -- there is no question of your feeling ashamed...

.... You have given to me the richest gifts that anyone can give. But perhaps you have not thought of it in this way. There are some of the richest people in the world who are so poor inside that all their money cannot make any difference. Their money is outside, and their poverty is inside -- anything from the outside cannot destroy the inner poverty. The inner poverty is destroyed only by inner values...

...? Everyone has gone mad down there since I left. I come back, and what do I find? The Jews are fighting, and the Germans are making money!" Certainly Adolf Hitler must have been shocked. His old idea, that Jews make money and Germans fight, is no longer relevant. Now Jews are having a tough fight and Germans are making more money than anybody else in Europe. Milarepa, you also have the old idea that...

... they have all the money the world can afford... but the money cannot purchase love, the money cannot purchase peace, the money cannot purchase silence, the money cannot purchase prayer, the money cannot purchase God. So what is the use of it? Their inner being remains dark, empty. And it is the inner being that counts finally, because death will take away everything else and leave you only with that...

... to be the same, but in fact, because language is created by unconscious people, they cannot make the fine demarcations. Self-consciousness simply means ego consciousness and self-awareness means soul consciousness. Your ego is a false entity. Because you have so much money, because you have so much power, because you are born in a very respected family... your education, your position in life...

... hard, and with their work I was purchasing Rolls Royces. You can see the absurdity: their work was not bringing any money. Their work was making their own houses to live in, the roads -- which were needing money, not producing money. But in their mind -- and for all those three years also -- they must have been resentful. Those Rolls Royces were not produced by the commune. They were presents from...

... outside, from all over the world. And I was not their owner -- I had given them to the commune. They were commune property, and I have not brought any of them with me; I have left them with the commune. Everything that I had has been left with the commune. I never owned anything. But there must have been the idea that they are earning money, and I am wasting money. That is their resentment. What money...

... were you earning? In fact you needed money to make houses, to make roads, to make a dam -- a dam needed two and a half million dollars to make. You were contributing your labor, but we were not creating money out of it so that I could purchase Rolls Royces, so that I could purchase anything. I have not purchased anything from the money produced by the commune because the commune never produced any...

... money. The commune was absorbing money. In fact all my royalties, all my books, all their profits were going to the commune. The situation is just the opposite -- that I had given everything to the commune. Now, four hundred books in different languages were bringing millions of dollars in royalties, and those royalties were going to the commune. If I had wanted to purchase Roll Royces, I could have...

... trying hard but is not getting even enough money to pay the attorneys. No sannyasin is going to see her. Shanti B and Puja have been given bail by the magistrate -- ten million dollars each. But they cannot collect even ten dollars, what to say of ten million dollars! Who is going to put up ten million dollars for Puja, ten million dollars for Shanti B? These people played with two hundred million...

... dollars, and they remained in the illusion that this money was coming to them! The money was given to me, but because I don't receive anything, I had given the whole money to the commune. And still they feel resentful towards me. They are angry at me. Just to pacify these people, before I left I did everything: I dissolved the religion, because that gives hope to people -- and they start believing that...

... used to know one man who said, "I trust only money. I trust nobody else." I said, "You are making a very significant statement." He said, "Everybody changes. You cannot rely on anybody. And as you get older, only your money is yours. Nobody cares - not even your son, not even your wife. If you have money they all care, they all respect you, because you have money. If you...

... don't have money you become a beggar." His saying that the only thing in the world to trust is money comes out of a long experience of life, of getting cheated again and again by the people he trusted - and he thought they loved him but they were all around him for the money. "But," I told him, "at the moment of death money is not going to be with you. You can have an illusion that...

... at least money is with you, but as your breathing stops, money is no longer with you. You have earned something but it will be left on this side; you cannot carry it beyond death. You will fall into a deep loneliness which you have been hiding behind the facade of money." There are people who are after power, but the reason is the same: when they are in power so many people are with them...

