Jews will not be ready to accept it, because it is not in their scriptures, but it is in the Hassidic teachings. I have loved the story, because the Hassidic mystic has proved far more intelligent than the so-called God, far more loving and compassionate than the so-called God.

Even God cannot save the world from the hands of politicians. Now you will need mystics; only mystics can create the atmosphere around the world of love and peace, of silence and joy, of song and dance; they will make life so rich that it becomes impossible for people even to think of war.

Politicians will be left alone without any support from their armies, from their scientists, from their intelligentsia, from mystics, from poets. And against all this intelligence, all their nuclear weapons will become impotent. They can create war only if unconsciously we are ready to commit suicide, if in some way we are supportive to them. It is our support that has given them power. If we withdraw our support, their power disappears. They don’t have any power of their own.

What power does Richard Nixon have now? Once he is no longer the president, nobody even bothers whether he is alive or dead, what he is doing; otherwise if he had just a little cold it was headline news. Now if he wants his name to be in the newspapers again, the only way is to commit suicide. But he will not be able to see it; others will read it – and that too in a small corner on the third page of the papers. Who cares about people who are no longer presidents, no longer prime ministers? It is our support that gives them power.

There is time enough to withdraw our support; there is time enough to create a non-political humanity. And the times are such that it is possible. In ordinary times you cannot convince people to withdraw their cooperation from the politicians, but the times are abnormal and every day the war keeps coming closer. In this moment, people can choose very easily not to cooperate, because cooperation simply means committing suicide.

So one thing: make people’s lives more joyous so that even the unconscious desire for suicide disappears from their being. And second, make them aware the power is in your hands, and if the war happens and life disappears from the earth, you will be responsible, not the politicians. They are simply puppets. We give them power and then the puppets start behaving like masters. Withdraw the power and you will see that their size goes on becoming smaller and smaller and smaller, and they will disappear. They don’t have any power of their own; it is your power given to them.

For that there is enough time. And it is a great challenge, a very adventurous time. When the world is facing suicide, the possibility is that the world can be convinced – not intellectually but through your growing hearts, your love – to let the old world die and a new world with new values be born.

You won’t have such an opportunity again. In the past there was never such an opportunity. It is not to be missed.