"Gautam Buddha does not talk about God at all. It is so irrelevant that he does not pay any attention to the subject.

"Now to a Christian, or to a Hindu, or to a Mohammedan, it is impossible to conceive of a religion without God. God is the center of most of the religions. Only three religions are free of God. One is Gautam Buddha's, another is Mahavira's, and the third is Lao Tzu's.

"When for the first time Christian missionaries came into contact with Buddhist scriptures they could not even conceive the idea that a religion could be without a god. What kind of religion will there be if there is no God? How are you going to pray? To whom? Who is going to send his prophets and his only begotten son? Who is going to send saviors for you? Who is going to judge whether you are to be sent to hell or heaven? God removed, hell and heaven are also removed. God removed, punishment and reward are also removed. God removed, the very idea of judgment is removed. Then there is no sin, and no virtue. Who will decide it?

"And they were even more surprised that Gautam Buddha is known by his disciples and now even by those who are not disciples, as Bhagwan Gautam Buddha. Now Bhagwan means God. This was very puzzling. Gautam Buddha does not believe in any God. How does he allow his disciples to address him as Bhagwan?

"The same is the situation with Jainism. They are even more strict about the absence of God. Buddha simply ignores the whole subject. It is not worth any consideration. Jainism does not leave it, because there is a danger of the whole thing cropping up again, once Mahavira is gone. He wants it to be clearly stated that there is no God, there never has been any God and there is no creation because there is no creator. It is an evolving world.

"What Charles Darwin found two thousand years later was known to Mahavira, that it is not a creation, it is an evolving world. It has been here forever and will be here forever. The whole concept of creation and a creator is just idiotic."