Transcription
Saints are dead people. The more they are dead, the more they are thought to be saintly. To live with them is simply sickening. It is nauseating. They are so inhuman about everything. They live themselves mechanically, robot-like, and they won't allow anybody else to live differently. They will make you feel guilty for everything.
In Mahatma Gandhi's ashram, and he was a great saint (Mahatma means great saint), you could not have smoked. I know smoking is silly, but what is wrong in being silly? And if it, if one enjoys it once in a while, to be silly is perfectly human. It should be acceptable. You can tell to the person that it will harm your health, that your life will be reduced by five years. But if you don't want to live that long, it is perfectly good because what you are going to do five years more? You will smoke more, and it is not a healthy habit. But people who don't smoke, they fall sick. And I have seen people who have been smoking continuously, Chinese smokers, and never falling sick. So all these are just guesswork.
All that the smoker is doing is enjoying taking the smoke in and throwing it out. The smoke is warm, just like the mother's milk, and the cigarette is exactly the mother's nipple. He is again enjoying being a child. Cigarette is just a way of enjoying one's childhood again. That's why cigarette is so relaxing. When you are worried, tense, you start looking for the cigarettes. It helps. It is human. It will look really hard to go to your mother now and say that I am so tense and worried. I think cigarette is a good substitute. Don't disturb these people, otherwise they will disturb women. Your mother may be dead. Then you have to go to your wife, and she may be just mad at the idea that you have come with. She will think you are going nuts. Cigarette is such a simple substitute. Don't disturb people.
When I see you smoking, I feel sorry for you. Not that you are smoking, but because you had to smoke. I think about your worries, not about your smoking. That is nothing to be bothered. I think about your anguish, your tension. I think that there must be something eating your heart, otherwise why you should burn yourself with smoking? I never judge you by your smoking that you are doing some wrong act. I see deeper. I see why you are smoking. But no saint bothers about why you are smoking. Is smoking a sin? In Mahatma Gandhi's ashram, if somebody was found to be smoking, he was immediately turned out in disgrace. He has fallen. And the poor fellow was simply trying to relax. In fact, his smoking was an indication that the ashram is not relaxing, that it is not the place where people relax. Here is the place where people become more tense. In fact, all the ashrams make you more tense. It is a strange dilemma. They make you more tense, more worried. This world is not enough for them. They bring hell and heaven and all kinds of consequences that you will have to suffer. Rather than helping you to get out of your tense minds, they make your mind more tense. And then you cannot smoke. Then you cannot drink. Even tea or coffee, these are all prohibited. They are all relaxing.
A relaxed person may not need smoking, unless just playfully once in a while, sitting with friends when everybody is smoking and he does not want to play the saints. I used to go to parties when I was in the university. It was a problem because the host was worried that everybody will be drinking and I may feel left alone. Knowing it from many other previous experiences, I had to go to the host and said, "Don't be worried about me. You just give me Coca-Cola, as if I am also drinking with everybody." But he will say, "They will think you are also drinking alcohol." I said, "Let them think. That is no problem. What is the problem? It simply says I am also human. I want to participate with them. I don't want to be holier than thou." To me, that attitude is ugly. That attitude is simply egoistic. I cannot drink alcohol because I don't know what I will do after drinking. There is no problem as far as I am concerned. There is no problem. I can drink because I don't think that even though alcohol is called spirit, that it can be spiritual or it can enter into my spirit. It will just go through my kidneys and sooner or later, and that may create trouble for you. So just give me Coca-Cola. That's drinking Coca-Cola with people. They are almost glared up. They all said, "You are also drinking. We were worried that you will be here not drinking and he will look like sinners." I said, "No, I am a drunkard. You go on. You cannot compete with me because I can go on drinking Coca-Cola as much as possible." But I felt happy that they were not feeling guilty. I felt that I have done something appropriate. I have been human. Your saints are not human.
Gandhi was very particular about cleanliness. He followed the same idea: cleanliness is next to god. No, for me it is a trouble. There is no god, so only cleanliness remains. Not even next to god, just the first. There is no next. But I don't come to look into your room and into your bathroom. That seems to me evil. But Gandhi used to do that. He will go into your room. He will see everything whether it is as it should be. He will have a look into your bathroom whether it is clean or not. But this is interfering into your privacy. I can talk about cleanliness. I can praise cleanliness. I can say to you the beauty of it. But then, at least I should trust you, your intelligence, your privacy, and ultimately your responsibility to yourself. I am not responsible for you. But this is not the way of the saints. Up to now, they have been almost after their disciples like detectives, making the disciple feel as much guilty as possible. There is some arithmetic in it. Greater they make people feel guilty, bigger they are thought to be saints. Their height goes on becoming higher and higher as you go on sinking lower and lower. Their whole saintliness depends on your guiltiness. And to make you feel guilty, it is very simple. Start condemning everything that is human, that is natural.
On my path, the master is only a light. You can see in that light and go wherever you want to go. The master is not somebody who is continuously following you, forcing you. He is simply a presence. In his presence, you become aware of your ultimate potential. You become aware what you can be and what you are not. You become aware of your hypocrisy.