... clothes and luxuries like that." Now food, clothes, are not luxuries - but if you repress, then you become afraid of everything. Then fear grips you. A repressed person is a frightened person, afraid of everything. If you go and present some money to Vinoba Bhave, he will not touch it. He's afraid to touch money. Not only that: he will move his head so he cannot see, or he will close his eyes. Now...

... this seems a little too much. It seems as if the miser is standing on his head - the same type of mind. The miser goes on accumulating money, and then one day, frustrated, he starts repressing his desire. Then he chooses just the reverse course, just the opposite pole. Then he is afraid even to see money. Now if money is worthless, then what is the fear in seeing it? And if money has no deep...

... attachment in you, deep obsession in you, then why close your eyes? You don't close your eyes to other things. If you ask Vinoba he says: "Money is dirt." One of his disciples came to me once and he said, "I asked Vinoba and he says money is dirt." "But then," I said, "you go back and tell him: 'Then whenever you see dirt, close your eyes! And don't touch earth, don't...

... walk on earth - hang yourself in the air. Because if money is dirt, then dirt is money. But you behave differently: with dirt you are not afraid! With money you are afraid.'" No. I cannot believe that money is dirt. Money is still money, dirt is dirt. And when you call money dirt, you are simply showing some deep obsession. Otherwise, why is money dirt? It is a useful means. Use it, but don't be...

... Mary and Martha's home and Mary brings very costly perfume and washes Jesus' feet with that costly perfume. Judas immediately raises a question; he says, "This is stupid - wasting so much money unnecessarily!" And he gives a good argument - a socialistic argument. He says, "This much money could have been given to the poor. There are beggars outside the house. This money could have fed...

...;Don't disturb her. Don't disturb her love, her faith, her trust. It's perfectly alright. It is coming from her deep love for me. Let her do it. And beggars will always be there. Even if this money is given to them, nothing much is going to happen. Maybe for a few days they will be able to eat; then again...." With whom are you going to agree? Ninety-nine percent is the possibility you will agree...

... in Russia, in Tiflis, and Gurdjieff sent a message, "Come immediately. Sell everything there. Don't waste a single moment. Bring all the money and come." Those were the days of the first world war; it was very difficult to travel, dangerous to travel, and going back to Russia was dangerous for Ouspensky because the Bolsheviks, communists, had come into power and Russia, the whole of...

... Russia was in a turmoil. There was no order, no government. Still, the master had asked, so he sold all his possessions, his house, took all the money and traveled back to Russia knowing perfectly well he was going into danger. The journey was long; three months it took for him to reach, sometimes traveling by train and sometimes by horse and sometimes he was prevented and the police were after him...

.... But somehow he reached there - the master had asked him to come, and he did. He was hoping that as he had made a great sacrifice, so he was going to be patted on the back by the master. And do you know what Gurdjieff did? The moment Ouspensky arrived he said, "Put down your money and go back! Leave your money here and go back to London immediately!" This was too much. He became...

... cannot buttress their egos. I cannot say that "You are great spiritual people" - and that's what they want to hear. They don't have anything else. They don't have science, they don't have technology; they don't have money, they are poor; they don't have food, they are starving. The only thing that can give them a little hope, a little satisfaction, is spirituality. So when I say, "You...

... the world is cunning, what are you going to lose by being innocent, simple? Nothing of real value can be lost by being simple. In fact, by being simple and innocent the real is attained. Yes, by cunningness you can attain to power, to money, to prestige, but what is the point of attaining all that? Death is bound to take everything away from you. And can't you see the people who are powerful? Are...

.... Times in the fifties were not easy for Ma and Pa in the rural area of West Texas, as a ten- year drought took no mercy on small farmers. Still, Pa was determined to send Junior off to the prestigious University of Texas, if only for one semester, to boast of his son's academic achievements to the neighbors. So money was saved for several years until one thousand dollars were accumulated. As Junior...

... boarded the bus ready for departure, Pa sternly announced, "Junior, your Ma and I have sacrificed a lot to send you to the university, and if you really watch yourself you can make it through the year with this money." And he handed the boy an envelope containing the one thousand dollars. Junior, however, arrived at the university with notions other than that of earning a degree. He enjoyed...

