Mother Teresa is doing something good on the surface only: serving the poor of Kolkata, the ill, the diseased, the old, the orphans, the widows, the lepers, the crippled, the blind. It is so obvious that she is doing something good. But basically what she is doing is consoling those people, and giving consolation to the poor, to the blind, to the lepers, to the orphans, is an anti-revolutionary act. Consoling means helping them remain adjusted with the society that exists, remaining attuned with the status quo. What she is doing is anti-revolutionary. But the governments are happy, the rich people are happy, the powerful people are happy, because she is really not serving the blind and the poor. She is serving the vested interests, she is serving the priests and the politicians and the powers; she is helping them to remain in power. She is making, creating, an atmosphere in which the old can continue.

In India no revolution has ever happened against the powerful, the rich, the wealthy, for the simple reason that it is a so-called religious country; there are so many consolers. Fifty lakhs of Hindu monks consoling people, giving them explanations why they are poor, why they are blind, why they are crippled: because of their past karmas! They have done something bad in their past lives, hence they are suffering. “Suffer silently, don’t react,” they go on teaching those people, “because if you react, if you do something again, you will suffer again in your next life. Don’t miss this opportunity, let the accounts be closed. This time behave in a good way!” And of course, to be a revolutionary is not something good. Be obedient – that is good – don’t be disobedient. Disobedience is evil, it is sin. The Christians call it the original sin.

What was the sin of Adam and Eve? – they had disobeyed God. There seems to be not much of a sin in it. Eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge is not a sin. Why should it be called the original sin? It is called the original sin because they disobeyed. To disobey is the greatest sin in the eyes of the priests.

For ten thousand years in India these priests and monks have been teaching people, “Be obedient to the system that is in power. Don’t disobey; otherwise you will suffer in your future.” Hence no revolution has happened, and the monks and priests are praised very much.

Now Christian missionaries are doing the same all over the world: serving the poor, the crippled. They are telling the poor people, “Suffer silently as it may be a test for you that God has created. You have to pass through this fire, only then will you become pure gold.” Christian missionaries are anti-revolutionary.

And why are they serving the poor people? It is because of greed: they want to get to paradise, and the only way to get to paradise is through service. Now, sometimes I wonder what will happen if nobody is crippled, blind, poor. What will happen to the Christian missionaries? How will they reach paradise? The very ladder will disappear; they will miss the boat, there will be no possibility to go to the other shore. These Christian missionaries would like poverty to continue, they would like the poor people to remain on the earth. The more poor there are, the more opportunities to serve, and of course, more people can get to heaven.

Giving the Nobel Prize to Mother Teresa is giving the Nobel Prize to anti-revolutionary acts. But that’s how it has always happened: you praise the people who somehow confirm the old, the dead, who help the society to remain as it is.