"All the medical experts were agreed. They could not believe what had happened to him, because two years was the maximum limit for his disease.

"But he lived almost ten years, and lived happily in spite of cancer, and died happily. Just a few years more and he would have been enlightened. But he reached to the point that in the next life the remaining small part can be done. His next life will be the last life.

"Sheela had to remain with him, so it was just accidental, her coming to me, her remaining with me. And when Chinmaya started going beyond the two-year limit, she started behaving in an ugly way towards him.

"Naturally, he was sick, had cancerhe was not so much interested in sexuality. All that he needed was womanly warmth.

"So Sheela started having lovers. That was a great wound in Chinmaya. And my feeling is, he would have lived a little longer, but these wounds were becoming more and more. And Sheela was constantly fighting with him.

"Before he died, Sheela had divided the room in two parts, and she was living with her new boyfriend and Chinmaya was left alone.

"Cancer. And he had passed eight years beyond medical speculation. When he came to be examined by the doctors they could not believe it. They said, 'This is nothing but a miracle.'

"I do not do any miracles, and I do not believe in any miracles. But he meditated. There was nothing left for him – only cancer and death.

"But this wound, that at these last moments of his life Sheela would divide the room – and he could hear her laughter, joy with her new boyfriend – perhaps that was too much. Perhaps the will to live disappeared.

"In a way, he was killed by Sheela.

"Sheela never meditated. Not only that, you must have observed, she never even listened. While I was speaking she was sleeping. All the years in India, the time of my discourse was the time for her to sleep. Perhaps she was saving that time for the night with the boyfriend.

"As far as I am concerned, I accept all types of people."