The trees are welcome; it seems the earth is happy through them. The earth goes on giving, sharing. The birds are singing – as if the earth sings through them. Look at the animals – so alive and vital. Only man seems to be an intruder, as if he has come from somewhere else.

This earth may be a sojourn, but it is not a home. Maybe we are staying here for a time being – a caravanserai, but not a home: in the morning, we have to go.

Jesus’ saying has many meanings, and I would like you to enter them all.

One, man is not rooted. Because he is not rooted he is always in search: where to find a home? God is nothing but the search for a home where we can feel at ease and relaxed, and where we can feel that there is no need to struggle. We are accepted – not only accepted, welcomed. There is no need to fight your way. You can be whatsoever you are and relax, and you know the love will continue flowing, life will continue flowing. There is no fear of punishment and no greed for any reward. You are at home. You are not a stranger in a foreign land.

This is the search of religion. That’s why animals don’t have religion. Birds don’t have religion; they make nests, but they don’t make temples. Otherwise, a temple is not very difficult: they can make a big nest and gather together and sing together and pray. But they don’t pray; they don’t need to. Man is the only animal who makes temples, churches, mosques. Prayer is a very strange phenomenon. Just think if somebody comes from some other planet and watches humanity….

If you are making love to a woman, the watcher will be able to understand. Something like it must be happening on the other planet also. He may not be able to understand what you are saying, but he will know what you must be saying. He may not understand the language, but he will understand what lovers say to each other. When you kiss and embrace each other, he will understand the gesture.

When you are doing business he will understand; when you are reading a book he will understand; when you are doing some exercise he will understand. But when you are praying, if something like religion does not exist on his planet, he will not be able to understand at all. What are you doing? Just sitting alone? Looking at the sky, talking? To whom? What are you saying?

And if he comes on a certain day, like a religious day of Mohammedans, Christians or Hindus – all over the earth, millions of Mohammedans praying, not talking to each other, talking to the sky – he will simply feel that something has gone wrong: “Humanity has gone mad – what is happening? What are these people gesturing about, why are they gesticulating? To whom are they talking, who are they calling ‘Allah’? To whom are they bowing their heads? – because nobody seems to be there.”