"This is what I mean when I say that your house is also on fire. But you don't seem even a little flustered. You don't even seem to be worried about it. You are not aware of the fact that the house is on fire. The fact is there, but your attention is not there. And everybody thinks that there is enough time to do something. There is not enough time, because whatsoever has to be done is so much that the time is never enough.

"Once it happened that the devil was waiting for years and years and nobody was coming to hell. He was waiting to welcome people, but the earth was running so well and people were so good that no one was coming to hell. Of course he became very worried. He called an emergency council. His greatest disciples gathered together to discuss the situation. Hell was passing through a great crisis and this could not be tolerated. Something had to be done. So he asked for advice: 'What should we do?'

"One disciple suggested, 'I would go to the earth and I would talk to people and try to convince them that there is no God and religions are false, and whatsoever the Bible, the Koran and the Vedas say is nonsense.'

"The devil said, 'This won't do, because we have been doing this since the very beginning and it has not influenced people very much. Through such teaching you can convince only those who are already convinced. So it is of no use; it is not of much use.'

"Then the second disciple, subtler than the first, said, 'I will go and teach people and try to convince people that whatsoever the Bible, the Koran and the Vedas say is right. There is heaven, there is God, but there is no devil and no hell, so don't be afraid. And if we can make them less afraid, they will not bother about religion at all, because all religion is based on fear.'

"The devil said, 'Your proposal is a little better. You may be able to, you may succeed in convincing a minority, but the majority will not listen to you."