"You are a slave in your own house. One desire pulls you towards the south, another towards the north, and you are at the mercy of those blind desires. You are always falling apart. It is difficult even to manage to remain together: so many desires, so many attractions, so many objects alluring you. You are simply in an insane state, running hither and thither, not knowing why, not knowing whether it is worth it at all.

"Man is born unconsciously, although he has the potential to become conscious. But the potential will remain only a potential unless you work hard to actualize it. One is born with an intrinsic capacity to conquer oneself, but your whole energy becomes extrovert. Living with people who are extrovert, ambitious, desiring this and that, a child also starts imitating. He learns from others, his parents, teachers, priests, politicians, and they are all in the same boat. Someone is after money, someone is after power, someone is after fame, but no one seems to be interested in one's own self. No one seems to be ready to go on that great pilgrimage of self-discovery.

"Buddha says: Master yourself If you are at all interested in mastery – and who is not interested? – then become interested in self-mastery. Don't waste your time in trying to dominate others. The effort to dominate others creates political conflict; the whole world is full of it. Politics even enters personal relationships and destroys them. Even when you love a woman or a man, the mind starts its cunning ways to dominate, to possess, to destroy the freedom of the other, because you are afraid. You are afraid that if you don't dominate, the other is going to dominate you.

"For all those who want to dominate others, Machiavelli is the teacher. In India a similar type of man existed; his name was Chanakya. He preceded Machiavelli by thousands of years. Both men are the foundations of the extrovert mind. They laid the foundations, and their first foundation is that the best way to defend yourself is to attack; hence, before the other attacks you, attack the other. Before your wife starts dominating you, dominate her, or before your husband starts dominating you, dominate him."