... can understand it is hard for you, but it is harder for them. They cannot understand... they simply think that you have gone crazy. They may not say so, but they feel that something has gone wrong, because they live in a world, in an established pattern, where everything is judged according to money. If you are making money, you are doing something good. The more money you are getting, the more...

... valuable is your work. But out of sannyas you cannot get any money; in fact whatsoever you have got will be lost. So it is a disvalue. It has no market value - it is not a commodity. God has never been a commodity. And God has always been for crazy people; people who are not satisfied with power, prestige, money; people who really want something of the eternal - and are not concerned with the ephemeral...

... nobody was interested, but when it became an award-catching thing they were all for it, they all started praising it. But it was not because of the poetry but because of the award. People are interested in the results, not in the actual process of creativity. If you paint and don't earn money, you are crazy. If you earn money without doing anything, then you are talented. The most successful person is...

... one who earns much money without doing anything. And the failure is one who does much and earns nothing. I am a failure! (chuckling) They cannot understand because much is at stake; they have invested their whole life. So feel compassion for them. Your whole being should express your joy - that is the answer. Don't try to convince them - you cannot. If you try to be logical, they will be logical and...

.... DURING ONE OF THESE GATHERINGS A PUPIL WAS CAUGHT STEALING. Those pupils are also here - they are always everywhere, because man is so money-minded. And don't think that the one who was stealing was very much different from those from whom he was stealing; they were all in the same boat. Both are money-minded. One has the money, one does not have the money - that is the difference. But both are money...

...-minded. THE MATTER WAS REPORTED TO BANKEI WITH THE REQUEST THAT THE CULPRIT BE EXPELLED. BANKEI IGNORED THE CASE. Why did he ignore the case? Because both are money-minded. Both are thieves - one thief trying to take things away from another thief, that's all. In this world, if you hoard something you become a thief, if you have something you become a thief. There are two kinds of thieves in the world...

... ways through the rules. But there are a few people who are not so clever. Seeing that if they follow these rules they will never have anything, they drop the rules and they start doing illegal things. But everybody is a money maniac. That's why Bankei ignored the case. LATER THE PUPIL WAS CAUGHT IN A SIMILAR ACT, AND AGAIN BANKEI DISREGARDED THE MATTER. He knows that both are in the same boat; there...

... things go in the world. One who is not money-minded will ignore. THIS ANGERED THE OTHER PUPILS, WHO DREW UP A PETITION ASKING FOR THE DISMISSAL OF THE THIEF, STATING THAT OTHERWISE THEY WOULD LEAVE IN A BODY. Now, these people were not there to meditate at all. If you have come to meditate, you understand a few requirements - that you have to grow into less money-mindedness, that you have to attain a...

... certain detachedness from all your possessions. That it does not matter much that somebody has taken a few rupees - that it doesn't matter much, that it is not such a life-and-death affair. That you have to understand how the mind functions, how people are money-minded. You are against the thief because he has taken YOUR money. But how was it yours? You must have taken it from somebody else in some...

... other way - because nobody comes with money into the world, we all come empty-handed. So all that we possess we must be possessing, claiming, as our own. Nothing belongs to anybody. If a person has really come to meditate, this will be his attitude - that nothing belongs to anybody. He should start having less and less attachment to things. But these people were money-minded. And when you are money...

...-minded, naturally politics comes in. When they saw that the thief had been ignored twice, they must have thought, 'What kind of master is this? It seems he is in favour of the thief!' They could not understand why he is ignoring. He is ignoring just to show them that they have to drop their money-mindedness. Yes, his stealing is bad, but their money-mindedness is not good either. When they saw that...

... compassion for this man, for his lust for money. If they were real meditators they would have contributed some money and given it to this man - 'You please keep this money, rather than stealing.' That would have been an indication that they were there to meditate, to be transformed. But now they drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief. Not only that - with a threatening, that if he is not...

... people always think they are wise. Now, these are all fools. They were not there to possess money, they were not there to have money - they were there to have something greater, something far higher. They have forgotten all about it. In fact, this man has given them an opportunity to see. If they were real meditators they would have gone to this man and thanked him - 'You have given us an opportunity...