... nights and days of fun and games, recklessly spending Pa's money until one month later all was spent. In spite of his desperate situation, Junior wrote a letter, saying, "Pa, there are many smart teachers here and one of my professors says he can teach old Blue, our hound dog, to talk... for only five hundred dollars." When Pa read the letter he became excited and told Ma, "This may be...

... our lucky day at last. If the boy is right, we can put that useless hound dog in the circus, become rich, and retire for life!" So Pa mortgaged the farm and all the equipment, borrowed five hundred dollars from the bank, and sent it along with Old Blue on the bus. When the dog arrived with the money, Junior, not wanting to be bothered with the animal, killed it and forgot about it. As he...

... continued his carefree life-style for a few more weeks, the money again ran out. By now, however, Junior had learned the trick, so he again wrote to his Pa, "Gee, Pa, Old Blue had us all fooled. He is smarter than we thought. The professor has already taught him to speak English, and now he says that this dog is so intelligent that for only five hundred dollars more he could be taught two more...

... languages, to sing and to dance." After reading the letter, Pa and Ma were overtaken by visions of great wealth and fame. They immediately hocked all of their belongings, borrowed from all of their friends, and finally raised another five hundred dollars to send to Junior. This time the money lasted until the Thanksgiving break, at which time Junior and Blue were both expected home. Excited, Pa went...

... only two persons, Shivapuri Baba, a very old ancient man, at the time he must have been about one hundred and twenty years' old - and an English lady, a young woman. She became interested. This old beggar was in the first class and was carrying a whole box of one-hundred-rupee notes? An idea came in her mind. She jumped up and said, 'You give me half the money otherwise I will pull the chain and I...

..., the fortune-tellers live they live on your imagination. If you go to a fortune-teller he will look at your hand and he will say, 'There is a great possibility that money will come - but it will not stay.' It can be said about anybody except a man like me. You cannot say that about me! But it can be said about anybody - money will come. Everybody is hoping for it so who is going to deny that it will...

... come? That's why he has come to the fortune-teller - for his ideas to be approved, to be confirmed. Money will come, but he will not be able to keep it. Who has ever been able to keep money? Money comes and goes. In fact, money exists only in its coming and going. If you are able to keep it, it is no longer money. You can keep a thousand notes in your house, you can hoard it underground, but it is no...

... longer money. You could have kept stones there, it would have been just the same. Money exists only in its coming and going. When somebody gives you a hundred-rupee note, when the note changes hands, then it is money. Just for a moment it is money - when it changes hands. Then that man is getting something out of it and you are getting something out of it. When you give it to somebody else, again it...

... will be money. That's why notes are called currency. Currency means movement. They should move. The more they move, the more there is money. That's why there is more money in America and less in India. There is so much movement. Everybody is just spending - spending what they have and spending even that which they hope they will have one day. People are purchasing cars and fridges and everything on...

... the installment basis. Some day they hope they will have the money and then they will pay. But they are purchasing things right now. There is money in America because people have come to know that money exists in its movement. Let the money change hands. And the more it changes hands, the richer and richer and richer the country becomes. Let a one hundred-rupee note circulate here. If we are five...

... hundred pages were not cut yet. And with a note the book was sold saying, "Read the first hundred pages, the introductory part. If you still feel like reading, then you can open the other pages. Otherwise return the book and take your money back." Even to read those hundred pages is very difficult. It was a device. It needs great awareness to read. The book is not written to inform you about...

.... You can brag about other things: money, power, atomic or hydrogen bombs, airplanes, that you have walked on the moon, that you have penetrated to the very secrets of life, your science, technology; you can brag about your affluence. Poor India has nothing else to brag about; it can only brag about something invisible so there is no need to prove it. Spirituality is such a thing you can brag about it...

