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life: Escape from life, life is wrong -- become a monk, an ascetic, drop out of life -- as if to be alive is a sin, as if to be alive is a punishment. That's how so-called religious people have always been thinking: You are sent into life because you have sinned in your past lives. You have been thrown here to be punished. That is the Hindu concept. The Christian concept makes you an even greater sinner, because Adam disobeyed God -- so every man, from the very beginning, is a sinner. You are born in sin.
Buddhists go on saying that life is a bondage; so get out of it, the sooner the better. Escape from it! And down through the centuries, only one prayer has continued all over the earth, and the prayer has been: Don't send us again into the world.
Kabir says: I am not for renunciation. If God creates the world, the world is beautiful. If it comes out of God, it is beautiful; it cannot be a punishment, it is a reward. This is a very revolutionary statement -- that the world is not a punishment, the world is a reward; that God has not thrown you into a dark and dismal cell. It is a celebration. God has loved you so much that he has created this world for you, to play with, to dance with. It is a celebration.
Kabir is not for renunciation; he's all for celebration -- one thing. The second thing: Kabir says: Life is in community. Life is a communion, so don't try to escape from the world, and don't try to remain in a solitary life. Because the richness is in the community; you are enriched by the community, by your relationships. The more you are related to people, the more you are rich. A solitary person living in a Himalayan cave is very poor, impoverished -- because rivers of relationships don't flow in him. He becomes a desert.
Each time somebody looks into you, a river flows in. Each time somebody shakes a hand with you, an energy moves into you. Each time there is a contact, you gain something. When you drop out of all contacts, out of relationship, and you become a solitary monk in a Himalayan cave, you have almost committed suicide. You are only one percent alive. Just because you breathe, you are alive. This is a sort of death: you
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