... is right. If you go to Adler, he has a different kind of imagination: will-to-power. For Sigmund Freud it is will-to-sex, will-to-reproduction. To Sigmund Freud it is more of a biological phenomenon than to Adler. To Adler it is more of a political phenomenon: will-to-power. If you take the same hairs to Sigmund Freud he will manage to figure out and discover perversions of sex in you. And I am...

... by one explanation, that not only are there these three, there are more possibilities. Just a few more Freuds, Jungs and Adlers are needed who have some poetic imagination, and some scientific way of explanation. Man's mind is multidimensional. And every dimension is connected. For example: sexuality is part of his will-to-power, it is not separate. Through sex also he is trying to be powerful, to...

... be a creator, to give birth, to possess a woman or a man. And you can look at any couple: they are continually in a power conflict - who possesses whom? The wife is trying in every possible way... and she has some natural capacity which she uses. If you are not allowing her to be more powerful than you then she will deprive you of sex, and she knows that you cannot starve as far as sex is concerned...

... would come and everybody would see only one thing: the tallness of the wife. Love had to fail before the power instinct. I said, "What does it matter? You can tell them, 'I am not taller than my wife."" But you can look around the whole world, and you will find the husband always taller than the wife. How has it been managed? Why have women remained smaller than the man? It is simply a...

... children any longer, because a prostitute cannot afford children. So her line dies out; that branch grows no further It is not natural that women have to be smaller. It is the power instinct, the will-to-power. But sexuality and the will-to-power are not two separate things, not as separate as Adler and Freud think. The people who become very much power-oriented start losing interest in sex because their...

... whole energy moves into the will-to-power. The people who are very deeply interested in exploring their sexuality cannot go into politics; they don't have any energy left. You can see it in actuality in many places. We don't allow soldiers to have their wives on the battlefield. The general can, because the general remains behind; he is not really fighting, he is simply ordering people to fight. And...

... because everybody will laugh." And in the marriage ceremony in India all the relatives and friends from faraway gather. It is a gathering of thousands of people. And they were rich people, so everybody would come and everybody would see only one thing: the tallness of the wife. Love had to fail before the power instinct. I said, "What does it matter? You can tell them, 'I am not taller than my...

... wife, taller husband-smaller wife.... If the woman is so tall that she cannot find a husband, she becomes a prostitute, she goes out of the biological market, she is a dropout. She will not be creating children any longer, because a prostitute cannot afford children. So her line dies out; that branch grows no further It is not natural that women have to be smaller. It is the power instinct, the will...

...-to-power. But sexuality and the will-to-power are not two separate things, not as separate as Adler and Freud think. The people who become very much power-oriented start losing interest in sex because their whole energy moves into the will-to-power. The people who are very deeply interested in exploring their sexuality cannot go into politics; they don't have any energy left. You can see it in...

... life. And the mind is so amateurish and so stupid, because it is just trying to wake up, it is still not awake. Nature has given every power to the body, all essential powers to the body. Your mind can be put aside and your body will go on functioning perfectly well. In fact, mind is always a hindrance in everything. He tries to overcome body, because mind is a power tripper, he wants to control...

... have seen these people: you don't see any aura, you don't see any fragrance. You don't see in their eyes that there has been any vision of reality. You don't see in their life any impact of the higher consciousness. But they have immense power over the body. I have seen people lying down and a car passing over their body; they will simply stop their breath and the car passes over with no harm. I have...

... cannot pick up. Water cuts somehow the power of gravitation. The water has the quality of levitation, of taking things up; levitation against gravitation. That's why you can take a bigger man's body in your hands in water, just like a child, as if he is a child. Outside the water you cannot do the same, he is so heavy. Perhaps by stopping the breathing - the quality of air must give a great levitation...

... - the person becomes so heavy, and the power of gravitation is almost eight times more that he can manage normally. The wheels go on moving, but the car cannot move a single inch. But what is the point of it? I have asked these people, "Yes, you have done a great job, but to me it seems idiotic. What is the point? How have you become more spiritual by this? You have simply proved that you are...

... eight horsepower. The car is six horsepower, so you now have eight horses" power in you." We still measure with horsepower because man takes a long time to forget old language. Now horses are disappearing, horse-drawn buggies are disappearing. There are cars, there are airplanes, there are trains, but still we measure their power through the horse. An eight horsepower car means there are...

... eight horses in your chariot. "So of course you are more powerful than the car, but is that your goal - to become a powerful engine in a car? And you wasted forty years in learning the trick!" Yes, it influences people because everybody is a power tripper. It shows what great power this man has. It makes you feel inferior; he becomes suddenly superior. Why do so many millions of people go on...

... looks so primitive, so ugly, so inhuman; but these millions of people.... And these are not the only people: millions more will be sitting in front of their television. It seems the whole humanity is somehow after power. So whoever shows some power of any kind: power of money, power of body, power of politics, position, status, anything.... Sheela has just brought to me two days ago the news that...

