It is my feeling that the existentialism in the West is not really existentialist; it is again a philosophy. To be existentialist means it must be a feeling, not a thinking. Sartre may be a great thinker – he is, but he has not felt the thing, he has not lived it. If you live despair, you are bound to come to a point where something has to be done, radically done, immediately done. A transformation becomes urgent, becomes your only concern.

You have also asked what is missing. The world view, the spiritual world view is missing in the West. Otherwise, many Buddhas could be born. The season is ripe – despair, meaninglessness is felt; it is in the air. The society has achieved affluence and found it lacking. Money is there, power is there, and man feels deep down totally impotent. The situation is ripe, but the world view is lacking.

Go to the West and give the message. Spread the word, the world-view of spirituality, so that those who have come to the end of their travels in this life should not feel that it is the end – a new door opens. Life is eternal. Many times you will feel that everything has ended and suddenly something again starts. A world view of spirituality is lacking. Once that world-view is there, many will start moving into it.

The trouble is that many so-called religious teachers from the East are moving to the West, and they are more materialist than you. They are there simply for the money. They cannot give you the world view of spirituality. They are salesmen. They have found the market because the season is ripe.

People are hankering for something, not knowing what. People are finished with this so-called life, frustrated, ready to take a jump into something unknown, unlived yet. The market is ready for people to exploit, and there are many merchants from the East. They may be called Maharishis, that makes no difference. Many merchants, salesmen, are moving in the West. They are just there for the money.

With a real master, you have to come to him, you have to seek him, you have to find him, you have to make efforts. A real master cannot go to the West because just by going the whole point will be lost; the West has to come to him. And it will be easier for Western people to come to the East to learn the inner discipline, the awakening, and then go to the West and spread the new milieu. It will be easier for Western people to learn in the East, to be here in the atmosphere of a spiritual master, and then carry back the message – because you will not be materialist if you go and spread the news in the West. You will not be materialist because you have been enough, you are finished with it.

When poor people from the East go to the West, of course they start accumulating money. That’s simple. The East is poor and now the East is not hankering for spirituality, it is hankering for more money, more material gadgets, more engineering and atomic science. Even if a Buddha were to be born, nobody will talk about him in the East, but a small toy sputnik is released by India and the whole country goes mad and happy. What stupidity! A small atomic explosion, and India feels very happy and proud because she has become the fifth atomic power.

The East is poor, and the East is now thinking in terms of matter. A poor mind always thinks about matter and all that matter can give. The East is not in search of spirituality. The West is rich and now the West is ready to seek.