... warmth, rather than fulfilling the child by her love, food will become the substitute. Now food will be symbolic. The child has grown up - the father cannot love the child, because he has never loved. He does not know in fact what love means at all... he does not know what love is. He cannot give love, but he can give money. So he will go on giving the money to the child and he will say, 'Look how much...

... I love you!' Money is symbolic, food is symbolic, and the reality is denied. When the child becomes a grown-up person, he will be mad after money. Money is a symbol - it has nothing real in it - but he will be mad after money, because he will think, 'The more money you have, the more love you get. The more money you possess, the more you will be loved.' So he will become greedy. He will forget all...

... about love, all about life. He will live a neurotic life of greed, and will accumulate money and will die accumulating it. Now the symbolic drove him crazy. I am giving you this name so that you can remember it. This is one of the basic problems of humanity. The world 'god' has become more important than god himself. The word god is not god. The statue in the temple is not god, neither is the temple a...

.... It has nothing to do with money or kingdom. It has nothing to do with power over people. And if somebody waits to enjoy life only when he has so much money, and so much power, and such a big kingdom, then he is never going to enjoy. He will die a beggar. [Osho told the story of alexander the great, meeting the mystic, Diogenes. Alexander felt envious of Diogenes' obvious contentment with life, but...

... world. The longing seems to be almost mad to those who are concerned with money, power, prestige. They will think you have gone crazy if you become interested in meditation, if you become interested in silence. if you become interested in a Master. But the East has paid tremendous respect to the Masters. Ko Hsuan starts each sutra with these beautiful words: THE VENERABLE MASTER SAID... He does not...

... life is. You know how to earn money and you know only how to waste life. There was an old professor of Darjeeling Who traveled from London to Ealing. It said on the door, "Please don't spit on the floor," So he carefully spat on the ceiling. "That philosopher really suffers for his beliefs," said Mulla Nasruddin one day to me. "Why, what does he believe?" I asked him...

..., but if desires persist it is still sexuality. And you can watch it... There are people who are obsessed with money. You can see one thing: they are no more interested in sex; their whole interest has moved into money. But now money has become their sex object. When they touch money they touch as if they are touching their beloved. I have seen people touching hundred-rupee notes with such tenderness...

... - unbelievable. I used to know one person whose only joy was money, even somebody else's money. Just if you are interested in beautiful women it does not matter whose wife it is. If a beautiful woman passes by you become immediately interested; a great desire arises in you. Civilization prevents you; the police is there, the law is there, so you don't do anything, you don't act - that is one thing - but the...

... thought starts fantasizing. The mind starts spinning, weaving dreams. The same was true about this man. He was a relative of mine. Somebody else's money... if he will see that you have many notes in your pocket he will just take the money out, will count it, with such tenderness - and it is not his money either! He will give it back to you, but when he will give you can see the sadness arising in his...

... eyes, you can see the unwillingness. He was always asking for money, and he had enough money. He was always borrowing money from others. I used to ask him, "You have money - why you go on borrowing?" And slowly slowly he became very honest with me and he said, "I cannot use my own money in any way. It hurts to bring the money out of my own pocket - it hurts. I feel almost paralyzed! I...

... can borrow it from somebody?" And he never used to give back. He was well known all over the city, that once he takes money from you he will never give back - he cannot. Everybody used to feel pity for him. He had ten bungalows, but he himself used to live in a very small room, in one of his bungalows' servant quarters. He could have afforded a beautiful car, but he used to move on a bicycle so...

... his bicycle. He lived a poor man's life, a very poor man's life - the life of a beggar. And he collected so much money... He had no son, no daughter. It almost always happens that miserly people don't have children; there must be some psychological reason in it. In India the very miserly people have always to adopt children - rich people they are. Poor people have many children, too many, in fact...

...; they need birth control And the rich people, the very rich, the miserly people, don't have children. They are so miserly that something deep happens even to their chemistry. Their whole sexuality becomes obsessed with money. Hence, remember, the first poison Ko Hsuan calls sexuality. It does not mean only sex, it means all desires. A Scotsman arrives at the toll gate of a bridge, gives a penny to the...

... at a dollar a gallon.'" Last words! Last words are always very important; they are the essence of your whole life. There are people who even at the very end of their life are thinking of money. When God created Switzerland he asked a Swiss, "What do you want?" Without hesitation the Swiss replied, "I want a lot of milk!" And so it was. After a few days god, curious, asked...

