And when they deported me… After that the Supreme Court of Oregon declared my commune to be victorious and the party named “One Thousand Friends of Oregon” was defeated, they appealed to the Supreme Court of America and the Supreme Court also gave its decision in my favor: that the destruction of the commune and expulsion of me and my people had been absolutely undemocratic, unconstitutional. This proves an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied. Now what is the point of being victorious in the court, the highest court in America, when they have crushed everything? – destroyed the commune, which five thousand sannyasins had worked to create for five years – for ten hours, twelve hours per day –transforming a desert into a beautiful city.

It was a great experiment of brotherhood, of love, of peace – no crime, no court, no law. And five thousand people created all the roads, transformed the whole desert into an oasis. It was not a small place, it was one hundred and twenty-six square miles. It was almost a country.

What was the fear of the American politicians? The fear was our creativity, our laughter; the fear was our joy. For the first time in the history of the world, five thousand people lived as a family. Nobody asked anybody’s country or religion or caste or race. And every year twenty thousand people from around the world used to come to see this miracle. The American politicians became disturbed by the success of the commune.

There has been great research conducted by psychoanalysts on eccentric people, and their findings are very revealing. First, that eccentric people are more intelligent, more creative, more joyous than the ordinary mediocre masses; the so-called sane people are not so creative. Secondly, in every profession the eccentric person will rise higher just because of his creativity, sensitivity, intelligence.

The researchers have found that politics is the only profession where – except Abraham Lincoln – there has not been any eccentric person. It is a strange finding. The politician is very cunning, he is not clever. He substitutes cunningness for cleverness. He is not wise, because to be wise in this world is to be condemned by the masses and the politician cannot afford that.

But all the great people – the poets, the painters, the sculptors, the scientists, the mystics – they have all been eccentric. The finding is that eccentric people don’t bother about the masses; they are more integrated individuals. They live according to their own light, they have their own style. You may condemn them, but you cannot make them compromise.

This research has given me an absolute certainty about why the American politicians became so disturbed by a commune which was joyous, intelligent – singing songs with the trees and dancing with the peacocks. They became afraid because the comparison was clear, that the commune was reaching toward higher consciousness, liveliness – higher in every possible way than the ordinary masses. The politicians were going to be asked, “Why isn’t it happening in the whole world?” If it can happen in a small commune and people can live lovingly, dancingly, joyously, then what is missing in the whole world? Why are people so miserable?

Just as Jesus was crucified, my people and the commune as a whole have been crucified. Even their own constitution could not support their acts. And once something is disturbed it is very difficult to put it together again.