The third question:

Question 3

IN AMERICA EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE TENSE AND FRUSTRATED WHILE IN INDIA EVEN THE BEGGARS APPEAR TO BE HAPPY AND CONTENTED. WHY?

BECAUSE they are beggars. They cannot afford to be frustrated. Frustration first needs a few requirements to be fulfilled: it needs affluence. Only a rich society can be tense; a poor society cannot be tense. It has nothing to do with religion, remember -- because you have been told this again and again by the Indian so-called-spiritual peddlers who go to the West. They go on talking to you and saying that India is contented because it is religious. That is utter bulls hit. It has nothing to do with religion. India is simply poor, that's why India is contented. It will be difficult for you to understand why a poor man seems to be more contented. There are basic reasons. First, a poor man has much to hope for -- that hope brings contentment. A rich man has nothing to hope for -- all that he could have hoped for is available and it has failed. He has the best kind of house, the best kind of car, the best kind of woman, the best kind of children, money in the bank -- now what?

Now he knows there is nothing to hope for. The future is dark, the future is nothing but despair; there is no light that he can live for. He knows he will go on increasing his money, but that will only be the same thing in more quantity. You have ten million dollars, you will have fifty million dollars -- but how is it going to make any difference? Ten million dollars are not making you happy -- how can fifty million dollars make you happy' You are disillusioned.

America is disillusioned -- because America, for the first time in human history, has succeeded in becoming rich. Because of this disillusionment there is tension. Life seems to be meaningless; there is no point -- why go on living? It is not accidental that Americans commit suicide more than any ode else, go mad more to. In anybody else, need psychiatrists more than anybody else -- it is just the consequence because they have succeeded.

They have fulfilled all the desires of humanity. For centuries man has been thinking how to become affluent -- as they have become affluent. You have heard the proverb: Nothing succeeds like success. I would like to change it: Nothing fails like success. When you succeed then you know what failure is: you have arrived and all is empty. You have reached the mirage. When you were in the wilderness. in the desert, the mirage was a reality -- it was an oasis, a green patch of land, and you were thirsty and you were moving, moving towards the oasis.

America has arrived. And there is no oasis at all; it was just illusory, a mirage. You are frustrated. Those who have not yet arrived, they still have hope. The beggar seems to be contented, because he can hope for tomorrow -- he still has illusions, he has still to succeed. It has nothing to do with religion; that contentment has always been there with poor people.

But the religious peddlers, they exploit the situation very much. They say 'Look at India. We don't have anything; still there is spiritual contentment.' It is not spiritual, it is not contentment, it is just that illusions are still alive. If you want a society to remain happy, make certain that it remains poor. When a society becomes rich it becomes unhappy. To me, only after that unhappiness has been felt in the guts can a man become religious -- never t fore it.

To me, America is the country where religion is possible. Not India. India has still to succeed and fail in its success -- then. Yes, Buddha could I come religious -- he was affluent, he had all.

There are many other reasons also. The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving, than in one where opportunities are abundant. The untalented never comes to know about his untalentedness unless opportunities are given. He goes on believing that he is talented, only opportunities are not available. If he was educated he would have shown to the world who he is -- but he is not educated, because education was not possible for him. But when all are educated then you suddenly see that all are educated but all are not talented. Then suddenly the difference is felt that there are geniuses and there are dull stupid people. And the stupid people are in the majority. And it is very difficult to accept that you are stupid -- it hurts.

The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid all is for not achieving, than in one where opportunities are abundant. There, the untalented t cannot escape the confrontation with an ineffectual self -- in America you cannot avoid it. In India there are a thousand and one alibis available: opportunities are not there, occasions are not there, education is not there -- you can go on believing that you are a great genius; there is nobody to destroy your belief. But when all opportunities are given and suddenly you find that you are impotent, you cannot find any alibi, great despair settles in.

That despair can become a revolution in your life if you try to understand. Otherwise you will be drowned by it: you will commit suicide. Whenever a man has all the opportunities possible, two alternatives open before him. Either he has to commit suicide -- slow or fast, that is another matter -- or he has to transform his being. Suicide and religion are the alternatives.

Religion is transforming your being: a revolution. Suicide is seeing the point that you are useless, meaningless. Why go on living? -- destroy yourself. Religion also destroys you but it creates out of destruction. Suicide only destroys you and there is no creation out of it.

America is in a suicidal grip. In India, people don't commit suicide so easily -- there is so much to hope for, opportunities are just on the way; one has to prove oneself, one has to go into life, become famous, this and that. In America all opportunities have happened -- you are suddenly stuck: either you have to transform your being, or life cannot have any meaning any more.

The less we have, the more there is to be hoped for. Hence a condition of perpetual scarcity has become the very foundation of the Indian mind. India is very afraid of becoming rich and creates all kinds of hindrances to becoming rich. India propounds philosophies which keep it poor -- Gandhism is the latest trend. If India follows Gandhism it will remain poor for ever. India goes on cherishing poverty -- it praises poverty, as if poverty is a value, a great value. The poor man is far superior to the rich man, the people who live in dirty villages are far greater than the people who live in good nice houses. The man who lives in a nice house feels guilty in India -- he is committing something very very bad, a sin. In fact he should go and live in a hut and be poor.

