"You project your mind on it – it becomes a screen.

"You see a woman as very very beautiful; others don't see that beauty at all. Does the beauty belong to the woman or to your mind? If it belongs to the woman, then everybody would see her as beautiful. But you can find people who will look at her and will be simply disgusted, you can find people who will not become in any way aware that she is beautiful. And you think that the woman is beautiful – so where is beauty? Is it in the woman or in your mind? Is it objective or just a subjective phenomenon?

"It happened once:

"I was sitting near the Ganges in Allahabad with a friend. We were talking of God, of meditation, when suddenly the friend lost contact with whatsoever we were saying. I also felt that something had happened, so I asked, 'What has happened? – because you are no longer here.'

"He said, 'I cannot be. Look!' Just near the bank a woman was taking a bath, but we couldn't see her face. Her back was towards us, a very slender, proportionate body with long hair. And the friend was too much excited – he was excitement. He said, 'Wait, I cannot talk about God and meditation right now, it is impossible. I will have to go and look at this woman. The body seems to be so beautiful and proportionate.'

"So I said, 'You go and be finished.' You can imagine the romance that was in his step. He walked filled with an illusion, a projection. He walked very softly and delicately, but when he reached her he suddenly became sad. He came back, and I asked, 'What happened?'

"He said, 'She is not a woman at all. He is a sannyasin with long hair.' But for a moment he was in a dream….

"But he could have been a homosexual; then just the opposite would have been the case. If she had been a woman, useless. Then the sannyasin, a beautiful male body, would have become the poetry within him.

"A homosexual exists in a different world, his projection is different."