And to declare yourself the only begotten son of God, what do you need? Just no sense of shame, that’s all; otherwise such stupid things…. Any intelligent person, even if he is the only begotten son of God, will try to hide the fact: if somebody hears, what are people going to think about it?

Even if he knows that he is a messenger from God he will not tell anybody. He will deliver the message and escape because it looks so foolish that you are the son of a poor carpenter, uneducated, and you have been chosen to be the messenger of God.

God could not find an educated, sophisticated rabbi? – and there were thousands! In fact rabbis are some of the most scholarly people in the world. God seems to be crazy: He should have chosen somebody refined, cultured, knowing all the scriptures, but Jesus was not even able to read. And there were people whose whole life was devoted to study, to thinking, to contemplation – it was a traditional thing.

Judaism and Hinduism are the only two basic religions in the world. Other religions are offshoots either of Hinduism or of Judaism, but Judaism and Hinduism remain separate. There is no connection between them, no communication has happened between them; and both are tremendously scholarly.

If God chooses Krishna as an incarnation it can be understood. Krishna has that understanding, wisdom, education – the best that was available was available to him; the most famous teachers were his teachers. He was trained to be a wise man, and he was a wise man.

And there were so many rabbis commenting on the Torah; and such intelligent commentaries that if you look at those commentaries even today you will find them immensely contemporary. Perhaps they are three thousand years old but so insightful and so beautiful. Small statements in the Torah or the Talmud have been made in the rabbis’ commentaries, so significant that when you see the statement by itself, you think there is not much in it.

But when you see the commentaries and commentaries upon the commentaries, you become aware of the immense dimensions opening from that stale statement. There was nothing in it – you could not have found anything in it – but these commentators have some third eye. They go on looking – something like an X-ray – and they go to the very depth. Perhaps they create the depth: they are so creative that they bring something significant out of an absolutely insignificant statement. God should have chosen these people, not a carpenter’s son.

But Jesus proclaimed himself to be the messenger of God. He must have looked like a buffoon. I can’t help saying it. He used to travel on a donkey declaring himself the only begotten son of God. The messiah that you have been waiting for for centuries is coming on a donkey!

People must have laughed. In the beginning he was just a laughingstock – yes, it was funny – but this man went on and on. Soon people started realizing that it was no longer funny, it was becoming a serious business because Jesus was gathering a few idiots around him who were saying that he was the messiah.