... Indian film world. And you will be surprised that India produces more films than Hollywood. Hollywood is number two, India is number one as far as film production is concerned. These two persons, Amitabh and Vinod, were the top two. He has chosen Amitabh as one of his candidates, and Amitabh is going to be in his cabinet, absolutely certainly. And he will win, because film actors have a certain power...

... than the man who goes on playing with him: he is an utter idiot. He has not done anything else in his life; but just to belong to a royal family is enough. And he has money, and money is power. Perhaps he may become a cabinet minister. You are in your unconscious mind when you are fast asleep with no dreams. Freud had reached the unconscious just by analyzing dreams. If you are on the right track and...

... TOPPLED THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE POPE, MADE THE LATIN BIBLE AVAILABLE TO ALL BY TRANSLATING IT, AND MARRIED A NUN. YET HE IMMEDIATELY JOINED OTHER VESTED INTERESTS. AND THE WHOLE EVENT IS CALLED "THE REFORMATION." CAN YOU PLEASE SPEAK ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REBELLION AND REFORMATION, AND WHETHER REAL REBELLION CAN TURN INTO REFORMATION. Prem Nirvano, I have never spoken on Martin Luther...

... for a particular reason. He was neither rebellious, nor religious; he was a pure politician. He toppled the power of the pope, not because he was against power - he wanted to have it himself, he was jealous of it. Because he could not get it, he created a split in Christianity between those who followed the pope and those who followed him. His desire for power was so great that as soon as he had...

... created the split in Christianity, he immediately joined hands with the vested interests. This is not possible for a rebel. A rebel is always a rebel. It does not matter who has the power, he is always against people having power; his whole philosophy is decentralization of power. Power should not be centralized in a few hands, either political or economic or religious. It should be decentralized. It...

... should be given to everybody - to every individual, his own power. Nobody should be in possession of somebody else"s power. Martin Luther was a cunning politician. It was because of his cunningness and political acumen that he managed to create a rift in Christianity, pretending to be a great rebel. Jealousy finds a thousand and one ways to hide its face. His whole mind was bent upon becoming the...

... pope, but if it was not possible, then he would not allow anybody else to remain in absolute power. The people who followed him are not accidentally called Protestants. Basically, he was protesting against the power of the pope, not so that the power should be distributed, but so that he should be given the power. And just to show that he does not care about the pope, he married a nun and he...

... immediately joined hands with the establishments of other vested interests. He needed power, he needed money, he needed new churches; he needed everything to create a whole religion - and he created it. It is called in the books of history, Nirvano, "The Reformation." In a very ordinary way, it can be called a reformation - nothing much to brag about. What is great in marrying a nun? Is there some...

.... The first step is: CESSATION FROM SELF-INDULGENCE IN THE THIRST FOR SENSUOUS PLEASURES, WITH CONSCIOUS EFFORT. What to do? Whenever you are in any state of pleasure - sex, food, money, power, anything that gives you pleasure - meditate on it. Just try to find it, from where it is coming. You are the source, or the source is somewhere else? If the source is somewhere else, then there is no...

... without situations. Then you need not depend on anybody, on food, on sex, on power, anything. You are enough unto yourself. Once you have come to this feeling, the feeling of enoughness, indulgence - the mind to indulge, the indulgent mind - disappears. That doesn't mean you will not enjoy food. You will enjoy more. But now food is not the source of your happiness, you are the source. You are not...

... pulling it or pushing it. Now there is no "I" who can pull and push. Remember this: struggle creates ego. If you struggle in the world, it creates a gross ego: "I am someone with money, with prestige, with power." If you struggle within, it creates a subtle ego: "I am pure; I am a saint, I am a sage," but "I" remains with struggle. So there are pious egoists who...

... the logical mind is bound to ask how it can happen just by knowing themselves all desires disappear. It happens because now knowing themselves all desires have arisen. Desires are simply the ignorance of the self. Why? All that you are seeking through desires is there, hidden in the self. If you know the self, desires will disappear. For example, you are asking for power. Everybody is asking for...

... power. Power creates madness in everybody. It seems to be just human society has existed in such a way that everybody is power- addicted. The child is born; the child is helpless. This is the first feeling you all carry always with you. The child is born, he is helpless, and a helpless child wants power. That's natural because everybody is more powerful than him. The mother is powerful, the father is...

... powerful, the brothers are powerful, everybody is powerful, and the child is absolutely helpless. Of course, the first desire that arises is to have power - how to grow powerful how to be dominating. And the child starts being political from that very moment. He starts learning tricks how to dominate. If he cries too much, he comes to know that he can dominate through crying. He can dominate the whole...

