That’s why I speak against many things. My interest is in you, my sannyasins. I speak against politics because I don’t want my sannyasins to remain ignorant of who the real criminals are in this world. That’s why I speak against the priests and religions, because I don’t want any single loophole for you. You have to be aware who the criminals are. The problem is that those criminals are thought to be great leaders, sages, saints, mahatmas, and they are respected tremendously around the world, so you will never think that they can be criminals. So I have to insist continuously, every day.

It is for two reasons that you must become aware that these are the criminals. In fact, criminals have not done any harm to the world. Somebody murders a man, somebody steals something, it is nothing. A single Adolf Hitler kills ten million people. Now, that man has so much criminality in him that ten million criminals are needed to make one Hitler.

So I have to expose all these people because they are the causes. For example, it is easier to understand that perhaps politicians are the causes of many problems: wars, murders, massacres, burning people. It is even more difficult when it comes to religious leaders, because nobody has raised his hand against them. They have remained respectable for centuries, and as time goes on their respectability goes on growing. The most difficult job for me is to make you aware that these people – knowingly or unknowingly, that does not matter – have created this world.

Now, in the whole world they will be talking about AIDS, but this is the only place where I am saying that this is a religious disease. Nowhere else will it be said. On the contrary, the priests are saying that this is a punishment from God. And people will believe them, that it is punishment for homosexuality. But nobody will ask how homosexuality came into being, or who is responsible for homosexuality.

And people don’t have intelligence enough to connect things. They cannot connect the simple fact that it is the religions who have been teaching people to remain celibate. They are the root cause of all perversions about sex. So if anybody has to be punished it is not the homosexuals. If anybody has to be punished it is those religious leaders who have preached celibacy. Homosexuality is just a by-product of the teaching of celibacy.

The journalists get shocked because they were not thinking that I would put the blame on religion for AIDS. They don’t see. They think they are worlds apart. They are not. And unless you see the real cause, you cannot fight with the problem that has arisen.

Now, the first thing needed is that every government makes celibacy illegal, criminal. Rather than that, they are doing just the opposite – making homosexuality illegal. Homosexuality is a symptom, it is not the cause. If you make homosexuality illegal, then these people will start making love to animals, which is not illegal. And there are people who make love to animals. It is not something new, it is as ancient as man. If they cannot find a woman, if they cannot find a man, the poor animal is available. If you make homosexuality criminal, illegal, the homosexual will go into another perversion which perhaps may bring a bigger disease than AIDS. One never knows what will be the outcome of that.