... 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...

... 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...

... renounce power. Money too is power, but nothing compared to knowledge - because money can be robbed: the government can change, communists can come, money can be distributed. You cannot rely on the money; the bank can go broke. But knowledge is more secure: no government can take it away, no change of politics can take it away, nobody can rob you of it, and you cannot go so easily bankrupt. Knowledge...

... seems to be more secure. And any day, if you have knowledge, you can produce money - not otherwise. Knowledge can bring money, not otherwise. Money may not be able to bring knowledge, so knowledge is more of a richness, a greater wealth, more powerful - and the subtlest possession inside. The ego feels very good: "I know." That's why it is one of the most difficult things to recognize that...

... countries have come to a point where they are free of poverty, of all the ugliness that comes through poverty and all the limitation that poverty brings. They are free. But the moment they become free, they start feeling meaningless. Poor persons are not so aware of meaninglessness. Because they have to earn money, there is meaning; they have to send their children to the university, there is meaning...

...; they are going to make a good house somewhere in the future, they are accumulating, by and by, a little money for it, they will have an Ambassador car someday; there is meaning. One day suddenly you have all: a good life, good clothes, good food. Then meaning disappears. A poor man always seems hopeful. You can always see a glimpse of hope in the eyes of a beggar. But rich men's eyes become dim, dull...

..., that you are tremendously interested. You are interested only in the money that he is going to pay. But the patient feels very good: "Here is somebody who listens so attentively." There is a great desire in human beings that somebody should listen to their miseries. It unburdens them, and it gives them a feeling that somebody loves, cares. That's why you go on talking about miseries...

... SIGNS OF MOVEMENT DIFFERENT ENERGY STATES, TELEPATHIC HAPPENINGS, EVEN NEW GRAY HAIRS WILL DO. SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, YES. BUT WHAT TO DO? The mind is always hankering. The mind is nothing but hankering, desiring something to happen. Sometimes it is thinking about money, to have more money, to have bigger houses, to have more respectability, to have more political power. Then you turn towards...

... about love, this man is talking about compassion, kindness and he is not compassionate to the poor fig tree. And anybody cursing a tree, what do you think about him? If I call him a crackpot, nothing is wrong in it. he was absolutely insane. He interfered with people's ways of life. For example, in the temple of Jerusalem where money changers have been doing that kind of business for centuries, since...

... the time of Moses when the temple was built. And in fact those money changers were of tremendous help to the land and to the people, because with all the donations that came to the temple, those money changers were giving loans to poor people on a very nominal interest. And Jesus goes and throws their tables and pushes them with a whip out of the temple, and he says that this is my father's house...

... and I will not allow anybody to pollute it with money. Now this man has no proof that he is the son of God. There are many mad people around the world who think they are son of God, they are prophet, they are messiahs, and they are all in mental asylums. They also don't have any proof. What proof Jesus has? Any certificate from God, any, message stamped by God, signed by God? What proof he has got...

... God no one has ever seen, the people who can believe in hell and heaven no one has come back to give us a little detail about these places, are gullible. Any cunning person, a little articulate can declare himself a prophet and these people will believe him because believing is all that they know. And if he is the type of Jesus, so angry that he throws single-handedly all the money changers out of...

... should be immediately arrested and imprisoned. The governor is part in it. The attorney general is part in it. What these idiots were doing for two years? They were giving state support, money, everything to the city. What the federal government was doing? They were giving money to the city. And idiots can go in such a berserk way about everything, that I don't think they have given much. (To Sheela...

..., off mike:) How many dollars from the federal government have we received? SHEELA: ABOUT $32,000 LAST YEAR FROM FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, I THINK IT'S ABOUT THAT MUCH. Bhagwan: That is nothing. I cannot even purchase one-third of a Rolls Royce. And these idiots are now asking the money back! In the first place they did wrong. They gave that money to a city which was not legal. They are responsible for it...

.... In the second place, they have guts to ask the money back. From whom? The city does not exist. You gave money to a non-existent city, so go and ask the holy ghost if he knows anything about it! Q: THE PRINCE OF HANOVER WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SANNYASINS. HE WAS VERY ILL, AND THERE IS A RUMOR THAT YOU ASKED TO CUT THE OXYGEN TO SHORTEN HIS SUFFERING. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE TO DIE IN...

.... Life is not money, you don't spend it. Otherwise, one day you may go bankrupt. No, I live it and I live it intensely. Each moment of my life is a blessing. Whatever I am doing, I do it to the very climax. I don't believe in Gautam Buddha and his middle path. Gautam Buddha was teaching the middle path, I teach the extreme. If you are enjoying, what will be the middle path? 50/50? 50 percent enjoying...

... ARE A FOOL,' SAID THE RABBI OF ZANS. THEN HE RESUMED HIS POSITION AT THE WINDOW, CALLED ANOTHER PASSER-BY, AND PUT THE SAME QUESTION TO HIM. 'I AM NOT SUCH A FOOL AS TO GIVE UP A PURSE FULL OF MONEY THAT HAS COME MY WAY,' SAID THE MAN. 'YOU'RE A BAD LOT,' SAID THE RABBI OF ZANS, AND CALLED IN A THIRD MAN. HE REPLIED: - 'RABBI, HOW CAN I KNOW - ON WHAT RUNG I SHALL BE WHEN I FIND THE PURSE, OR...

... on the earth, and you find a purse full of ducats and gold and money, will it be immoral to keep it? Then the question of morality or immorality does not arise. If you are alone on the earth, can you be a thief? It is impossible - because to steal, you need somebody else to be there. To rob, you need somebody else to be there. If you are alone on the earth, you cannot be a thief, you cannot be a...

