"If the dimension of spiritual growth comes to an end, that will be a death and nothing else – because there will be no more possibilities opening, no more doors opening, no more flowers blossoming. All has happened. At that point everything is past, and there is no future.

"That's what the meaning of 'the end' is – when everything is past and there is no future.

"The very pilgrimage with me begins by dropping the past. The more you are unburdened of the past the bigger your future becomes. When there is no past left, no psychological hang-up, there is an infinity confronting you – growth unbounded, a challenge forever. The more you enter into it the lovelier it becomes.

"The more you have traveled the path – the goal does not come closer but you are more peaceful, more silent, more rejoicing. Your life goes on every moment changing into a more blissful existence; it becomes a benediction – not only to you but to the whole existence. But there is no end to it, the pilgrimage is endless. It is only for those who are not goal seekers.

"The goal seekers are mediocre people. They have a certain goal and they reach; they become the president of a country, they have arrived; they wanted so much money and they have found it. But have you seen the misery of the goal seekers? When they have found the goal, have they found anything, really?

"By finding the goal they have simply found that they have been fools, that they have been running after shadows. Now somebody is president, somebody is an emperor, but so what? It is the same man, perhaps worse – because the journey that he has to make to become an emperor is full of violence, corruption, treachery, cunningness. He can do anything – but he wants to become the emperor. He can sell his own soul – he really sells his own soul – to sit on a throne; but a soulless man.

"Gautam Buddha was born as a prince, and he was the only son of his father. Just before he was going to be enthroned, he escaped."