"He loved the world so totally that he could not find any sin anywhere. He loved the world so totally that nothing was ugly to him – all was transformed into a luminous beauty.

"Existence is what you project on it. Existence reflects you. If you have ugliness in your heart, you will see it everywhere. If your heart is innocent you will see existence as virgin. You go on listening to your own echoes.

"The real saint is one who cannot find the sinner in the world. But your so-called saints are just so-called. The whole world becomes full of sinners for them; they exist on condemnation. The more they condemn people, the higher they feel they are; the more they put you down, in a better way their egos are gratified.

"Remember it: a real saint never meets a sinner. Even if he searches, he is not going to find one. That is the definition of a real saint: one who cannot find anything ugly in existence, for who the whole existence is transformed, transported. It is incredibly beautiful, it is utterly beautiful; it is wholly beautiful.

"The moment existence becomes so totally beautiful for you; you know godliness. It is not a person; you will never encounter it anywhere. It has no form, no name. Godliness is a presence, and that presence is only felt by those who have this aesthetic sensitivity and aesthetic awareness.

"Jesus could see in the dead dog something immensely beautiful. He said: 'Pearls are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth.' In that whiteness, godliness appeared. In the whiteness that presence was felt. And you cannot even see it in a beautiful sunrise? You cannot see it in a rose flower? You cannot see it in the face of a beautiful woman or man? You cannot see it in the innocent eyes of children? And you go on searching in the churches, and the temples and the mosques – all your searching is in vain.

"Religion is nothing but attaining to such sensitive awareness that all is transformed into incredible beauty. Beauty is godliness."