... to see how much we cling to money. How much you have disturbed us! We have completely forgotten all about meditation, we have forgotten for what we have come here. We have forgotten this master Bankei.' They may have travelled for hundreds of miles, or thousands even - China is a big country. They must have travelled for months, because in those days travel was not so easy. They had come, they had...

... heard about this master and they had come from long faraway places to study meditation with him. And somebody steals, and they have forgotten all. All that? They should have thanked the thief: 'You have brought something into our consciousness - some mad attachment to money has bubbled up, has surfaced.' When Bankei says, 'You are wise brothers,' he is joking. He is saying, 'You are utter fools. But...

... worldly search was. The worldly man sought money, power, prestige, and the otherworldly man was seeking God, heaven, eternity, truth. But one thing was common: both were looking outside themselves, both were extroverts. Remember this word, because this is going to help you understand Buddha. Before Buddha, the religious search was not concerned with the within but with the without; it was extrovert, and...

... money, power, prestige, God, paradise, nirvana...." It is desiring, always desiring, projecting yourself into the future, that is creating your wheel of life and death. And you are crushed between these two rocks: life and death. You have to be free from life and death. That is Buddha's meaning of nirvana: to be free from life and death, to be free from desire. The moment you are free from all...

... desires... remember, I repeat, ALL desires. The so-called religious, spiritual desires are included in it, nothing is excluded. All desires have to be dropped because every desire brings frustration, misery, boredom. If you succeed it brings boredom; if you fail it brings despair. If you are after money there are only two possibilities: either you will fail or you will succeed. If you succeed you will...

... be bored with money. All rich people are bored with money. In fact, that's how a rich person is known to be really rich - if he is bored with his money, if he does not know what to do with it. If he is still hankering for more money he is not yet rich enough. If you succeed, you are bored, because the money is there but there is no fulfillment with it. All those illusions that you had carried for...

... so long - those illusions for which you had suffered so much, struggled so much, staked so much.... Your whole life has gone down the drain because of those dreams that when you have money you will be fulfilled. But when you have it you suddenly see the pointlessness of it: the money is there but you are as poor as ever - - in fact more so, because, in contrast to the money, you can see your...

... the key into the well - because now he would never need this shop, he would never open this shop again. One million rubles is more than enough for ten lives! But within a year that one million rubles was gone. He purchased the biggest cars, beautiful houses, the costliest prostitutes, the best food, the best clothes. He lived like the czar, utterly oblivious of the fact that the money was running...

... the key and he opened his shop again. The whole year had been like a long long nightmare. And he said, "Enough is enough! I will never ask for money again." But just out of old habit he started purchasing one ticket every month again. And after one year the same car stopped... he said, "My God! do I have to go through all that again?" If you have money, you will know the misery...

... of it; if you don't have money, you know the misery of not having it. Either way you suffer. Desire brings suffering - success or no success, desire brings suffering. But you go on desiring in the hope that it may not be so with you. Remember, life allows no exceptions: its rules are universally valid. Whatsoever is true for me is true for you, whatsoever is true for Buddha is true for you. Truth...

... - it is already better! Seeing that you have all that you need, what more can happen tomorrow? At the most you will have a little more money - but if this much money cannot help, a little more is not going to help. You have two cars - you may have four; you have two houses - you may have four: the changes are going to be only quantitative, and quantitative changes are not real changes. The poor...

... the same stupidities! Young people can be forgiven - although Buddha is not ready to forgive them - but they can be forgiven; they don't have much experience of life. But even old people, even on their deathbed, at the moment of death, they are still thinking of stupid things and desires. Somebody is thinking of money, somebody is thinking of sex, somebody is thinking of becoming famous - even on...

...; groaned Foster. "Now I have got to buy me another new rooster!" The rooster opened one eye, winked, and pointed at the nearing buzzards, saying, "Shhh!" Be a little more alert than the rooster! Man is man only when he becomes aware of what he is doing. Otherwise a few are roosters and a few are bulls and a few are horses - in the form of men. A few are money-mad, a few are sex...

... the have- nots. The have-nots have to work just to survive, and the haves go on accumulating mountains of money. It is a very ugly situation - inhuman, primitive, insane. The people who work are poor, hungry, starving; they don't have time for literature, for music, for paintings. They can't even conceive that there are worlds of tremendous beauty, of art. They cannot even imagine that there is...

