.... Now they desire God, they desire paradise, they desire heaven, they desire Nirvana, enlightenment. But they go on desiring! And desire is the problem, not what you desire. The object is irrelevant. Desire can live with any object. It can live with money, it can live with power, prestige, respectability; it can live with God, it can live with enlightenment. Any object will do. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND...

..., Ramas, Krishnas. The West is very much puzzled why we have not been interested in history. We have been writing real history - because the real history consists of the evolution of human consciousness. The real history has nothing to do with money, the real history has nothing to do with power-politics. The real history has only to do with one thing: that is who comes in the world with light...

..., because sometimes the situa-tion may be such that your whole mind will interpret it in a wrong way. The king knows only money and money and money. He understands only one language - the language of money. Now, certainly, this man is cheating. He can see only some device: "The begging bowl is a trick. It cannot be filled and he will empty my whole treasure. And he has caught me - he has provoked me...

... and now he is cheating." "TO YOU," SAID THE DERVISH, "I AM EMPTYING YOUR TREASURY..." "... because you cannot see beyond that. Your eyes are focussed on money. You can only think of money. All is always translated by you in terms of money - as if money is all. Life is much more: money is nothing." "TO YOU I AM EMPTYING YOUR TREASURY," SAID THE DERVISH...

... substitutes in life too, so that our sleep in life itself is not disturbed. If you are to know God, your sleep will be disturbed; it will come to an end. And we have a great vested interest in our sleep, because for lives upon lives we have treasured and cultivated only sleep, that is our only creation. And up to this very day our family, wife, friends, children, money and prestige are all part of our...

... world. Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Sikhs, Jainas... we add these religious differences to our worldly turbulence - as if there is not already enough trouble, enough politics; as if there is not already enough warfare, we add religious warfare, we fight in the name of religion. As it is, there is more than enough competition - in the name of nations, for money, for prestige; but to these we add...

... essence of the life experience of such uneducated people. The statement is direct, the words present no difficulty: there is no shelter other than Rama; there is no other shade, no other refuge than Rama. Under what conditions does such an understanding dawn? We seek refuge and shelter in wealth. The language of the people all around me is that of money, they measure people by their money. How much you...

... much status, how big a position, how much power! You are what you have - this is our criterion. This criterion is utterly wrong. Because of this criterion, if someone asks us of our inner experience, "There is no other refuge but money" will be the essence of our answer. We even weigh the mystics in monetary terms. Had Mahavira been born in a poor family, Jainas were not going to recognize...

... of our calculations about renunciation. If one who possesses nothing says he has renounced, we will not accept his statement. We will say, "You had nothing, so what have you renounced?" Renunciation has no relation to what you had, it is an existential state of being. But how to measure that state? Money is our only standard measure, so renunciation is also measured by what one had. It is...

... curious that we measure renunciation and indulgence in the same monetary terms. Money is our measure. Money is our only refuge! As long as money is our refuge, Rama cannot be our refuge. From what state of mind will arise: "Rama is the only refuge"? This only arises when the illusion of money disappears, when one discovers that money is worthless and that nothing is gained through gaining any...

... possess only that which you can give. If you cannot give it, you simply believe that you possess. You don't possess it; you are not a master. If you cannot give your money, then you are not the master of it. Then the money is the master. If you can give it, then certainly you are the master. This will look like a paradox, but let me repeat it: you are the possessor only of that which you give. The...

... leave it, to renounce it. I have heard about two Buddhist bhikkhus. One of them was a miser and a hoarder and he wed to collect money and keep it, and the other used to laugh at this foolish attitude. Whatsoever will come on his way, he will use it, he will never hoard it. One night they came across a river. It was evening, the sun was setting, and it was dangerous to stay there. They had to go to the...

... other shore; there was a town. This side was simply wilderness. The hoarder said, "Now you don't have any money, so we cannot pay the ferryman. What do you say now about it? You are against hoarding; now if I don't have any money we both will die. You see the point?" He said, "Money is needed." The man who believed in renunciation laughed, but he didn't say anything. Then the...

... hoarder paid and they crossed the river; they reached the other shore. The hoarder again said, "Now remember, next time don't start arguing with me. You see? Money helps. Without money we would have been dead. The whole night on the other shore, it was dangerous to survive - wild animals." The other bhikkhu laughed and he said, "But we have come across the river because you could renounce...