... the Swiss, "Is your milk good?" The best, my Lord," replied the Swiss. "Try some!" God tasted it and found it really good. then he asked the Swiss, "Do you want something else?" Again, without hesitation, the Swiss replied, "Yes, my Lord. Four francs for the milk you drank!" Even if you come across God, if you are obsessed with money you won't see God at...

..., whatsoever form your sexuality has taken - it may have become money obsession, it may have become power obsession, it does not matter - when you are thinking in terms of sexuality, everything deep inside you becomes sexual. Your whole life functions as a transforming mechanism for everything, to create more and more sexuality. Whatsoever you see, you see your own sexuality projected - you can't see...

... of their money. The first comes out of anger and the second comes out of greed, but the cause of both lies in the first. Repressed sex will create anger and greed. You will be surprised to know that any religion that has been teaching to its followers some kind of repression has always helped its followers to become rich. In India, Jains have become very rich; they are the most repressive people...

... are a small community, very small community - in such a big, vast country they are nothing - but still they are very powerful because they have all the money. You will not come across a single Jain beggar; nothing like it exists. They are not poor people - they cannot be poor; their religion has made it absolutely certain for them that they will he rich. Sex has to he repressed and anger has to he...

... have been criticizing and the old society goes on and on. Their criticism has not made any difference to it. The roots of the old society are hidden like all roots of all the trees. They are not available unless you dig deep. For example, the family is the basic unit of the old society. Marriage is the basic unit of the old society. Money as the means of exchange -- is very fundamental to the old...

... there is no question of divorce. When there is no marriage prostitution disappears automatically. Prostitution is the shadow of marriage. It is the marriage in which love has died that creates the prostitute -- the ugliest institution in existence. The old society forces the woman to sell her body for money. This is a crime which cannot be forgiven and strange is the fact that all the old societies...

... prostitutes for the simple reason that they were reduced to such slavery. They had no right, no say, how the society should be run. They had no money but in this century, as women have become slowly financially independent, simultaneously a new institution has come into being: male prostitution. Now the woman is doing the same as man has been doing. She is also hoping for hers through money. Those beautiful...

... moments can be captured back which she has lost. But money cannot buy few things. It cannot buy love. It cannot buy peace. It cannot buy ecstasy. The old society is miserable, but itself is responsible for all the miseries. Then there is the money as a means of exchange and it is money that has created classes. The so-called communism created by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels does not take note of the...

... basic fact. They miss the most fundamental thing... they want to distribute the money equally, but they don't see the point that it is the money which has created the classes. You can distribute the money but then you will have to keep a continuous dictatorial state to keep the money distributed equally; otherwise, soon there will be people who will be having more money and there will be people who...

... will be having less money, because to earn money is an art. To accumulate money is an art. To create wealth is an art. And everybody is not so talented. Soon there will be poor and the rich. But they did not see, they both were blind about the most important thing -- that the easiest way to disappear is to take the money out of the society; that it is no more the means of exchange... then there is...

... nobody poor and nobody rich. There is no need to create a classless society: just remove the money and the classless society comes into being. The commune should take the responsibility of providing the basic needs of the members. Everybody should get whatever is his need. And we had managed in our small commune of five thousand people for four years, the highest quality of communism that has ever...

... existed on the earth. It was an alternative society because it dissolved the family, it dissolved the marriage, it dissolved divorce, it dissolved the whole of possessiveness of the parents over children. It dissolved money. It made a classless society. It dissolved any need of a ruling class and the ruled. It created a functional structure. So the president was not more prestigious than the plumber. He...

... every man to be rich in all the dimensions of life. I am all for riches and to me riches does not mean only money. A man who cannot understand the greatest literature of the world is a poor man and I hate him! He is living unnecessarily... he is simply a burden on the earth. Either he has to improve, either he has to sharpen his intelligence, or he has no future. In all the dimensions poverty has to...

... it is going to take away the boredom. And what are you going to do with the money, with all the facilities that the job gives you, if you are utterly bored? It is better to be a beggar but not bored, than to be an emperor and be bored. These are common-sense insights. The cities are becoming bigger and bigger. The villages are disappearing, and with the disappearing villages the pure air, the...

... the children free of parental power. And they could have more fresh food, fresh water, fresh air. There were all running to the city for one thing - because it gives money, and the villages cannot give money. Why have villages been disappearing, and big, monstrous cities coming up? The reason is that everybody is after money, not understanding a simple thing, that money cannot buy anything that...