... hours work a day would have been enough for the whole of humanity to live peacefully and comfortably. But this insane desire to be rich, this insane greed which knows no limits... without any understanding that the more money you have the less is the value of your money. It is a simple law of economics: the law of diminishing returns. You have one house; it is valuable, you have to live in it, you...

... need it. You have two houses, you have three houses, you have hundreds of houses... the value goes on diminishing as the number of houses goes on growing. There is a small class in the world which has absolutely valueless money. For example, the richest man in the world is now a Japanese who has twenty-one billion dollars cash in his banks. What is he going to do with it? Can you eat it? And money...

... attracts more money; just from sheer interest that man will go on becoming more and more rich. Beyond a certain limit money loses all value. But greed is absolutely mad. The whole human society has lived under a kind of insanity. That's why it is so difficult, Kavina, to be in a state of let-go - because it has been always condemned as laziness. It was against the workaholic society. Let-go means you...

... start living in a saner way. You are no longer madly after money, you don't go on working continuously; you work just for your material needs. But there are spiritual needs too! Work is a necessity for material needs. Let-go is necessary for spiritual needs. But the majority of humanity has been completely boycotted from any spiritual growth. Let-go is one of the most beautiful spaces. You simply...

...;Working? But for what?" The engineer said, "You will earn money!" The villager asked, "But what will I do with the money?" The engineer said, "You stupid, you don't know what can be done with the money? When you have money you can relax and enjoy!" The poor villager said, "This is strange, because I am already relaxed and enjoying! This is going in such a...

... roundabout way: working hard, earning money and then enjoying and relaxing. But I am doing it already!" Children come with the intrinsic, intuitive quality of let-go. They are utterly relaxed. That's why all children are beautiful. Have you ever thought about it? All children, without exception, have a tremendous grace, aliveness and beauty. And these children are going to grow, and all their beauty...

... will revive your childhood experience, when you were so relaxed. Have you ever watched? Children go on falling every day, but they don't get hurt, they don't get fractures. You try it; whenever the child falls you also fall. One psychoanalyst was trying some experiment. He announced in the newspapers, "I will pay enough money if somebody is ready to come to my house and just follow my child for...

... to jump; he would climb the tree, and the wrestler had to climb; and he would jump from the tree, and the wrestler had to jump. And this continued. The child completely forgot about food, about anything; he was enjoying so much the misery of the wrestler. By the afternoon the wrestler simply refused. He said to the psychoanalyst, "Keep your money. This child of yours will kill me by the end of...

... newly built bridges, because there are so many people to be bribed before you can get the government permission to build the bridge, that finally the constructor, the builder, has to take money out of the bridge - he has spent so much. You have to bribe almost every person who is concerned. Naturally he does not use cement, but only sand. So the first time the train comes on the bridge... with the...

...; "Who has so much money?" Nathan moaned. "Listen," said the doctor, "just give me fifty dollars and be gone." "I can give you twenty dollars," said Nathan. "Take it or leave it." "I don't understand you," said the specialist. "Why did you come to the most expensive doctor in New York?" "Listen, doctor," explained Nathan...

... is to give. Unless you give yourself you don't give at all. You can give money, but you are not the money. Unless you give yourself, that means unless you give love, you don't know what giving is. "... And what is it to receive?" Almost everybody thinks he knows what it is to receive. But Dhiresha is right in questioning and exposing herself that she does not know what it is to receive...

... people, but I cannot tell somebody to leave. I have to create a device. That car has done more than its cost, but you don't know. But you need not be concerned about these things at all. Gurdjieff used to say, whenever somebody would come he would say, "Give all your money to me." Many people simply left him because of this; because they had come to a spiritual Master and he is after their...

... money. But those who remained, they were transformed. Not that Gurdjieff was interested in their money -- he was interested in breaking their miserliness, because if you are miserly you cannot expand. The whole consciousness of a miser shrinks. Miserliness is a constipation of being: you cannot expand, you cannot share. you cannot flow. Miserliness is a neurosis; everything is blocked. And money is...

