"This is simply the law of existence, that only the individual can rise to the heights of consciousness and awareness. The more you belong to the crowd, the deeper you fall into darkness.

"But there must be some reason why so many people, millions of them, always remain part of crowds – Christians, Jews, Hindus, different kinds of crowds, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese – crowd within crowd. They make smaller crowds, because the big crowd becomes too far away a thing. They make small families, small communities, small sects, cults. And not being satisfied with that, they start making Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, but they always need a crowd to belong to.

"There must be some deep psychology behind it. Belonging to a crowd, whatsoever the nature of the crowd – religious, political, social, but belonging to a crowd – the very desire is to escape from oneself, is to avoid oneself. Is to keep looking at others so that you don't become aware of your own being.

"The fear is of oneself.

"But why should people fear being themselves? There must have been a deep wound somewhere which prevents them from being alone.

"According to me…I don't know whether Gurdjieff is thinking in the same direction or not, but according to me the fear of being alone comes because every man, every woman, has to live in the womb of the mother for nine months in absolute darkness and aloneness. And to us, those are nine months, but to the baby in the mother's womb it is eternity because the baby has no idea of time. But it is not unconscious, it is not in a coma; those nine months of aloneness have left a wound in every being. He is afraid to be alone again. Get married, have children, join clubs, become members of churches – any stupid circus will do, but don't be alone!

"Any absurd belief, if it makes you a part, a member of a society, of a religion, is helpful – not in finding the truth, but in avoiding the truth. The very word belief means you don't know; others know. And who are those others?

"In my village there was a very well-known scholar, a brahmin priest, very well-respected by everybody except me."