"Just think of a child who is unselfish, born unselfish. He will not be able to survive, he will die – because even to breathe is selfish, to eat is selfish, when there are millions of people who are hungry and you are eating, when there are millions of people who are unhealthy, sick, dying, and you are healthy.

"If a child is born without selfishness as an intrinsic part of his nature, he is not going to survive. If a snake comes close to him, what is the need to avoid the snake? Let him bite. It is your selfishness that protects you; otherwise, you are coming in the way of the snake. If a lion jumps upon you and kills you, be killed. That is unselfishness. The lion is hungry, you are providing food – who are you to interfere? You should not protect yourself, you should not fight. You should simply offer yourself on a plate to the lion. That will be unselfishness. All these religions have been teaching things which are unnatural. This is only one of the things.

"I teach you nature. I teach you to be natural, absolutely natural, unashamedly natural. Yes, I teach you selfishness. Nobody has said it before me. They had not the guts to say it. And they were all selfish; this is the amazing part of the whole story.

"Why is a Jaina monk torturing himself? There is a motivation. He wants to attain to moksha and to all the pleasures therein. He is not sacrificing anything, he is simply bargaining. He is a businessman, and his scriptures say, 'You will get a thousandfold.' And this life is really very small – seventy years is not much. If you sacrifice seventy years' pleasures for an eternity of pleasures it is a good bargain. I don't think it is unselfish.

"And why have these religions been teaching you to serve humanity? What is the motive? What is the goal? What are you going to gain out of it? You may never have asked the question. This is not service.

"I have loved a very ancient Chinese story: A man falls into a well. It was at a big gathering, a festival time, and there was so much noise, and people were enjoying, dancing, singing, and all kinds of things were going on, so nobody heard him fall."