The Last
Testament Volume 6 - Chapter 5
Q: What did you learn on your just
completed world tour?
A: With great pain in my heart
I have to convey to you that man, as he is today, is not worth fighting for.
I have come home with dreams
broken, fictions destroyed, hopes shattered.
What I have seen is the
reality, and what I had been thinking all my life about man was only his mask.
I will give you a few examples
because the whole world tour would take almost a month to relate to you. So I
will give only a few significant points which can indicate... Before me, from
the East, Vivekananda, Ramateertha, Krishnamurti and hundreds of others have
gone around the world, but no one was once condemned by the whole world the way
I have been condemned - because they all behaved politically.
In a Christian country they
would praise Christianity, in a Mohammedan country they would praise
Mohammedanism. Naturally, in a Christian country if a man from the East, who is
not Christian, praises Jesus Christ as highly as he praises Gautam Buddha,
naturally Christians are happy, immensely happy. And none of these people have
converted any Christians from the West to the Eastern vision of things, the
Eastern way of life.
Meanwhile, the West has been
sending its missionaries and converting millions of Eastern people to
Christianity. Perhaps I was the first person who has converted thousands of
young, educated, intelligent people into the Eastern way of thinking and
living. And that shocked the religious vested interests in the West, the
political vested interests in the West to such an extent that it was
unbelievable. I would not have believed it myself if I had not gone on the
world tour.
The whole of Europe has a
parliament and that parliament has decided that my plane cannot land on any
airport in Europe. The question of my entering their country does not arise - I
cannot even land my plane for refueling on their airport. And the reason has
been given that I am a dangerous man. I cannot see the logic - refueling my
airplane, what danger can I do to a country in fifteen minutes?
In England, I arrived at eleven
in the night. The pilot's flying time was finished and he had to rest for
twelve hours, and they wouldn't allow me to rest in the airport. I told them,
"In the airport, special facilities are made for transit passengers who
will be staying for a few hours and will leave. I am not entering
England."
But they said, "We are
sorry. Orders from above are that "this man is dangerous, he can destroy
your religion, he can destroy your morality, he should not be allowed in the
country."
I said, "I am not entering
the country. The airport is not the country. And in taking five, six hours of
sleep at the airport I cannot conceive how I can destroy your morality and your
religion and your tradition. And if it is possible that a man, just by sleeping
in the first class lounge at the airport for six hours, can destroy a religion
and morality which has been preached for two thousand years, then it is worth
destroying."
On the second day, in the
British parliament, the question was asked, "Why was he prevented?"
And the same answer was given:
that I am dangerous to morality, to religion, to tradition. The strange thing
is that in the whole parliament not a single member asked, "What can a man
do in the middle of the night, tired, sleeping, and leaving again at six
o'clock in the morning? In what way can he destroy your Christianity which you
have been preaching - conditioning each child from his very childhood - for two
thousand years? If your two thousand years of teaching can be destroyed in six
hours, then there must be something wrong with your teaching."
Even countries where I was not
going, their parliaments decided that I should not be allowed into the country.
One small country, Uruguay,
allowed me to enter because the president had been reading my writings,
listening to my tapes - a young man, intelligent. He gave me a six months' visa
to stay, he wanted to see me. But the moment I entered Uruguay, American pressure
became tremendously hot and the American president told the Uruguayan president
that if I was not thrown out of Uruguay within thirty-six hours then all the
loans that had been given to Uruguay in the past, billions of dollars, would
have to be paid back immediately.
If they could not be paid, then
the rate of interest would be doubled from tomorrow.
Secondly, America
said,"All the agreements that are being made for the coming five
years" - which again amounted to billions of dollars of loans to Uruguay -
"are cancelled. You can choose, you are free. You can have this man or you
can have our support."
You will be surprised, it was
reported that the president, with tears in his eyes, said, "Rajneesh's
coming to Uruguay has at least given me one insight: that we are not
independent."
