No religion asks you to renounce any painful experience. They want you to renounce everything that you enjoy.

I was taking a morning walk with a Jaina monk, and I showed him a beautiful roseflower. He would not look at it. And when I said, “It is so beautiful” he said, “Please, don’t disturb me.”

I said, “I am disturbing you?”

He said, “Because I am a monk, anything pleasant is not allowed for me.”

Certainly the fragrance of the rose is pleasant, the color of the rose is pleasant, the petals’ opening is a miracle. This man cannot see the full moon, this man cannot allow himself to enjoy beautiful music.

Mohammedans have abandoned music: before their mosques you cannot go dancing, singing, playing on instruments; there will immediately be a Hindu–Mohammedan riot. Music is worse than murdering hundreds of people!

You have been told by religions to repress anything that is pleasant. Naturally your mind is obsessed. All that is left to you is pain, misery – have it as much as you like. Your religions are really very compassionate to you: you can have as much pain as you want. Just avoid pleasure, and in avoiding pleasure much pain is created. Life becomes just a long, stretched-out anguish.

My strategy is diametrically opposite to all religions, although my intention is the same. They wanted you to go beyond pleasure – because there are more blissful experiences but they are beyond pleasure. If you get stuck and glued to pleasure you will never reach to the blissfulness, to the silence of the universe. Their intention and my intention are the same, but our methods are diametrically opposite – and they have failed.

I tell my people to enjoy everything – only renounce pain; avoid pain, there is no need. If you have a headache, just a small aspirin tablet and it is gone – why suffer unnecessarily? That aspirin has been found by human intelligence, and human intelligence is part of the intelligence of the universe. It has not come from somewhere else; it is our creativity. Why suffer a headache? Why suffer tuberculosis? Why suffer any pain of any kind?

So, basically, renounce pain, destroy pain; and don’t miss any opportunity to enjoy pleasure. And a miracle happens. That’s what has happened to you.

When you enjoy pleasure, there is a point where you become fed up with it. How long… Even if you have a beautiful woman like Cleopatra or Amrapali, just get married…