... the God. To give you a real God your false God has to be broken. The first thing Gurdjieff will ask will be about money. Even to ask him a question was not so easy as it is for you to ask me. He used to ask one hundred dollars for one question, that means one thousand rupees for one question. And maybe he will say "yes" or "no" -- "Now if you have another question, give one...

... thousand rupees again." When he wrote his first book ALL AND EVERYTHING he would not publish it. Disciples were after him: "Publish it; this is a great work." He said, "Wait." He will allow a person to look into the manuscript and he will take one thousand dollars -- just to look into the manuscript. What was he doing? And he was not at all interested in money: with one hand he...

... will take, with another hand he will give. He died a poor man; and he must have accumulated millions of dollars if he was interested in money, but he had nothing -- when he died not even a single dollar was found. Where did the money disappear to? He was taking from somebody, giving it to somebody else.... He was just an in-between passage for money to flow. People will leave him immediately the...

... moment they will see that he is asking for the money. And he was not like me: he will ask for the whole money -- "Whatsoever you have, you give. Surrender." But those who surrendered, they were blessed; they totally were transformed. That became the beginning. That was the breaking point from where everything became different. For a person who was too attached to money, it was a great thing...

... understand what was happening. Then just fifteen days afterwards another woman came, a very rich woman, and Gurdjieff asked for whatsoever she had -- all ornaments and money and everything -- to be put in a bag and given to him; only then he starts the work. The woman was afraid. She said, "I will think and tomorrow I will reply." Then she heard about this musician woman. She went to her and...

... and waited but it was never returned. You cannot understand, on the surface, what is happening. The woman who surrendered was not attached to the money; there was no point in taking it. Gurdjieff returned it with more ornaments added. The other woman gave the money as a bargain. She was obsessed with the money; the money cannot be returned. But even the other woman changed, understanding the whole...

..., very rich -- she is afraid about her own money: she is protecting her own miserliness. And she is thinking she is asking very relevant questions. But if she remains here I am going to break the ice. The only point is if she has the courage to be here for a few days. And her miserliness has to be broken, because without it being broken she will never grow. If she is really afraid, she should escape...

.... Hence the same people who exploit the poor donate to these missions. Mother Teresa's mission is called Missionaries of Charity. From where does all this money come? She feeds seven thousand poor people every day - from where does this money come? Who donates this money? In 1974 the Pope presented her with a Cadillac and immediately she sold the car. The car was purchased at a great price because it...

... was from Mother Teresa, and the money went to the poor. Everybody appreciated it but the question is: from where had the Cadillac car come in the first place? The Pope had not materialized it, he had not done any miracle! It must have come from somebody who had enough money to give a Cadillac - and the Pope has more money than anybody else in the world. From where does that money come? And then a...

... been given to her, and she feels offended by it. She says in her letter, "Reference: the Nobel Prize." This man Nobel was one of the greatest criminals possible in the world. the First World War was fought with his weapons; he was the greatest manufacturer of weapons. He accumulated so much money out of the First World War. Millions of people died; he was the manufacturer of death. He...

... earned so much money that now the Nobel Prize is being distributed only from the interest on Nobel's money. One Nobel Prize now brings twenty lakh rupees with it, and each year dozens of Nobel Prizes are being given. How much money did this man leave? And from where did that money come? You cannot find any money which is more full of blood than the money that one gets from a Nobel Prize. And now this...

... Nobel Prize money has gone to the Missionaries of Charity. It comes from war, it comes from blood, it comes from murder and death! And now it serves a few hundred orphans, feeds seven thousand people - kills millions and feeds seven thousand people, raises a few orphans and makes millions of orphans! This is a strange world! What kind of arithmetic is this? First make millions of orphans and then...

... soul, he does not believe in the beyond, but I say to you he is far more religious than Mother Teresa because he refused that prize, he refused that money, he refused that respectability, for the simple reason that it comes from a wrong source - one thing. Secondly, he said, "I cannot accept any respectability from this insane society. To accept any respectability from this insane society means...

... time he had finished, the other brother would have destroyed another village's windows, doors, then this other brother would arrive. They were doing a lot of work and earning enough money! This is what these people are doing. Be against the pill, be against contraceptives, be against sterilization, be against all birth control techniques, and then naturally there will be abortions, then there will be...

