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Main Index
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are all kinds of miseries in the world: the poor suffers one kind of misery, the rich suffers another kind of misery, but there is no difference as far as misery is concerned. And sometimes it happens that the rich suffers more, because he can afford more. He has more possibilities, more alternatives, open for him. The poor cannot purchase much misery, but the rich can purchase. Hence the richest people feel the most miserable in the world. The richest people become the poorest in this sense. In fact, when you become rich, for the first time you feel the poverty of life. When you are poor you can hope that some day you will be rich, and there will be joy and there will be celebration; but when you have attained to the riches of the outside, suddenly the hope disappears and great hopelessness settles in. You are surrounded by a despair: now there is no hope and no future; now the last hope has disappeared. You had lived with the idea that "One day I will be rich and then everything will be all right."Now you are rich and nothing has changed; the inner misery continues as ever.
In fact, because of the outer riches, in contrast to the outer riches, you can see your inner poverty more clearly, more accurately, more penetratingly. The outer richness only provides a background for feeling the inner poverty. Outer possessions make you aware of the inner emptiness. Hence, it is not surprising that rich countries become religious. India was religious when India was rich, in the days of Buddha, Mahavir. India was affluent; because of that affluence India was aware of the inner poverty. And when you become aware of inner poverty, then you start searching inwards. When you become aware that no outer thing can fulfill the inner longing, that all that is outer remains out, you cannot take it in; when this becomes an absolute certainty then you start a new search, a new adventure. That adventure is religion.
India cannot be religious today. India is one of the poorest countries in the world -- how can it be religious? It cannot afford to be religious. Religion is the highest kind of luxury, the ultimate in luxury. It is the ultimate music, ultimate poetry, ultimate
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