I had to leave within
thirty-six hours, because a poor country like Uruguay cannot manage to pay the
billions of dollars they owe from the past, nor to be cut off from future
loans. I told the president of Uruguay, "You need not be worried, I can
understand the condition. You will feel bad if you deport me. I am leaving on
my own so you will not feel bad." And as I left, the president of Uruguay
received an invitation from Washington to meet President Ronald Reagan. He was
given a great welcome and a three hundred and sixty million dollar immediate
loan, for which there was no agreement made before - a reward.
The old slavery has disappeared
it seems; politically, humanity seems to be no longer a slave. But a far deeper
slavery, economic slavery, has entered in.
I moved around almost the whole
world and in every country the same situation was repeated, again and again. I
would reach the country, and before me, an American plane would arrive to
contact the president or the prime minister and inform him of the danger.
The president of Uruguay told
me that it would be better for me to stop my world tour, because he was
concerned about my life. What he had heard in the White House is that they have
a contract with a professional assassinator for half a million dollars, if he
can kill me. A single man without any arms, and the biggest, most powerful
country in the world is so afraid?
The attorney general of America
told the press that he does not want to hear my name, does not want to see my
face in any newspaper, in any news magazine; he does not want to know whether I
am still alive or dead. I should be completely erased. And what crime have I
committed? Just to think is the greatest crime; and to show people that they
are wrong is the greatest crime.
I was in Greece at the
invitation of the president of Greece. I accepted the invitation because I
wanted to see who the people are who killed a man like Socrates.
In the East we have worshipped
Gautam Buddha - they were contemporaries.
Both Budddha and Socrates have
the same qualities of tremendous intelligence, both have the consciousness to
raise man to higher planes of being. We worshipped Gautam Buddha and Greece
poisoned Socrates. I wanted to see what kind of people these are.
A one month visa was given to
me, and within fifteen days the archbishop of Greece declared that if I was not
turned out of Greece that very moment, then he was going to burn me alive with
all my friends in the house where I was a guest.
I was asleep at the time when
the police arrived. Just two weeks - only two more weeks I was going to be
there. My secretary in Greece told the police, "You sit in the waiting
room and I will wake him up, let him wash his face and change his
clothes."
They would not wait for five minutes.
They said, "We will burn the house. We have brought dynamite," and
they showed dynamite.
And they threw the girl who was
my secretary from a high platform to the gravel road, dragged her to the police
car without any arrest warrant, without any reason. Her only fault was that she
had said to the police, "Please wait five minutes so I can wake him
up."
I woke suddenly, I could not
believe what was happening - because I don't have nightmares. It seemed as if
bombs were exploding, because the police had started throwing stones at doors,
at windows; they threw rocks in to the house. I rushed down, I inquired,
"What is the matter?"
And they said, "You have
to leave this very moment because the archbishop of the Orthodox Christian
church does not want you to be here."
I said, "There is no
problem. I did not come on my own, I have been invited. This is an insult to
the president of Greece, and to me it is a confirmation that you are the people
who must have killed Socrates. Because I have been here only two weeks and have
never left my house. Socrates had been here his whole life. In twenty-five
centuries you have not changed, you are still brutes."
I went around the world, there
was experience after experience of the same kind.
All democracy is fake, all ideology
about freedom, freedom of speech, is fake; All hope that someday man will
become human seems to be a far away utopia.
I have always believed in
non-violence, believed in peace, but after this world tour I have to confess to
you that I cannot believe in peace and non-violence any more. I have been
against the third world war, but with great pain I have to tell you that
perhaps the third world war is needed. This humanity is so rotten that it
should be destroyed, at least the world should be cleaned of ugly human beings.
Existence must find some other
way to evolve human consciousness.
Scientists say that there are
fifty thousand planets in the universe where life exists. So if on this tiny
earth life disappears, there is no harm. This kind of life is not the life of
man. Darwin was absolutely wrong that man has evolved out of monkeys - man is
still a monkey. Perhaps he has fallen from the trees, that's all.
Not evolved, but fallen.
My effort from today will be
just to work for those few individuals who want to grow into meditation, into
peace, into silence; and I drop all hope for humanity and all hope for this
planet. It is in ugly hands and it is impossible to change those people because
they have all the power.
