Move the way love makes you move.

Move the way joy makes you move – not out of fear, because all so-called religions are based on fear. Their God is nothing but fear, and their heaven and hell are nothing but projections of fear and greed.

Rumi’s statement is very revolutionary: Do not move because of fear.

All the religions say to people, “Fear God!”

Mahatma Gandhi used to say, “I do not fear anybody but God.” When I heard this I said this is the most stupid statement anybody can make. You can fear everybody, but don’t fear God because God can only be approached through love. God is not a person but the universal heartbeat. If you can sing with love and dance with love…an ordinary activity like whirling out of love…. Joy and celebration are enough to reach to the innermost sanctum of being and existence.

You all have been living out of fear.

Your relationships are out of fear. Fear is so overwhelming – like a dark cloud covering your life – that you say things which you don’t want to say, but fear makes you say them. You do things which you do not want to do, but fear makes you do them. A little intelligence is enough to see….

Millions of people are worshipping stones carved by themselves. They have made their Gods and then they worship them. It must be out of great fear, because where can you find God? The easier way is to carve a God in beautiful marble and worship. And nobody thinks that this is sheer stupidity, because everybody else is doing it in different ways – somebody in the temple and somebody in the mosque and somebody in the synagogue; it does not make any difference. The essential thing is the same, that what you are doing is out of fear – your prayers are full of fear.

Rumi is making a revolutionary, an extraordinary statement: “Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.” Then what is the way to move within? Why not move playfully? Why not make your religion a playfulness? Why be so serious? Why not move laughingly? – just like small children running joyously after butterflies for no special reason. Just the joy of the colors and the beauty of the flowers and the butterflies is enough – and they are so immensely happy.

In every twenty-four hours find a few moments which are fearless, which means in those moments you are not asking for anything. You are not asking for any reward and you are not worried about any punishment; you are simply enjoying the whirling, the going inwards.