"These are different kinds of strength.

"Certainly, you cannot make bullets from rose flowers. That does not mean bullets become more important. You cannot kill somebody with a roseflower. That does not mean the arrow – a poisonous arrow – is more powerful than a rose. But it appears so.

"The arrow is dead; hence you cannot kill it anymore. Do you think that is strength? Then all the people who are in the grave are stronger than you; they will never die again. You will be dying.

"Would you like to change places with the people in the graves? They are, in a way, stronger than you, because death cannot happen to them. But they are dead. What is the point of their strength?

"Life is fragile. The higher you go, the more fragile. The tree is not so fragile as the flower. The fragrance is even more fragile than the flower – just a small breeze can take it away.

"This is true, that you see innocence and lovingness all over the place in this commune. Naturally, the question has arisen in your mind that why did something like a fascist calamity happen to you?

"Innocence can be taken advantage of. Lovingness can be exploited.

"But no harm has been done to you! Fragrance may be fragile; it may exist only for a moment, but that moment is eternity. The rock may exist for eternity, but that eternity is not even equal to a single moment of fragrance.

"The people who tried to exploit your innocence and love, your trust, have not destroyed you; they have destroyed themselves.

"This is the beauty of the power of love, the power of trust, the power of innocence.

"What harm has been done to you? No harm can be done to you. Even if you are killed, your loving being and your trusting being and your inner innocence are eternal. And you have seen the whole drama, that the people who were powerful but in the service of destructiveness had to escape finally.

"Love is victorious.

"And wherever they will go, a deep feeling of guilt, of inhumanity, of having taken advantage of trusting people, will follow them."