“You live only as a mortal being because you live in the body. The body is going to die. That which is born is bound to die; birth is the beginning of the body and death the end. Do you know anything more than the body in you? Have you experienced anything higher than the body, deeper than the body? Have you seen anything in you that was even before you were born? If you have seen that, you are immortal. If you know your face – your original face, the face you had before you were born – you know you will be there after death too. Otherwise not.

“Man can be an immortal, but man lives surrounded by death because he lives identified with the body. The society does not allow you to know more than the body. The society is interested only in your body: your body can be put to use. Your soul is dangerous.

A man of soul is always dangerous because a man of soul is a free man, he cannot be reduced to slavery. A man who has an immortal soul in him has a deeper commitment to existence itself, to God himself. He does not care a bit about the man-made structures of society, civilization, and culture. These are prison cells for him. He does not exist as a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan; he cannot be part of a crowd. He exists as an individual.

“The body is part of a crowd, your soul is not. Your soul is deeply individual, its flavor is that of freedom. But your soul cannot be put to any use in the marketplace. The society needs only your body, and it is very dangerous for the society if you start striving for the soul because then your interest changes. You turn from being an extrovert into an introvert; you start moving inward. The society is outside, the society wants you to remain an extrovert – interested in money, power, prestige, and all that – so your energy goes on moving outward. If you start moving inward, that means you have become a dropout, you are no longer part of the game that is being played on the outside. You don’t belong to it. You start diving deep within your own being – and there is the source of immortality.”