.... Spirituality is something that happens to individuals. It is the individual becoming aflame with God. It has nothing to do with any collectivity -- nation, race, church. The sixth question OSHO, WHY ARE THE JEWS SO NOTORIOUS FOR THEIR MONEY-GREED? Narotam, DO YOU I THINK OTHERS ARE IN ANY WAY DIFFERENT from the Jews? Unless love flowers in your being you are bound to remain greedy. Greed is the absence of...

... love. If you love, greed disappears; if you don't love, greed remains. Greed is rooted in fear. And of course, Jews have lived in tremendous fear for centuries. For the two thousand years since Jesus they have lived in constant fear. Fear creates greed. And because they lost their nation -- they lost everything, they became uprooted, they became wanderers -- the only thing they could trust was money...

... earth, rejects the earth, becomes abstract, becomes airy-fairy. It has no more blood in it; it is no more alive. Yes, Jews are very earth-bound. And what is wrong in having money? One should not be possessive; one should be able to use it. And Jews know how to use it! One should not be miserly. Money has to be created and money has to be used. Money is a beautiful invention, a great blessing, if...

... rightly used. It makes many things possible. Money is a magical phenomenon. If you have a ten-rupee note in your pocket, you have thousands of things in your pocket. You can have anything with those ten rupees. You can materialize a man who will massage your body the whole night! Or you can materialize food or you can materialize ANYTHING! That ten-rupee note carries many possibilities. You cannot carry...

... of man; there is no need to be against it. I am not against it. Use it. Don't cling to it. Clinging is bad. The more you cling to money, the poorer the world becomes because of your clinging, because money is multiplied if it is always moving from one hand to another hand. In English we have another name for money which is more significant -- it is "currency." That simply indicates that...

... money should always remain moving like a current. It should always be on the move from one hand to another hand. The more it moves the better. For example, if I have a ten-rupee note and I keep it to myself, then there is only one ten- rupee note in the world. If I give it to you and you give it to somebody else and each person goes on giving, if it goes through ten hands then we have a hundred rupees...

..., we have used a hundred rupees' worth of utilities; the ten rupees is multiplied by ten. And Jews know how to use money; nothing is wrong in it. Yes, greed is bad. Greed means you become obsessed with money; you don't use it as a means, it becomes the end. That is bad, and it is bad whether you are a Jew or a Jaina, Hindu or Mohammedan; it doesn't matter. Four Jewish mothers were talking, naturally...

... money, by power. You cannot go on deceiving yourself for long. A moment is going to come when you will see all your efforts have utterly failed: you are still as alone as you have always been. This is the moment when religion comes in. Religion is nothing but a one hundred and eighty degree turn - from the other to yourself. You have tried the other; it does not work. The other is not responsible. The...

... only love and its failure can throw you inside. Nothing else can throw you inside, because everything else is far below love. Money - you may have enough and you may be fed up with it, but that does not mean that you will move towards religion. There are so many other things. You may start thinking that money is useless, but money can give you power. It can make you the president of the country...

.... Perhaps there is the thing that you are looking for. You can become the president of the country or a prime minister of a country. And life is short; much of it you have wasted in earning money and now you will waste it to get into power. And there is a ladder; rung by rung, you have to go up the ladder. And there is always a rung higher than you, signaling you: "Come up, here is the thing that you...

... point of saying it? - the whole world will laugh. It is better to keep silent about it and go on smiling. So you can move from money to power, or from power to money. There are many ways. I have heard of one rich American man who became fed up with all the money he had earned... and he had wasted his whole life. Somebody suggested, "Why don't you go to the East in search of some mahatma, some...

... sage who can teach you how to be calm and quiet and blissful?" So he rushed to India, went to the Himalayas and asked who was the biggest saint - as if there are smaller saints and bigger saints. But he was a man who knew money and knew that if you have little money you are a little man, if you have more money you are a bigger man, and if you have even more, you are the biggest. The same must be...

... true in spirituality - how much have you got? He had lived with quantity his whole life. Money is quantity, spirituality is quality. They are not transferable. But in India also, people think in the same way as everywhere else. They said, "Yes, there is one, the biggest sage, the greatest mahatma who lives in the Himalayas, in the highest peaks, very difficult to reach. Many, in finding him...