... it. It is not because of hoarding that we have survived. If you had insisted on hoarding it and you were not going to pay the ferryman, we would have died. It is because you could renounce - because you could leave it, you could give it - that's why we have survived." The argument must be continuing still. But remember, I am not against money. I am all for it, but use it. Possess it, own it...

... real man is capable of accepting gifts and giving them. In India you will find many sannyasins, many so-called mahatmas, who will not touch money. If you give them any, they will shrink back, as if you have produced a snake or something poisonous. Their shrinking back shows that now they have moved to the other extreme: now they have become incapable of receiving. Again their throat center is half...

... a swanky restaurant when he announced to the manager, "My good man, I have really enjoyed your food, but unfortunately I cannot afford to pay for any of it at all. I have not a penny to my name. Now don't get angry. I am by profession a beggar, as you may see. I happen to be an extremely talented beggar too. I can go out and within one hour get the money I owe you for this meal. Naturally...

... Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler? Have you heard about animals being money-minded, collecting currency notes? Have you heard of any animal stealing in the darkness of the night? Have you heard about any animal being a rapist? Has any animal knocked on any psychoanalyst's door, saying that "I am going crazy"? No animal commits murders, suicides. No animal in the wild ever becomes sexually perverted...

...; although it is big, eighty-four thousand acres, it is absolutely barren and you will have to put in millions of dollars to make it livable." That letter was never shown to me; otherwise I would have refused. We transformed the desert. All the Americans around were laughing, saying that it was impossible: "You will go on pouring money into it, labor into it, and still a desert is a desert."...

...; They were not worried in the beginning. They became worried only when we succeeded, because we poured in almost three hundred million dollars. From all over the world sannyasins were sending their hard- earned money, and we made it an oasis. Five thousand sannyasins were living there and at festival times, four times a year, the population used to increase to twenty thousand people. We had every...

... if they have any sense of dignity, the money should be returned to the people who had put it there, to the people who worked for five years continuously. Just a little time more... because the Italian Radical Party has said that they will be very happy if I accept the presidency of their party, and I have said I am absolutely ready. Once I am the president of Italian Radical Party, then I will see...

... town, and nobody bothered even to go those towns. We were self-sufficient, we were producing our own food, we were producing our own milk products, we were producing everything we needed. And we were not using any money for exchange. If you needed something, the commune would provide it. Money you could donate, but you could not purchase anything. Money would be needed if the commune wanted to...

... purchase something from outside. It was a unique commune, of its own kind. Everybody was equal, for the simple reason that you could not use your money. You may have millions of dollars and somebody may be without a single dollar, but you were both equal as far as being inside the commune was concerned. This was the highest form of communism that has ever happened in the world, and it was not only simple...

... destroying the commune which was a danger to the nation." I have asked somebody to send me the exact words and the picture, because we are also going to make a monument here, that America owes three hundred million dollars to us, "In the sacred memory of Rajneeshpuram" so that history remembers. I am not going to leave Ronald Reagan so easily. He has to pay all the money, and he has to...

... existence. I have loved people. Within ten minutes they managed to collect four hundred thousand dollars - sixty lakh rupees. Even the magistrate was surprised, because they were thinking that neither would we be able to produce that money nor could I get out of the prison. That money has also to be returned, because your attorney has accepted publicly that there is no proof against me. Then for what am I...

... be mad, because what you are going to gain out of your paintings? If you want to become a painter, then we have nothing to do with you. You just leave us alone, don't bother us any more." Hungry, without money... sometimes few friends helped, but who is going to help him for long? And once a friend who has helped him saw his paintings, stopped helping him because his paintings were un...

... best sculptures. He had some sense and sensitivity. So he used to send him just enough that he can eat two meals every day, and what Van Gogh was doing, that out of seven days, four days he will eat and three days he will save the money to purchase canvases, colors. So only alternate days he was eating. Naturally, anybody will think this man is mad. He is starving but he continues to paint. And he is...

... certainly insane because he could not sell a single painting in his whole life. Nobody was ready to give a single cent. His brother, that younger brother who was supporting him, was very much sad that he cannot have even the consolation that somebody purchased a painting. At least somebody came and appreciated. So he asked a friend, gave him money and told him that, "You go to Van Gogh and purchase a...

