Heaven hangs around the buddha, around the awakened person. You cannot send an enlightened person to hell – impossible; and you cannot send your so-called saints to heaven – impossible. The hell is so much ingrained in their beings; wherever they are they will create boredom for themselves and for others.

Saints are not good company; even sinners are far better. I have lived with both, and, believe me, sinners are far better company than saints. Saints are utterly boring! Saints are very juicy just if they are saints in the sense of Upanishads, in the sense I call my sannyasins.

My sannyasins are saints, but not in the ordinary sense of being a Hindu saint or a Jain saint or a Christian saint. The Christian saint seems to be the worst – so boring that I can believe Friedrich Nietzsche that God is dead; he must have committed suicide! Surrounded by all these saints, what he can do, what else he can do? He must have committed suicide, feeling utterly bored. And this company is going to be there for eternity now! You cannot escape.

Upanishads are full of joy, full of flowers and fragrance.

…enjoying the inner,

– not enforcing it –

…cease to take for yourself what to others are riches.

And the Isa Upanishad is not saying that, renounce the world. It says:

…cease to take for yourself…

Don’t possess, don’t become owners of persons or things; just use them as a gift of the universe. And when they are available, use them; when they are not available. enjoy the freedom. When you have something, enjoy it; when you don’t have it, enjoy not having it – that too has its own beauty.

If you have a palace to live in, enjoy! If you don’t have, then enjoy a hut and the hut becomes a palace. It is the enjoyment that makes the difference. Then live under a tree and enjoy it. Don’t miss the tree and the flowers and the freedom and the birds and the air and the sun. And when you are in a palace don’t miss it – enjoy the marble and the chandeliers…

Go on enjoying wherever you are, and don’t possess anything. Nothing belongs to us. We come empty-handed in the world and we go empty-handed. The world is a gift, so enjoy while it is there. And remember, the universe always gives you that which you need.

A Sufi mystic used to say every day in his prayers, “Thank you, God, for all that you go on doing for me. How can I repay? I feel so grateful!”