You cannot kill a monkey because monkeys represent Hanuman, the monkey god. You cannot kill an elephant because elephants represent another god, Ganesha. You cannot kill a cow…but blue horses? – who cares about blue horses? Nobody was concerned. The problem was solved just by changing the word. Such is the stupidity of humanity.

The poor have to be saved, the misery has to be saved, the suffering has to be saved – for the simple reason that without the poor, the miserable, and the suffering humanity, there is no future for the church. Not only the Catholic Church – no future for any church, Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Buddhist. They have all been living; they have all been in great demand, for the simple reason that people are suffering. And the suffering humanity needs consolations, comforts. The present is so ugly that they need hopes for the future. The hopes of the future are nothing but opium to the people. I agree with Karl Marx, I cannot agree with the Polack pope.

The future helps in a way to tolerate the present. It is almost intolerable, it is so inhuman that if the hope for the future is taken away, there will be immediate revolution in the world, there will be rebellion everywhere. The establishment will be overthrown within days, the status quo will be no longer there.

The politicians and the priests are in a subtle conspiracy. The politician will not exist if people are not in misery; when they are in misery they need leaders. When somebody is blind he needs to be led. When you have your own eyes you don’t need leaders. When somebody is utterly blissful herenow, who cares about your silly paradise and heaven? Who bothers? This very moment is paradise enough – this very body the Buddha, and this very space the Lotus Paradise. But if the present is ugly, if the present is like an open wound, full of pus, if the present hurts too much, then you need painkillers.

The future is a painkiller; tomorrow everything is going to be okay, it is only a question of today. You have tolerated so much, just a little more, just a little more…and it is always today that comes, it is never the tomorrow. The tomorrow always looms there near the horizon. The distance between you and the tomorrow remains constantly the same, but it keeps you running, changing, chasing, dreaming, fantasizing about the future.

What the pope says has to be very deeply pondered over. It is the essence of all religious exploitation up to now; this is the history of all that has happened in the name of religion. It has nothing to do with true religiousness. It is absolutely irreligious. It is a political game, hence meditate over each statement.

First, he says: “Defending the human dignity of the poor…”

How can you defend the dignity of the poor? There is no other way than destroying poverty. There is no other way, categorically I say, there is no other way than to destroy poverty itself. Only when people are not poor do they start feeling that they are worthy. They can have a life of pleasures, happiness, joy, they can rejoice in the beauty and the blessings of nature. But when their stomachs are empty, how can you defend their dignity?