Even in my own country... just
yesterday as I entered I saw, written at the airport, "Welcome to
India." I had no luggage, I had nothing to declare except myself, and
still I had to wait for three hours. And I asked again and again, "What
kind of welcome are you giving to an Indian? I am not a tourist."
This ugly bureaucracy, these
ugly governments, these ugly religions, have spoiled a beautiful planet. I have
called you simply to say that I am utterly disappointed, disillusioned. I will
live only for those people who are individually interested to evolve.
As a humanity, there is no
hope. Only one thing I can hope - the sooner the third world war happens the
better. Let us be finished with all this garbage.
Q: Do you plan to settle in
india?
A: Yes.
Q: Why did you leave in the
first place?
A: Because of you.
Q: Can you clarify that,
please?
A: I had been working in India
for thirty years, and thousands of Westerners started coming to India to listen
to me; they invited me to their countries. I thought this was a good
opportunity for the East, because the West has always dominated the East; it
has made it a slave materialistically, politically, for hundreds of years. The
only answer from the East can be a spiritual conquest of the West - that's why
I went there.
They can give us bread, we can
give them soul. They can give us shelters, we can give them life.
They are hollow, there is
nothing inside them. We may be poor but spiritually we are rich. Their effort
is to make us more and more poor because only poor people can be converted to
Christianity. And they became my enemies, as a whole, because I was appealing
not to the poor, not to the orphans, not to the beggars; but to the professors,
the surgeons, the scientists, the painters, the musicians - to their genius,
their very cream.
It is a deep humiliation to
them. Otherwise it has never happened in history that the whole world should be
against a single man. I am fortunate in that way.
Q: The hare krishna movement
has not been expelled from the west. Other indian spiritual leaders have not been
denounced in the west. Why are you the only one to suffer this persecution?
A: For the simple reason that
the Hare Krishna movement has never said a single word against Christ.
On the contrary, the Hare
Krishna movement has been telling the West that Christ is only another name of
Krishna. Naturally, people are happy, there is no problem. Krishnamurti never
condemned, never criticized, any religion by name.
This was pure politics.
Vivekananda praised
Christianity as much as he praised anything else, so why should they be against
him?. But I simply say the truth, I am not saying what you want to hear. I am
saying what is the reality. I cannot say that Jesus Christ walked on water -
that is nonsense. If it is true, then the pope should at least walk on a swimming
pool - being the representative of Jesus Christ.
They say Jesus Christ is born
out of a virgin girl. This they call morality. Just the other day I was reading
a joke: A young girl, seventeen years old, became pregnant. The mother was
shocked. She took her to the doctor, the doctor examined the girl. The girl
asked the doctor, "I have never met any man. No man has ever touched me,
never kissed me - how can I be pregnant?"
The doctor went to the window,
opened the window, and looked at the stars; a few minutes passed. The mother
said, "What is the matter? What are you doing there?"
He said, "This has
happened only once, when Jesus Christ was born, but then a star appeared. I am
looking for the star again. Without a man, how can this girl become pregnant?
And I don't see any star, I don't see any three wise men from the East coming
to worship."
Scientifically, it is so
absurd. I have even challenged the pope that I am ready to argue with him in
the Vatican amongst his people. He cannot prove a single thing about Christ.
His whole religion stands on superstition: Jesus touches people and they are
healed, he makes dead people come alive. Just think of a person today who makes
dead people alive, touches people and they are healed, walks on water... will
he not be the topmost news? But in the contemporary literature of that time
Jesus' name is not even mentioned - except in the Christian BIBLE. No other
writing even mentions his name, such a man who turns water into wine; although
that is not a miracle, it is a crime.
Krishnamurti or Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi or Yogananda or Vivekananda... none of them touched these sore
spots, that's why they have not been condemned.
And this is the whole of
Christianity. We have known higher religions, we don't depend on Jesus walking
on water to be religious. Otherwise, what would have happened to Gautam Buddha?
He never walked on water. - What would have happened to Krishna? He never
walked on water. These people never raised dead people back to life. If Jesus
is the criterion of religion then all religions are meaningless. But Jesus is
not the criterion.
