Those nine months were of tremendous silence, rest, warmth. There were no worries, no problems. You were fed, you were taken care of, and everything was absolutely automatic. You were surrounded by warm water and the womb was keeping you in a very cozy space, protected, safe, secure. Those nine months are still there in your unconscious, hence there is a desire to go back to the womb. That is part of nostalgia; in fact, that is part of what you call love.

The man trying to penetrate the woman is nothing but a search for the womb – much changed, but deep down still the same search. Every man is looking for the mother and unless your woman fulfills the role of your mother you will not be happy with her.

Now, you are asking for something impossible, hence there is so much unhappiness in the world. You are asking your woman to be your mother and yet be your woman – young, very alive, beautiful and yet at the same time motherly. Now, she cannot do both things. If she has to be very beautiful according to your criterion of beauty, if she has to be very young, then she cannot be your mother. If she tries to be your mother, then she will no longer be beautiful; then she will not be a Sophia Loren. Then she will be like my Sushila – she is a perfect mother! You can find the mother, but if you are asking for a Sophia Loren in Sushila, then there is going to be trouble! What can she do? She cannot do both. And Sophia Loren will look good in the films, but she cannot be a mother to you. She cannot give you that warmth – she does not have that much fat. From where will she give you warmth? She is bony!

Don’t ask a woman to be both a model and a mother. But that’s what everybody is asking. And every woman is asking the same from the man, to be a dad and to be a lover. No man can fulfill both roles, it is almost impossible. Hence you will be frustrated this way or that; frustration is bound to be there.

The search is for the womb. You may not like the word womb, but that’s your misunderstanding. Nothing is wrong in Freud using the word, but you have misunderstood it.

Punya has sent me a joke. She says, “This is a real joke. I heard it on the main street of the commune between the bookshop and the restaurant.”

One sannyasin said to another sannyasin, “What I can’t stand about this place is, wherever you look, there are queues.”

The other said, “What? Jews?”

This is your misunderstanding.

Mr. Gold had been married for many years when he had to go to Paris for a business trip.

In that city of love, he easily fell victim to the amorous advances of the pretty mademoiselles. But somehow Mrs Gold found out about it. She wired her husband at his hotel, “Come home! Why spend money there for what you can get here for free?”

The next day she received a cable in reply: “I know you and your bargains!”