Can I now go on to my next question.

Yes.

Thank you. Why were you in silence for so many years and why and what prompted you to break your silence?

Silence is the only prayer that is true. Any other prayer is just make-believe. You are praying to a God you do not know.

I know the God I pray to.

Hm?

Are you saying to…asking me that, whether I know who I pray to or were you just asking that…?

I mean that everybody who prays, prays in ignorance. Prayer means out of ignorance. Silence is just the polar opposite of prayer. It is authentic prayer. You are simply silent – you are not saying anything to existence, you are not asking anything from existence. You are just merging yourself, drowning yourself – with the air, with the sun, with the moon, with the earth, with the sky. You are in a way disappearing your ego, your separate existence from the whole.

I had wanted that period for many years. For thirty years I have been speaking continuously, sometimes five lectures per day. Thousands of people… Every day meeting hundreds of people, roaming all over India for thirty years – I was tired, sick, and I wanted to be in complete silence, in total relaxation, with no disturbance, no phone around me, no newspaper, no unnecessary thing. That was the reason for me to go into silence.

I had to come out of silence because I started becoming aware from my people…because three people were able to approach me – my physician, my dentist and my caretaker – and Sheela and her gang tried to poison all the three people and to kill them.

I’m aware…I mean, I heard that, yes.