... have done nothing but harm. The whole history is full of blood. Now, the people who have been taking marijuana and things like that, they don't create history, they don't create Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler. They don't create those kinds of monsters. Their drug is very innocent in comparison to politics. Somebody may be after money...

...... money becomes almost a drug to him. I used to know a man... I have never seen any man so addicted to money. If he would see a hundred rupee note in your hand, he could not resist touching it. And the way he would touch it, it was as if he was touching his beloved. He would look at it from all sides and he would touch it. And it was not his note, he had to return it. He never gave money back to anybody...

... he borrowed from; he simply could not do it. I will not call it a crime; it was simply impossible for him to part with money. He had enough money. He had seven houses which he had rented and he himself was living in a free house, a dharmashala, a caravanserai where you can stay for three days free. But the city was big and it had many caravanserais, so three days he would stay in this caravanserai...

... and then he would move to another caravanserai. And all his money was deposited in different banks. He was so afraid that some bank may go bankrupt - it is better to keep the money in different places. I used to ask him, "What will you do with it? You don't have any wife." He never married for the simple reason that women are too much interested in spending money. That would be a trouble...

..., and he was afraid that that would create chaos in his peaceful life - it is better to avoid women. He had no children. "For whom are you collecting the money?" He said, "I love money." "But," I said, "money is meaningful only when you use it; you don't use it! Whether you have one million rupees or two million or fifty million... it makes no difference whether you...

... have anything in the bank account or nothing - it is the same. You never take anything out." He said, "You don't understand. It gives such solace to the heart. Just to count money is such a nourishment." Every day in the evening he used to come to see me. Nobody liked him because everybody thought that he was mean, simply mean. But I used to enquire about... I wanted to understand what...

... he died I was present. The doctors knew that I was the only man whom he used to visit every day, so they informed me that he was dying. I enquired in what number ward he was. They said, "You know him, he is in the free ward! He cannot even die in a ward where he has to pay money. He cannot withdraw money from the bank whatever happens. And he is holding all his bank accounts in his hand."...

...; That was his life. When I reached there he was very happy. Putting all his bank accounts on his heart and holding them with both hands, he died. I have seen many people dying, but he died so beautifully. He had millions of rupees and property worth millions and he was dying like a beggar in a free ward. But he was absolutely happy. There are people who can get addicted to money, people who can get...

... the last task given by his guru, Pagal Baba. He did so much for me, it is difficult to even list it. He introduced me to people, so that whenever I might need money I just had to tell them, and the money would arrive. I asked Masto, "Won't they ask why?" He said, "Don't you be worried about it. I have answered all their questions already. But they are cowardly people; they can give...

... you their money, but they cannot give you their hearts, so don't ask that." I said, "I never ask anybody for his or her heart; it cannot be asked. Either you simply find that it is gone, or not. So I will not ask these people for anything except money, and that too only if it is needed." And he certainly introduced me to many people, who have always remained anonymous; but whenever I...

... needed money, the money arrived. When I was at Jabalpur, where I was at university, and had stayed longer than nine years, the money was continuously coming. People wondered, because my salary was not very much. They could not believe how I could use such a beautiful car, a beautiful bungalow, a vast garden, acres of green. And the day somebody asked how such a beautiful car... that day, two more...

... arrived. There were three cars then and nowhere to keep them. The money was always coming. Masto had made every arrangement. Although I don't have anything, no money at all, but somehow it manages itself. Masto... it is difficult to say goodbye to you, for the simple reason I don't believe that you are no more. You still exist. I may not be able to see you again, that is not very important. I have seen...

... afraid, because suddenly the presence of the seeker makes them feel that they are wasting their lives. Suddenly the joy on the faces of those who pray and meditate, suddenly the dance, the change, the transformation in people's lives, in their beings - the laughter, the love - and people who are running after money and power become suspicious about their own endeavours. What are they doing? Is it right...

... have done to them. That's how it goes on, generation after generation: the same diseases are being handed on. THEIR parents must have told them, "Be useful - otherwise you will be a nobody, a hobo. Do something for which society pays you. The more it pays, the more your work has been useful." The utility of a certain thing is decided by money, how much money you can get out of it. Now, how...

