Every religion is a lust for power. You may call it spiritual power, you may call it divine power; it does not matter. But every place, wherever human beings are, unless they are all unconditioned – which is very difficult and rare… A conditioned mind is trained for ambition, for power, to reach higher and higher, to climb to the very peak. So whenever there is a chance, your mind starts climbing the ladder.

I was in silence for three and a half years, so it was good opportunity for Sheela. I was completely absent to the commune. I was living in isolation, in silence; she alone was my communication with the commune. Whatever she informed me of, that was all I knew. What was going on in reality I came to know only when I started speaking and people started informing me.

So none of this you were aware of?

I was not aware – when it was happening, I was not aware.

Only later, obviously, when people told you?

Just within the last two days I have become…not even ‘later’. And as I became aware, I wanted to become available to the world media so that everybody else becomes aware of it so at least it does not happen in my communes anywhere else. I have hundreds of communes around the earth; one million sannyasins are involved with me.

Fifty-five million dollars in debt you mentioned.

Yes.

How do you arrive at that figure?

Just now I have been told. I never go to the office, I never have seen where the office is. It’s…

Perhaps now you’ll learn where the office is.

No, that is not my style of life. I don’t care about fifty-five million or five hundred million. I live my life in my own way. Now it is the responsibility of the people of the office, the finance department, to look after things more carefully.