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keep you young and fresh. It will keep you excited, enthusiastic; it will keep you always going for a new journey, for a new pilgrimage -- because there is no end to life, there is no end to time. An infinity of life and an infinity of time is available to you. You can create God within your own soul. But Zarathustra's name for that God is the superman. I think it is better, because with God there are ugly associations. Whatever you do, somehow God slips back and becomes past. It is very difficult to put him in the future.
He is almost like a doll that is made in Japan. It is a doll of an Indian mystic Bodhidharma, who was the founder of the great tradition of Zen. In Japan, more lovingly, his name has become Daruma. Bodhidharma seems to be a little hard; Daruma seems to be sweeter. And they have made Bodhidharma's statue, which are called Daruma dolls.
Their uniqueness is: you can throw the Daruma doll any way, but it will always sit back in the lotus posture. You cannot topple it. Its top is very light and its bottom is very heavy. So whatever you do -- you can kick it, you can throw it in the air -- whatever you do, Daruma always sits back in the lotus posture.
The case with the word God is similar. It has been so misused; it has dominated the whole past of man and destroyed all possibilities for man's evolution. You can manage to drag it, somehow, into the future, but within a few seconds you will find it has gone back again... sitting in the lotus posture.
It is right of Zarathustra to drop the word God. It was a fiction and we cannot relate with a fiction in any way. But superman is not a fiction; it is your potential, it is every man's potential. The very idea of superman makes you rich, makes you feel full, makes you feel no longer a beggar and a worshiper. You need not go to any church or temple or mosque, because now there is no need for any prayer. You have to be a creator, you have to transform yourself.
Religion becomes the alchemy of transformation -- from a slave into a master.
Zarathustra is not to be categorized with your other philosophers; he stands aloof. And his contribution is tremendously valuable.
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