"Why do you become afraid when you are alone? Perhaps you have never thought about it in this perspective. Why do you want to be with someone?

"Loneliness makes people sad. They do anything stupid just to avoid loneliness. They play chess knowing perfectly that everything is bogus. Neither the king is king nor the queen is queen. The queen is as valuable as the queen of England. But just look at chess players…so intent, pouring their whole consciousness…And it is not only chess, there are thousands of ways to avoid your loneliness. It comes from those days when to be lonely was really dangerous. Wild animals were all around, and every animal is stronger than man. The days I am talking about are called the days of the mammoths – animals which were ten times bigger than our elephants.

"There is no problem. Why should you not feel afraid being alone? In the nights, you had to hide yourself in caves or climb the trees – and it was very natural to make a kind of Lions Club or Rotary Club. Those were only out of fear. They joined together and whoever was powerful, naturally became the leader.

"And since that day the story continues.

"Even today whoever is powerful is the leader. He himself is the law.

"That's what Napoleon used to say: 'I am the law. Whatever I say becomes the law. No law is above me.' Certainly there are differences of physical strength, differences of intelligence. Since those days women have been tortured by men, just because their bodies are more delicate and are not muscular; more soft, more warm, more loving – but not strong enough to become wrestlers or boxers.

"So the person who was the leader sorted out the most beautiful women. They were his property. And the remaining members of the Rotary Club were left with the leftovers. Basically, that has not changed at all; still the poor man gets the leftovers. The kings and the prime ministers and the presidents choose whatever is the best.

"Just fifty years ago one man alone, the Nizam of Hyderabad, had five hundred wives. He was the richest man in the world, just by chance, because in his state is the mine where all the great diamonds have been found, from Kohinoor to many others."