... substance; it is dream stuff. So people are very much obsessed with money, but they talk of God; obsessed with politics and power, and they talk of God. That remains just talk. In the West, just the opposite has happened. The lower was accepted, for the same reason -- because if there is only one, you can relax. You can drop the creative discontent if there is only one. Hence the attraction for the one...

... letter to somebody, to whom are you going to write? A small child once wrote a letter to God. His mother was ill and his father had died and they had no money, so he asked God for fifty rupees. When the letter reached the post office they were at a loss -- what to do with it? Where to send it? It was simply addressed to God. So they opened it. They felt very sorry for the little boy and they decided to...

... collect some money and send it to him. They collected some money; he had asked for fifty rupees but they could collect only forty. The next letter came, again addressed to God, and the boy had written, "Dear Sir, please next time when you send the money, send it directly to me, don't send it through the post office. They have taken their commission -- ten rupees!" It will be difficult if...

... paint it, to give it a prop here and there, and it is constantly collapsing. By the time you have managed to prop up one side, the other side starts collapsing. And that's what people go on doing their whole life, trying to make the fiction seem as if it is the truth. Have more money, then you can have a bigger ego, a little more solid than the ego of the poor man. The poor man's ego is thin; he can't...

... afford a thicker ego. Become the prime minister or president of a country, and your ego is puffed up to extremes. Then you don't walk on the earth. Our whole life, the search for money, power, prestige, this and that, is nothing but a search for new props, a search for new supports, to somehow keep the fiction going. And all the time you know death is coming. Whatsoever you make, death is going to...

... disconnection from the universal energy -- the greatest danger. And now there are foolish people in the world who are writing books, and with very logical acumen, saying that sleep is not needed at all, it is a wastage of time. They are right, it is a wastage of time. For people who think in terms of money and work, people who are workaholics, for them it is a wastage of time. Just as there is now Alcoholics...

... had come in the morning and those who had come in the afternoon and those who had just come and had not worked at all were also given the same amount of money. Naturally, the people who had been working the whole day in the hot sun complained; they were angry. They said, "This is unjust! These people have just come! They have not done anything at all, and they receive the same amount of money...

...? And a few people have come in the middle of the day, they have done only half the work, and they also receive the same amount of money as we have received? This is unfair!" The wealthy man laughed and he said, "Answer me one question: is what I have given to you not enough for the labor that you have done?" They said, "It is more than enough, but what about the others?" And...

... the rich man said, "You need not worry about others. I give them not because they have worked, I give them because I have too much to give. I am burdened! Can't I give my money to anybody, to whomsoever I want to give? Can't I throw my money to the winds? You have received your worth. You have received because you worked, they are receiving because I have so much to give." This is a very...

... ancient habit; for many, many lives you have practised it. You have put so much energy into it, into forgetting yourself. You remember money, you remember others, you remember the world. To remember all these things - all these things which Taoists call 'the ten thousand and one things'.... If you want to remember these ten thousand and one things, you will have to forget yourself, because your eyes...

... of America, of India - in the future. You can do anything that you want, and everybody does something. Just sitting silently, you start imagining that passing by the side of the road you have found a bag full of money. And not only that, you start planning how to use that money; you start purchasing things. You are the master. The past and the future give you the idea that you are a king. The...

... happens, freedom is far more valuable. Q:* IS THE COMMUNE IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES? A:* No difficulty at all. Q:* EVEN WITHOUT THE FORTY-THREE MILLION THAT'S IN THE SWISS BANK ACCOUNT? A:* They were never here. They were to come here, but they never reached here, so in fact they don't make any difference to us. And as far as money is concerned, we have enough creative people and we are not in any...

... lost! There is no need to kill people, there is no need to poison anybody. If you need money, just take the money and get lost!" Money has never been a problem to me -- I don't have a single dollar. But it has never been a problem to me because I have so many lovers around the world that any moment any amount of money can be made available here immediately. Q:* WHAT'S THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE...

... MONEY? YOU SAID YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO CARRY ON WHEN YOU'VE LEFT. WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO? A:* The commune is going to expand every day. This is only the beginning. We have the land three times bigger than New York, and do you want in this vast land only five thousand people to live? One hundred thousand sannyasins are going to live here. Q:* THIS IS AFTER YOUR DEATH AS WELL? A:* No, now -- before...

