I want my people
to understand it clearly.
Neither your clothes,
nor your outer disciplines
nor anything
that has been given to you by tradition
and you have accepted it, just on belief
is going to help.
The only thing that can create a revolution in you
is
going beyond the mind
into the world of consciousness.
Except that nothing is religious.
But to begin with
and with a world which is
too much obsessed with outer things
I had to start sannyas
also with outer things.
Change your clothes,
into orange,
wear a mala,
meditate.
But the emphasis was only on meditation.
But I found
that people can change their clothes very easily,
but they cannot change their minds.
They can wear the mala
but they cannot
move into their consciousness
and because they are in orange clothes
wearing a mala
having a new name,
they start believing that
they have become a sannyasin.
Sannyas is not so cheap.
Hence
it is time
and you are mature enough.
That beginning phase is over.
If you like the orange colors,
the red colors perfectly good.
It cannot do any harm.
But it is not a help either.
If you love the mala,
if you love the locket
with my picture on it
It is
simply your
ornament
But it has nothing to do with religion.
So now
I reduce religion to its absolute essentiality.
And that is meditation.
If you are meditating
and if you are reaching higher and higher into your consciousness
Thoughts are left far behind.
You experience that your body
is just outside you.
Your mind
is just outside you.
And you are standing in the middle
The center of the cyclone.
In utter silence,
in absolute beauty,
in great light,
in utter fulfillment.
Except
the process of meditation
everything is non essential.
I don't want my people to be lost into non-essentials.
In the beginning, it was necessary.
Now
years of listening to me,
understanding me
you are in a position
to be freed from all outer bondage.
And you can
for the first time be really,
a sannyasin only
if you are moving inwards.