For example, when Buddha was alive then an oasis existed around him: a few thousand people – nothing compared to the whole world – a few thousand people converted, transformed, existed with Buddha. But the moment Buddha disappeared, that oasis disappeared; the very springs disappeared – how long can the trees exist without it?
A few oases here and there, rarely, have existed, but the society at large has remained anti-religious. But the people who manage the establishment are very cunning. They give society a ritualistic, formalistic, religious shape; churches exist, temples exist, and people go and pray; and there are holidays, religious holidays – but all formal. Don’t be deceived by the formality of it; it is a deception. It is to give you a feeling that the society is religious and you need not go beyond society to seek religion.
Religion is always beyond society, because religion is always alive, it is not of the mind. And society is always of the mind; it is an order maintained by the mind. Religion is not an order maintained by the mind – religion is a discipline, loose and natural. It is not that you maintain it and manipulate it; rather, on the contrary, you lose yourself into the riverlike phenomenon, and the river takes possession.
The mind is the corrupter – but it corrupts very diplomatically. It corrupts in such subtle ways: it is very difficult for you to even be conscious of what is going on. For example, something in a certain moment is true; then the mind clings onto it and it says, “When it was true in that moment it must be true forever, because truth is eternal.” And I tell you: Nothing changes like truth – and that’s why it is eternal, because if it doesn’t change then it will die any day. It changes so continuously that it cannot die, because change means a renewal of life energy.
Truth is eternal, but not nonchanging. Truth is eternal because of eternal change. It renews itself continuously. It never allows anything dead into itself; it simply throws it out. It never accumulates the dead parts, because through those dead parts descends death. Mind will die, mind will have to die because it accumulates death. Life never dies because it goes on changing.
Remember this: Truth is not permanent, it is eternal. And it is eternal because it is not permanent. It is eternal because it is constantly changing. Through change it survives. Through change it becomes new. Through constantly changing it becomes elusive to death; a death cannot take hold of it.