If you cherish poverty you will remain poor. And, I say to you, it has become a perpetual condition in the Indian mind. And the politician knows it. He talks about how India can become rich, but whatsoever he does keeps India poor -- talking is one thing, doing is completely another -- because he also knows that once people become rich they become dangerous, they become rebellious. They demand more, and the 'more' cannot be fulfilled; then they become frustrated. It is better to leave them as they are -- poor, and happy in their poverty. Rather than making them rich, make them feel good that they are doing something great by remaining poor.

Remember it always: when the Indian so-called mahatmas go to the West and talk about Indian contentment and satisfaction, it is nothing. All poor societies are contented -- it has nothing to do with India; you can go into any poor society and it is contented. The poor man has nothing to lose and much to gain. That is the beauty -- that he goes on enjoying.

And remember, it has always happened in history that whenever an advanced culture wants to become religious... and every advanced culture one day or other wants to become religious -- because through advancing, through progressing, one fails; end then religion is bound to take possession of your soul. So every progressive culture, every advanced country, one day or other starts looking for religion, for God, for meditation, for prayer. And then something strange happens: the advanced culture always has to go to look in some backward culture for religion. That has always been happening. It is strange, a strange logic -- the advanced culture always has to go to the poor and backward culture for religion.

If you want to learn science you go to the advanced -- if India wants to learn more about engineering and physics and chemistry, the Indian goes to the West. If the American wants to know about meditation, prayer, God, he comes to India. This is strange -- strange, because the advanced culture has to go further ahead to find real religion, not go back. But there is a psycho-logical reason in it: it is a kind of regression.

When you are too much in stress you tend to become childish, you go back to childhood. If a young man feels too much stress he starts falling backwards, he becomes a child. He behaves in a childish way, he starts doing childish tantrums -- he cries, he weeps, he becomes illogical. Stress gives him the idea, 'Go back. Childhood was golden, it was paradise. Go back.' But that which has been lost has been lost. One can never go back.

I am not teaching you Eastern religion, I am not teaching you Indian religion. I am teaching you a far advanced religion that belongs to the future, not to the past. That's why India is not very happy with me -- they would:l like me to teach you THEIR religion, their poverty; they would like you to be taught some kind of Indian-ness by me. They are angry at me. They are happy with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They are not happy with me, they cannot be -- because I don't give YOU THEIR tradition . I am not here to perpetuate any past. I am here to herald the new, the future. And one cannot go backwards, one can only go ahead. Going backwards is regression, going backwards is just a consolation -- it is not going to help, it will not give you growth. Growth is possible: go on, go ahead. You have become affluent. you are rich; now the problem has arisen. You have achieved what you wanted to achieve and now it is proved to your heart's desire, heart's content, that it is futile.

Now go ahead. Now become more mature -- now see the futility of immature desires, now see the futility of the immature games that you have been playing with your life. Now move inwards, now penetrate your innermost core. There is no need to go to any backward culture .

Remember, I only happen to be here in India because I have to be somewhere. I only happen to be here. When you come to me you are not coming to India -- because I don't represent India. I represent a global future. I am not confined by Indian ideas, concepts, boundaries. My vision is of the future: you have to go ahead -- materially you have become rich, now you have to become rich spiritually .

I respect richness in all its aspects -- even the material richness, because that helps you to go towards spiritual richness. I don't praise poverty in any way, neither outer nor inner. I am all for richness -- be rich materially, so that one day you are finished with that dream and your energies can move unhindered towards inner richness.

Yes, the inner world is the kingdom of God. It is a kingdom -- you have to become kings, emperors. Unless you have become a god in your innermost kingdom, you will remain unfulfilled. So this has to be understood very clearly. There are two possibilities. When you listen to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi you are listening to the past. He says he is bringing the message, ancient message of the Hindus, taught in the Vedas, and he is coming directly from the Himalayas. I have never been interested in the Himalayas, I am not interested in the Vedas, and I am not interested in any ancient message -- that is all childish, juvenile. The old and the told has to be forgotten.

I am giving you a new insight into religion. You need not be poor to be religious -- in fact you cannot be religious unless you are rich. A totally different kind of religion will arise for the first time in the world: the religion of the affluent people -- those who have all that they need, and because they have all, they know it is futile.

When you go to the Maharishi he gives you consolations, he gives you tranquilizers. You are in stress, you are in anguish, he gives you a mantra -- repeat the mantra, it will console you, it will help you to have a good sleep. A mantra is always good for producing sleep. It is one of the ancient methods to have good sleep, it creates sleep -- because a mantra is nothing but repetition of a certain word or sound. When you repeat it too much it creates boredom. Go on repeating 'Ram-Ram-Ram' -- how long can you remain unbred? And boredom is the basis of sleep. When you are bored you start falling asleep -- that seems to be the only escape from this continuous 'Ram-Ram-Ram.'

It has been done down the ages. Mothers know -- that's what a lullaby is, a transcendental meditation for the child. Mm? The mother repeats a certain line and now the child is helpless. He cannot escape, he cannot say no, he has been tucked under the blanket and the mother repeats a lullaby. And the child feels bored and bored and bored and falls asleep.

That's what you are doing when you are doing a transcendental meditation -- you are torturing yourself with a repetition. It will give you boredom; boredom will bring you sleep. It will be very consolatory -- your pace will be reduced, your speed will be reduced -- but you will not grow, not at all.

Remember, the tension has not to be reduced, the tension has to be overcome. The tension has not to be reduced, the tension has to be transcended -- you have to go beyond it, not below it. Don't be an escapist; USE all life's opportunities to go beyond them.