... makes life a beautiful, blissful pilgrimage. It can buy many things, but they are useless if the man himself loses his soul. If the cities disappear into villages, much of the pollution will also disappear. The cities are almost like a canceric growth, that goes on growing bigger and bigger. The people in power cannot do anything because their power needs money - not love, not blissfulness, not joy...

... - just money. And your so-called wise people are nothing but politicians in another garb of religious heads; their whole interest is also in power. It is a different kind of power, more subtle, but all the same it is power. They would not like the cities to disappear. Their power depends on the boredom of man, his loveless life, his meaningless life, his anguish, because these are the things which...

... magistrates, all your jailers, all your advocates, and all your legal professionals going to do? They will have to commit suicide - their whole profession will be gone. The common people have to understand this simple thing. They should move back to the villages because money has not given anything... more gadgets, but gadgets don't create love, don't create freedom, don't create joy. Go to the villages...

... were abandoned. With their abandonment, the route that passed through Mandu was abandoned. Mandu lost its source of money, and people had to go away. What could you do there? On that mountain you cannot grow anything - they lived only on the constant traffic. Such a huge city simply disappeared! People left their houses and moved to places where they could earn something. It is only a question of a...

..., misery, meaninglessness. They cannot do anything. They also depend on the industrialist, because in their elections the industrialist will be the one who will give the money. So they cannot go against the industries that are polluting the air, cutting the trees, destroying the ecology, poisoning the water, the rivers, the lakes, even the oceans. They cannot do it, because if they do it, their own money...

... away from the cities, deserting them, they will cut the people of power off from their money sources - because who is going to run their industries and factories? They will cut the power of the religious heads - because who is going to gather in their cathedrals and synagogues? And my understanding of religion is that it needs no synagogues, no temples, no churches. It is a simple heart-to-heart...

... territory; there, you can have it. The world is big enough still - people can move. They have moved to the cities because they are center of money. If they understand only one thing - that money cannot buy anything of value, and you have lost everything, running after money.... Go back! Go to the world where you belong - to the trees, to the animals, to the rivers, to the mountains. Question 2: BELOVED...

....... Perhaps one key was concerned with the files and the other key was concerned with the money they were keeping in hiding. And this was a constant fight between Sanjay and Indira: he wanted those two keys. I don't know exactly, but people who knew their house and their inner workings say that he even slapped his mother once because she was adamant and would not give him those two keys. And finally she had...

... those facts, you cannot get out of the darkness and the emptiness that you are feeling. I have been watching you: you fall in love with bank balances, not with men. Your love for money is too much. That is creating your whole problem. You love shopping just like any other ordinary woman. You are extravagant and you don't have the money for it. So naturally you have to find someone who can provide that...

... money for you. You were with John, and John sincerely loved you. But when you found Emerson, who is one of the richest men in America, you immediately dropped John as if he did not exist at all. You started hanging around Emerson. You had brought Emerson here in the hope that he will remain here, but he proved to be very much a coward. And this was not his number, he has no desire or any longing for...

... search. He is of the same type of mind as you are. Emerson is Hasya"s son. When Hasya and her husband parted, Hasya did not take any money from her husband; it was simply against her dignity. And I respect a woman who is ready to part from the husband, not bothering about his money. Ordinarily the son would have come with the mother, but seeing that the father is going to have all the money and...

... the mother is leaving without any money, he remained with the father. He also looks at the bank balance. Emerson could not remain here. It was not possible; he has to be close to his father because all the money is there. Once his father is gone from the world, Emerson will emerge as one of the most super-rich persons in America. Already he is richer than you can conceive. John is a courageous man...

.... He has risked all his money for my work; he has not even bothered about the future, about his own security. Now that Emerson is gone, you are again trying to catch hold of John, but now it cannot be the same - John has eyes too. He has seen what your preferences are. That"s what is creating all the emptiness and all the darkness. It has nothing to do with spirituality. But anybody listening to...

... your question will think it is a great spiritual question - that you are full of tears and the tears are not stopping. It will be good for everyone to tell his whole story because I cannot go on digging out your stories. Now settle with someone, not with somebody"s bank balance. Change your whole idea - love is not a financial affair. You love money; that is not going to help you. Love somebody...

