"He has always done great service to humanity: he has brought more beauty to existence, more poetry to life, has created more songs in the souls – he is the very salt of the earth.

"All that man is, whatsoever is great in man, belongs to only a very few unique individuals' contribution. But the crowd cannot forgive them. It can forgive criminals, it can forgive murderers, it can forgive politicians, it can forgive any kind of person in the world, but it cannot forgive a man who has an individuality of his own, who is not part of the collective mind.

"It reminds me of the crucifixion of Jesus. The man was absolutely harmless. He had not done anything wrong to anybody, he was not a criminal. And the governor general of Judea was Roman, he was not a Jew. Judea was under the Roman Empire. And every year at the annual festival of the Jews, they were allowed to forgive one person from all the persons who were going to be murdered on that day. On that day it was decided, for all the criminals who had been sentenced to death. Millions of people gathered in Jerusalem and it was a great entertainment to see people crucified – such is the barbarous instinct in the crowd.

"Governor General Pontius Pilate was perfectly aware that this young man, Jesus, was not a criminal. But the whole crowd of the Jews, their priests, the high priest, were unanimously asking that he should be crucified. He tried to persuade the priests, but they were absolutely deaf to any persuasion. Finally Pontius Pilate talked to Jesus and felt immensely sorry for the young man. He was only thirty-three, he had not seen more than thirty-three springs in his life, and it was absolutely unjust.

"But Pontius Pilate was a politician – and the politician knows nothing about justice or injustice, right or wrong; he always thinks in terms of power. Everything is decided to help him to be in power. He was afraid that if he refused to crucify this young, harmless, innocent person, his political career would be jeopardized. All the Jews would appeal to the Roman emperor that this man should be removed from Judea."