... my death! Q:* SO THEN WHAT HAPPENS ON YOUR DEATH WHEN YOU DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO FOLLOW YOUR FOOTSTEPS? A:* Don't care... I don't care about anything even before my death, so after my death why should I care? To you I die; to me you all die. Death means double. It is not only my death; to me the whole world also dies at the same moment. Q:* YES, BUT THEY DON'T HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO WORRY ABOUT WHEN...

... paradoxical. Those who are too much against the world are too much in it; they have to be. You cannot go away from your enemy, you are possessed by the enemy. If the world is your enemy, no matter what you do or pretend to do you will remain worldly. You may even renounce it, but your very approach will be worldly. I have seen one saint, a very renowned one... He will not touch money, and if you put some...

... coins before him, he will close his eyes. This is neurotic, this man is ill! What is he doing? But people worship him because of this. They think he is so otherworldly. He is not, he is too much in the world. Even you are not so much in the world. What is he doing? He has just reversed the process; now he is standing on his head. He is the same man - the same man who was greedy for money. Constantly...

... he must have been thinking of money, accumulating possessions. Now he has become quite the opposite, but he remains the same within. Now he is against money, now he cannot touch it. Why this fear? Why this hatred? Remember, whenever there is hatred it is love in reverse. You can hate a thing only if you have been in love with it. Hate is always possible only through love. You can be against...

... something only if you have been so much for it, but the basic attitude remains the same: this man is greedy. I asked this man, "Why are you so much afraid?" He said, "Money is the hindrance. Unless I use will against my greed toward money, I cannot reach the divine." So now it is only a new sort of greed. He is in a bargain: if he touches money he loses the divine. And he wants to get...

... the divine, he wants to possess the divine, so he is against the money. Tantra says, do not be for the world, do not be against the world, just accept it as it is. Do not create any problem out of it. How is this going to help you? If you do not create any problem out of it, if you do not grow neurotic over it - this way or that - if you remain simply in it and accept it as it is, your whole energy...

.... His first interest is to know himself. So the people with the highest quality of intelligence go towards mysticism, and the most mediocre go after power. That power can be worldly, political; it can be of money, it can be of holding spiritual domination over millions of people, but the basic urge is to dominate more and more people. This urge arises because you don't know yourself, and you don't...

... want to know that you don't know yourself. You are so afraid of becoming aware of the ignorance that prevails in the very center of your being. You escape from this darkness through these methods -- lust for money, lust for power, lust for respectability, honor. And a man who has darkness within himself can do anything destructive. Creativity is impossible from such a person, because creativity comes...

.... From where did they get their kingdom? They are great robbers who have killed many people, accumulated money, land, declared themselves as lords of the land, and now they have royal blood. They are in the lineage of criminals -- and not ordinary criminals, big criminals. But they have power, they have money -- naturally their blood is special. The ordinary people have known all along that they are...

... can go to some isolated spot and just relax. And in a year you will be able to earn so much money, save so much money, that you can come here for one month, two months, three months... as much as you can manage. Then being with me has no connotations of work. Then being with me is simply joy, celebration, meditation, singing, dancing. Those three months are simply holiday. You forget the world for...

... now it is your own government." He said, "Remember, it does not matter to me which government it is. I can donate twice the amount that you think I should pay in taxation, but taxation? -- that I cannot do. And you cannot catch hold of me, because I don't have any books. Except for me, nobody knows how much money I have, how much money is invested, where it is invested, how it is invested...

... said, "I don't need rupees, because I am simply traveling alone and my friends can take care of my expenses, traveling, food, accommodation. There is no need." Tears came to his eyes, and he said, "Don't refuse. Don't hurt me, because I am a poor man. I don't have anything I can give to you -- I have only money. You can't find a more poor man than me -- just money and nothing else. So...

... when somebody refuses money, he is refusing me, because I don't have anything else. Don't refuse. If you want to throw it you can throw it; once I have given it to you, it is none of my concern." I gave that money to the institution that was organizing my lectures in Jaipur, and from that day -- he was very old -- he became very friendly to me, and he said, "I have houses in all the big...