... house just by crying. He learns crying. And women continue it even when they are not children. They have learned the secret, and they continue it. And they have to continue it because they remain helpless. That's power politics. He knows a trick, and he can create disturbance. And he can create such a disturbance that you have to accept and compromise with him. And every moment he feels deeply that...

... the only thing that is needed is power, more power. He will learn, he will go to school, he will grow he will love, but behind everything - his education love, play - he will be finding how to get more power. Through education he will want to dominate, how to come first in the class so he can be dominating, how to get more money so he can be dominating, how to go on growing the influence and the...

... territory of domination. The whole life he will be after power. Many lives are simply wasted. And even if you get power, what you are going to do? Simply a childish wish is fulfilled. So when you become a Napoleon or a Hitler, suddenly you become aware that the whole effort has been useless, futile. Just a childish wish has been fulfilled, that's all. Now what to do? What to do with this power? If the...

... wish is fulfilled you are frustrated. If the wish is not fulfilled you are frustrated, and it cannot be fulfilled absolutely, because no one can be so powerful that he can feel, "Now it is enough" - no one! The world is so complex that even a Hitler feels powerless in moments, even a Napoleon will feel powerless in moments. Nobody can feel absolute power, and nothing can satisfy you. But...

... when somebody comes to know one's self, one comes to know the source of absolute power. Then the desire for power disappears because you were already a king and you were only thinking that you were a beggar. And you were struggling to be a bigger beggar, a greater beggar, and you were already the king. Suddenly you come to realize that you don't lack anything. You are not helpless. You are the source...

... children very much. That doesn't seem to be the case. You love power, and when you get children, when you become mothers and fathers, you are powerful. Nobody may be listening to you; you may be nothing in the world, but at least in the boundaries of your home you are powerful. You can at least torture small children. And look at fathers and mothers: they torture! And they torture in such a loving way...

... can teach them." Look! Go into a school! The teacher sitting on his chair-and absolute power, just the master of everything that is happening there. People want children not because they love, because if they love, really, the world will be totally different. If you love your child the world will be totally different. You will not help him to be helpless, to feel helpless, you will give him so...

... much love that he would feel he is powerful. If you give love, then he will never be asking for power. He will not become a political leader; he will not go for elections. He will not try to accumulate money and go mad after it, because he knows it is useless - he is already powerful; love is enough. But nobody is giving love, then he will create substitutes. All your desires, whether of power, of...

...-computer, for certain moments, into silence, into a non-chattering state, so that you can look within and hear your deepest nature. Just a glimpse will change you because then this biocomputer cannot deceive you. This bio-computer goes on saying that, "Do this, do that!" It goes on continuously manipulating you, that "You must have more power; otherwise you are nobody." If you look...

.... The revolutionary cannot stand alone, he needs a crowd, a political party, a government. He needs power, and power corrupts - and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All the revolutionaries who have succeeded in capturing power have been corrupted by the power. They could not change the power and its institutions; the power changed them and their minds and corrupted them. Only names became different...

... lust for power. You make the world a war field; you are bloodthirsty and you make others bloodthirsty. You deprive humanity of its humanness. You help man to fall below humanity, even sometimes below animals. Hence a Gautam Buddha or a Kabir or a Chuang Tzu hurts you because he has blossomed, and you are just standing there. Springs come and go, nothing blossoms in you; no birds come and make their...

... country." Gandhi said, "We will welcome him. If somebody invades us, we will accept him as a guest and tell him, 'You can also live here, just the way we are living. There is no need to fight.'" But he completely forgot all his philosophy - that's how revolutions fail. It is very beautiful to talk about these things, but when power comes into your hands... First, Mahatma Gandhi did not...

... each other, they don't need permission for marriage, and they don't need any divorce; it is their private personal affair and the government has no business to interfere.... But when it came about that the power was in the hands of the Communist Party, and Lenin was the leader, everything changed. Once power comes into their hands, people start thinking differently. Now the thinking was that to make...

... for millennia to keep man a slave. Lenin forgot all about dissolving families. It is very strange how revolutions have failed. They have failed at the hands of the revolutionaries themselves, because once the power comes into their hands, they start thinking in different ways. Then they become too attached to the power. Then their whole effort is how to keep the power forever in their hands, and how...

...? Perhaps the impotent people have a tremendous desire to have power over others. They don't have any power within themselves; they want to have power over others as a substitute. All politicians are suffering from an inferiority complex; they are sick people. And it does not matter which country. This archbishop had nobody with him - just six old women were his whole congregation. I inquired, "Every...

... some power. The politicians have to listen to him, even against their own law and their own constitution. They deported me. It was a beautiful scene on two points at the airport. I had come to pick up my own jet. The deputy police inspector stamped my passport that I was being deported. I told him, "You also write down the reason why I am deported. If you people had guts, the archbishop of your...

