From Unconsciousness to Consciousness

Communication is through words, and communion is through silence
.So these days of silence have been immensely fruitful. Now only
those are left for whom my presence is enough, my being is
enough, for whom just the gesture of my hand is enough, for
whom my eyes are enough - for whom language is no more a need.
But today I have suddenly decided to speak again - again after
one thousand, three hundred and fifteen days - for the simple
reason that the picture that I have been painting all my life
needs a few touches here and there to complete it, because that
day when I became silent, everything was left incomplete.
Before I depart from you as far as my physical body is concerned
, I would like to complete it.
I have been speaking to Hindus, to Christians, to Jews, to
Mohammedans, to Jainas, to Buddhists, to Sikhs, to people
belonging to almost all the so-called religions. This is for the
first time that I am speaking to my own people: not to Hindus,
not to Mohammedans, not to Christians, not to Jews. It makes a
lot of difference, and only because of that difference can I
give the finishing touch to the picture that I have been
painting. What difference does it make? To you I can speak
directly, immediately. To the Hindus I had to speak through
Krishna, and I was not happy about it. But there was no other
way, it was a necessary evil. To Christians I could speak only
through Jesus. I was not at ease about it, but there was no
other way. So one has to choose the least evil. Let me explain
to you.



I do not agree with Jesus on all points. In fact, there are
many questions which I have left unanswered, because even to
touch them would have been destructive to those Christians who
had come to me. Now they are clean. People say that I am
brainwashing people. No, I am not brainwashing people. I am
certainly washing their brains - and I believe in dry cleaning!
So I can say to you now exactly what I feel; otherwise, it was
a burden on me.
To speak on Mahavira was necessary because without that it was
impossible to get any Jainas to hear me. And with Mahavira I do
not agree on all points. In fact, my disagreement is on more
points than my agreement. So I had to do a strange job: I had
to choose those points on which I could agree, and not talk at
all about those points on which I was absolutely against. And
even on the points on which I have a certain agreement I had to
manage another thing: that was to give new meanings to their
words, to give my meaning to their words. It was not their
meaning. If Mahavira comes he will be angry; if Jesus comes he
will be angry. If this whole crowd of Jesus, Mahavira, Buddha,
Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu meets me somewhere, they will all be mad at
me because I have made them say things they would never have
dreamed of. They could not. Sometimes I have even put meanings
into their words which go basically against them, but there was
no other way.
The whole world is divided. You can’t find a single man who is
clean. Either he is a Christian - he is carrying one kind of
dirt; or he is a Hindu - he is carrying another kind of dirt.
Now it is possible for me to say exactly and directly things
which may even sound bitter.

You have asked why I call my religion the first and perhaps the
last religion.
Yes, I call it the first religion, because religion is the
highest flowering of consciousness. Up to now, man was not
capable of conceiving of it. Even now, only one percent of
humanity is barely able to conceive of it. The masses are
still living in the past, burdened with the past, conditioned
by the past. Barely one percent of mankind is in a state now to
conceive of religion. All the old religions are based in fear.
Now, a real religion destroys fear. It is not based in fear."