So first, it is the simple trust of the child. And second…your observation is absolutely correct. Second, it is fear.

The parents can punish you; they can deprive you. Teachers can punish you. You have to accept whatever is being said by those who have power of some kind. In this way, everybody has been distracted, derailed from his natural path. And he has moved in a direction which was not meant for him.

That’s why there is always anxiety, anguish and a deep sadness. This sadness is existential: unless you can be your natural self, the spring will never come to you, the flowers will never blossom in your being, love will never grow.

You will never know the glory of life and the splendor of consciousness.

You are saying, “Now all has peeled off.” This is my whole work here – just peeling the onions. Peeling to the point where nothing remains – just spaciousness and silence.

Because an onion is nothing but layers and layers and layers, and when the final layer is taken off, your hands are empty.

In those empty hands descends the whole glory, the whole kingdom of God.

You have not to be standing in the way, you have to give way so that God can enter in.

You have to open the windows and doors so that fresh winds can come in and the life-giving sun rays can dance inside and the room becomes alive.

Your beliefs, your traditions, your scriptures, your religions – all are closing your being from all sides. No fresh air, no sun rays, no fragrance coming with the air, no life dancing inside you with the sun rays – how can you be happy? How can you be blissful? You have carved a grave for yourself. Alive, you are living inside the grave. Anybody who is a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Buddhist, is living in a grave. He is no more alive.

It is good that you were courageous enough to drop all the layers of the onion.

“I have walked through the pain.” Yes, there is pain because all those beliefs, thoughts, philosophies, have become so much part of you that it is not like taking your clothes off – it is something like taking your skin off. It is painful.

But this pain is worth it. It is almost the pain of a surgery, to remove the cancer from your soul. And once you have passed through the pain, the fear is gone, the ambition is gone.

Your observation is immensely significant for everybody, because all ambition is out of fear. All ambition is out of an inferiority complex, because you are afraid to be yourself. You want to be somebody else – a president of a country, a prime minister of a country, the richest man…and people find different ways because so many people cannot be the president, cannot be the richest, cannot be the prime ministers. Then they create a Rotary Club.