He is claiming that he is the
only begotten son of God. As far as I am concerned, I have been telling the
West that Jesus is a crackpot. Naturally they are offended.
Why should God create only one
son? Since eternity he has been trying and he has been able to create only one
son? and here even Indian beggars go on creating sons every year. And the way
he creates his son is not moral, it is absolutely immoral. Somebody else's wife...
you just try to make her pregnant and you will know whether it is morality or
it is immorality.
In the Christian trinity there
is no space for a woman. There is God the father, God the son, and the Holy
Ghost. Who is this Holy Ghost guy, man or woman? It seems he functions both
ways - perhaps he is a bisexual.
To see things as they are is
one thing. I am not interested in convincing anybody, I am simply interested in
bringing the truth to people, and truth hurts. Lies are very sweet. They can be
made sweeter, because you create them.
Who are the three wise men who
came to Jerusalem from the East to celebrate Jesus? Their names are not
mentioned, because even today no truly wise man will accept Christianity as a
religion.
I have heard about one famous
Japanese sage, Rinzai. A high Christian priest went to Rinzai with the BIBLE to
convert him. He opened it to the Sermon on the Mount, which is the only
beautiful chapter in the BIBLE, otherwise the BIBLE is one of the most pornographic
books in the whole word. Five hundred solid pages of pornography. If it is
called the HOLY BIBLE, then what is unholy?
He opened it to the Sermon on
the Mount, he read two lines; Rinzai said, "Stop.
Sometime in the future this man
will become a buddha, but not now."
The first two lines were,
"Blessed are the poor because they shall inherit the kingdom of God,"
and "A camel can pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man cannot
pass through the gates of heaven."
At this point Rinzai said,
"Stop."
If poverty is a blessing then
we should spread poverty. Then the more poor the world is, the more blessed.
Then more people will be in heaven. If richness is such a sin that, `the camel
can pass through the eye of a needle but a rich man cannot pass through the
gates of heaven', then all rich people should distribute their riches and
become poor beggars.
This is not religion, this is
sheer politics - a consolation for the poor, "Don't be worried, it is only
a question of a few years and you will be in the presence of God." And an
effort to prevent revolution - "Don't be angry about the rich men.
They are going to suffer in
eternal hell."
Remember the phrase `eternal
hell'. No other religion of the world believes in eternal hell. How many sins
can you commit in one life? Christianity believes in only one life. How many
sins can you commit? Even if you start committing from the very first day you
are born, and until the last breath you go on committing sins: don't eat, don't
sleep, don't do anything, only commit sin. Even then eternal punishment will
not be the right judgment.
One of the most important
philosophers of this age, Bertrand Russell, born a Christian, wrote a book
called, WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN. One of his reasons was, "I have
committed sins and I have dreamt of committing sins. If they both are joined
together, the hardest judge cannot sentence me to more than four and a half
years of jail. But eternal hell? no exit? Once you go into hell you will remain
there forever?" These are stupid things with no logic behind them.
I have been condemned because I
believe there are two types of people in the world; one which wants that the
truth should always be behind him, and the other which wants that he should
always be behind the truth. I belong to the second category. The names that you
have mentioned belong to the first category. And that is the difference between
a mystic and a politician.
It hurts, because from the very
childhood you have been brought up with a certain way of thinking. Jesus is
crucified - just think - a man who brings people alive after four days of
death! And killed by his own people... because he was a Jew, remember, he never
was a Christian, he never heard the word 'Christian'.
He was never known as Christ in
his own times because the word 'Christ' is a Greek word. Hebrew has no word
like 'Christ' or 'Christian'. And Jesus was absolutely uneducated, he had no
knowledge even of Hebrew. He spoke a small local dialect - Aramaic. He was born
a Jew, he lived as a Jew, he died as a Jew.
The boy was doing great because
he died when he was only thirty-three. Jews would have hailed him as God. If
you can hail a Satya Sai Baba just because he can produce stupid things, Swiss
watches or a holy ass, and you can worship him as God... then Jesus has really
done miracles - if he actually did them.
