Is it right to delegate religion only to the rich?

Is it right to delegate religion only to the rich?

It is not a question of right and wrong for me, it is a question of what the correct situation is. A person who is ill will go to the hospital and a person who is not ill will not go. So a poor country is bound to be attracted by communism. That is just the flow of history -- in a way it is inevitable. In the same way a rich country is bound to be attracted by religion. In Russia, things have changed within the last ten or fifteen years. Now they have the greatest number of research scientists working on research projects in parapsychology in the whole world. And their findings are miraculous! So it is not a question of right and wrong, it is just the way that history moves. In the long run communism does bring a certain affluence; then religion can become meaningful.

A friend has asked: You say spirituality is only for a few wealthy people. Why don’t you think it could also become a means of religious liberation for the poor masses?

Around the world, the greatest support for the capitalist system comes from so‑called religion. The rich want the poor to be indoctrinated. That is why the rich build temples. A Birla does not build temples for nothing. Across India, the Birlas have built temples and churches. It is not without reason. Perhaps even they do not fully know why they are doing it, but deep down the capitalist consciousness builds temples, dharmashalas, opens hospitals—devising all arrangements to keep the poor content while remaining poor. And they support sannyasins, preachers, monks to teach the poor that contentment is a great virtue, that tolerance is noble; that you are poor because of sins from your past lives; do good deeds now and you too will be rich in the future. The rich are rich because of merits from past lives. They tie every kind of blindfold over the poor man’s eyes. It…

Are you not a rich man's guru?

I AM -- BECAUSE ONLY A RICH MAN CAN COME TO ME. But when I say 'a rich man' I mean one who is very poor inside. When I say 'a rich man' I mean one who is rich in intelligence; I mean one who has got everything that the world can give to him, and has found that it is futile. Yes, only a rich person can become religious. I am not saying that a poor person cannot become religious, but it is very rare, exceptional. A poor person goes on hoping. A poor person has not known what riches are. He is not yet frustrated with it. How can he go beyond riches if he is not frustrated with them? A poor man also sometimes comes to me, but then he comes for something which I cannot supply. He asks for success. His son is not getting employed;…

A friend has asked: “You said that only simple, guileless people could understand Kabir, while the pundits were left out. But to understand you, only those who have money can come; the simple, straightforward poor cannot. What is the reason?”

There are several things to understand. First, being poor does not make one guileless or simple. Do not fall into this mistake. We carry a deep assumption in the mind: if someone is poor, he must be innocent. Does poverty make a person guileless? Is poverty sufficient for simplicity? Whenever we use the word “guileless,” we tend to add “poor” to it—as if poverty were some certificate of innocence! Poverty, by itself, does not reveal that you are guileless; it only reveals that you are not skillful. You are in the same race as everyone else. The poor chase money just as the rich do. The rich have succeeded; the poor have not. There is no difference in the race at all. So, in the world there are two kinds of “wealthy”: the affluent and the wealth-aspiring. There is hardly anyone truly poor. Rarely is someone genuinely poor. The day…

Why are westerners becoming so interested in indian religions?

There is a deep reason. Religion is the last luxury so only an affluent society can afford religion. Religion is the flowering. When every so-called natural need is fulfilled, only then does the beyond become meaningful and significant. when body needs are fulfilled, when you are not in any struggle at the physical level, then a new struggle begins on a higher level. That is the struggle to achieve consciousness. So whenever a society becomes rich, only then does religion become meaningful. A poor society can never be religious.