But in the twentieth century, in this last part of the twentieth century, in one of the most educated and sophisticated countries like England, most of the people believe that it is a punishment sent by the lord to Bishop Jenkins! If this is God’s archery then I don’t think any man is a lesser archer than him. You won’t miss by two hundred miles! Even that idiot who discovered the right way was far more intelligent than this God.

But why do people go on believing in such things? It is not without reason. The reason is that all these things are giving meaning to their lives. A God above makes you feel safe, secure. If there is no God then the whole sky is empty, and you are left alone. You are so tiny, and the emptiness is so vast. Fear is bound to strike you – just to think of the emptiness of the sky, which is infinite, because there cannot be any boundary anywhere. The old religions all believed there is a boundary, but that is absolutely illogical. A boundary means there must be something beyond it, otherwise how can you make a boundary? Yes, you can make a boundary around your house because of the neighbor’s house. You can create a fencing around your house because the earth continues beyond your fencing.

But if you are creating a fencing where the earth ends, and there is nothing else beyond your fencing, your fencing will fall into the emptiness. How will it be supported from the other side? To create a boundary, two things are needed; one on this side and one on the other side.

Obviously existence cannot have any boundary.

It is fearful to conceive infinity, the emptiness continuing forever and ever. You will never come to a point where you can say, “Now we have reached the end.”

There is no end and there is no beginning.

Now, think of a story which has no beginning and no end. It was one of my pastimes…. I have never been much interested in novels, but once in a while when I had nothing else to read I had my own way of reading a novel – just from the middle, because that gave it some authenticity. With no beginning, you have to work out what must have preceded because you start suddenly in the middle. And I would never go to the end. Again I would stop halfway – halfway through the second half First I would try to figure out what the beginning could be and what the end could be; then I would start reading from the beginning.

And I was puzzled that I always managed to figure out the beginning and the end. I never missed, not only in details but on all the basic points, because it is a man – created thing, and the mind works in a certain fashion. It has a routine way of working. If this is the middle, created by a human mind, and if I understand the human mind, I can figure out what the beginning will be and what the end will be.

Yes, if the book is written by a madman, then certainly I am not be able to figure it out. But madmen don’t write books. That is very compassionate of them. But in fact if they start writing books, their books will be far more interesting than the books written by scholars, intellectuals, because the intellect has a certain pattern of work.