... convenient, may not be comfortable. Look at the modern furniture - not comfortable at all, but who would like to have old furniture in the house? Modern is better, more uncomfortable than the old, but it is modern! It gives prestige. Whatsoever gives prestige is alcoholic, it gives you an intoxication. You feel you are powerful. But why this hankering after power? And remember, if you are hankering after...

... power then you will never reach to the truth. Sometimes you knock at the door of God also for power - but then you knock at the wrong door. That door only those can reach who have become absolutely aware that power, the search for power, is mad, it is a madness. You like and dislike according to the ego. If there is no ego where will likes and dislikes be? They will simply disappear. You won't have...

... to manipulate him, how to dominate him, how to become powerful over him. He is not concerned with anything else. His trip is that of power - how to control people. If he says something he says it with that idea. He is not concerned about truth. That's why politicians have to go on telling lies, to go on promising things which they know they cannot fulfil, which they know are not possible to fulfil...

... the other. His idea of power is not of this world, his idea of power is of that world - but it is of power. He also wants to dominate... in the name of God. The politician and the priest are not very different, that's why they have always been together. There has been a conspiracy between the priest and the politician to dominate people In the old days it was so and today it is so. The politician...

... comer of the world. But he is not interested in dominating - that's why the poet has remained very poor, the painter has remained poor. They have remained powerless. They don't have any power. They are the most non-violent people, and powerless. I have heard that a man went to his physician and he said, 'For many days I have been suffering from constipation.' The physician prescribed some medicine...

..., so those people who become interested in money forget all about sex; they are no more interested in sex. Their whole sexuality becomes money-oriented... or power, politics, ambition. Those people who become politicians, become ambitious for power; they can also sacrifice sex, indulgence - everything they can sacrifice. On the first layer they can sacrifice, because on the second layer they need all...

..., is nothing. Then what is real power? Real power is SIDDHI. If you can do miracles, if you touch a man and he is healed when he was ill, and if you touch a dead body and the dead body is resurrected, then you have something. If you can produce things out of nothing, if you become a miracle man, then you have something. So religions repress the ego on the second layer, then the ego asserts itself on...

.... Say to an ugly woman 'You are very beautiful' and even she will not say Ll am not. Stop all this nonsense! I am just plain and homely.' If you say even to an ugly woman that she is the most beautiful woman in the world she will accept it, she will not say 'No, don't deceive me.' Once she accepts it, she is deceived. Now she will be in your power; now she will always have to think about you and...

... himself. Anybody who tries to be special has to keep certain tensions. Only an ordinary man can relax because there is nothing to fear. All these people who have founded your religions are not authentically spiritual. It is a new kind of politics, it is a new kind of power -- they have discovered how to rule over masses without being on the throne, without taking any responsibility for them. And small...

... twelve years... he was handing on a wooden rod with his hands so that he cannot fall, even if he falls asleep. And around him continuously people were chanting, supporting so that he does not fall. And I looked at the man's face -- no sign of intelligence. I looked at his eyes -- just empty, dead, they could have been of stones. What he has gained? He has gained tremendous power -- thousands of...

..., pornography. They are asking for violence. They are asking for all kinds of sensations. They are not interested in the higher values of life for the simple reason because for centuries your religious people have repressed their lower instincts so much that now their lower instincts have immense power and those lower instincts demand some kind of fulfillment. You have been told to murder is wrong, so...

... amount of money available to me so even if you put me on a bail like ten million dollars I will not bother and I can leave the country, and I have thousands of devoted lovers and friends who can do anything for me." "That's why we cannot allow." I said to my attorneys, that "This proves the impotency of the greatest power of the world against a single man that they cannot prevent me...

... not working for humanity. They are just power greedy people. So if people of Himachal Pradesh want me to be here I am absolutely willing to be here. But alone I cannot do anything for Himachal. They will have to give me permission for at least five thousand people to transform the whole face of Himachal. And in five years time you will see Himachal becoming the topmost tourist attraction in the...

...;First convince me. Then only will I let you meet the master. Since you cannot convince me, how can I let you meet the master?" Then a further difficulty arises when the intellect is made to understand: It begins to feel itself the master. Then he sees that he understands but no problem is solved for that which we call the intellect, has no power of its own. It has no 'force to act'; that lies...

... question does not arise then. But this question arises and I do not say it arises wrongly. As man is today, this question is bound to arise. We are divided into two. The part of us that understands is not even remotely connected with that part of us which acts. The understanding part is separate and the acting part is separate. The house is divided into two. That which has the power to act, does not come...

... to know. That which has no power to act, comes to listen. Now these two never meet. Then what is to be done? There is only one way: The knowing layers are to be broken and we have to descend into the world of irrationality. Be a little irrational and see. Slowly and slowly the wall that divides the rational from the irrational, will begin to crumble and you will begin to go in and out into both the...

... understanding and transformation are not two things. They are the two sides of the same coin. Question 2: THE SECOND QUESTION ASKED IS: IF LAO TZU SAYS DO NOTHING THEN WHAT HAPPENS TO EFFORT AND LABOUR? Do you think that not doing anything is a small insignificant effort? To do nothing is the greatest effort in this world. The power to do nothing, is the greatest possession in this world. Actions even...