... the left hand. He is doing something wrong. He is NOT doing ANYTHING wrong - he is naturally a leftist. He has the capacity to become a poet. He has the capacity to become an intuitive person. He may develop prophetic powers. He may be able to read other people's thoughts one day. He may be able to become a great hypnotic medium. He may even be able to have power of mind over matter. He has IMMENSE...

... can be. The left hemisphere, which is connected with the right hand, is under the law of necessity. And the right hemisphere, which is connected with the left hand, is under the law of power. And if both these laws become one, LOGOS arises, DHAMMA arises, TAO, TORAH, arises - the ultimate law, the law of laws. Then the man has a tremendous beauty and grace. He is the meeting of the earth and the sky...

... happiness have? You may say, "I am here to love." But then love in itself is purposeless. It is AS purposeless as a roseflower, as a dewdrop slipping on the lotus leaf in the early morning sun. It is AS purposeless as the whole. The closer you come to the whole, the more purposelessness becomes the law. Purpose belongs to the law of necessity: purposelessness belongs to the law of power. What is...

... money, it is no more play - it is business. Purpose has entered. It is a game. Now you are gambling. Just a few moments before you were playing; now playing has become secondary. Now the question is how to succeed in getting more money. The thing has become serious; it is no longer weightless. It has fallen from the world of grace into the world of gravitation. It has fallen from the world of power...

... into the world of necessity. These two laws are tremendously beautiful. The law of necessity is equivalent to the law of gravitation. Science has recognized the law of gravitation, the law of necessity. Science has not yet recognized the higher law: the law of grace, the law of power. That's why science goes on thinking in terms of cause and effect. It is still unaware of a higher law. Religion has...

... the discovery looks very ordinary. Newton sitting under a tree, and an apple falls, and he contemplates over it: "Why does the apple always fall downwards? Why not sometimes upwards? or to the right? or to the left? Just going in any direction.... Why does it always come downwards?" And something clicked in his mind, that there must be some power that pulls it towards the earth. But apples...

... Sufi mystic who was known as a madman.... Many mystics have been known as madmen. They ARE in a sense. The world thinks they are mad, because they follow something utterly absurd in the eyes of the world. The world accumulates money, the world is in search of more and more power and prestige, and they are simply not concerned with these great things. The world wants to possess and have more and more...

... upwards." This is a beautiful story - falling upwards. There is a law of falling upwards. And sometimes when you meditate, dance, sing, you will feel it: being possessed by something higher, from the above. And you are taken to higher plenitudes than you have ever known before. That is the law of grace, or the law of power. And when you can use both the worlds.... One belongs to science, one...

... hands in my pockets." The third question Question 3: WHAT IS THE DE-ACTIVATION PROCESS OF THE LAW OF NECESSITY AND THE ACTIVATION PROCESS OF THE LAW OF POWER? Anurag, THE LAW OF NECESSITY means you are unconscious, you are functioning like a robot. Only then does the law of necessity apply. So if you want to de-activate the law of necessity, the only way is to become more aware, more alert. De...

... other. And you will be aware. Make your activities de-automatized. And the more aware you are, the more the law of necessity starts disappearing. And when there is no law of necessity functioning, the other law functions automatically, of its own accord - the law of power. It is said: One day a great astrologer was coming back from Kashi. He had been learning astrology for twenty years in Kashi; he...

... infinite power then he is part of God - he IS a God. He lives in a totally different way . You cannot predict him; he is unpredictable. "Don't throw your books. You will not come across a man like me again in your life. Don't be worried. It rarely happens - very rarely it happens that a person is born as a Charkravartin; very rarely it happens that a person becomes a Buddha. And, of course...

... books, and you will ALWAYS be right. It is only this once that you have been wrong." Become conscious, Anurag. The more conscious you are, the more you are beyond prediction. Then you live EACH MOMENT in freedom - power means freedom. Power means free from the past karma. Power means you are no more dominated by the past. The past has no more power over you. Your each moment is free from the past...

... the past. You go on slipping out of the past like a snake slips out of the old skin. Then life has tremendous beauty - because then there is power. And it is not YOUR power, so there is no question of any ego trip. Ego comes from the past; it is part of the law of necessity. Ego is your character, good or bad, but ego is the prison that keeps you in bondage. Ego arises out of your whole past. Just...

... think for a moment: if you have no past, who are you? Suddenly the whole edifice of the ego collapses. The man of power is not really powerful in his own right: he is just a vehicle for the power of God. He has no claims. He simply functions as a representative of the whole. He is utter freedom, utter joy. He knows no boundaries, he is infinite. Space and time are no more relevant to him. He is beyond...

