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and all song and all joy.
That's how my sannyasins have to look at life.
Bela is another flower, one of the most fragrant. It is an eastern flower. It happens only in a hot climate. The hotter the climate, the more fragrant are the flowers. The colder the climate, the less fragrant are the flowers. In fact, many western flowers have no perfume. The cold does not allow their perfume to be released. A certain heat is needed. And the same is true about man. A certain effort that creates heat in you is needed to release your perfume, your fragrance.
It is not just accidental that many more Buddhas happen in the East than in the West. It is the same law. It is just as flowers are more fragrant in the East than in the West. The sun is hotter, it releases the energies of the flowers. In a cold country, in a cold climate, people are bound to become materialistic because they have to protect their bodies, otherwise the cold will kill them. They have to remain so concerned about the body that they become body-oriented. In a hotter climate people need not worry about the body too much; they can live naked. Now, one cannot conceive of a Mahavira happening in the West -- he lived naked. It is possible in India. In fact, to wear clothes in India is uncomfortable, to be naked is far more luxurious.
The East became more and more concerned about something more inner than the body, because the body was not a problem and life was very secure and safe. The climate was such and the soil was so fertile that just a little effort was needed. India is poor today for the simple reason, that the population has grown beyond its capacities. In Buddha's time there were only two crore people in India; now there are seventy-crore -- almost fifty times more, and the earth is the same. So people were very easily happy with their physical life, there was no problem about it. Even just fifty years ago it was the routine thing that only one man in the whole family would earn and the whole family would live without earning. It was enough. People were satisfied with small comforts, their needs were not many, hence their whole consciousness turned inwards. They started making
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