... you feel you are in the bottle. That story is very psychological and very significant, because it is the story of man. Somebody is identified with his money: then although the money is in the safe, his mind is inside the safe and he is identified with his mind, so in a certain psychological way he is also inside the safe. In India it is the wisdom of the common people that wherever you find some...

... treasure buried deep in the ground... And in India that was the only way to keep it safe. Banking had not happened yet, so people used to put all their treasures deep in the ground. Mostly it would be under their bed; on top they were sleeping and deep down the money was buried. Whenever you find such a treasure... and every day treasure is found, because for thousands of years Indians have been doing...

... it because that was his last thought while he was dying - what will happen to his treasure after he is dead? There is a possibility of there being some truth in it, because without exception a snake is always there; otherwise snakes have nothing to do with treasures. They don't eat money, they have no interest in money. But why should snakes be protecting treasures? There is a possibility that the...

... common wisdom of the people has a certain truth in it - that the man was so attached that he could not leave it. So that was the only way - because only snakes can live underground near the pot where the treasure is. And snakes are dangerous; they can protect it. They can kill anybody who tries to take the treasures. Now this man who may have become a snake to protect his money is still out of the...

... don't allow her to be human. You have made her "superhuman". That is a way to make her inhuman. Or you force her to be a prostitute; that is again a way, to put her below the human, to make her again inhuman. Then you go to the prostitute, you give her the money, you make love to her -- with no responsibility, with no love. It is simple, pure lust, but you know that that woman is a bad woman...

.... These things come again and again in your mind, and you don't see that they are YOUR problems. Somebody else has asked, "Why do we have to pay money here?" "I have no money," he says, "and I want to be here." But then who is going to pay for you? You will need money, you will need food, you will need a shelter, you will need clothes, sometimes you will be ill, you will...

... need the hospital: who is going to pay for you? Now, he thinks that this ashram is money obsessed. If people who don't have money are allowed, then Laxmi will have to go even more money obsessed because for them also she will have to arrange. Just to avoid money obsession, money has to be arranged. There are many people who would like to be here, but then who is going to arrange for them? And if...

... somebody else arranges for them, he will demand something in return. The person says, "Even Christians don't ask for money; even they are not that bold." I know they are not that bold. They need not be; they have enough money. The Vatican has enough money; that is the richest party in the world. But then you have to pay -- not in money, money is there -- you have to pay with other things: you...

... have to pay with your freedom. Here I want you to be free. I don't want to hinder your freedom. If you want to stay here without money, then I will have to ask some people who have money to give money to the ashram. But then they have their conditions. Then their conditions have to be fulfilled. Otherwise why should they give their money? They give money in return for something. Then you will not be...

... free here. And I will not be free here. I will not be able to say what I want to say. Then they will dictate to me that this has to be said and this has not to be said. Nobody is money obsessed. But the questioner is money obsessed: he has no money and he wants to be here. But what is money? Money is just that you have to pay for everything. You eat: you have to pay for it. You live: you have to pay...

... for it. You need clothes: you have to pay for it. And why should you not pay? Then somebody else will have to pay for you. Why exploit somebody else? If you don't have money, then go and earn money and come back. YOU are money obsessed! But you think that Bhagwan is demanding money. It is your problem. Somebody has said, "I can't see the point why I have to pay when I come to the lecture. When...

... hear only when you pay; otherwise you don't hear. When you have nothing to pay, there is no need to hear. The more you pay, the more alert you are -- because those ten rupees are gone. If you don't listen it is your business; you remain a little alert. J know you are money-minded; those ten rupees will keep you awake. And my godhood is not in danger, because I don't care what you think about me. That...

... school of skeptical people was called Sophism. They were traveling teachers, wandering teachers. They used to take a big fee, much money, to make you a sophist. A sophist is one who can take any side, he does not care for truth. If you pay him good money, he will be on your side. Or, if the opposite side pays him big money, he will be on the opposite side. As far as he is concerned he knows nothing...