... space, beyond time. That is the meaning of being enlightened. Disappearing as a character, disappearing as a person, disappearing as an ego... and becoming one with the whole: UNIO MYSTICA. That mystic union... and you are no more there, and God is. And God is power. The bridge from necessity to power is consciousness. Anurag, become more and more conscious in whatsoever you are doing. And it is your...

... birthright to enter into the world of power, into the radiant world of power, the luminous world of power. The fourth question Question 4: OSHO, IS THE TIME RIPE FOR ME TO BECOME A SANNYASIN? CAN I ASK WHEN THE TIME IS RIPE? IT HAPPENED ON A JOURNEY BY SHIP: the parrot felt terribly bored and was really happy when one day he discovered that there was also a monkey on board. To pass the time the parrot said...

... when one does one's duty well, one earns a good sleep." Truman was the President of the United States when the atom bomb was dropped. When he was asked, "How do you feel?" he said, "I feel great! A noble cause has been served - democracy has won over fascist forces." Remember always: big words are very dangerous. And big words have a very hypnotic power in them: democracy...

..., God, religion, Bible... great words have a VERY hypnotic power over you. They can create a great unconsciousness in you, and you can go on doing things which you would have never even dreamt of doing without those big words. So remember, 'noble cause' is a very dangerous game. Who decides what is noble? Let EACH individual decide according to his own conscience. And why in Munich was the percentage...

... more an integrated will. He will look more collected, more one piece. The man of meditation does not become powerful: he becomes silent, he becomes peaceful. Power is created out of conflict; all power is out of friction. Out of friction comes electricity. You can create electricity out of water: when the river falls from a mountainside there is friction between the river and the rocks, and the...

... friction creates energy. That's why people who are seeking power are always fighting. Fight creates energy. It is always through friction that energy is created, power is created. The world goes into war again and again because the world is too dominated by the idea of power. You cannot be powerful without fighting. Meditation brings peace. Peace has its own power, but that is an altogether different...

... phenomenon. The power that is created out of friction is violent, aggressive, male. The power - I am using the word because there is no other word - the power that comes out of peace, is feminine. It has a grace to it. It is passive power, it is receptivity, it is openness. It is not out of friction; that's why it is not violent. Buddha is powerful, powerful in his peace, in his silence. He is as powerful...

... as a roseflower, he's not powerful like an atom bomb. He's as powerful as the smile of a child... very fragile, very vulnerable; but he's not as powerful as a sword. He is powerful, as a small earthen lamp, the small flame burning bright in the dark night. It is a totally different dimension of power. This power is what we call divine power. It is out of non-friction. Concentration is a friction...

...: you fight with your own mind. You try to focus the mind in a certain way, towards a certain idea, towards a certain object. You force it, you bring it back again and again. It tries to escape, it runs away, it goes astray, it starts thinking of a thousand and one things, and you bring it again and you force it. You go into a self-fight. Certainly power is created; that power is as harmful as any...

... other power, that power is as dangerous as any other power. That power will again be used to harm somebody, because the power that comes out of friction is violence. Something out of violence is going to be violent, it is going to be destructive. The power that comes out of peace, non-friction, non-fight, non-manipulation, is the power of a roseflower, the power of a small lamp, the power of a child...

... smiling, the power of a woman weeping, the power that is in tears and in the dewdrops. It is immense but not heavy; it is infinite but not violent. Concentration will make you a man of will. Meditation will make you an emptiness. That's what Buddha is saying to Sariputra. Prajnaparamita means exactly 'meditation, the wisdom of the beyond'. You cannot bring it but you can be open to it. You need not do...

.... It enjoys saying no; no is its power. Negativity is its food; it eats negativity. Positivity is its death. Try to say no and you start feeling powerful. Whenever you say no, whenever you can manage to say no, you feel powerful. Whenever you have to say yes you feel humiliated, as if something has been done against yourself. To say a total yes is to destroy the mind totally, and to remain in a total...

... existence; that gives you great power, but power to the ego. In fact, the ego is so cunning, the mind is so clever, that even religious people are deceived by it. Religious people go on saying no to life. They try to say yes to God, but the mind persuades them, "How can you say yes to God unless and until you have said no to life? Say no to life!" That's how the idea of renunciation arose: "...

... written all over his face. You will not find greater egoists anywhere than you will find in the monasteries. The popes and the SHANKARACHARYAS, the priests, those who have renounced everything, naturally they feel great, egoistic. They have renounced the world - what have YOU done? They have renounced money, power, prestige. But all this renunciation is nothing but a very clever game of the mind. The...

... opportunity is missing. That is my own observation. When a politician is not in power he is a very good man, a public servant, humble; always ready to bow down and touch your feet; open hospitals and schools. And once he is in power, he is not even ready to recognize you and all that public service disappears. Once he is in power, he has opportunity; now he will do things that he always wanted to do but...

