"Secondly, he has to drop the dirty old habit of drinking his own urine – that is prohibited here. He can bring his spinning wheel, it is innocent; and we will not ask him to do anything else – he can go on spinning his wheel day and night. We will provide him with every facility that is possible, even though while he was in power he tried constantly to destroy this ashram, not knowing that finally only this ashram would provide him a home.

"Life takes strange turns.

"Secondly: from almost all over India, all the progressive and intelligent newspapers and magazines have supported my statements against the Shankaracharya of Puri. But a few Hindu chauvinists have criticized me and I have to answer them.

"One criticism has appeared in many papers by a certain man, Sharma. It is hilarious to know that people don't even understand the meaning of their surnames. Sharma comes from sharman, and sharman was the lowest brahmin class, who used to butcher cows in their religious rituals. 'Sharman' means 'the butcher.' Still people go on writing under the name Sharma, not knowing that they are declaring their butcherhood and their forefathers' ugly violence.

"He has been writing against me, that I should not ask for a negative AIDS test from the Shankaracharya because he is celibate. How does he know? Because he is a religious head, that does not mean that he cannot have AIDS. In fact, particularly because he is celibate and religious head there is more possibility of having AIDS than in any other profession.

"It is now a proven fact all over the world that priests have been found to be homosexuals, and many of the priests are suffering from AIDS. We cannot make any exception for anybody. In fact, the Shankaracharya of Puri has declared himself a harijan. According to his own scriptures, he should not enter into any temple – his own temple included. And if he enters into any temple, that means that harijans can enter into any temple around the country.

"People have been deceiving just by changing names. All the Hindu scriptures call them sudras – untouchables – but suddenly they have become 'beloved of God' – 'harijans'."