... the art, so that whatever the case is, you can always manage to win it. There is no question of right and wrong for a sophist; the question is whose argument is stronger. But it happened... a young man came to a very famous sophist teacher. The young man was very rich, and the sophist teacher asked for an enormous amount of money. The young man said, "Don't be worried, whatever you ask I will...

... give, but on one condition. Half of the money I will pay now and half of the money I will pay to you when I have been victorious in some argument with somebody. That will be the test of whether you have been really teaching me or just exploiting." It was understandable, and the old sophist teacher knew that there was no problem. "You are going to win against anybody. I am the greatest...

... sophist in the whole of Greece, don't be worried." Half the money was paid. After two years the young man was perfectly trained in the art of argumentation; from any side he was able to win. If he chose to support theism he was able to win, if he wanted to support atheism he was able to win. He now had the knack of how to present a case and how to argue about it. The teacher said, "Now your...

... education is finished. Bring the other half of my money that you had promised." The man said, "But I have not yet been a winner. You will have to wait, that was the condition." And the young man proved far smarter than the great sophist. He never argued with anybody. Whatever you said, he would say yes. But he would never enter into any argument, so the question of winning never arose. One...

... year pased, two years passed - but the old sophist was not going to be cheated in this way. This young man was trying to be really too much. The old man filed a case in the court against the young man, that he had promised to give him half of the money when his education was over and he had not given it. The idea of the great teacher was really marvelous. He thought, "If the court decides, "...

...;You will receive half the money only when he wins a case," I am defeated, the young man has won his first victory." So he planned that outside the court he would say, "Now you have won your first victory, give me half the money." But he never got that money, he got defeated in the court. He had thought of the other possibility: if he won the case - although there was no...

... possibility, but he was a great arguer - if he won the case, then too, he would tell the young man, "You are going against the court's decision, you have to pay the money." But he had not thought about it - that the young man was his own student, and knew all his tactics. The young man argued perfectly, and in fact the case was clearly stronger on his side: "Until I win my first argument, I...

... your argument, give me my money." The young man said, "I am your student - you cannot deceive me. I cannot go against the court's decision; that would be contempt of court. And if you insist, come back inside the court and ask before the magistrate." This sophistry has continued down the ages; it has taken many names - now it is called skepticism. The skeptic has no ideology, so you...

... am a madman, but I have never been without friends. They are certainly madder than me. The queen of Spain supported Columbus. She said, "What is the harm? I have enough money, he has enough argument. Let him have a chance, let him go for for a journey around the earth. If the earth is a globe, then finally he will come back to the same place from where he started." It is simple logic: if...

... you move in a circle, you will come back to the same place. "And if the earth is flat, we are not responsible; he is insisting. If the earth is flat, then his ship will finally fall down at the edge of the earth. That is his responsibility, if he goes to hell. For me, it will be just a little loss of money - that does not matter." Then it was a question of finding at least ninety people...

... - three ships were to go, because nobody was clear how long it would take to come back. So much food, clothes for every season, enough people to take these three big ships. The queen said, "Don't be worried, money can purchase anything," and she purchased ninety people. They were all Christians; they thought that the earth was flat, but she was giving so much money that they thought, even if...

... the ship fell into utter darkness, they would be leaving enough money for their family, at least for three generations - which they could not manage to earn being here. They could not even manage enough food, enough clothes, shelter. So ninety people were ready and they sailed off. The horizon was there, but again and again it changed its place. Two months and twenty-seven days had passed, and there...

... had taken enough food for only three months. Those ninety people - they were not scientists, they had not come to prove anything; they were just there for money. With their Bibles they still believed that the earth was flat and that Columbus was mad. But they had got so much money, who cared whether he was mad or not? But after two months and twenty-seven days, they became nervous. They were almost...

... is the point of being successful? Why? What is going to happen through success? Even if the whole world knows my name, what is that going to give me?' The old generation believes in money. And you will be surprised that the belief in money is so deep that even those who renounce money - they also believe in money; otherwise there is no need to renounce it. And those who praise renunciation - they...

