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I want you to forgive me for telling that man that we have had many very important people. That was wrong. We have never had such a person, about whom the whole world is concerned. We have had people of cabinet standing; they were, at the most, of national importance, but nobody who had any international importance, and so much love."
The second day he asked me, "What are we going to do with the flowers? So many flowers are coming, and in this big jail, we don't have space."
So I told him, "Send the flowers to all the schools, colleges and universities, from me." He did that, and the response was immense. When I was taken from the jail to the airport again, all along the way were students throwing flowers.
In fact, the government must have been repenting that they made a stupid mistake. They unnecessarily made our silent movement a world-famous phenomenon. Now it is a household name around the world, in all the languages.
Those twelve days in jail have been of immense help to the movement. They could not do anything because there was nothing that was in their hands to do; they simply became fools. What have they gained?
We had changed their desert into an oasis; again it will be a desert -- that is their gain. But we have gained much. Those four years will now become the foundation of a new commune -- naturally, far superior, far better. Then, we were not so expert, and it gave us many ideas....
For example, now I am not going to make a commune in a country under any government. I am trying for an absolutely independent island, so you don't need any visa, you don't need anybody to tell you how long you can stay.
We are not going to create a government there, we are not going to make it a nation -- because I am against nations and against governments. And we have to prove in that commune something more now: that people can live without government, and people can live without a nation, and people can live without armies; that people need not have jails, they don't have to have the police, they don't need any judges.
So, it has been tremendously helpful, and to the whole community of sannyasins around the world
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