... want you can take, and whatever you want to pay for it is more than enough. Just that you have come to purchase a painting is enough reward for me." The man said, "I am not interested in paintings. You can give any, and here is the money." You can understand the shock of the man. His tears dried. He could not believe. And it was a simple, logical corollary that he said, "You must...

... have been sent by my brother. Take this money back. And even if you bring millions of dollars I am not going to sell any of the paintings to you. I will throw those paintings and give to beggars, but not to you. You just get out of the house." The man could not believe. He said, "I am giving you money." He said, "You are giving me money, but I can see that you don't have any...

... perception, any idea, any sensitivity for art. And this must be my younger brother's work." The man said, "This is strange that you figured it out so quickly. Yes, your brother has sent me and he has given the money. And he wanted to give you some consolation, but you are a strange man." Now that man must think Van Gogh insane. He was not a very beautiful man, not even homely. He was a coal...

... called religious. There is no other word to explain it. No woman ever loved him. Again, his brother tried a prostitute, gave her money and said, "Just once in a life he should have the satisfaction that some woman wanted him." The prostitute was willing. There was no question; it was a simple business. She said, "You can send. You give me money in advance and you can send your brother...

... purchase. I understand your love for me, but you don't see how wounded I felt. That man said, `Give me anything. Anything will do. Just take this money. Don't waste my time."' His brother said, "No, I have nothing to do with it. The woman approached me." So Vincent Van Gogh went to the prostitute and of course as a professional she welcomed him. He could not believe -- all that welcome and...

... you get to an umbrella," said the professor, through the door, "it is mine." 'I' exists through 'my', 'mine'; hence so much desire for possessions. You go on accumulating and the more you accumulate, the more you can feel you are. The greater your possessions, the more money you have, the more you can feel you are. Ego is empty; it needs to be filled by things continuously so that it...

... learn how to open them. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY, THE ONLY WAY TO THE OPENING OF THE EYE. FOLLOW IT. OUTWIT DESIRE. The only way to open the inner eyes is to drop desiring. What is desire? Desire means: "I feel empty and I would like to be full." Emptiness hurts. "I need money, I need power, I need prestige, so that I can feel full" - although those who have much money and power and...

... a rather scruffy-looking Irishman standing before a large sign which read: SEE THE WORLD'S ONLY, ONE AND ONLY, TALKING CAT FOR ONLY 10 DOLLARS! After a large crowd had gathered and the man's pockets were spilling over with money, he pulled a mangy-looking animal from a box and holding it in the air, whispered in the ear of the nearest member of the audience. Rather embarrassed, the poor spectator...

..., the only path... and desire disappears on its own accord. It is desire that keeps you in bondage, that is the cause of misery. And because of desire you have to do so many stupid things; you have to behave like a fool. Running after money is foolish, running after power is foolish. You are making a fool of yourself, but you never become aware of it because others are also doing the same. Because the...

... majority is doing the same nobody takes note of it; otherwise you would be thought to be mad. I know rich people who have so much that they don't know what to do with it, but still they go on and on. They have forgotten how to stop, as if their minds don't have any brakes, only accelerators. So they go on accelerating; they don't know how to stop. Now there is no point in earning more money because they...

... have all that money can purchase. They have more money than their next ten generations will need - but they can't live. From morning to night they are possessed with the mania, with that madness of earning more and more and more. If you ask them why, they can't answer. And it is not thought to be polite to ask such embarrassing questions! Just watch: your desires make you stupid, they dull your...

... about opening your inner eyes. He starts talking about your subjectivity, your consciousness. And these are things you have not heard about. These are things you are not interested in, because nobody else seems to be interested in them. You are interested in money, and a buddha talks about meditation. Sometimes people come to me and they say, "If we meditate, will we become wealthy?" And...

... there are frauds who say "Yes." Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says to people, "If you meditate you will become wealthy, you will become rich - because a meditator attracts money." No wonder he has such a great appeal in America, because who would not like to sit for just fifteen minutes in the morning and in the evening and attract money? A magic secret to become more rich, more powerful...

