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There is no path. If you understand that, there is no need to go on any path, my path included. But if you don't understand that, if that revelation does not make you enlightened immediately.... I am ready to make you enlightened right now. But you say 'Wait, Sir. I am not ready right now. Tomorrow.' —Then you will have to become a sannyasin. And then the whole nonsense follows.

It is your responsibility. I am ready to make you enlightened this very moment, unconditionally. Then there is no need for the change of the name and no need for the mala and no need for the orange. But you say 'Tomorrow — not today. The day after tomorrow — not today, not right now.'

Then I suggest: Become a sannyasin. And when you become a sannyasin then the whole abracadabra. But this is your decision. I was ready to declare you enlightened but you say 'No Sir, I want to become a sannyasin. I want to follow a path. I don't want to become enlightened right now.'

Then it is perfectly okay. Then I give you a path. It is just to console you, it is a toy. The day you will understand, there will be no need — no need for anything. But those who have not taken sannyas should not start thinking that they are enlightened. Those who have not taken sannyas should not start thinking 'So, good — good that we have not taken it yet.' But then you have to become enlightened this very moment. If you don't become enlightened and don't become a sannyasin then you remain wherever you are, whosoever you are.

The sannyas is a bridge. The bridge is not the goal. The sannyas is a means, the means is not the end. It is better to become a sannyasin than not to become one. But if you can gather so much passion and fire that you can burn in a single moment, that you can become aflame in a single moment, instantly — then there is no need for sannyas or anything.

And moreover, I am a man of contradictions. I am paradoxical. One day I say one thing, another day I say just the opposite. That is my way to destroy your mind. On one hand I say there is no path. And every evening I give you the path. On one hand I say there is no need for any belonging to anything, to any church. Every night I give you entry into the church. The reason is that I would like you to come closer and closer to me. The closer you are, the more is the possibility to understand the instantaneousness of enlightenment. The farther you are, the more difficult to understand it.

The human mind works logically. Then through logic, gradualness is natural. You say 'One day we will do some thing, another day something more, and then more, step by step.' You think, through logic, as if life is a ladder — 'So we will go one rung, another rung, another rung, that way.' But life is not a ladder, it is an abyss. And you need not step slowly slowly, gradually. You can take a jump, a leap, a quantum leap. One step is enough then if you take a jump. The remaining work will be done by gravitation, you need not do anything else.

So I go on enlightening you every morning. A few people become enlightened, at least for the moment. They forget outside the gate — that is their problem. Again I have to make them enlightened, they again forget, I have to make them enlightened again. I will go on hammering you that you are enlightened, that you have never been otherwise. Some day in some ripe moment you may be able to hear it.

Then what is the purpose of sannyas? The purpose of sannyas is so that you can go on hanging around me for that right moment, for that ripe moment, when a single shout from me or just a look in your eyes or just a touch of my hand will bring you back to yourself.