The life of a plant is in a place that is not at all apparent to anyone: it is in the roots which are hidden beneath the ground. If one does not take care of those roots, the flowers and the leaves cannot be taken care of. Howsoever much they may be kissed, howsoever much they may be loved, howsoever much the dust on them may be cleaned, the plant will wither away. But if one does not bother about the flowers at all and takes care of the roots, the flowers will take care of themselves. The flowers come out of the roots, not the other way around.

If we ask somebody which is the most important part in a human body, then unknowingly his hand will point towards his head and he will say that his head is the most important. Or, if it is a woman, then maybe she will point towards her heart and say that the heart is the most important.

Neither the head nor the heart is the most important. Men have emphasized their heads and women have emphasized their hearts and the society based on this mixture has continuously been ruined every day, because neither of these parts are the most important part in a human body; both are very late developments. Man’s roots are not in them.

What do I mean by the roots of man? Just as the plants have roots in the earth from which they draw their life-energy and life juices and live, similarly, in the human body there are roots at some point which draw life-energy from the soul. Because of this the body remains alive. The day those roots become feeble the body begins to die.

The roots of plants are in the earth, the roots of the human body are in the soul. But neither the head nor the heart is the place from where man is connected to his life-energy – and if we do not know anything about those roots then we can never enter the world of a meditator.

Then where are the roots of man? Perhaps you are not aware of the place. If even simple and common things are not given any attention for thousands of years they are forgotten. A child is born in the womb of a mother and grows there. Through which part is the child connected to its mother? Through the head or through the heart? No, it is connected through the navel. The life-energy is available to it through the navel – the heart and the mind develop later on. The life-energy of the mother becomes available to the child through the navel. The child is connected to his mother’s body through his navel. From there the roots spread out into the mother’s body and in the opposite direction, into his own body as well.

The most important point in the human body is the navel, after that the heart develops, and after that the mind. These are all branches which develop later. It is on them that the flowers blossom. Flowers of knowledge blossom in the mind, flowers of love blossom in the heart. It is these flowers which allure us, and then we think that they are everything. But the roots of man’s body and his life-energy are in the navel. No flowers blossom there. The roots are absolutely invisible, they are not even seen. But the degeneration that has happened to human life in the past five thousand years is because we have placed all our emphasis either on the mind or on the heart. Even on the heart we have placed very little emphasis; most of the emphasis has gone to the mind.