You may be fighting in the name of religion, but fighting itself is irreligious.

Buddhism has no idea of any holy war; hence, Jainism and Buddhism have never contributed to any single war – and their history is very long. Jainism at least for ten thousand years has been in existence and has not had a single war, holy or unholy. Buddhism is also older than Christianity, five hundred years older, and has as big a membership as Christianity – because except India, the whole of Asia is Buddhist – but not a single war. There has not been a single instance of any Buddhist priest blessing any kind of war.

Wars have been there; politicians have been there in those countries too. They have been fighting – Japan and China have been fighting and both are Buddhist – but neither Japanese Buddhist priests nor Chinese Buddhist priests were in any way involved, not even by giving a blessing. These people show a little bit of courage. And the pope seems to be absolutely hocus-pocus. He has no guts.

In India, a few years back, China attacked India. For the first time in the whole history of India, a Jaina acharya, head of one of the Jaina sects, blessed the government, the Indian government. His name is Acharya Tulsi.

I had to fight against him, criticizing him; I went all over the country telling people, “this man should be defrocked and removed from his headship because he has committed a crime for which, in ten thousand years, no single Jaina priest has ever been blamed. This man is a politician – this man is not religious.”

I talked to Acharya Tulsi and I told him, “If you had any sense of dignity you would resign from the headship, because you have acted like a politician. What business was it of yours? Who has asked you to bless India against China? For a religious man, political boundaries should not mean anything. India is yours, China is yours; and if they are fighting, let them fight. You should rather pray that this war stops, that some wisdom comes to these fools – both parties. That would be religious.” And I told him, “You are acting more like a Christian pope than like a Jaina priest.”

He was angry with me, but he had no substantial argument. I said, “Anger is not an answer to me; it is simply an acceptance of defeat. And why do you go on hanging about in the capital, in New Delhi? Has this whole, vast country no interest for you? You should go out to people, and you are simply remaining in New Delhi.” There was only one reason for that: in New Delhi he had rich supporters. Jainas are rich people, and those rich people have power over politicians. Even a man like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi’s father, who was a very powerful man – even he had to come to see Acharya Tulsi, because those Jainas could give donations to his party, in millions, and they were pressuring him to come.