..., a living human being, not bothering about the money - and all your emptiness and tears will disappear. If they don't disappear then ask me again, but don't torture John anymore. Even when you were with John he was not aware. But I was aware because you both were living in the same house with me in Uruguay. I could see that your love was not authentic, was not sincere, was not human. And you were...

... is the fullness of love. You can love a beggar and be absolutely fulfilled, and you may love an emperor and still remain empty. Money cannot do any transformation in your being. So whenever you ask questions be very clear and very sincere. Write down the actual facts, because it is not possible for me to know about everybody"s actual facts. I can answer your question without knowing the actual...

... facts and my answer will not be of any use. You are intelligent, you are capable of love, but you are spoiled. Because you are intelligent and you are capable of love, you can easily catch hold of somebody who has money. If that remains your goal for your whole life you will suffer very badly, because youth is momentary. Soon that will be gone. And as your youth is gone, your capacity to catch rich...

... who has enough money to spend uselessly .... This is against your dignity, it is a kind of prostitution: if you fall in love with the money of a man, and the man is secondary and the money is primary, it is prostitution, it is not love. It will drive you deeper and deeper into pessimism and dark nights. And here with me at least, you have to learn to see facts as facts, because then we can deal with...

... TAKE ANY MONEY, SHE RETURNED EVERYTHING TO YOU. A:* That's true. She did not take any money from here. But she has stolen forty- three million dollars on the way, which were coming here. In my silent period she was whole and sole*. So any money that was coming from European communes, particularly Germany, she started accumulating slowly parts of that money into Swiss bank in her own name. Two hundred...

... million dollars we have put in making this desert an oasis, and it needs more because it is a big desert. To make it all lush green, one hundred twenty-six square miles, immense money will be needed. It will be coming. So she has not stolen from here, she has stolen from German communes. The money that was to come here never reached here. So you cannot find here anything missing in the books. It never...

..., that, "We have saved money in Switzerland in case You have to leave America." I said, "There is no question of my leaving America. And without asking me, you have some nerve to accumulate money for me. In whose name it is?" It is in the name of Sheela and Savita. Savita was the second. I asked, "What is the bank? And what is the account number? And how much money you have got...

... there?" She said, "I don't remember." Nobody forgets forty-three million dollars. And she said, "Tomorrow morning I will be bringing the whole detail." And she promised to President Prem Hasya that she will give every detail and authorization, because the money belongs to the commune, but next day morning she escaped without giving any information. So we don't know the bank...

... bank and what is the number and how much money exactly is there. There can be more money because she has not been Sheela's secretary for long. If in her time it was forty-three millions, now it must be double the amount. We have informed, and once she comes she can give her affidavit to the police. Now it is their work. We don't want to take law into our own hands. It is their work to find out and...

... inquire. But she has not taken anything from here. Q:* WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL SHE DO WITH THE MONEY? WILL SHE TRY TO OPEN UP OR TO BUILD A NEW COMMUNE, AND WOULD YOU SEE THAT AS A COMPETITION? A:* What she knows about opening up a commune? She was a waitress when she came to me and she will end up as a waitress in some third-rate restaurant in Switzerland. She cannot open up a casino that she desires...

..., because if she opens it, then immediately she will be caught: from where she got the money? She comes from a family who has not forty-three million dollars. She is uneducated. She has not earned any money. So she cannot use that money suddenly. Otherwise, immediately she will be in the public eye. So she will have to start as a waitress. That's where she belongs. Q:* SHE SAID THAT THERE ARE ONLY THIRTY...

... separate from desire. Desire means a longing, a great longing, to expand, to become huge, to be enormous -- as huge as the sky. Just watch people, watch desires, and you will understand what I mean. Even in your ordinary desires, the basic thing is present. In fact what the man who wants to have more and more money really wants is not money but expansion, because money can help you expand. You can have a...

... bigger house, you can have a bigger garden, you can have this, you can have that -- your territory will be bigger, your freedom will be bigger. With more money you will have more alternatives to choose from. The man who is after money may not know why he is after the money. He may himself think and believe that he loves money, but that is only on the surface of his consciousness. Go deeper into his...

... unconscious, help him to meditate, and you will be surprised and he will be surprised to find that the desire for money is not really the desire for money, it is the desire to expand. And the same is the case with all other desires. Men want more power, more fame, longer life, better health, but what are they desiring in these different things? The same, exactly the same: they want to be more. They don't...

