Temples and churches and mosques that we have built all over the earth have succeeded in creating this illusion, this deception. People sitting in and around them possess nothing but illusions. At the most they can believe in God, but they cannot know him. And believing is not worth any more than talking. We can believe if the talk is convincing enough. If someone argues forcefully and proves the existence of God and we cannot prove that he does not exist, then we feel defeated and we begin to accept God. But believing is not knowing; however much we may convince the blind man about the existence of light, he cannot know light and he cannot see.

I am here with the understanding that knowing is possible.

Undoubtedly there is a center inside us which is lying dormant – a center which once in a great while a Krishna comes to know and begins to dance in ecstasy, which a Jesus comes to know and cries from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing!” Certainly a Mahavira comes to know of this center, and because of this center a Gautam Siddhartha becomes Buddha – the awakened one. Definitely there is a center – an eye, an ear – which is lying asleep. And I am here especially to help you to awaken this center.

Here is an electric bulb shedding light on us all. If you cut the wire that connects it with the powerhouse it will cease shedding light, although the bulb will remain the same. If the electric current fails to reach the bulb, there will be darkness in place of the light here. It is the same bulb, but it has become inactive since the current is not passing through it. And what can the poor bulb do if the current does not reach it?

There is a center inside each one of us through which godliness is known, but because the life force does not reach that center it is lying dormant, inactive, asleep. Even if your eyes are normal and healthy, they will be useless if the life force does not reach and activate them.

A young woman was brought to me by her relatives. She had fallen in love with a young man. When her family came to know of it, they came in the way of their meeting each other and they erected a wall between them – a real wall. We have yet to create a good world in which no walls will be raised between a pair of lovers. The family stopped all contacts between the girl and her boyfriend. The girl belonged to a respectable family and her lover lived next door and they usually saw each other from the rooftops of their houses. So literally a wall was erected to prevent their meeting.

And the day the wall was erected the young woman suddenly went blind.

In the beginning the parents were suspicious; they thought she was pretending blindness. They berated her and threatened to beat her. But blindness is not cured by threats. Then doctors were consulted who said that her eyes were okay, but they also said that she was not lying; she was really unable to see. They said that they could not do anything about it; it was a kind of psychological blindness. The life force had stopped reaching her eyes, it had been blocked. That is why she went blind, although nothing was physically wrong with her eyes.