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the story is, it makes it clear that the Devil was more in favor of human individuality, respect, dignity. God was against man from the very beginning. The whole evolution that has happened in science ... `Science' in its very roots means knowledge. Anything that has evolved in the inner consciousness of man -- the awakened ones, the enlightened ones who have come to know that life is eternal, it is a festival, beginningless, endless -- would not have been possible without the Devil. The Devil was the first rebellion against a dictatorial God.
And I have to tell you that the word `devil' is much more meaningful than the word `God'. `God' simply means nothing, but `devil' comes from the Sanskrit root div. From div are derived `devil' and `day' in English; in Hindustani from dev, devata, which means divine; from div, divas, which mean daybreak, the beginning of the day, the end of the night. The Devil seems to be more divine than God. God seems to be really a very mean fellow, and it is good that he is dead otherwise somebody would have to shoot him. It is good that he died by himself, and we had not to have his blood on our hands.
But once God is no longer there, your freedom becomes a tremendous responsibility. It should not fall down into licentiousness, it should rise into enlightenment. Freedom brings responsibility. And I want you to understand that responsibility does not mean duty, it means only the ability to respond. Ability to respond to what? To every situation, moment to moment you should be so aware that you can find original responses to every original situation. Nothing in existence ever repeats.
They say history repeats itself, because man is an idiot. But existence never repeats itself, because existence is intelligence, wisdom, eternity. History will also stop repeating once there are millions of buddhas around the world, millions of people who have the sense of being alert, aware, conscious, and who feel that they have a great responsibility moment to moment -- not according to any scripture but according to everyone's consciousness.
Freedom brings many fruits, and many flowers, and many gifts to you. The death of God
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