The whole country and the whole world have to be made completely aware of the situation that is going to come. When it comes it will be too late to do anything; right now a very small margin is still possible…that things can take a change for the better.

I had to say this because this country has contributed a new dimension to the world; it has given birth to buddhas, the highest peaks of consciousness. It deserves a certain respect in the sense that many mystics in this country entered into the most miraculous spaces of human consciousness and left keys, indications, footsteps pointing the way.

The whole world has remained materialistic, but the present-day India is no longer the same India in which Buddha was born. It is now more materialistic than any other country. And the reason is three hundred years of British rule, destroying everything that was India’s genius, forcing an education which is materialistic.

You will not believe that India used to produce the best garments in the world, particularly in what is today Bangladesh…used to produce such thin material that you could cover a whole elephant and still the material could pass through a small ring on your finger. Thousands of people’s hands were cut off by the British Empire, just because those craftsmen would not allow Manchester…machine was unable to compete with them. They had inherited their craftsmanship for centuries, and to bring British garments into India these people’s hands had to be cut off.

Such inhumanity to human beings! Rather than respecting them, they were destroyed completely. And it was not new. You will not be aware, because these things are not mentioned – whoever mentions them is condemned. The Taj Mahal was made in thirty years and almost ten thousand craftsmen continuously worked for thirty years. Generations changed; the father had come to work and now his grandson was working. And when the Taj Mahal was complete, ten thousand people’s hands were cut off by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jehan. They created the Taj Mahal and this was their reward. Their hands had to be cut off so that they could not create another Taj Mahal, and Taj Mahal should remain a unique architecture – a miracle.

It seems we are living in a very insane world. At least bring yourself to sanity – and there is only one sanity that arises with your awareness – and spread it wide around the world. Perhaps this small commune of seven thousand people here can still save the world, because you come from all over the world. Just understand the responsibility of the time. If you can become a message…never a missionary, that is an ugly and dirty word. Become a message; your very being should radiate your meditation, your silence should touch people’s hearts like a cool breeze.