... want to remain confined, they don't want to be limited. It hurts to feel that you are definable, because if you are definable then you are just an object, a thing, a commodity. It hurts that you have limitations, because to have limitations means to be imprisoned. But all these objects of desire, sooner or later, disappoint. Money becomes possible one day, and yet expansion has not happened; you may...

... have a little more freedom of choice, but that does not satisfy. The desire was for the infinite, and money cannot purchase the infinite. Yes, you have more power, you are more well-known, but that doesn't really matter in the long run. Millions of people have lived on this earth and were very famous, and now nobody even knows their names. Everything has disappeared into dust -- dust into dust, not...

... even traces are left. Where is Alexander the Great? What is he? Would you like to be a dead Alexander the Great or an alive beggar? Ask yourself, and your being will say it is better to be alive and be a beggar than to be dead and be an Alexander. If you watch carefully, money, power, prestige -- nothing satisfies. On the contrary, they make you more discontented. Why? -- because when you were poor...

... there was a hope that one day the money was going to happen and all would be settled and settled forever, and then you would relax and enjoy. Now that has happened, and there seems to be no sign of any relaxation. In fact, you are more tense than before, you are more anxiety-ridden than before. Money has brought a few blessings, but in the same measure it has brought many curses too. You can have a...

... bigger house, but now you will have less peace. You can have a bigger bank balance, but you will also have a bigger madness, anxiety, neurosis, psychosis. Money has brought a few things which are good; in the wake of it many other things have arrived which are not good at all. And if you look at the whole thing, the whole effort has been a sheer wastage. And now you cannot have even the hope that the...

... poor man can have. The rich man becomes hopeless. He knows now the money will go on increasing and nothing is going to happen -- just death, only death. He has tasted all kinds of things; now he only feels a tastelessness. A kind of death has already happened, because he cannot conceive of how to fulfill that desire for expansion. But desire in itself is not wrong. The desire for money, the desire...

... to change the object. Don't go after money, start going after God. You are frustrated with money -- become religious, go to the church, to the temple, to the mosque. Let your desire have a new object called God, which is as illusory as the object called money, even more illusory, because what do you know about God? Money at least is something visible, objective; you have known it, you have seen it...

... king. Seeing the futility of money, seeing the futility of all kinds of relationships, seeing the futility of all that the world can give -- he was only twenty-nine years old -- he escaped. He did well, because after thirty it becomes more difficult, more and more difficult. Hippies are right. They say, "Don't believe a man who is over thirty." Buddha escaped at the right time -- he was...

... money, desiring power, desiring prestige -- mind knows about desires for objects. When the objects are no more there, desire is no more part of the mind. Then desire is beyond mind; then desire is simply an overflowing energy. William Blake says desire is energy and energy is delight. I have heard a rumor that Sargama, one of our sannyasins, is a direct descendant of William Blake. We have beautiful...

... SAHASTRANAM, THE ONE THOUSAND NAMES OF GOD, ARE WORTH SINGING; ONLY THE FORM OF VISHNU IS WORTH MEDITATING UPON INCESSANTLY. ONE SHOULD ALWAYS SEEK THE COMPANY OF GOOD PEOPLE, ONE SHOULD GIVE MONEY TO THE POOR ONLY. ONE INDULGES WITH WOMAN FOR PLEASURE, BUT WHAT A PITY THAT IN THE END ONE ONLY HAS A WORN-OUT BODY. ALTHOUGH DEATH IS THE ONLY CERTAINTY IN THIS WORLD, PEOPLE DO NOT STOP SINNING. MONEY IS...

... DISASTER - ALWAYS CONTEMPLATE OVER IT. THE TRUTH IS THAT THERE IS NO HAPPINESS IN MONEY AT ALL. IT HAS BEEN SEEN EVERYWHERE THAT THE RICH MAN IS AFRAID EVEN OF HIS OWN SONS. PRANAYAM AND PRATYAHAR, INTELLIGENT DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN TRANSIENT AND INTRANSIENT, DISCIPLINING OF SAMADHI WITH JAPA - DISCIPLINE ALL THESE WITH CAUTION, WITH GREAT CAUTION. TOTALLY SURRENDERED TO THE LOTUS FEET OF THE MASTER...

... happiness. When you are in search of money, even that is for moksha. You think that with money you will get a little freedom, you will be able to move about a little. The poor man's sky is small; a rich man's sky seems to be a little bigger, more convenient. But when you get money you find that your space, your sky, has become even smaller than the poor man's sky. The money has not given you any freedom...