... also believe in money. The more money you renounce, the greater you are. So the measurement is of money. Money remains the criterion. In the world if you have more money you are great. And even in the world of the monks: 'How much have you renounced?' If you have renounced more money, then you are more important. Money remains important even there. The new generation is not going to be money-manic...

.... And remember, I am not saying it is going to be against money, it WILL USE money. In the past money has used man, in the past man has lived in such an unconscious way that he thought he possessed things, but things possessed him. The new man will be able to use things. The new man will use money, will use technology, but the new man will remain the master. He is not going to become a victim, an...

... is always hell, tomorrow is heaven. You keep on looking at heaven, you keep on hoping. But that hope is not going to be fulfilled ever because tomorrow never comes. Ambition means you are incapable of transforming your today into a beatitude; you are impotent. Only impotent people are ambitious: they seek money, they seek power. Only impotent people seek power and money. The potential person lives...

.... If money comes his way, he lives the money too, but he does not seek it, he is not after it. He is not afraid of it either. The old man was either after money or afraid of money, either after power or afraid of power; but in both ways his whole focus was on power and money. He was ambitious. The old man is pitiable. He was ambitious because he was unable to live, unable to love. The new man will be...

... able to live and able to love. And his herenow is going to be so beautiful, why should he be worried about tomorrow? His concern will not be with having more, his concern will be with BEING more - another very important distinction to be remembered. His concern will be with being more, not having more. Having more is just a substitute for being more. You have more money, so you think you are more...

... to university. But he was even ready to borrow money in order to do it. He was utterly insistent that I go to university. I was willing, but not to go to medical college, and I was not willing to go to engineering college either. I flatly refused to be a doctor or an engineer. I told him, "If you want to know the truth, I want to be a sannyasin, a hobo." He said, "What! A hobo!"...

...; I said, "Yes. I want to go to university to study philosophy so that I can be a philosophical hobo." He refused, saying, "In that case I am not going to borrow money and take all that trouble." My grandmother said, "Don't you worry son; you go and do whatsoever you want to do. I am alive, and I will sell everything I have just to help you to be yourself. I will not ask...

... where you want to go and what you want to study." She never asked, and she sent me money continuously, even when I became a professor. I had to tell her that I was now earning for myself, and I should rather send her money. She said, "Don't worry, I have no use for this money, and you must be using it well." People used to wonder where I got all the money from to purchase my books...

..., because I had thousands of books. Even when I was just a student in high school I had thousands of books in my house. My whole house was full of books, and everybody wondered where I got all the money from. My grandmother had told me, "Never tell anyone that you get money from me, because if your father and mother come to know they will start asking me for money, and it will be difficult for me to...

... refuse." She went on giving money to me. You will be surprised to know that even the month she died she had sent the usual money to me. On the morning of the day she died she had signed the check. You will also be amazed to know, that was the last money she had in the bank. Perhaps somehow she knew that there was not going to be any tomorrow. I am fortunate in many ways, but I was most fortunate...

... for understanding. He is puzzled - because he is very rich, a billionaire - about why Kendra wants to be here, even when she cleans the floors, does manual work. It is beyond his comprehension - because he thinks money can buy everything, and he can give Kendra everything she wants. But it will be a great problem: even if Kendra goes with him out of compassion, he knows deep down that he is the...

... blissfulness, he could not see your silence, he could not see your love, he could not see anything: he was simply asking, "What are these people doing here?" And what is he doing in Hollywood? Earning more money? These people are certainly not earning more money; they are earning more being, earning more love, they are earning more sensitivity, they are earning more spiritual growth, they are...

... earning more life - and finally, they are earning God. They have a thousand and one reasons to be here, and to be in Hollywood you have only one reason: earning more money. But what are you going to do with money? At the age of thirty he is as dead as someone should be at the age of ninety; all his senses are gone. Perhaps he is only available to more money and more money. And if he thinks that by...