Jews would have respected him
forever. But they crucified him. Not only did they crucify him, but on that
day, three persons were condemned to be crucified.
And it was the convention that
every year, before the Jewish holidays began, the crucifixion would happen and
the Jews were then given a chance to pardon one of these three condemmed
persons.
Judea was under the rule of
Rome. The viceroy of Judea was a Roman, Pontius Pilate. He hoped that they
would ask to pardon Jesus because he was innocent, he had never done any harm
to anybody. He talks nonsense, he looks like a clown, he talks like a madman
saying that he is the only begotten son of God, but this is not harmful and
these are not crimes. At the most, he needs some psychiatric treatment, but not
crucifixion. Pontius was thinking that the Jews would ask for Jesus because the
other two persons were confirmed criminals; but the Jews said that Barabbas
should be released. Barabbas had murdered seven people and had committed every
crime that is possible to man.
Pontius Pilate could not
believe that they were asking for Barabbas, and not for Jesus. Can you believe?
A man who has done only good, healed people, raised the dead, had never even
been charged for speeding because he was only riding on a donkey his whole
life!.
I cannot conceive that the
miracles claimed about Jesus are true; they are all false and fictitious and
created. And now, even Christianity and the great Christian theologians are
having conferences all over the world that, "If we can get rid of these
miracles it will be good, because for the future intelligent people these
miracles will be barriers. In the past they proved him to be a god, but in the
future they will prove him to be, at most, a magician." But if you take
away all the miracles of Jesus then nothing is left.
In the East we have known
Gautam Buddha, we have known Mahavira, we have known the seers of the
UPANISHADS who have taken flights - ultimate flights, into human consciousness.
But the names you are talking about have been trying to put Upanishadic seers,
Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, in the same category as Jesus. Jesus belongs to the
category of Satya Sai Baba - not more than that; both are fake.
And there has never been any
resurrection. I have seen the grave of Jesus in Kashmir. He never died on the
cross, it was a conspiracy.
The Crucifixion was on a
Friday; starting on Saturday for three days Jews would stop all work for
Passover. So Friday was chosen by Pontius Pilate, and he delayed the
crucifixion as long as he possibly could. And you should remember a scientific
fact: that the Jewish crucifixion takes at least forty-eight hours for a person
to die because he is not hung by the neck, he is nailed to the cross by the
hands and the feet, so drop by drop the blood goes out. It takes a healthy man
forty-eight hours to die, and Jesus was only thirty-three - perfectly healthy.
He could not have died in six hours, nobody has ever died that way in six
hours. But because Friday's sun was setting, he had to be brought down and for
three days all work had to stop. This was the conspiracy.
He was taken from the cave, he
escaped, and he lived in India in Kashmir. What you see in Pundit Jawaharlal
Nehru's nose, Indhira Gandhi's nose is not very strange - they are Jewish.
Moses died in Kashmir, Jesus also died in Kashmir after living a long life of
one hundred and twelve years. I have been to his grave and it is still being
taken care of by a Jewish family. That is the only grave in Kashmir which does
not face towards Mecca; all the other graves are Mohammedan. Mohammedan graves
are made so that the head is directed towards Mecca.
And the inscription on the
grave, in Hebrew, is clear. The name you have been accustomed to, Jesus, was
not his name; that is his name in Greek. His name was Joshua and it is written
still on the grave that "Joshua, a great teacher of religion, travelled
from Judea, lived here, died at the age of one hundred and twelve years, and
lies here".
But it is strange, I have talked
all over the West, but not a single Western Christian is ready to come to see
the grave, because that will spoil their whole theory of resurrection. I have
asked them, "If he was resurrected, then when did he die? You have to
prove that." If after the crucifixion he was resurrected, then he must
either have died or he must still be around. - They don't have any description
of his death.
I was condemned because I was
simply saying what is absolutely logical, scientific, rational. The people you
are talking about were not interested in truth, they were interested in saying
things to please others. To me that is how the politician's mind is.
From the very beginning, as
soon as the child is born, he becomes a politician. He does not want to smile
at his mother but he smiles. There is no smile in his heart but he knows that a
smile pays. He smiles at the father, although he has no proof that he is his
father. From that moment a man starts learning politics - do what people like.