... were an example to be followed, they were ideals; they were worshipped by the people. And then came power - and within seconds the whole thing changed. They became power-hungry, they became power-possessed. Their faces changed, their masks disappeared. Now the opportunity was there. Lord Acton has said: Power corrupts. I agree and I don't agree. Yes, superficially it seems that power corrupts, but if...

... you go deep into its analysis it is not power that corrupts - the person has been corrupted always. Power only gives opportunity; power cannot corrupt. If you are corrupted, then power gives you an opportunity to do that which you always wanted to do but were not able to do. People think it is money that corrupts people. No, money simply gives opportunity. Poor people look so good; it is not so...

... are you doing? This is the first time you have ever done this kind of thing!" "I know," panted the still humping dog. "I have always wanted to, but I have never had the money before!" It is not power that corrupts. Power brings your corrupted unconscious to the surface, power brings your intrinsic evil into action. Power exposes you, power does not corrupt you. Power is a...

... is available and atomic bombs can be made. And just by making atom bombs America will be so powerful that there will be no need to fight. Just the power will be enough - enemies will become so afraid that Hitler and Tojo and Mussolini will surrender on their own accord." This is what a logical mind thinks. But life does not follow logic, life does not follow mind. Albert Einstein repented his...

... whole life, because deep down he felt he was responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He had written the letter... and the politicians immediately jumped on the discovery. And once the power reached into the politicians' hands, they didn't care; then they would not listen to Albert Einstein. Then who cares? - - now the power is in their hands. And do you know, in fact, those who specialize in war...

... matters say that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not needed at all. Japan was going to surrender within a week; it was only a question of one week more. And if you had tolerated the war for years, what was the hurry? But America wanted to show its power to the world. Politicians are very juvenile, childish. In fact, if a person is not juvenile and childish he will not be a politician in the first place...

... to do, what are you are going to be? Would you again be a scientist, a physicist, so that you can continue your incomplete work?" Einstein opened his eyes and said, "No, never! Rather than being a physicist I would like to be a plumber. Enough is enough!" Science is a mind endeavor, mind effort; hence science has created great power. But the power is turning against man himself...

... violence. The people who have come Into power through violence, as they did in Russia - once they are in power, do you think they will suddenly become nonviolent? Their whole training, their whole mind is full of violence, and that 462 violence has been their success. You cannot drop it. Dropping it will mean betraying the revolution, losing the success that was yours. Moreover, the people who have come...

... into power through violence are bound to be violent against each other, because there will be a struggle for power in the inner circle of the communist party. Whoever proves to be more violent, more cunning, more inhuman, will become the most powerful man. That's how Joseph Stallin became the greatest dictator the world has ever known. He w as a nobody in violence as far as the revolution was...

... slowly, over a two-year period. So slowly slowly, as Lenin became more and more close to death, power started moving into the hands of Joseph Stalin. Whatever he wanted to be signed, he managed to have signed by Lenin. Lenin, in the last stages, was not even fully conscious - just conscious enough to sign, to say yes or no; otherwise he was in a cloudy state of consciousness, paralyzed. And in two...

... came into power after the revolution were not the revolutionaries. They were bureaucrats who knew the methods of bureaucracy and who were capable of becoming slaves of Joseph Stalin. Sixty years have passed, but the same situation continues - the fear of the outside world. In Russia they go on magnifying it: the whole world is determined to destroy you, and your only possible way to survive is to...

... happen.... In India I have seen the Gandhian revolution. Gandhi was aware of the fact that if the revolution became violent then its fate would be the same as that of other revolutions. Revolutionaries, once they are in power, prove to be worse rulers than anybody else. So Gandhi tried to make the revolution non-violent; but he was not aware of many other implications. It was not only the violence, it...

... was also the power. When a man who has never known power comes into power, he is no longer the same man. It is just as if a beggar suddenly finds a winning lottery ticket in his name. Do you think he is the same man? Yes, he looks the same, but he is no longer the same man. Leo Tolstoy has a beautiful story. A poor shoemaker becomes interested in becoming rich - who does not? How long is he going to...

... doing it because this time these suitcases are not going to leave me alive. Last time what did they do? They almost finished me! And what kind of cruel God is this? He won't let me rest for even one month. Again I have to go to Paris, to London, to New York - and who knows where and what kinds of things I will have to do again." Gandhi was not aware of one thing - that power changes people. Power...

... brings out the worst that is in people. Everybody carries that power to do evil - the will, the seed - but the opportunity is not there, it is only a potential. When power really comes into your hands then all your hidden devils start raising their heads and asking you, "Now is the time, do it; otherwise who knows whether next time you will get the power or not." The people with Lenin were...

... barehanded, opened their shirt fronts, and told the soldiers, "You kill as many as you can, because anyway, living in slavery is worse than death." Finally the British government caved in. Gandhi had never thought.... These people - trusted, well-known for years to be absolutely nonviolent, not power-hungry-suddenly changed. When the revolution succeeded and these people came into power they...

