They have their own religion. Of course Kaaba is not their holy place; it is the Kremlin. They have their own trinity. You may not call it a holy trinity, you can call it an unholy trinity. It is not God the Father, the Holy Ghost and the Son; it is Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, V. I. Lenin – the trinity, the same trinity. Karl Marx is the father, Lenin the son, and this Friedrich Engels is certainly a Holy Ghost, because his whole purpose was to supply Karl Marx all his needs.

You will be surprised to know that Friedrich Engels was one of the richest men, one of the greatest industrialists in Britain. Marx lived on his money his whole life because he never earned any. It is because of Friedrich Engels and his capitalist money that communism has come to become a philosophy, a way of life for millions of people.

Everybody teaches belief, but doubt is natural. Hence the real masters of the world…for example, Gautam Buddha, says to his disciples, “Don’t believe just because I say it is so. Don’t believe just because the holy scriptures say it is so. Don’t believe because the masses believe in a certain thing. Unless you experience, never believe in anything. Go on doubting – go on doubting to the very extreme.”

Doubt is a natural, intrinsic quality of your being; it is God-given. Use it, because it has tremendous power in it. It is an instrument to discover truth.

I will not suggest that you become deeply convinced of anything, I will suggest that you doubt and doubt totally so that you can discover truth. Doubt is not against truth, doubt is a methodology to discover truth. Doubt is not an enemy of truth but the only friend. Belief is the enemy of truth because it is belief that prevents you from discovering, from inquiring.

So the first thing I would like to suggest to you is: drop this idea of deep convictions.

Again in the end you say: “…a strong faith in you.”

Forget this language; this is not the right language – at least not in this place. In this context I respect doubt, I don’t respect belief, because my own experience is that through doubt people have discovered truth, and through belief people have remained ignorant their whole lives, they have never discovered truth.

But priests won’t say this to you. Priests are all for belief. And if you are Strongly convinced the priest is very happy because now you can be used as a fanatic fool, now you are available to the priests to be exploited.

I am not a priest, I am just a friend. I am here to explain to you how I have discovered truth. Doubt has been my own process, my own way to reach to truth. And I would like you to become more and more sharp, intelligent. Doubt more scientifically. Just as in science doubt helps you to discover. it also helps in the inward journey.

Drop condemning doubt and praising faith, belief, convictions.

You say: “I am deeply convinced that our way is to drop the ego…”

Who is this “I am”? Who is convinced? Now this is a contradiction.

You say: “I am deeply convinced that our way is to drop the ego…”