... that you can say, "I leave myself completely." But who leaves? Can you leave - you who cannot leave anger, who cannot even give up smoking? Can you give yourself up completely? A man gives up smoking and tells all the world of his great effort and will-power and even then he is not fully successful. So to give yourself up completely is not a small effort. it is the greatest of efforts. It...

... go and see: people who are kind are very very egoistic, more egoistic than the people who are cruel. This is strange. The cruel person feels a little guilty too, but the so-called kind person feels perfectly okay - always holier-than-thou, always better than others. He4 is very very self-conscious in what he is doing; his each act brings more energy and more power to his ego. He is becoming greater...

... in power. When the power goes, then all those beautiful stories about them simply disappear. Once a politician is deposed, he becomes an ugly phenomenon. He may be a Richard Nixon or she may be an Indira Gandhi. Once a politician is deposed, once the power is gone, once the power is no more there to protect you, then everything becomes exposed. If you know how a person has become rich then you will...

...,' So now we will desire desirelessness. How to attain desirelessness.?" Now they are ready to go on another journey of desire. Just the OBJECT of desire has changed. first they were thinking how to have more money, how to have more power, how to go to New Delhi, Washington, London, Moscow; now, their goal has changed - how to attain NIRVANA, MOKSHA, God, desirelessness. But the object is there...

... second thing you ask: CAN AN ALCOHOLIC TAKE SANNYAS? WHY NOT? If powerholic people can take, sexoholic people can take, egoholic people can take, why not alcoholic? These people are more dangerous people. The politician - the powerholic - mad, intoxicated with power, he is more dangerous. The alcoholic is not so dangerous. The alcoholic can at the most destroy himself; he is suicidal. But the...

... and again say they would like to prohibit alcohol completely. They are the REALLY dangerous people. Have you ever heard of any alcoholic doing anything very wrong in the world's history? What wrong can they do? - at the most they can fall in a gutter. So it's okay; that is their freedom. Sometimes they can shout in the night - so what's in it? But the people who are power-intoxicated, they are...

.... His character is perfect - as perfect as Mahatma Gandhi's. But then what went wrong? Such a man of character proved to be the most dangerous man in human history. Now, if he had been a little alcoholic things would have been far better. Then he would not have risen to such power. Mm? He would have been in some gutter, he would not have risen to such power. Or if he had been fooling around with women...

... than darkness. The whole of logic is fallacious; you can continue it and you will move in a vicious circle. The more you will be defeated, the more you will be frustrated, the more you will fight with new means - and again you will be defeated. The defeat is not concerned with your power or powerlessness at all. The defeat is because you are fighting something which is not. The same is the case with...

... leads you outward. All that becomes a vehicle for your consciousness to move outward - renounce it. In the deep inactivity of renunciation, you will come to the center. For example, how does the mind move outward? It moves for wealth, it moves for prestige, it moves for power. Any movement means a deep desire for something outside, a deep desire for something which doesn't belong to you inside, but...

... hindrance is capable of hindering you. Hence in the East we have called this energy "serpent power". It is just like a serpent coiled up, fast asleep. It has been asleep for ages. Initiation into sannyas means that now you are asking me to wake up the serpent, to wake up your dormant energy. And I am creating a context here, a certain space, in which that impossible can become possible. The...

... can be found only if you seek; those are the worldly things: money, power, prestige. And there are things which you can never find by seeking and searching; those are the otherworldly things: love, meditation, God. For them you have to learn a totally new technique, a new strategy, the strategy of let-go, the technique of tremendous restfulness. So make it a point now that for at least one hour you...

... this is the adulthood of sex. Nature's work is complete with this development, and this is why nature gives its full cooperation up to this stage. But at this stage man is not man in the full sense of the word. The third body, where reason, intellect and the thinking power develop, is an outcome of education, civilization and culture. This is why the right to vote is granted to a person when he is...

... necessary. Then we could have found ways of testing the validity of our experiences. Now there are scientific instruments, and also man's power of understanding has increased. So ways can be found just as in the case of many other new discoveries that have been made in science. It is not known whether animals dream or not. How could this be ascertained unless an animal speaks? We know what we dream...

... understand what I mean. It will be false when it is a product of your imagination, because imagination is also a characteristic of the fourth body. Animals do not have the power of imagination, so they have very little memory of the past and no idea of future. Animals are free from anxiety as anxiety is always of the future. Animals see many deaths taking place, but they never imagine that they can die...

... also; therefore, they have no fear of death. Among men also there are many who are not bothered by the fear of death. Such a man always associates death with others and not with himself. The reason is that the power of imagination in the fourth body has not developed fully enough to see into the future. This means that imagination can also be true or false. True imagination means that we are capable...

... interesting fact - man looks and is, as far as his physical body goes, very strong. But behind this outward strength stands a weak female body. This is why he manages to show his strength only for a few moments at a time. In the long run he loses at the hands of the female, because the body behind her weak female body is a strong positive body. This is why a woman's power of resistance, her capacity to...

... hundred and sixteen males are born to every hundred females. The difference in number at time of birth is sixteen, but later on the number becomes equal. Sixteen males die by the time they reach the age of fourteen and so the number becomes almost equal. More boys die early than girls. This is because the latter have a great power of resistance that comes to them through the second male body. Now the...