... END OF THE WAY. ALL THAT HE HAD TO DO, HE HAS DONE. AND NOW HE IS ONE. These are the last golden sutras of THE DHAMMAPADA: POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. HE IS FULL OF POWER. Why does man want to possess? It is one of the most fundamental things to be understood. Unless you understand why there is a constant hankering to possess more and more things, money, power, you will not be able to get...

... imitating others. Children are imitators; the only way they learn things is by imitating their parents and the people who surround them. They are all running after money, after power, prestige, respectability. Naturally the child thinks these are the things that have to be attained, achieved. "Whatsoever the cost, I have to risk all. And life is short; hence I have to focus my energies in a...

... concentrated way. I have to move in one particular direction with my totality. I have to be money-mad if I really want to possess money, because I am not the only one who is running after it; millions of people are running after it. It is going to be a great struggle and only those who are cunning, clever, crafty, are going to win the race." So be cunning, be crafty, but anyhow you have to win the race...

.... You have to prove yourself, that you are somebody, that your life was not in vain. The child learns all this in a very unconscious way from the atmosphere into which he is born. And whatsoever the society is, the game is the same. Somewhere it is money that is more important. If you are born in America, money is more important; that brings power. If you are born in Soviet Russia, then money is not...

... so important; then political power is real money, real gold. You have to be high in the hierarchy of the Communist Party, but the game is the same. If you are born in a so-called religious country like India, then you have to become a great saint, you have to defeat all the other saints. It is the same game now played in the name of religion. You have to be the greatest ascetic, the most famous...

... you keep yourself occupied with money, with power, with religion, with politics. These are all escapes. You can find any escape - there are many alternatives available - but you keep yourself occupied so that there is no need to become so conscious of your inner trembling. Whenever you have time, whenever you are unoccupied, suddenly the inner hollowness starts opening up and you become afraid. It...

.... Beethoven went home and again the inspiration was back, again the sources were flowing. The master cannot do anything directly, but he can push you, pull you in indirect ways, to help you to see the point. Once seen it becomes yours and unless it becomes yours it is of no use, it is of no meaning, it has no validity. You are so unaware of yourself. That's why you are running after money, power, prestige...

... nor the money nor the kingdom. He was the most junior because just that day he had taken sannyas, so he had to sleep in the porch because there was no other place. The king could not sleep; it was difficult, and one can understand his difficulty. He had never slept in such a place. And you know Indian mosquitoes... and the king had never experienced mosquitoes. And the ground was hard and the...

... under a system of barter before money was invented) and the available supply of goods and services offered. It is the consumer's choice which settles the relative prices of the various goods and services which the producer (or middle-man) oifers for sale. The Communist system attempts to fix relative prices and to deny to the consumer the right to exercise this fundamental freedom of choice. The...

... the consumer can pay, and in particular between the relative prices of agricultural and manufactured products. Mismanagement of the standard of value is apparent throughout the world. It is by no means so clear how recovery is to be brought about. Cheap money is obviously essential but it is only if and when it leads to a revival of activity, to increased demand for goods and services and an...

... increase in the volume of trade, followed by a recovery of prices to a remunerative level that it serves any useful purpose. Mere manufacture of paper purchasing power is of little avail, more especially if with waning political confidence the basis of credit shrinks faster than the manufactured paper money increases. This is not the place to examine the problem of escape from the immediate financial...

... crisis. The same assumption must be made as was made earlier in this essay that the inertia and momentum of the economic structure and of habit and custom will carry us somehow through for the moment and that we shall be given a respite. Stable Money One basic need of the new economic organization is the stabilization of the purchasing power of money. Stable money and conscious forward planning are...

... power of our money. This question is dealt with at length in a separate essay and the conclusion must perforce be taken for granted here. Stable money cannot be secured without considerable extension of control on behalf of the community over the flow of investment and the uses which the individual makes of his capital. While as consumer he can retain full freedom of choice as to which of his...

... shall take its proper place as the servant and not the master of industry and commerce. The stabilization of the purchasing power of money will by itself go far to secure this subordination. The Banks and Planning The Bank of England has in the course of its history lost practically all of its original profit-making characteristics and become in fact if not in form a leading example of a Public...

..., with industry, agriculture, transport, etc., organized in the lines suggested, and with the adoption of the steps necessary to stabilise the purchasing power of money, the problems which are, in prospect, somewhat terrifying of bringing about a suitable re-organization of our financial institutions will be found largely to have solved themselves. For Finance as the servant of industry can have no...

