"In fact, one has to put language aside to see the reality.

"The incident is significant. if you had become resistant against priests, there was nothing wrong in it; but that has not happened. The priest had refused to help – not God. Avoid priests, there is no problem in it – in fact, the more you avoid them, the closer you will be to God. The priest is not needed at all. He goes on propagating that he is needed; he emphasizes that without him there is no possibility for you to ever enter into the world of God – but that is his proposition. It is his business, it is his trade secret, he has to create this atmosphere. Otherwise, no medium is needed; God is immediately available. But of course, priests have made a great business – the greatest ever – and they ideal in such a commodity which is invisible, so you can never prove whether they deliver or not. The commodity itself is invisible. It is a beautiful game.

"I have heard

"'What's the little boy crying about?' the kind old lady asked the ragged urchin.

"'That other kid swiped his candy,' he replied.

"'But how is it that you have the candy now?'

"'Sure, I got the candy now,' replied the urchin. 'I'm the kids lawyer.'

"You get it? The priest is going to exploit you; he becomes your lawyer, he becomes you agent. He himself is completely unaware of God – otherwise he would not be a priest; he would have been a prophet, not a priest at all. Priest is an ugly word: one who is using religion as a business and exploiting people in the name of God. The prophet is one who helps you to be transformed, transfigured. The prophet is not so much concerned with God as he is concerned with you, your reality. Once your reality starts manifesting you will know what God is – because you are God in seed. We can completely forget about God: Buddha never talked about it, Mahavira never talked about it. Yet Buddha helped tremendously. He insisted: God is not the question, God is not the quest; the quest is your innermost being."