I can go on telling the truth – nobody among you is going to understand, and nobody among you is going to be benefited by it. It will pass over your heads. Hence I said the man of compassion has to lie. The lie is only a device to wake you up. Once you are awakened I can say to you, “I am sorry that I had to say so many lies to you.” And I am absolutely certain you are going to forgive me.

As far as the outside world is concerned – for me you are my world, there is no outside world – they should take care of themselves. I am existing for you, not for them. If they get disturbed or confused, so far so good. Perhaps out of their disturbance and confusion they may start becoming curious about what is going on. Many of you have come here out of such curiosity, and then you got caught, and you have not been able to leave.

So I never take the outside world into consideration. Let them sleep. But if they get disturbed, if they get hostile, it is good; then a certain relationship between me and them begins. Enmity is a relationship just as friendship is. In fact, enmity is far deeper and stronger than any friendship.

I am doing it absolutely knowingly. I want to shock the outside world. Perhaps that is the only hope for them, perhaps the shock will create an opening for them. They may come here hostile, as enemies, but about that there is no problem. We have this buddhafield of love, singing, dancing, rejoicing. All their hostility and opposition will be simply gone. The moment they see you and me, they are finished.

So don’t take it seriously. You are afraid that I am creating difficulty for you sannyasins. Of course, I am continuously creating difficulties. What else can I do? You go on falling asleep again and again! I have to create difficulties because only in difficulties can you remain awake. Once you learn the beauty, the ecstasy of being awake, then certainly there will be no need to give you shocks unnecessarily.

So, don’t be worried about that. If you go into the outside world, people will be hostile to you, but you have to be compassionate to them. Let hostility and compassion stand facing each other. It is one of the fundamental laws of life that compassion cannot be defeated by hostility. Compassion simply changes the hostile person. So don’t be worried that you will be facing hostility. Be concerned about compassion, love. Just start looking into people’s eyes with grace. That will disturb them more – and I want to disturb them!

There was a man in Gautam Buddha’s time whose name was Angulimal. He had taken a vow to cut off one thousand heads, and to take one finger from each dead person and make a garland of one thousand fingers. Angulimal means the man with the garland of one thousand fingers.

He was a ferocious man. People stopped going close to him. The road that passed by the hill where he was staying was no longer being used. He had already cut off nine hundred and ninety-nine heads; he was waiting for only one more. The road that passed by his hill was utterly empty, nobody was coming. And then Buddha came to pass. That road was the shortcut, but people were going the long way around, just to avoid Angulimal. Naturally, Buddha took the shortcut.