What Charles Darwin found two thousand years later was known to Mahavira, that it is not a creation, it is an evolving world. It has been here forever and will be here forever. The whole concept of creation and a creator is just idiotic. Mahavira was very strict; he did not want God in some disguise to pop up when he was gone just because people have a certain unconscious hankering for it. It gives a certain false consolation to people. To avoid the false consolation is absolutely necessary if you really want to be consoled. If you authentically want to be at peace with existence, then all that is false and based only on belief has to be discarded.

But again the problem – the followers of Mahavira addressed him as Bhagwan. Now communication becomes difficult, because Bhagwan means a totally different thing to the Buddhists and the Jainas, than it means to the Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Jews. Their whole concept develops in a totally different way.

For the religions which are God-centered, God comes in the beginning, before everything. He creates the world and nobody bothers from where he comes. If there was no world at all, how did he manage to exist and where? There must have been a small island, or some cloud – something. God cannot exist in nothingness, and if God can exist in nothingness, then what is the problem? Why bring him in unnecessarily? Existence is perfectly good, autonomous, not dependent on a despot which you call God.

According to those who do not believe, he is whimsical, because for eternity he just remained silent. What was he doing? Smoking? Taking drugs? Or just dreaming? Sleeping? In a coma? What is the situation? – because according to Christians he created the world only six thousand years ago. And six thousand years is such a stupid idea, because India has scriptures which are far more ancient than the Christian God.

The Rig Veda according to the Hindu scholars – and I support them on that point…. I don’t think Rig Veda is something great, perhaps two percent of it has something beautiful and spiritual, ninety-eight percent is simply crap. So I don’t agree with their idea that Rig Veda is written by God, but I certainly agree with their concept that Rig Veda is ninety thousand years old, because the proof and evidence are intrinsic. Ninety thousand years ago, there occurred a certain constellation of stars, which has not happened again since then. That constellation of stars is described in Rig Veda in absolute and perfect detail. Now there is an astronomical argument which is irrefutable. You cannot do anything. The whole of astronomy supports it – this kind of constellation has happened.