... to pray to God - to bless the planes carrying bombs to be dropped on the same people who just a few days before were a part of India. They WERE Indian; but now, on the map, the color has changed, a new line has been drawn. These people are no longer Indians, they are Pakistanis. Power has its own ways to destroy you. It destroyed even the non-violent revolutionaries, it destroyed even the non...

... known in history as the greatest idiots. But even Gandhi could not manage to have the courage to say to Jawaharlal, "This is not right - this is against our philosophy." No, when power comes in your hands, you think in terms of power, politics, you don't think in terms of philosophy. Yes, revolutions have all failed. By their very nature they cannot succeed; hence, I am not for revolutions...

... would be a political strategy. Then Adolf Hitler was the only speaker, Adolf Hitler was the only man in the news; the membership of the Nazi party started growing in leaps and bounds. Within two years he had thousands of followers - and all the other parties were simply crushed. Before the election he managed it - that there was no other party except the Nazi party. He came into power. Now, if you...

... want to throw Adolf Hitler out of power - and he needs to be thrown out - you cannot do it unless you go one step lower in humanity than him. Now, how is the revolution going to succeed? If the revolution succeeds, that means a bigger Adolf Hitler succeeds. But that is the failure of the revolution, not the success. So it fails either way. Either you fail, then Adolf Hitler remains there; or you...

... be very difficult to convince the generals of the world to move away from the politicians. And what power do politicians have? All the power that they have we have given to them. We can take it back. It is not their power, it is our power. We just have to find a way to take it back - because giving is very easy, taking is a little difficult. They will not be so simple and innocent when you take the...

... power back as they were when they were asking it from you. It is our power, but they will go on having it if the mob remains there to give it to them; the mob can be convinced about anything. It is the function of the intelligentsia.... I would like to say that now if anything happens to humanity, the whole condemnation will go to the intelligentsia: "What were you doing? If those idiots were...

... ready to kill humanity, what were you doing? You could not even manage those idiots? You simply went on grumbling, being grumpy, but you did nothing else." And the time is running short. Once we decide that the voting power is not the birthright of every human being but is a right which you have to earn.... You have to see the distinction. It is not a birthright, it is a right that you have to...

... earn by your intelligence. Everybody is given the opportunity to earn it, there is equal opportunity for all to earn it, but it is nothing birth - given; you have to prove it. Once we move the power from the mob into the hands of the few intelligent people and the people who know what they are doing.... If a man who has devoted his whole life to thinking about education and its problems - has done...

.... Even a butcher would have been better; at least he would have known how to cut, and finish you. This man... but you don't choose a surgeon by election. How can you choose a president by election? How can you choose a governor by election? You are giving so much power to power - hungry people; with your own hands you are telling them to hang you! This is not democracy. In the name of democracy these...

... people have been exploiting the masses. Just to make a distinction I am calling my system meritocracy. But merit for what? The merit is to serve and share. And once you have decided to shift the power from the politicians to the intelligentsia, everything is possible - everything becomes simple. Then I want every university to have two compulsory institutions, because that is the way I would like the...

... impossible. First he will have to find out how to take it out from its sheath, how to hold it. It needs training. You don't just give a guitar to somebody who has never seen the instrument before and expect him to be a Yehudi Menuhin or a Ravi Shankar. Now this is your fault: these people who are in power, have you trained them? Has anybody ever thought that the people who will be holding so much power...

... need some certain qualities so that they don't misuse power? It is not their fault. So I propose two institutes in every university. One institute is for deprogramming. Anybody who gets a graduation certificate will first have to get a clearance certificate from the deprogramming institute - which means it has deprogrammed you as a Christian, as a Hindu, as a Mohammedan, as a Jew... because this has...

... help, because they are all as much into power politics as the politicians. That's why I make these two conditions necessary. If you get a Ph.D., simultaneously you will be getting a D.Phil. M., a doctor's degree in meditation. And if the meditation institute feels that somebody has come to a point where he should be honored, then they can give him a D.Litt.M. So while you are being educated you are...

..., in a very silent and subtle way, being prepared to be in power, in such a way that power cannot corrupt you, that you cannot misuse it. So meritocracy is a whole program of transforming the structure of society, the structure of government, the structure of education. It looks utopian. Who is going to do it? How is it going to happen? Hence the question - how are we going to make it a reality? It...

... thankful to these fools: they have dragged the whole of humanity to the point where humanity has to decide, "Now either we can live or these politicians can remain in power - both are not possible." My professor, Doctor S.K. Saxena, used to have a car, a very ancient model. It used to remain standing in his porch. I asked him, "I have seen this car standing there - either sell it and get...

