The rebellion was simple – every child has to go through it. A moment comes when the child has to say no, he has to insist on the no. In fact, unless a child learns to say no he will never be able to say yes; his yes will be impotent without a background of no. A fundamental no is needed as a blackboard; only on that fundamental blackboard of no can he write a beautiful yes.

God denied man his fundamental right to say no, and in that very denial he denied man’s ultimate growth to say yes. The whole story is fanatical, ugly.

Secondly: where can you drive man out to? This whole existence is the Garden of Eden! There is no other place, there is no other space, there is no other time. The whole universe is divine, so wherever you are you are in the Garden of Eden. The only thing that can be is: the idea has been implanted in man that you have to reach the Garden of Eden. You are in the garden, and the idea that you have been thrown out of the garden and you have to get back to the garden is creating your trouble, your whole misery, your whole anguish. Not recognizing where you are, you are hankering for something which is not possible, because this is the place. “This very body the buddha. And this very place the lotus paradise.” There is no other buddhahood and there is no other lotus paradise.

The word paradise comes from the Persian firdaus; firdaus means a garden – the same story, the Garden of Eden. Everybody is searching for a paradise. You can give it different names – nirvana, enlightenment, samadhi, kingdom of God, ultimate truth – you can go on giving it different names, but you will still be missing – missing not because you have been thrown out of the garden, but missing because you are in the garden and you have fallen in a deep dream-like state. The dream consists of your desires to reach somewhere else, to the peaks.

My insistence is that you are already there. Just sit silently and look around, sit silently and look within. You have never been anywhere else! Aes Dhammo Sanantano – this is the nature of things – you cannot be anywhere else.

A rose is a rose is a rose, there is no other possibility. But you can drive a rose crazy – you can put the idea into the mind of the rose that “You have to be a rose. What are you doing here? Wasting time, wasting a great opportunity. God has given you an opportunity to be a rose. What are you doing here? Swaying in the wind, dancing in the sun, taking life as fun? Be serious, be somber, become holy! Read the Koran, the Gita, the Bible,” and you will have driven the rose crazy.

It is good that roses don’t understand your language. It is good that they don’t care a bit about what you are saying. It is good that they go on doing their thing without bothering at all about your politicians, your priests, your professors. That’s why they are so beautiful, so innocent. Your priests cannot be so beautiful, they cannot be so innocent; they are bound to be cunning.