..., have died or were lost forever in the snows." But the rich man said, "I have nothing to lose. I have seen all the pleasures of the world and there is nothing any more of interest to me. This challenge is exciting, that nobody has yet found him. I will try." Again the juice starts flowing, the same way as that day when he had started running after money - the same ego. "Nobody has...

... found him; I will find him. You just describe to me the person's face and on what peak he lives, and I will go." They described him in detail, and he went. It was really a torturous journey, but he knew how torturous it was when he was earning money. And if he could reach the top as far as money is concerned, he would manage this journey too. And he managed. Tattered, almost dying, finally he...

... - and the man had a plastic lady. They rejoiced! It was so beautiful, so velvety; the very touch was so silky. The only thing was to fill it with air, and the lady was ready. And it never said, "Tonight I have a headache." No quarrel, no nagging.... What more can you expect of a woman? She was the perfect woman. They purchased it; but only one man had the money, so he paid. On the way he...

... do, how to find out. They were all beautiful, they were all courageous, they were all intelligent. They were copies of one another. He went to a wise old man and asked, "How have I to find my successor?" The man said, "It is not such a difficult thing. Your three sons all have beautiful palaces, separate. You tell them... give some money to each, the same amount, and tell them, 'You...

... have to fill your house completely with something this money can buy.'" The money was so little.... They thought of many things - bringing roses and filling the whole house with roses - but the money was not enough. So the first one went to the municipal corporation of the city, because the cheapest thing he could purchase was the rubbish that the municipal trucks collect. He told them, "...

...;Rather than throwing it away, just dump it into my palace. Fill it completely, that is the condition." And for that much money they were ready, there was no question. They were going to throw it out anyway, outside the city: "This will save time, and he is giving money too." But they could not believe what he was going to do! He said, "You don't bother about it. It is a very...

... decisive thing in my life. The second son was very much in trouble - what to do? And he was even more puzzled, because the first had already filled his palace. Something cheap had to be found. He had to fill his house with mud. It was the rainy season and all over, mud was available; he just had to bring trucks to carry the mud and fill the house. The amount of money was enough to do that. They both were...

... could go in, but what did he see? A marble palace filled with mud! Both the sons and the father went to the third son, and they were surprised - the house was completely empty. The son had even removed the furniture and everything; it was absolutely empty. They could not believe what his idea was. They said to him, "The house is empty and you were given money to fill it completely." He said...

... more significant than to fill it with light. And this is the remaining money I want to return to you, because candles were cheap and there was no need for so much money." Of course he was chosen the successor. Your emptiness is not anything to be worried about. You just have to light a candle in it and it will be full of light, overfull with light. And then you will see the beauty of its being...

..., their life-styles." SNAP THE FLOWER ARROWS OF DESIRE AND THEN, UNSEEN, ESCAPE THE KING OF DEATH. If you can become desireless, then death cannot have any sway over you. It is the desiring mind that is caught in the net of death, and we are all full of desires: desire for money, for power, for prestige, respectability - a thousand and one desires. Desires create greed, and greed creates...

... competition, and competition creates jealousy. One thing leads to another, and we go on falling into the mess, into the turmoil of the world. It is a mad mad world, but the root cause of madness is desire. Once you sow the seeds of desire...desire means to have more. You have a certain quantity of money, you would like to have double that. Desire means the longing for more. And nobody thinks twice that any...

... of money in the world, but you may not have a beautiful face. And a beggar may make you jealous - his body, his face, his eyes, and you are jealous. A beggar can make an emperor jealous. Napoleon was not very tall - he was only five feet five inches. I don't see anything wrong in it; it's perfectly alright - I am five feet five inches and I have never suffered because of it, because whether you are...

... was not even aware that saying "higher" is offensive. Now, Napoleon had everything, but the height was the problem. It is very difficult to have everything of the world and be the first in everything. It is impossible! Then the jealousy persists, it continues. Somebody has more money than you, somebody has more health than you, somebody has more beauty than you, somebody has more...