... that is only a facade. Deep down it thinks only of money, power, prestige. But it has a very ancient mask, so glued to its original face that it has almost become its second nature. I have traveled all over the country for decades and I was surprised that everybody is repeating, like parrots, things which don't mean anything to them. The person does not even know the meaning of what he is saying; but...

... simply a burden, a poison, a force destructive of your intelligence and your very soul. But the whole country lives with the idea that they are the only people in the world who are spiritual and the rest of the world is materialist; and I have never seen anybody more materialistic than the Indians. They cling to money as their very soul. They cling to everything worldly, which their saints go on...

... don't ask for clothes, and don't ask for a roof, because that is not part of meditation. Just meditate. And what is your meditation? - because you have come here to meditate, and others have come to make houses for you and bring money for your comforts. You will simply repeat your old idiotic chanting, which is not meditation at all. You cannot participate in my meditations; your inhibitions are such...

... her another chance?" Money is all. In the name of character, it is all hypocrisy. Even those you think are saints have their hidden side. The most arduous and self-torturing saints are the naked monks of the Jainas. They have renounced everything, even clothes. Just a few years ago two naked saints were found near Calcutta beating each other, so they were brought to the police station and asked...

... fighting started because the disciple was not ready to have equal shares; he had more money than the master. The Jainas of Calcutta tried to hush up the case, and it is very easy in India: they just bribed the police. The saints and the police are not different; they bribed the journalists so they wouldn't publish it. One of my friends wrote me that, just to protect their prestige, the Jainas have not...

... allowed those saints to be exposed. But those who have renounced everything are still carrying money, are still carrying the desire to have more, are still ready to fight, hit each other, be violent. It is a strange country: it has forgotten all the great teachings of the mystics, it lives following the stupid priests who know nothing as far as experience is concerned. And they are against me, because I...

...; But I said, "I don't need it. If sometimes I need... just give me your address." He said, "My address I will give to you on the condition that you accept this money." I said, "But, money I have never accepted from anybody." When I was saying this, tears started coming to the eyes of the old man. I said, "Why are you crying? You should be happy, this much money is...

... saved. I should be crying - why are you crying?" He said, "Listen, I am a rich man as far as money is concerned, but I am a very poor man as far as the heart is concerned. I don't know how to give love except by giving money. If you reject my money, you are rejecting me and my heart and I will never forgive you." He said, "You can take it and burn it - that is not my concern - but...

... in the whole world. Five thousand people were eating into one restaurant, one kitchen for all. There was no use of money in the society and that was my basic idea: to drop poverty, richness, without any dictatorship, without any enforcement. Everything that you needed was provided by the commune. Money could not be used. You can donate to the commune but you cannot purchase anything by money. Money...

..., milk products... and our people lived with such comfort and luxury that it became necessarily a target for jealousy of the neighbors. They have been working in their ranches which were better lands, for generations and they could not manage to have such luxury. And the government became aware that we don't have any power, we don't have much money, and yet we have been able to manage a society for...

... opportunity than men to compensate. And for three and half years I was in silence, in isolation, and she had all the power, so it is very human. She was from a poor family, she was just a waitress in a hotel when she had come to me. She had never seen so much money -- three hundred million dollars suddenly can make anybody mad. Q: SO IT WAS JUST TOO BIG A TEMPTATION? A: Yes, it was too big a temptation and...

... Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. The whole of life is a means. And the moment you start thinking of something other than god as a goal, you start going astray. Money can become the goal, then the person has gone astray. Nothing is wrong in money itself - it is perfectly good, useful - but it should remain the means; it should not become the end. And every means has to be dedicated to one...

... they break down there is no wonder; if they go mad, there is no wonder. They are running in all directions... at the same time! They want money, they want power, they want prestige, they want this, they want that, and they want god too. Their life becomes fragmentary, disintegrated. It is a miracle how people go on managing to keep themselves together. But that togetherness is only an appearance...

... doors open and life becomes full of sunshine. Immediately the flowers that have never bloomed start blooming and suddenly the spring is there. In India the colour of orange is the symbolic colour for the spring. It is the colour of spring. Hence it has been chosen for those who have decided to be blissful, who have decided to renounce misery. I don't ask you to renounce money, I don't ask you to...