..., it has become a bondage. Now you cannot even give it up. There are stories about wealthy people, that after their death they become serpents and they guard their treasures. It is not necessary to know what happens after their death because the fact is that even when they are alive they guard their wealth like serpents. Those who have money are always afraid of losing it, they are always guarding it...

.... They do not enjoy it. They are not even the masters of their money; they are just guarding it. Very seldom does one come across a wealthy man who is really the master of his wealth. A poor man may be the master of his poverty, but the rich man is not the master of his money. If you watch carefully you will find that man wants money for freedom, he wants position for freedom. If you have position...

.... We are always afraid of losing whatever we have. If we have money, then we are afraid of losing money. If we have love, then we are afraid of losing love. Because of this fear, freedom becomes impossible. The flower of freedom blossoms only in a state of fearlessness. The only yearning one has is for freedom. Everyone's inner search is for liberation. Wherever you get this freedom, you will be...

... means to keep yourself involved and occupied. Psychologists say that we will have to find such types of work which may not be of any utility but which will be given to people who cannot sit idle. And a unique idea has come to their minds. The government will give money to the people who are ready to sit idle; it will pay you for sitting idle! But those who work will not get pay, because two things...

... anger mean? When someone puts obstacles in the path of your desires which you think will bring you pleasure, you get angry. When you are trying to earn money and somebody is creating obstacles, then anger will be born. You are trying to get married to a particular woman and someone is putting obstacles in the way, then anger will be born. You were about to win the election when somebody else also...

... money. The whole world wants to have money. The day desire arose to gain money, you became the enemy of all those people who were also having the desire of gaining money. The seed of enmity is sown from that moment. Anger follows desire immediately. It may take years for its expression, but the journey has started. When you ask for something, when you desire something, anger is born. This anger is so...

... is natural. In that moment one becomes aware who one is. ONLY THE GITA AND THE SAHASTRANAM, THE ONE THOUSAND NAMES OF GOD, ARE WORTH SINGING; ONLY THE FORM OF VISHNU IS WORTH MEDITATING UPON INCESSANTLY. ONE SHOULD ALWAYS SEEK THE COMPANY OF GOOD PEOPLE, ONE SHOULD GIVE MONEY TO THE POOR ONLY.... OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE. Until all the four disappear and you can ask in your...

... inner space without words "Who am I?"... until then go on singing the Gita and the thousand names of the divine. Go on meditating on the form of Vishnu, be in the company of good people, give money to the poor - distribute as much as you can, and hear as much about truth as possible. Sing the songs of the divine. Go on making all these preparations until the arrival of that moment. ONE...

... people do not give up sinning. Everyone has to die yet they are always ready to sin for a very small amount - as if they are going to live here forever, as if it will be very inconvenient for them to live here forever without this paltry sum of money. People think that the waitingroom of the railway station is their home. They arrange their luggage in such a way as if they are going to live here...

... and less as you go on remembering death. That is why I consider the remembrance of death as a good deed. Sin becomes impossible in the life of a person who remembers death. MONEY IS DISASTER - ALWAYS CONTEMPLATE OVER IT. THE TRUTH IS THAT THERE IS NO HAPPINESS IN MONEY AT ALL. IT HAS BEEN SEEN EVERYWHERE THAT THE RICH MAN IS AFRAID EVEN OF HIS OWN SONS. THEREFORE, OH IDIOT! ALWAYS SING THE SONG OF...

... enjoyed it. He would not have been able to attain such great riches even if he had worked for hundreds of lives. Suddenly he got it without any effort - but he was not happy. He wanted more. Just money was not enough, he wanted to become a great leader too. And he had the money, so he fought the election and became a member of parliament. But that was not enough. Again more: he wanted to be a cabinet...

... minister. Because of his money he managed to become a deputy minister - but that was not enough. He told me, "I want to be a cabinet minister." I said, "Do you think that will be enough?" He said, "I think so." I said, "Right now you think so. Once you become a cabinet minister, you will not think the same way." He became a cabinet minister, and immediately when he...

... to the mind. As a poor man you were so happy, so joyous. You had nothing, but you had a beautiful being. I am not saying throw away your money. Just don't let your mind dominate you. Then wherever you are you will be peaceful." If your mind dominates you, even in paradise it will say, "This is paradise? - there must be something more!" All the houses look so old and rotten and used...

