"I had not kept a distance between me and you. That's why it became possible for a few people to misbehave. They did not hurt me, they hurt you all. Otherwise there was no need, because you can see – a bigger storm has come and there is no need to laugh.

"In fact it gives you an opportunity to be more silent. If you cannot be silent when there is storm and darkness, your silence is not true. It is only a question of looking at things in a right way. The storm is so beautiful, so fresh, is bringing you news of a constantly changing life. The old leaves are dropping, without making any fuss about it, to make way for the new leaves to come. The very dropping of the old leaves…if watchfully, consciously understood, you have understood the secret of relaxation. The dead leaf does not cling to the tree, neither the tree clings to the dead leaf; they depart peacefully, in silence. They loved, they lived, and it is now time to depart.

"As far as I am concerned, just as the storm has come again, I have come again. I was not going to come, it is the storm that persuaded me: 'I am going again – you will be missed.'

"Hundreds of letters just like Zareen's have come to me. And many more people must have been sad and with tears. But I have felt your sadness, your tears.

"I wanted you to know that I am not an old-style Zen master, but I also hit – in my own way, more sophisticated. I also destroy your clingings, your egos; I also destroy your taking me for granted, because one day suddenly I will be gone, just like the storm will be gone. Before I am gone, I would like you to blossom into the biggest roses possible.

"When I see you in silence, in peace – and also in laughter which comes out of silence and peace, not out of hysteria…Yesterday I had to leave because a few of you behaved so unconsciously that they needed to be made alert, that this is not a gathering where you can remain unconscious."