"There is bound to be pain. Great pain and agony precede great ecstasy. It can continue for months, for years too, it all depends on you.

"Now, don't look back. That which is gone is gone, and gone forever, never to return again. Whatsoever you do, you cannot bring it back.

"The child cannot enter the womb again; howsoever pleasant it was, comfortable, convenient, secure, safe. The child may have great nostalgia for the womb, for those beautiful, eternal nine months. Yes, I say eternal, because the child feels them as eternity, not as nine months; he has no idea of calculating time. Those long, long nine months of such warmth, of such protection, of such unworried existence, of such tremendous rest and relaxation – the nostalgia hangs around. The child would like to go back to the womb, but it is not possible.

"Going back is not possible at all; it is not in the nature of things. One always has to go forward, and when you look forward everything is so unfamiliar that great fear arises. One never knows where one is. One loses one's identity, one passes through a great crisis of identity. The known is no longer there to cling to, and the unknown seems to be ungraspable.

"But don't look back; that which can't happen can't happen. Look forward, and don't interpret the new and the unknown as unsafe. Interpret it in terms of adventure, exploration. Interpret it as great freedom. Buddha talks again and again about freedom. It is freedom from the past, freedom from the mother, freedom from the parents, freedom from the society, freedom from the church, the state.

"What I am giving to you is absolute freedom. Yes, fear can arise, but fear arises because of your interpretation. Deep down somewhere in the unconscious you would still like to go back, to close your eyes to the new sunrise. You would like to go back even though there was nothing very valuable, nothing significant, but at least one was safe. The territory was familiar; one lived surrounded by walls. We call it a prison, but you used to call it your home; and I have taken you out of your home because it was not your real home, it was only make-believe."