... needed - so God becomes the father. I know why they have not made God a mother. I know from my own experience that my mother would hide me in the house when my father was searching for me because I had done something and he was very angry. When my father would refuse to give me any money because I had done something that he had prohibited, my mother would manage to give me money. So I know that the...

... life? He may become a painter, he may become a musician, he may become a dancer - which are not very profitable professions - or he may become just nobody, a vagabond, enjoying his freedom. One of my friends, a very intelligent man I know, had a doctorate in philosophy, but he never worked. He always cheated people, borrowed money from this one and that one. He had a few things in him which attracted...

... people: he was a good card player, a good chess player, a good drinker, things like that. He would never get drunk; you could go on giving him drink and he would remain in his senses. He was a very friendly and loving person, so wherever he went he would always find friends from whom he would borrow money. I asked him once - because he used to come once in a while, when there was nowhere else to go he...

... always find somebody else who is willing to be deceived. If nobody deceives him he will feel bad, I tell you!" He is still doing that. He has become old and he has learned even more tricks. He is still doing the same, and the people he has deceived do not think badly about him, they understand him. "That man has so many qualities that if he has deceived us for a little money it is not bad. If...

... he had worked he would have been earning more money. If he had just been a showman showing his tricks with cards and other things, like our work, he would have earned more." Nobody felt hurt that he deceived them; in fact everybody knew that he was going to borrow money and never return it, because he had no money, no sources of income. I was the only person he never borrowed money from. He...

... said, "I will not borrow money from you because there are bad days in business and I need a shelter. You are my shelter - so I can at least come to the house, and food and everything is available, and I can rest here before I find new victims." So he used to come once or twice a year and stay one or two weeks, and then he would start moving again. He had no address; all his letters used to...

... leader, their chief priest, is in direct connection with God. So if you want to transfer any money from this world to the other world, you give it to the priest and he will give you a note saying, "I have received one million dollars" - or something - "from this man, and it should be given to him when he reaches heaven." The chief priest gives the note with a seal, and that note is...

... put with the dead man when he goes into his grave. Can you believe that? I used to stay in a house that belonged to the same sect. I said, "Do you think there can be more conmanship than what this priest is doing?" My friend said, "There is no conmanship; the money really reaches to the other place. People earn for their whole lives, save their money so they can have an account in the...

..., but I can dig." I brought out that receipt and showed him, and I told him, "The receipt is here. The bank account has not been transferred." He said, "My God, but we have all been believing.... I am not alone; thousands of followers all do this when they die. Before death they give as much money as they can." So one thing: the priests are the most cunning people in the world...

...; sometimes thinking perhaps it is money, sometimes thinking perhaps it is power, sometimes thinking perhaps it is prestige, sometimes thinking perhaps it is respectability. Inside you god is hidden The intelligent man first searches his own being before he starts a journey in the outer world. That seems to be simple and logical -- at least first look inside your own house before you go searching all over...

... certainly are of the greatest value -- although they don't have any price. You are not poor. Just not to have money does not make a man poor; not to have power, not to be a president or a prime minister of a country, does not make a man poor. What makes a man poor is not to have a soul. And your soul is so full of songs, so full of dance, so full of laughter -- there is no question of your feeling ashamed...

.... You have given to me the richest gifts that anyone can give. But perhaps you have not thought of it in this way. There are some of the richest people in the world who are so poor inside that all their money cannot make any difference. Their money is outside, and their poverty is inside -- anything from the outside cannot destroy the inner poverty. The inner poverty is destroyed only by inner values...

...? Everyone has gone mad down there since I left. I come back, and what do I find? The Jews are fighting, and the Germans are making money!" Certainly Adolf Hitler must have been shocked. His old idea, that Jews make money and Germans fight, is no longer relevant. Now Jews are having a tough fight and Germans are making more money than anybody else in Europe. Milarepa, you also have the old idea that...

... they have all the money the world can afford... but the money cannot purchase love, the money cannot purchase peace, the money cannot purchase silence, the money cannot purchase prayer, the money cannot purchase God. So what is the use of it? Their inner being remains dark, empty. And it is the inner being that counts finally, because death will take away everything else and leave you only with that...

... to be the same, but in fact, because language is created by unconscious people, they cannot make the fine demarcations. Self-consciousness simply means ego consciousness and self-awareness means soul consciousness. Your ego is a false entity. Because you have so much money, because you have so much power, because you are born in a very respected family... your education, your position in life...