If the empire had still been there, Vimalkirti would have been the emperor of Germany. His mother is the daughter of the Queen of Greece. She is also the sister of England’s Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip. She must have other sisters, other brothers, who have entered into other royal families. They were all against it, they tried hard to stop Vimalkirti from marrying Turiya. But he was a man of integrity and intelligence. He could not understand the superstition. Nobody, no expert, if given few samples of blood can find out which is the royal blood. Blood is blood.

And when Vimalkirti and Turiya came here, that was really outrageous – that the great-grandson of the German emperor, the oldest royal family in Europe, should become a sannyasin and be a bodyguard of a beggar like me, who has nothing of his own. They were so furious that when the Queen of Greece died – and she had become the Queen Mother because she had so many children; almost all the royal families had become connected through her children – her last words were, “Somehow bring Vimalkirti, Turiya and their daughter back from that dangerous man.”

But Vimalkirti died – and he died because of this stupid idea of royal families marrying. Then you are really marrying your sisters, your brothers – they are all closely connected. And the closer the connection, the more dangerous; this is the finding of modern science, medicine, physiology, chemistry. Marriages should be between people who are as far away as possible, then children are healthier, more intelligent, more beautiful. Otherwise, certain diseases go round and round in twelve or fifteen families.

When Vimalkirti died we thought it must have been an accident, because he was exercising and he suddenly fell and became unconscious. Every effort was made. In the best hospital… Zareen is here, my sannyasin; Vimalkirti was being treated under her husband, Dr. Modi’s care. But all the doctors were convinced: “We could go on keeping him alive with artificial breathing but he’s really dead. It is a brain hemorrhage, nothing can be done.” After the fourth day, they insisted that they had other patients, and only one emergency room for people who are in a coma. “And Vimalkirti is dead. The moment you remove the artificial breathing, you will see – he is a corpse.”

But I insisted that they at least let his mother and father, his brothers arrive. They were coming. The mother and the brother came, and then finally the doctor said, “It is becoming ridiculous.” And the moment the artificial breathing was turned off, it was a corpse.

The father came late – and these are the royal people – an old man, who could have been the emperor of Germany. He was not concerned with the death, the possible death of his son, the future of his son’s wife, the future of their child. He had gone for a holiday with his girlfriend. And he’s just a postmaster, but royal blood, even in a postmaster…

We gave Vimalkirti the best celebration. Perhaps he would not have got that much love, such a beautiful celebration, even if he had been the emperor of Germany. Still the mother, and later on the father who came, were angry at me. Their whole anger against Vimalkirti turned toward me. They were consulting legal experts about how they could sue me in court for the death of their son. They had to stop that, because they would have given me a chance to prove to the whole world that this nonsense of royal marriages should be banned.