Even God the Father was expecting obedience and nothing else; what to say about ordinary fathers? He was angry because of disobedience, and his anger was too great in comparison to the disobedience. The disobedience was created by him. He provoked it; he created the curiosity in the children, Adam and Eve, to eat from certain trees, by preventing them – that is the easiest way.

I lived in a place; just next to me was a very beautiful house, with a very big garden and compound, with a big wall surrounding it. And in India, such places are used as urinals. A good wall…and immediately you feel the urge. And the man was very angry. He was a retired general. He asked me what to do: “It is strange, because there are so many houses, but people go on urinating around my house.”

I said, “The reason is that you have not put up any notice.”

He said, “What kind of notice?”

I said to him, “Just put a few notices around, all over the wall: Don’t Urinate Here.”

He said, “That’s a good idea!”

He called a painter and wrote all over the wall, with big letters: Don’t Urinate Here. And from that day, anybody who passed from that road had to urinate! It was such an invitation; otherwise, one might not have been reminded. But, “Don’t Urinate”…and suddenly you feel that this is the right place. And you can see so many marks where people have already urinated. And the boards on the wall certainly show that the owner knows that people urinate here; otherwise, what is the need of putting such boards?

In one of the capital cities of India, Bhopal, I was surprised to know that people have to put small boards even in their sitting rooms – “Don’t Spit Here” – because that is the only city in India where people spit anywhere. Even in your sitting room, it is common practice. And those boards don’t prevent anybody from doing it. When I saw this I told the doctor with whom I was staying, “I have never seen anywhere in India such instructions. And here in your city, in every house…How did it start?”

He said, “I don’t know.”

I said, “Somebody must have first put up a board; spitting must have come afterwards.” It is a temptation.

In the Garden of Eden, so many trees…and God indicated to a particular tree: “This is the tree of knowledge. Never eat the fruit from it.” There was no need of any serpent to convince Eve, God convinced her himself; he is the serpent. And then the punishment for it is unbelievable. Even today we are suffering because Adam and Eve disobeyed!

Religions have created all kinds of crimes in the mind of man, just by prohibiting them. They have also created ideas which prevent man from any search. They say, “Believe” – and belief is cheap. You don’t have to do anything. Gurdjieff had to go to such extents that he started saying to people, “You don’t have souls. It is a wrong idea, implanted within you by religions, that everybody has a soul.”