...-modelling of many of their existing regulations and to the change in outlook which conscious planning requires. Stable money and the discarding of the doctrines of individualism and laissez-faire will between them make obsolete many of the objectives and many of the issues which at present bulk largely in the minds of Trade Unionists. In planned industry the employee takes his true place more clearly than...

... provide an adequate economic unit for planning. A planned economy for Britain implies as the next step a planned imperial economic family. Considerable interrelations, imperial co-operation from the outset, is essential as a minimum, for success in certain directions. The stabilization of the purchasing power of money calls for action not only in the Empire but also in such countries as Argentina and...

... afraid of money. Naturally, if they come into the world, money has to be tackled. You cannot live in the world without money. And monks have been so afraid that they will not even touch money. See the fear, the obsession. Acharya Vinoba Bhave, the chief disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, does not touch money. But what kind of obsession is this? Touching a ten-rupee note - how can it harm you? And if it can...

... harm you, what kind of spirituality is this? Such an impotent spirituality. Not only that he cannot touch it, but if you bring money in front of him, he closes his eyes. He cannot even look. His guru, Mahatma Gandhi, used to keep three monkeys - somebody had given him a present. Knowing him, the present was exactly the right present. One monkey is sitting with both his hands over his eyes, not...

... create a miniature world where money is absolutely accepted, where women and men live together in joy, in celebration, without fear, where all that goes on in the world also continues and, alongside, the meditation grows. It becomes stronger and stronger because all the challenges are there. You can go, Kavita, anywhere you like. Nobody can take your peace away. Your silence is yours! It is not because...

... forty-two? - because that is the time when people start succeeding or have succeeded. They have the money they always wanted, and now they don't know what to do. SUCCESS IS there, and they are shocked by success. They have always lived in the hope that they will have this much money, this woman, this house, this car - and they have it. Now what? Suddenly the heart stops beating. Now what? All...

... rung of your SUCCESS, what are you doing? You can have more money. This is the time, because when you have money more money comes. When you have SUCCESS, more SUCCESS comes. What are you doing - 'relaxing', 'retiring'? And they will not have any excuse. The heart attack is a beautiful excuse. Nobody will say they have escaped from the world. Nobody will throw the responsibility on them. What can they...

... remember eating that!" A young monk went to a prostitute and said, "I know nothing about sex. Will you teach me?" "Okay," said the prostitute, "but it will cost you fifty quid." He agreed and paid her the money in advance. She disrobed, then undressed him and told him to lie down and said that she would start with the sixty-nine position. When she climbed on top of him...

... unconscious, he has been forced to remain in a deep slumber. You are being driven in many subtle ways to remain drunk with power, with money, with prestige, with fame, name; all these are different kinds of opium. Power makes people so drunk, money makes people so drunk. Ambition is the greatest intoxicant invented ever. The DESIDERATA says: "BE YOURSELF SPECIALLY DO NOT FEIGN AFFECTION." THAT TOO...

... address of the millionaire, so he gave the note to the kid and told him to take it to his father. The boy did, and when he returned with the money there was also a note from the victim: "Here is your filthy money. And I gotta say it is a rotten thing for one Polack to do to another." That's why I say the whole earth has become Poland! Kazewski and Candelli agreed to a bet on who could make...

... be dry, there will be no juice. There will be no flowering in your life, nothing of greenery. You will be just dry, hard. And there is disenchantment, disillusionment at every step, because each desire is bound to come to disillusionment. You desire money and you hope that when the money is there you will be happy. The moment money is there, suddenly you realize you are not happy. Money is there...

..., but the happiness has not followed it. Money cannot purchase happiness; it can purchase comfort. I am not against money and I am not against comfort either, but comfort is comfort; happiness is a totally different phenomenon. Comfort is good, but it is not happiness, it is not blissfulness, it is not fulfillment. You can live comfortably and die comfortably, but that will not make you contented...

.... Money can purchase many things, but there are a few things it cannot purchase and those are the few things which are really valuable. The really valuable has no price, it is priceless, you have to deserve it. Life is bound to be arid, desertlike, if you don't have any love in you. It is going to be a continuous disillusionment, from one disillusionment to another. BY the time you reach the very end...