It is a very strange world... here leaders are followers of their own
followers.
I am not a leader, I am simply
a thinker. And I will live as a thinker to the very last moment of my life.
I have informed Ronald Reagan
not to waste half a million dollars on killing me - - just give half a million
dollars to my work and I will leave my body myself. I have not paid a single
rupee for my body and one day I will die and nobody will pay a single rupee for
it. Half a million dollars is a perfectly good price. But why give it to
somebody else and put him into trouble? I am ready to die, just give half a
million dollars to my work; and it is negotiable!
Q: When you were in Delhi and
Kulu last time there were reports that the indian government does not want you
to set up an ashram in India. Was there any truth in those reports? Do you have
any problems with the government?
A: I don't have problems with
anybody but everybody has problems with me.
The American government has
been pressuring the Indian government that I should be kept in India and I
should not be allowed to go out of India. Also no foreigners, particularly news
media people, should be allowed to reach me.
Those were the two conditions.
I cannot accept it; I never
accept any conditions. I am a free man and I would like to die a free man. Even
if it is by a bullet, it doesn't matter. But I cannot become a slave of such
conditions. What is the point of living if I am living under such conditions
that I should remain in India and no foreign disciples should be allowed to
reach me? That is almost killing me; that will be a living death.
They were going to take my
passport because I wanted to move around all the Christian countries. That's
why I left India before - to make them aware that they can kill me, but they
cannot kill my spirit.
Now I am in India again and I
will fight the Indian government if any conditions are imposed on me. Foreign
devotees will be coming to me and I will be going out of India in spite of the
Indian government. I have made my own arrangements.
And do you think this bogus
Indian government can prevent me? They should count their days - just the next
election and they will be gone.
Politicians don't have long
lives. And this politician who has exploited his own mother's assassination
will have to face reality in the next election. He doesn't know anything; just
because the mother was assassinated, the son is made the prime minister of the
country. Other than that there is no quality, no integrity, no incentive - that
man is no more than a pilot and should not try to be more. That is his training
and he should follow his own line and leave the country to people who are
wiser, who can change this country back to its golden age. What has he done?
Just thirty years ago, when I
started speaking Publicly, I spoke out against the population growth. I was
stoned, I was poisoned, a knife was thrown, attempts on my life were made by
people who thought that I was trying to prevent the growth of Hinduism.
At that time the population of
the country was four hundred million. If they had listened to me we would have
been one of the most comfortable countries in the world today, but now the
population is nine hundred million. Just in thirty years there has been an
increase of five hundred million people; and your politicians don't have the
guts to say to the people, "Stop! No more children."
Otherwise by the end of this
century we will have passed beyond one billion. For the first time in history
we will be ahead of China; up to now China has been ahead.
We will be the poorest country
in the world. Fifty percent of the population will be dying all around. Just
think... if fifty percent of the people are going to die around you. In this
room... one hundred people are present, if fifty people die...
what about the fifty who will
be living with fifty ghosts?... their life will not be much of a life.
You don't have a government,
you don't have the politicians, you don't have wise enough people who can
change the fate of this country. And this country is in immense need.
This country has the longest
heritage in the world, and the greatest heritage. We have something to give to
the world, and they want to prevent me from going out to it. Nobody can prevent
me from going out, and nobody can prevent people coming to me.
Q: Do you really think this
government should be changed in the next election?
A: Certainly. It is a bogus
government and it should be driven out. Only immature people make up government.
And just think, for forty years even the mature politicians could not do
anything and these are immature people - they cannot do anything but harm.
You have to start looking for
people of merit. And there are people of merit in the country. It is a big country
but the problem is that the man of merit, the man who is wise, the man who can
help, will not beg for votes. You will have to beg him, "Please help the
country. Come out."
These politicians are all
beggars for votes. You are being dominated by beggars and I am not in support
of it.
Q: What do you have to say
about Ma Sheela and Deeksha?
A: No. Dead is dead, and
finished is finished. I don't deal with ghosts.