Those twenty people have escaped with her, and they will suffer unnecessarily. I would like them to come back. I have love and respect for whatever good they have done to the commune, but I cannot protect them against the law. They have to face the law. And it is better to be in prison for two, three years and come back clean, fresh – we will be welcoming them, there is no problem – rather than hiding in this place, that place, like thieves, criminals… They will destroy their own being.

Do you think they know that the door is open?

They know me, that my doors can never be closed for anyone. If they don’t know, you make them aware that the doors are open, and we will accept them without any condemnation – that is the function of the law. We will respect them for all the good that they have done – they have created this oasis out of the desert – but for whatsoever crimes they have done they have to be responsible before the law. I cannot support anybody against the law. And it is good to go to the court and confess; you may get a little concession in punishment. And after the punishment you will come out far cleaner than after hiding. This hiding will make you more criminal.

Now the forty-three million dollars are there in the bank, but they cannot take them out because wherever they will use them they will be caught immediately and asked where they got forty-three million dollars. None of them is rich. None of them can manage to show from where that money has come.

But they are not that old. They can use it to the end of their lives.

We will not allow that. My sannyasins are all over the world and they are watching their every step. The banks in Switzerland…my sannyasins are watching every bank, where these people go, what they are doing. We will not allow them…because that money belongs to German communes. It had come from Germany, it was to come here.

So it belongs to you, or to this commune.

Yes, it belongs to this commune or it belongs to German communes who had contributed, but it does not belong to any individual. This is theft, and we will not allow it. And we have our own means not to let it happen.

You declared that mala and the red clothes no longer necessary, they served their purpose. What was that purpose, and what happened that they are no longer a must?