... become the center of a new power, the power of the intelligentsia? And it is not so difficult as it looks. One thing I forgot. I said, "Exclude the politicians"; I wanted to include one thing more: exclude the priests, the pope, because the religious establishment has always been supportive of the political establishment. They are in deep conspiracy together, they support each other. And they...

.... Strange - the whole country knows, all cardinals, all bishops, everybody knows, still it is not published anywhere? It is because the pope is a political power too: your paper could be crushed, you could be destroyed. They go on writing things against me which are absolutely absurd, lies, because one thing they are certain of: no politician can be in support of me, no power is going to support me. I am...

... person with no punishment. But a person who has AIDS may become the president of America - and everybody will keep silent about it. Nobody is going to open his mouth, because anybody who opens his mouth will be in danger from those in power. But I don't have anything to lose so whatsoever I want to say, I say. And I know that that man cannot challenge me because if he challenges me then he has to come...

... democracy, so how can I be anti-democracy? What I am proposing is the right way to change the whole structure, so that one day meritocracy can merge into democracy - because sooner or later everybody can be educated. I am not preventing anybody; I am simply saying that right now give the power of governing only to those who are entitled to it and prepared for it. Meanwhile, go on preparing other people...

... or not; I have no interest either way." But those British officers... Badri Prasad Gupta was an Indian, but being the principal of an English high school was enough to make him afraid. Every official was afraid, judges were afraid, Indian officers were afraid, because the power.... So politicians and priests both have to be dropped out of their long, long-standing establishment, and a totally...

... TOTALITARIANISM, BUT I THOUGHT THAT MAO ZEDONG IMPROVED LIFE FOR THE MAJORITY IN CHINA. YOUR STATEMENT ABOUT ANTI-CAPITALISTS BEING JEALOUS RINGS TRUE, BUT DON'T SOME RICH CAPITALISTS USE THEIR POWER TO EXPLOIT OTHERS THROUGH SUCH MEANS AS MONOPOLIES, SELLING AT A LOSS FOR SHORT PERIODS OF TIME IN ORDER TO RUIN SMALLER BUSINESSMEN, ACQUIRING MORE LAND THAN THEY NEED, AND THUS DENYING POOR PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO...

... the masses. Only the name has changed. Now the capitalist is not called a capitalist in Russia or China; now the Communist Party functions instead. The people who belong to the Communist Party, the power elite, they exploit. So the question is not who exploits, the question is: unless we produce so much that the need for exploitation disappears, exploitation will continue. Names will change...

... bothers about it. But sooner or later in cities like New York, Los Angeles, the rich people will start finding ways to have more oxygen for themselves. The poor will suffer from the pollution, not the rich. And by "rich" I don't mean only the rich who have more wealth, I mean the rich in any way -- the educated who have more education, the politician who has more power. In any way, whosoever...

... outside of the problem, and the inside of the problem is to change the greed to have more than others, because even if the earth has enough there will be mad people -- the braggarts, the egoists -- who would like to say that they have more than you have. Krishna is said to have had sixteen thousand wives. That was the time when a person's wealth and power was measured by wives, how many wives he had...

...-capitalists being jealous rings true, but don't some rich capitalists use their power to exploit others through such means as monopolies...?" Yes, they do, but somebody else will be doing the same -- the communists will do it. And you ask, "Are not the socialist and communist parties in the West dedicated to more personal freedom...?" Until they achieve power, everybody is dedicated to more...

... freedom. The Russian Communist Party was also dedicated to absolute freedom, and what came to exist was absolute slavery. The Russian Communist Party was dedicated to absolute freedom, but the moment you get the power you are the same type of people. Your communists and your socialists are not meditators, they are not buddhas. Only a buddha will not change; whether he gets the power or not he will...

... remain the same. But your so-called socialists and communists, once they get the power will behave in the same way; it is absolutely predictable. When you don't have power then it is different. It happened in India.... The followers of Mahatma Gandhi were great servants of the people. They lived in poverty, praised poverty, and even started calling the poor, DHARIDRA NARAYAN -- the real people of God...

..., God's people. And when they came to power, all that changed. Immediately all that changed; all their service disappeared. They became masters and rulers, and they started exploiting more than anybody else. Even the Britishers have not exploited this country so much as the Gandhians have done. This country has never been in such a dark space as it is today. The whole responsibility goes to Gandhian...

... followers, and they were all good people when they were not in power. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The people who are communists and socialists -- who are they? They are by-products of the same society, with the same ambitions, with the same desires. Once Diogenes saw a man being led to the gallows by the magistrates and officers of justice. The criminal had stolen a silver cup...

... from the public treasury. A bystander asked him what was going on. "Nothing unusual," the philosopher replied. "It is merely the big thieves bringing the little thief to justice." Whosoever is in power becomes the big thief and starts torturing the small thieves. We have to change the outer world by more science, and the inner world by more religion. Then only can there be a real...