Look at children: they are more alive. Why? And why is an old man not so alive? It is not only a question of aging. The basic question is deeper. The child is alive because the child is living in a mystery: everything is mysterious for him – everything. The seed is sprouting. The child looks at the seed sprouting: it is so mysterious that he cannot believe that it can happen. A bird has alighted on a branch and is singing: it is so mysterious. The clouds moving in the sky and the rain falling, everything is mysterious. The child lives in a wonderland; hence, the aliveness – because everything is a challenge. Life is not flat, life has nooks and corners that are undiscovered. The child goes on jumping, inquiring, looking at everything. Everything is so mysterious because the child is ignorant.

Back in the days of the Upanishads everyone was so alive, everything was mysterious. There was wonder, and when there is wonder you are alive because there is a challenge outside to penetrate the mystery. Science goes on killing mystery; it goes on explaining everything. Whatsoever you do, there is an explanation – and once explained the mystery is gone, everything becomes flat. With nothing to discover there is no challenge. And when there is no challenge life subsides; it cannot dance, it cannot explode. There is nothing.

For these three centuries, humanity has been made so poor – unimaginably poor. Science has explained the world of things and psychology has tried to explain the world of the mind. If you fall in love it is a mystery. But go and ask Freud and he will explain the whole thing. He will say that this is nothing, just hormones in the body, and “Do not get too serious about it. It is just chemicals working – just particular hormones forcing you to be in love. This is nothing to get mad about. Those hormones can be pulled out of your body and the love will disappear, or an injection can be given of those hormones and you will fall in a deeper love. So it is hormonal. Do not get too much into it.” And once explained, the mystery of love is gone.

Now they are teaching sex all over the world. It is good in a way, but only as an antidote. Because of the Victorian puritanic teachings it is good, as a reaction, to teach children about sex. But on a deeper layer it is very dangerous because once explained the mystery of sex is lost. And this is happening particularly in America where now everything is known about sex. People are becoming disinterested in it. They will get disinterested when everything is known.

Masters and Johnson, two experimenters, have penetrated the mystery of sex through electronic devices. While a couple is making love, electronic devices inside the vagina go on recording what is happening; a graph is made. While a couple is making love, devices go on working which are recording what is happening to the blood, to the breathing, to the body, to the hormones. Then the whole mystery is clear, and then they say, “This is just a mechanical thing. It happens because of these causes.”

Once the mystery about sex is gone your life will be just a boredom. While making love to your wife or to your beloved, you know what is going on. The blood pressure is changing, the hormones are running: you know everything. And then there is no need, really, to be involved in love, because love can be done by devices also.