... DEATH. AND TRAVEL ON. Remember this sentence: AND TRAVEL ON. Then the real journey, the pilgrimage, begins. Before that you were just moving in circles - the same desires: more money, more money, more power, more power...vicious circles, not going anywhere. Once you have dropped all desiring, your consciousness is freed from the grossness of desire. Now TRAVEL ON - now you can go into the infinite...

... are simply at a loss. You can't believe what happened - it was a mirage. Things are beautiful only from the distance. When you have them, they have nothing in them. Money is significant only for those who don't have it. Those who have it, they know the futility of it. Fame is significant only for those who don't have it. Those who have it...ask them: they are tired of being famous, they are utterly...

... really. People had completely forgotten about him, they had forgotten that he was alive. They came to know only when the newspapers published the report that Voltaire had died. Then people became aware and started asking each other, "Was he still alive?" If you have fame, you get tired of it. If you have money, you will not know what to do with it. If you are respected by people, you become a...

... can become more and more discontented, that's all, because contentment happens only when you go inwards. Contentment is your innermost nature. Contentment does not belong to things. You can be comfortable with things - a beautiful house, a beautiful garden, no worries about money - yes, you can be comfortable, but you remain the same: comfortably discontented. In fact, when you have all the comforts...

... and you have nothing to do to earn money, twenty-four hours a day you are aware of your discontent, because no other occupation is left. That's why rich people are more discontented than the poor people. It should not be so - - logically it should not be so - but that's how life is. Life does not follow Aristotle and his logic. Rich people coming from the West become very puzzled when they see poor...

... inwardly rich. The contentment that you see on poor Indian faces is not that of inward realization. It is simply because they are so preoccupied with money, bread and butter, that they can't afford any time to be discontented. They can't afford to sit and brood about their miseries. They are so miserable that they have no time to feel miserable! They are so miserable and they have never known any...

..., his prayer cannot be for money. If he is still praying for money, he is not yet rich enough. There was a Sufi saint, Farid. Once the villagers asked him, "Farid, the great king, Akbar, comes to you so many times - why don't you ask him to open a school for poor people in our village? We don't have a school." Farid said, "Good, so why should I wait for him to come? I will go." He...

... the idea that you are rich, but listening to your prayer I realized that you are still poor. And if you are still asking for money, for more power, then it is not good for me to ask for money, because I had come to ask for a little money to open a school in my village. No, I cannot ask from a poor man. You yourself need more. I will collect some from the village and give it to you! And as far as the...

... school is concerned, if you are asking from God, I can ask from God directly - why should I use you as a mediator?" The story is reported by Akbar himself in his autobiography. He says, "For the first time I became aware that, yes, I am not yet rich enough, I am not yet dissatisfied with all this money. It has not given me anything and I go on asking for more, almost completely unconsciously...

... directions. You are after money, you are dreaming about money; you never look at the people who have money, you don't see them. You are just after money. You think when the money is there everything will be beautiful. Then you will rest and then you will enjoy, and then you will celebrate and sing and dance, and do whatsoever you always wanted to do when there was no money to do it and no opportunity to do...

... it. But have you ever looked at people who have money? They are not dancing, they are not celebrating. They don't look happy. It is possible that sometimes you may come across a beggar who looks happy, but it is impossible to come across a rich man who looks happy. It is almost impossible to find a rich man who is happy. Because the beggar can still dream, that's why he can be happy. The beggar can...

... still hope, that's why he can still be happy. He can believe that tomorrow things will be better, or the day after tomorrow things are going to be better. There is future for the beggar, but for a rich man the whole future has disappeared. He has attained whatsoever he wanted to attain, and there is nothing in it. When the money is piled up, he suddenly feels frustrated. Whatsoever he was seeing in...

... the money, now he can no longer find in it. That dream has disappeared. Man continuously dreams for power, prestige, respectability. And whenever he gets it, there is frustration. The happiest people are those who never attain to their desires. The unhappiest people are those who have succeeded in attaining their desires - then there is frustration. The nature of desire is dreaming, and you can...

