"Anand Nirgrantha,

"The priest is the most cunning person in the world. They say prostitution is the oldest institution; it is not. Priesthood is the oldest institution in the world, because without the priests who will create the prostitutes? The priest is at the root of almost every problem that man is facing today.

"And one of the greatest problems is because we have been conditioned by the priest for thousands of years, he has become almost part of our blood; he is not there somewhere outside. The outside priests – the imam, the ayatollah, the pope – they only represent something now which has become part of our inner world. In fact, whatsoever is known as conscience is nothing but the priest and his voice echoing in you. But now you think it is your voice; you have become identified with it.

"That's why we cannot understand our problems and we cannot find any solutions for them. Otherwise, every problem, rightly understood, is immediately solved. To see what it is, is also to see the way out of it. It is not that after understanding something more is needed – understanding is enough unto itself. It melts and dissolves the problems. It is like the sun rising in the morning…and the dew drops start evaporating.

"Nirgrantha, you say that in your schooldays you read this proverb – and you must have read it again and again because it was hanging on the wall in the school – 'The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.'

"That is the beginning of ignorance, not the beginning of wisdom. That is the beginning of slavery. That is the beginning of insanity. But the priest wants humanity to be in an insane state; only then can he and his profession prosper.

"There are professions in the world which are self contradictory. For example, the profession of the physician, the doctor; it is a self-contradictory profession. If the doctor succeeds finally in eliminating all the illnesses from the world he will have committed suicide. On the one hand he tries to cure – he tries to find more and more and better methods, techniques, medicines to cure illnesses; on the other hand, deep down, he hopes that he will not succeed."