This whole evolution is a tremendous disagreement with the past.
The more intelligent you are, the more you are going to disagree.
But parents appreciate the child who agrees; they condemn the child who disagrees.
It was the practice in my family to produce me in front of anybody to condemn me. Any visitor to
the family, any guest of the family ... and I would be called. And I knew for what, but I enjoyed it. I
was called to be condemned: ”And this boy is in disagreement with everything.” In Hindi there is a
phrase for it: ulti khopdi – it means upside-down skull. So that was the phrase used for me.
I said, ”It is true, but the reality is, I look upside down to all these people because they are standing on
their heads. They are doing yoga asanas, shirshasana – headstand posture. I am simply standing
on my feet. I am the only one here who does not believe in any kind of nonsense. They are right,
because to them it must appear that I am standing upside down. And they are in the majority –
perhaps you also belong to them.
”But this is the usual procedure: they don’t answer my questions, they only condemn my
disagreement. Now this is inhuman. If you answer my question, and still I disagree, then certainly I
am stubborn. But have you answered a single question of mine? Have you satisfied me? Have you
any right to condemn me because I disagree?”
In India, at the end of the monsoon there is a festival of lights, diwali, when the whole country
becomes very festive and every house has thousands of small earthen lamps decorating all the
walls, balconies. The whole town becomes a fairyland, the whole country turns into a fairyland, with
firecrackers and great rejoicing. That day they worship money.
The goddess of money is Laxmi. Laxmi is the wife of the Hindu god, Narayana, and of course a
god’s wife should be the goddess of wealth. In fact one of the Indian words for god, iswar, means
”one who has all the wealth of the world.” His wife is the goddess of wealth. And on the night of the
festival of lights they worship money.
Before paper currency came into being they used to make a pile of silver rupees and worship them.
Now they put paper money and worship it. Before silver rupees there were golden rupees. The word
rupee simply means gold; it comes from Sanskrit. It is an Indian word ... because in the beginning
the coin was gold, pure gold, so the word rupia, which became in English, rupee, was meaningful.
They used to worship gold, then came silver, then came paper currency. And they went on ... the
question is of worshiping money. I never participated in their worship. I simply hated the whole idea
and I told them, ”This is one of the ugliest things you can do. Money is something to be used, not
worshipped. On the one hand your religions teach that money is nothing but dust. On the one hand
it is dust, on the other hand it becomes a goddess. And you cannot see your split mind?
”On the one hand you praise a man as a sage if he renounces money; then he becomes synonymous
with God because he renounced money and everything. And on the other hand you worship money.
Can you in some way help me to understand? Is there not a clear-cut contradiction?
”If money is God’s wife then in the first place the person who renounces God’s wife is a criminal. In
the first place why did he possess God’s wife? – that seems to be absolutely illegal. He should be
caught and imprisoned. In the first place was he pretending to be God’s wife’s husband?”
My father would say, ”You just keep quiet; at least let us finish our worship.”
I would say, ”No, first I want my answer.”
And I had a big stool in my house – they used to use it as a ladder for taking things up or down – so
wherever they would be worshiping, in the main hall of the house, I would sit on that stool. And they
would say, ”At least please come down. You are sitting on that stool.”
I said, ”No, I want my answers. I see so much stupidity in it, because I have seen you touching
people’s feet who have renounced money. Then you tell me that this man is great, a sage: he has
kicked all that is thought to be valuable and that needs courage and guts. But what are you doing?
If that man is right to renounce all this money, at least stop worshiping it. And you have to answer
me; otherwise my disagreement continues.”
My mother would say to me, ”On such days you should be out of the house because you don’t know
– if the goddess Laxmi becomes angry we will all starve and be hungry and die poor.”
I said, ”I have been doing this year after year, sitting on my stool. I don’t see that your goddess can
do anything. If she can, I challenge her – let her, because at least that will give me some answer.”
And when they were all finished with their worship I would go and kick their rupees, and spit on their
rupees, and I would say, ”Now this is what I wanted to do; now let us see who is rewarded.” They
could not prevent me, although they tried hard.
I said, ”You cannot prevent me. I will do what I want to do, unless you prove me wrong. And you
call me in front of everybody saying that I am in disagreement about everything. I have to be in
disagreement about everything, for the simple reason that you go on doing things that any intelligent
person would see the contradiction in.”
For example, in India, if somebody has smallpox it is not thought to be a physical disease. Smallpox
is called in India, mata; mata means mother goddess. And in every town there is a temple for the
mother goddess, or many temples ... the mother goddess is angry, that’s why poor little children are
suffering from smallpox.
People like Mahatma Gandhi were against vaccination because it was unnatural. Smallpox is
natural. It destroys so many beautiful children’s faces, their eyes, and it kills many. And the prophet
of non-violence was against vaccination because he was against anything scientific – and moreover
it was thought the disease is not a physiological disease, it is a spiritual anger.
One of my sisters died of smallpox, and I was very angry because I loved that sister more than any
of my brothers or my sisters. I told them, ”You have killed her. I have been telling you that she needs
vaccination.
”I have suffered from smallpox, but at that time I could not say anything to you; I don’t even remember
it, it happened just in my first year. And every child suffers. When this girl was born I was insisting
that she should be vaccinated. But you are all followers of Mahatma Gandhi: Vaccination is against
nature. And to prevent ... the anger of the mother goddess will be dangerous. It will come in some
other form.”
And when the girl became sick with smallpox they were doing both things: they were taking medicine
from the doctor and they were continuously going to worship the mother goddess.
I said, ”Then please do one thing at least; either take the medicine, or go and worship your mother.
But you are being cunning; you are even deceiving the mother goddess. I am honest, I spit on your
mother goddess every day” – because I used to go to the river and the temple was just on the way
so there was no harm; coming and going I would spit.
And I said, ”Whatsoever you do ... but it is strange – I am spitting, I should suffer. Why should she
suffer? And I cannot understand that the mother goddess becomes angry and small children suffer
– who have not committed any crime, who have just arrived, who have not had time enough to do
anything, nor are capable of doing anything. Others should suffer, but they are not suffering.
”And mother goddess you call her! You should call her a witch, because what kind of mother is she
who makes small children suffer? And then you are cunning. You are also not certain; otherwise
don’t take the medicine. Throw all the medicines; depend completely on your mother goddess.
There too you are afraid. You are trying to ride on two horses. This is sheer stupidity. Either depend
on the mother and let the girl die, or depend on the medicine, and forget about that mother.”
They would say, ”We can understand that there is a contradiction, but please don’t bring it to our
notice, because it hurts.”
I said, ”Do you think it hurts only you, and it does not hurt me seeing my parents being stupid, silly?
It does not hurt me? It hurts me more. There is still time, you can change; but on the contrary,
you are trying to change me, and you call it help. You think without your help I am going to be lost.
Please let me be lost. At least I will have one satisfaction, that nobody else is responsible for my
being lost; it is my own doing. I will be proud of it.”
Up to seven years, if a child can be left innocent, uncorrupted by the ideas of others, then to
distract him from his potential growth becomes impossible. The child’s first seven years are the
most vulnerable. And they are in the hands of parents, teachers, priests ....
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