In a way, both are the same. If one has to choose between the two then I will suggest: choose a progressive stupidity rather than a regressive one – if that is the only choice! At least with the progressive stupidity you have some hope, you will have some thrill, you will have some excitement, you will work for a better future. It is never going to come, but at least you will be occupied with beautiful dreams. It has never been there before, it is not going to be there ever in the future. It is now! It is already the case.

Adam and Eve have never been expelled from the Garden of Eden! That is my declaration, my message. That whole story is invented by the priests. Adam and Eve are still living in the Garden of Eden – just they have eaten the fruit of knowledge. And who has given them the fruit of knowledge? It is not the serpent; it is the priest, it is the theologian, it is the philosopher. The fruit of knowledge does not grow on trees! It grows in churches, in temples, in the universities. It carries degrees – PhDs, DLitts, DDs – and it comes in all shapes and all sizes.

There is the Hindu world of knowledge, the Mohammedan world of knowledge, the Christian world of knowledge. You can choose your own fruit, you can shop for it. It is available to everybody’s requirement, according to everybody’s needs.

The misery that has happened to man is not because he has lost the original paradise. He is still there, but he has fallen asleep and in his dreams he has become a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a Jew, a whatnot…a theist, an atheist, a communist, a socialist, a fascist. Only in his dreams has he lost track of paradise…and to dream simply means to live either in the memories – that is the past – or to live in fantasies – that is the future.

My message, Anand Poonam, for the March Event in London, where thousands of sannyasins are gathering together for the first time to celebrate a new opening: the British buddhafield… This is my message, tell them: “Get rid of the past and the future, and live herenow! It is suicidal to live anywhere else than herenow, because each moment that is passing is precious, so precious that you cannot get it back. Don’t waste it!”

…But all the religions have been suicidal. Of course they don’t call it suicide, they give it beautiful names – asceticism, tapascharya – but basically it is nothing but masochism, self-torture. They call it renunciation, but it is nothing but destroying yourself gradually, slowly. All the religions of the world up to now have lived with a philosophy of life-denial.

My fundamental approach is that of life-acceptance, total life-affirmation. There is no God other than life. The very idea of God other than life is dangerous, because if God is other than life then naturally you will start choosing God against life. You will be pro-God and anti-life, because life is momentary and God gives you the greed of being eternal, forever.

I say to you, there is no other God than life, hence the question of choice does not arise at all. Live! Live totally, live passionately, live intelligently, live lovingly. Become a flame so intense, so total, that each moment starts having the flavor of eternity.