... much money can you get out of meditation? You cannot get any money out of meditation; you may even lose that which you have. While you are meditating, somebody may rob you. And you cannot do both things - meditating and keeping an eye on your money bag - that is impossible. Love is not a utility. You can be as loving as possible, but you will not become famous because of your love. See: people become...

... cannot be reduced to any utility. Sannyas is poetry - poetry in life, poetry as living. Your parents must be worried, I can understand. They feel for you - although their feeling is not ENLIGHTENED, still they feel for you. They must be worried: "What is going to happen to my child? If one goes on meditating and dancing and singing, then from where is the money going to come? And who is going to...

... was ill, and the doctors were saying, "You need rest." But how can you rest? The whole life becomes money-oriented - money means utility. An intelligent person knows that money is not the goal. And remember, I am not against money, but money is not the goal. There are two kinds of people: those who are for money, and those who are against money. Both are unintelligent. An intelligent...

... person is neither for nor against. He knows that money has some utility, it fulfills certain needs - you need clothes, you need a shelter, you need food, so it is perfectly all right. But you need not make money your god. Barkha, you say: MY PARENTS KEEP ON SAYING THEY WANT ME TO LEAD A "USEFUL" LIFE AND DO SOMETHING "USEFUL FOR SOCIETY". This is a very strange logic. This is being...

... have closed both the doors. That is one of the devices. I would like you to be exactly in the middle - neither serious nor silly, neither for money nor against money, neither obsessed with eating nor obsessed with fasting. I would like you to be just in the middle. Buddha has called his way "the middle path" - MAJJHIM NIKAYA. And that is one of the most important things to be understood...

... of the man I have been talking to you about: my geography teacher, Chotelal Munde. He had cursed me because I made him famous as "Munde"; so much so that once he had to sign himself as Chotelal Munde. That day he was just fire.... I had asked the whole class for a collection. Twenty rupees were collected, and we made a money order in Chotelal Munde's name. And we arranged with the postman...

..., "You come into his class when he is taking our class" - we gave him the time. So he appeared exactly on time, with a twenty-rupee money order, sender anonymous. Chotelal Munde was a poor man with a big family. He could not lose twenty rupees. In those days twenty rupees was a lot of money. In India, in those days, a man could live on two rupees for the whole month, things were so cheap...

... my father became angry. He said, "Okay, you go to the arts department but I am not going to give you any money." I said, "That's settled. Money is yours; I am not yours. If you don't want to give me money, that I can understand. And I can understand that if I go to the science department, you are ready to give me money because then I am following your desire. You are ready to give...

... money to me only if I remain under your control. "So that's perfectly clear: you are using money to force me in a certain direction which I refuse. But," I said, "you will suffer repentance just because you mentioned money. Do you think you can force me by threatening that you are not going to give me any money?" I left the house. For two years he was continually coming, saying...

..., "Forget that and forgive me. I am really sorry that I mentioned the money. I can see your trouble, and I am the cause of it" - because at night I used to work as an editor in a newspaper just to earn money so that in the day I could join the university. But I said, "Money from you, how can I accept?" One day, when tears came to his eyes, I said, "Okay, if you insist, just put...

... the money on the table. I will not take it from your hand. From the table I can take it because with the table I have no problem, no trouble, no conflict." So that's the way it continued the remaining four years. He would put it on the table and I would take it from the table, but not from him - "because," I said to him, "that strategy is ugly." But the family exploits every...

... child because it has the power of money, prestige, the power of numbers. And a child is just a child; how can he revolt? And the family poisons the child: you are a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian. It poisons the child: you are a republican, you are a democrat, you are a socialist, you are a communist. It goes on poisoning him. And this whole poisoning piles up and becomes your personality. The commune...

... money, and my father would not give up control of the land to the other brother to whom it belonged; so there was a legal case. I told my father, "I will be coming to support the eccentric goldsmith." He said, "What! You will be a witness against me?" I said, "Of course. I know that you have paid, but that was your fault. You should have found out to whom the land belonged...

... before you paid. And that poor eccentric goldsmith, what fault is it of his? - the land belongs to him. And anyway he is far poorer than you; so even if you lose the money, it is better than if he loses the ground, because he is really poor." My father said, "But you don't understand a simple thing... being against your own father?" I said, "It is not a question of being against my...