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painting, cleaned it and put it back. Now what had happened? Just a change of outlook. Whether the painting is an authentic Picasso or not is not the question, but his outlook immediately changed.
Every sannyasin has to see in every other sannyasin a unique individual, an authentic creation of existence. And it is true, because nobody else is like you. There are no individuals, even two, who are similar. Even twins are not absolutely similar.
So it is simply a fact that everybody is unique, and everybody has a certain individuality. We just have to drop ideas of how people should be, and we have to replace it with a philosophy that however people are, they are beautiful. There is no question of "should be" because who are we to impose any "should" on anybody? If existence is ready to accept you as you are, then who am I not to?
So just a change of attitude -- and it is a very simple thing, once it gets into your vision. Everybody is unique, everybody is as he is and he should be as he is. There is no need for him to be somebody else to be accepted; he's accepted already. This is what I call respect for individuality, respect for people -- as they are.
The whole humanity can be such a loving and rejoicing place if we can accept people as they are. But we cannot.
The wife is trying to tell the husband, in every possible way, how he should be. The husband is trying to tell the wife how she should be. Both are trying to tell the children how they should be.
I was staying in a family, and I asked a child who was sitting just by my side, "What are you going to be when you become big?"
He said, "It is very difficult. I will fall apart."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "My mother wants me to be a doctor, my father wants me to be an engineer, my uncle wants me to be an actor, and nobody bothers to ask me what I want to be. I simply want to be a carpenter, because I love wood and I want to play with wood and make things out of wood.
"But I cannot say this because they will all laugh and say, `You are an idiot. We are talking about being a doctor, an actor, an engineer -- and you want to be a carpenter!'" But that
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