... transfiguration. Repression drags you down. It is not repression: it is awareness. Of course, from the outside it may look like repression. You are rushing towards money; suddenly on the road you come across a treasure, and somebody else is passing by. He also looks at it but is not interested. What will you think about that man? You were afraid that he might claim the treasure, he might start asking that it...

... has to be divided in two parts - but he simply goes on, he does not bother about it. You will think either he is mad, or he is a renunciate, he has renounced the world and repressed the desire for money. You cannot understand that there can be a man who cannot see anything in money. You will think it is impossible because you see so much in it. Your whole life seems to be meaningless if there is no...

... money. Money seems to be your whole life. How can you believe that there can be a man for whom money is simply meaningless? Only two are the possibilities: either the man is so stupid that he does not know the difference between money and no money; or he has repressed his desire - he has repressed his desire, his greed, his ambition. When a man like Buddha happens in the world, people interpret it...

... have never loved. They will always be afraid of death. Look at misers: they will always be afraid of death. And misers are those persons who have not loved anyone because if you can love a person you will never love money. Money is a substitute. When you cannot love an individual, when you cannot love a live person, you love dead money. Misers, those who go on clinging to their possessions, are not...

... even acquainted with what love is. Their whole love has gone to dead money. And why has it gone? There are deeper connections. A person who is too much attached to money will be afraid of death. Really, a person who is afraid of death will love money too much because money seems to be a protection against death. If you have money you feel protected. If you do not have any money you feel unprotected...

.... Death can occur and you cannot do anything. With money you feel that you can do something. Money will be helpful. A person who loves will not love money because a person who loves will not be afraid of death. And if a person is not afraid of death, there cannot be any clinging, attachment, mad obsession with money. It is impossible. If you can love, then you will accept death very easily. It will be a...

.... Salome became a great admirer of Jesus. She loved him as she loved her own sons, James, John, and David, while her four daughters looked upon Jesus as their elder brother. Jesus often went out fishing with James, John, and David, and they learned that he was an experienced fisherman as well as an expert boatbuilder. (1420.3) 129:1.6 All this year Jesus sent money each month to James. He returned to...

...) (1421.6) 129:2.1 In March, A.D. 22, Jesus took leave of Zebedee and of Capernaum. He asked for a small sum of money to defray his expenses to Jerusalem. While working with Zebedee he had drawn only small sums of money, which each month he would send to the family at Nazareth. One month Joseph would come down to Capernaum for the money; the next month Jude would come over to Capernaum, get the money from...

... Zebedee. (1421.8) 129:2.3 Before leaving Capernaum, Jesus had a long talk with his new-found friend and close companion, John Zebedee. He told John that he contemplated traveling extensively until “my hour shall come” and asked John to act in his stead in the matter of sending some money to the family at Nazareth each month until the funds due him should be exhausted. And John made him this promise: “My...

... Teacher, go about your business, do your work in the world; I will act for you in this or any other matter, and I will watch over your family even as I would foster my own mother and care for my own brothers and sisters. I will disburse your funds which my father holds as you have directed and as they may be needed, and when your money has been expended, if I do not receive more from you, and if your...

... mother is in need, then will I share my own earnings with her. Go your way in peace. I will act in your stead in all these matters.” (1422.1) 129:2.4 Therefore, after Jesus had departed for Jerusalem, John consulted with his father, Zebedee, regarding the money due Jesus, and he was surprised that it was such a large sum. As Jesus had left the matter so entirely in their hands, they agreed that it...

... would be the better plan to invest these funds in property and use the income for assisting the family at Nazareth; and since Zebedee knew of a little house in Capernaum which carried a mortgage and was for sale, he directed John to buy this house with Jesus’ money and hold the title in trust for his friend. And John did as his father advised him. For two years the rent of this house was applied on...

... the Orient proposed to advance to Jesus the wages of one year so that he could intrust such funds to his friends for the safeguarding of his family against want. And Jesus agreed to make the trip. (1423.1) 129:2.10 Jesus turned this large sum over to John the son of Zebedee. And you have been told how John applied this money toward the liquidation of the mortgage on the Capernaum property. Jesus...