... having more money, he can have love, he can purchase love, he can purchase truth, virtue.... Anything that is really valuable is not purchasable, anything that is valuable has no price on it and anything that has a price on it, is only for very mediocre minds. For those who don't know the flight of an eagle because they can only hop on the ground, the question arises, "What is that eagle doing far...

... to be with his father, and not to be with his mother, because the father is very rich, and all his money is going to be in his hands. He will be one of the richest men in America when the father is gone. But I am concerned about the son; the son is going before the father. If he can be here just for a few months, perhaps seeing so many alive people, living in this dancing vibe, in the presence of...

... because I have taken his mother and now I'm taking his girlfriend. But being here he can have both the girlfriend and the mother, and more important is that he can save himself from dying. Money kills people, becomes a weight on their heart. I'm not saying that people should not have money. They should always remember only that there are higher values than money. Use the money to reach to the higher...

... values; make money the stepping stone. It cannot purchase those values, but it can become a stepping stone. Question 3: BELOVED OSHO, SEVERAL YEARS AGO MY WIFE SAW YOUR PICTURE AND SAID, "THERE IS AN ENLIGHTENED MAN." I SAID, "THEY ARE ALL FAKE, AND INDIA'S CASTE SYSTEM AND POVERTY ARE EVIDENCE OF THAT." I AM A FOUR-YEAR-OLD SANNYASIN, AND SHE IS NOT. WHAT HAPPENED? Antar Rituraj...

... THE WORLD, THAT NOW I CAN GO AND DO THOSE THINGS, "WHAT A WOMAN HAS TO DO, A WOMAN HAS TO DO." TO GO OUT INTO THE BIG, WIDE WORLD, MAKE LOTS OF MONEY, IMPRESS EVERYBODY AND GO DOWN IN HISTORY. I HAVE SPENT A LOT OF THE LAST THREE YEARS IN THE COMMUNE AND LOVED IT. BUT RECENTLY, NOW THAT I AM THE CLOSEST TO YOU THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN, ALL THESE FANTASIES OF FAME AND FORTUNE EMERGE. WHY CAN I...

... fulfillment: "Now I can go and do things." And what are the things? "What a woman has to do, a woman has to do." And very strange things a woman has to do. "To go out into the big, wide world, make lots of money, impress everybody, and go down in history." The end is not very interesting - go down in history? Or go down the drain? Going down in history means going to your...

... graveyard. History is only a chronicle of those who are dead. Strange idea you have ... "What a woman has to do, a woman has to do." I have never thought about it. Whatever a woman has to do she can do here. Why go into the wide world? "Make lots of money." What will you do with the money? Create a charitable trust? You cannot eat the money, and you cannot live by money alone - and not...

... just money to survive but lots of money. Have you ever thought about what you mean by "lots of money"? Is there a limit to it? Because "lots of money" can mean anything. And how are you going to earn lots of money? Just by doing "what a woman has to do"? Don't be stupid. There are many stupid women outside and they are doing their job, earning lots of money, and getting...

... and she was ready to offer her body. Certainly she remained the empress of Egypt, with lots of money, and did everything that a woman has to do. But these kind of ugly creatures are not to be imitated. Only her physical body was beautiful, but her spirit must have been mean, utterly mean. In love, you can give everything - your body, your mind, your soul - and it is a great experience. But for money...

... woman, because meditation has nothing to do with your body; neither does it have anything to do with your mind. In meditation you are simply and purely consciousness. And consciousness is neither male nor female. The moment you understand your consciousness, all desires for money, fame, power, impressing people and going down the drain into history, simply disappear. You have not cleaned the weeds...

... beautiful silences of the heart. You have been joyous, in spite of this underlying conspiracy. And this underlying conspiracy of your mind is now convincing you that you are ripe: "Now there is no need to be worried about the world, you can go into the world." For what? A person who is ripe in meditation cannot even think of having lots of money, going down in history, and "what a woman has...