The same is true about man. Nature functions in an absolutely harmonious way. There are not many ways that nature grows. It may be a tree, a bird, a man – it doesn’t matter, the principle, the law of growth remains the same: Let your roots go deeper.

Of course, a tree is standing, does not move – it has no legs. There are a few trees in Africa which, out of sheer necessity, have had to move. The jungles in Africa are so thick, and the trees are so big that there is no chance for new trees to grow; the sun never reaches them. It is just a sheer question of life and death. And they start moving out of crowded spaces to find some place where they can also have the sun, the air, the moon, the earth. In Africa there are walking trees; they walk in their own way, and are very intelligent.

Forget the idea that man is the only intelligent being on the earth. Yes, just as a tree is different from your body, it is different from your intelligence. But it has its own kind of intelligence. It has been found that the trees which move always in the direction where more water is available, more sun is available, more air is available, more space is available. How do they know which direction to move, which path to take? And they never make any mistake.

They are not like Moses, who wandered for forty years with the poor Jews dying in the desert, finding Israel, the holy land promised to him by God himself. Forty years in the desert? Almost two-thirds of the Jews died on the way before they reached the place. I certainly say that it has nothing holy about it. But Moses was also tired and old. His people were almost finished, and the remaining ones were getting angry with him. They had lost all trust in him. He did not know where he was going. And in a desert it is very difficult to find a path; there are no roads, no paths.

But these trees are far more intelligent than Moses. They don’t wander here and there, they simply rush exactly to the point where they can survive, grow. In a few places where water pipelines are close by, they don’t bother to go to a faraway place where they can find a river or a pond. They are very progressive, more progressive than Mahatma Gandhi.

They drop the idea of going to the river, which their parents have always followed. They don’t care a bit about the past and the tradition; they rush towards the pipeline. And they are strong enough to break steel pipelines; they put their roots into the pipeline. Can you call these trees unintelligent? They have a different kind of intelligence.

But growth is possible only if you go deeper into your roots. You are not a tree; hence, you are not to grow your roots into the earth – that will be sheer death. You have to grow inwards. That is your earth. There you have to spread your roots, because there is your nourishment: your water, your sun, your air, your being.