In the same way, if nations are no longer there – and nations are only on the maps; the earth is not divided but the maps have become so important – more than the earth itself, more than humanity itself. In the so-called religions, the scriptures, the words have become so important that man can be easily killed for words. For the Bible, for the Koran, for the Gita, man can be killed and destroyed, as if man exists only for the Bible and the Koran and the Gita. The truth is just the opposite: all these scriptures exist for man; man does not exist for any scripture. And the same is true on the outside, in the world of politics.

The inner being of man is dominated by the priest and the outer side is dominated by the politician – and they are in a conspiracy, and it is an ancient conspiracy. They both have understood the fact very clearly: keep man divided – in states, in churches, in nations, in religions – and then you will remain in power.

These power-hungry people, these egoists, are bound to be afraid of my sannyasins, because this is something absolutely new that has never existed before. Jesus was followed only by a few Jews; Buddha was followed only by a few Hindus. My sannyasins belong to all kinds, all religions, all nations. The whole world has gathered together. It is the meeting of the East and the West.

My sannyasins are proving with absolute certainty that what Rudyard Kipling has said was wrong. He said: “West is West and East is East, and never the twain shall meet.” They are meeting! They have met! They have met in the being of my sannyasins.

Here no divisions exist – and we are not making any effort to destroy those divisions, because I am never for fighting with darkness, I am always for kindling the light. The moment the light is there, darkness disappears. That’s where I differ from many nice people who have tried to create a certain synthesis!

Mahatma Gandhi was one. He was trying in India to create a synthesis between Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Jainism. But to try to make an effort for a synthesis presupposes that you have accepted the division already. I don’t accept the division at all; hence there is no effort to make any synthesis.

And Gandhi failed immensely. He could not convince anybody – he could not even convince himself! His whole life he was singing a devotional song that he and his followers had made according to his philosophy: “Allah, ishwar terenam – Allah, Ishwar, God, are all thy names.” But when he was killed and shot he forgot all other names, he simply remembered one name: “Hey, Ram!” He didn’t then say, “Hey, Allah!” At that moment he remembered only Rama, the Hindu god, the Hindu name for God. Suddenly from his deepest unconscious it must have arisen. He had remained a Hindu his whole life. Yes, he was trying to create a synthesis; he was finding in the Koran and the Bible the same message as is in the Gita, but the effort was basically cunning and political.

The Gita is right – that was indubitable for him; there was no question about it. The Koran can also be right if it coincides, corresponds, supports the ideology of the Gita. So he could choose only those pieces from the Koran and the Bible and the Dhammapada which were in support of Krishna’s message in the Gita, and he could not talk about other passages which are absolutely against the Gita. And he was thinking that he is creating a synthesis. He was simply reading the Gita in other scriptures, but the Gita remained the criterion.