...: the greed hidden behind, the possessiveness, the ambition, the ego, the lust. You are a fool.' Who is a fool? - he who is not aware of himself. THEN HE RESUMED HIS POSITION AT THE WINDOW, CALLED ANOTHER PASSERBY, AND PUT THE SAME QUESTION TO HIM. 'I AM NOT SUCH A FOOL, AS TO GIVE UP A PURSE FULL OF MONEY THAT HAS COME MY WAY,' SAID THE MAN. The second man says: 'I am not a fool.' But his definition...

... of foolishness is totally different than the definition of the rabbi. And sometimes words deceive, because they are the same. The rabbi said to the first man: 'You are a fool because you are unaware of yourself.' The second man says: 'I AM NOT SUCH A FOOL, AS TO GIVE UP A PURSE FULL OF MONEY THAT HAS COME MY WAY.' Now, for this second man, foolishness has a totally different dimension and meaning...

.... He says: 'When you come across money, if you are wise, you will escape with it immediately so that nobody comes to know about it.' He is saying: 'I am not a fool. I am not a simpleton. And I am not deceived by all this moralistic nonsense that you must give it to the owner, that if it doesn't belong to you it is not yours, that you will suffer in hell. Or, if you give it, you will be rewarded in...

.... Indians are simply mad; they cling to money, to a house, to things. And, at the same time, they go on pretending and bragging that they are religious people: they don't believe in matter; they believe in God. They go on saying the whole world is illusion, but you cannot get a single pai out of them; it is impossible. Why has this happened? These are the two types. The first type is the image of the...

... Indian. The second type is the image of the westerner. The westerner knows that he is not a fool; if he gets the money, he will take it - it is simple. The Indian will say: 'No, I will not touch it.' But deep down he has already started to plan what to do if he gets the money. On the surface, one thing; deep down, another thing. That's the only difference between your so-called moral people and immoral...

... people. The moral people are hypocrites. 'I AM NOT SUCH A FOOL, AS TO GIVE UP A PURSE FULL OF MONEY THAT HAS COME MY WAY.' In a way, the second man is more sincere because he says the truth: 'I am not such a fool. I am not going to give that purse to anybody. If it has come my way, it is mine. And I am going to have it.' Maybe this looks immoral, but it is more sincere. And finally, sincerity helps...

... ecstatically: 'A great church has to be built here on this spot.' The people said: 'Good. Your dreams are good, but from where is the money to come?' Saint Theresa pulled two small coins from her bag, and said: 'Don't be afraid. Money I have got.' There were just two small coins! So the people laughed and said: 'We always knew that you are a little too innocent. These two small coins - you cannot purchase...

.... 'I AM NOT SUCH A FOOL AS TO GIVE UP A PURSE FULL OF MONEY THAT HAS COME MY WAY,' SAID THE MAN. 'YOU ARE A BAD LOT,' SAID THE RABBI OF ZANS, AND CALLED IN A THIRD MAN. HE REPLIED: 'RABBI, HOW CAN I KNOW ON WHAT RUNG I SHALL BE WHEN I FIND THE PURSE, OR WHETHER I SHALL SUCCEED IN FENDING OFF THE EVIL URGE? PERHAPS IT WILL GET THE BETTER OF ME, AND I SHALL APPROPRIATE WHAT BELONGS TO ANOTHER. BUT...

... - thinking is thinking. The object does not make any difference. The only transformation happens when you drop thinking, when suddenly you are in a state of no- thought, no-mind. There are people who think about money, and people who think about power, and people who think about success; and there are people who think about God, prayer, meditation - but there is no difference at all. The object of thinking...

... does not change the process of thinking - let it sink deep into you - otherwise people simply go on changing their objects. If somebody is thinking of money we say he is a worldly man, and if somebody is thinking about God we say, "Look, what a religious man!" Both are worldly. The man who is thinking about God is also as afraid of no-thought, of aloneness, as the man who is thinking of...

... money; no difference at all. Your gods and your ghosts, all are created out of fear. The people you find in the temples and churches and mosques praying, bowing down to the statues they themselves have made, are not in prayer, they are simply trembling with fear. It is out of fear that they have created the temples, it is out of fear that they have created a God. God is their ultimate companion. They...

... that happens only to people who are ready to be alone. Aloneness brings you to your own divinity. Beware of the gods that you have created out of fear ! A story: Three men went up to a haunted house because they had heard there was a fortune there. The first man went in while the two others remained outside. He saw some money on a table and started to put the money in his pocket, when he heard a...

... voice say, "I am the ghost of the Holy Navel, put the money back on the table !" The man ran out the back door. The second man entered because the first took so long. He also saw the money on the table. As he started to put the money in his pocket, a strange voice said, "I am the ghost of the Holy Navel, put the money back on the table!" This man also fled out the back door. The...

... third man got tired of waiting, and he went inside. He saw the money. As he began to put the money in his pocket, a strange voice said, "I am the ghost of the Holy Navel, put the money back on the table!" But instead of running away, the man said, "I am the ghost of Davy Crockett, and I will put the money in my pocket!" The ghost disappeared, and the man went out the front door a...

... are seeking the good opinion of others, then you are in a very competitive madhouse. Many are doing the same. Whatsoever you do, you can never rely on it succeeding, and even if it succeeds, it brings nothing. It brings only more projects, more plans. If you earn money, by the time you have earned it the desire has arisen for more money, so you invest that money to earn more money and again you...

... invest and go on investing. By the time death arrives you have much money and an unlived life. And the second thing: happiness is not something that happens to you. It is already happening - you have just to be receptive. It is not that it happens sometimes and it doesn't happen sometimes. It is a decision on your part. Every morning when you get up, decide whether you want to be happy or unhappy today...