"With it life starts and with it life ends. It is the most mysterious thing; without it there is no possibility of life.

"Life seems just a shadow of breath. When breath disappears life disappears. So this phenomenon of breathing has to be understood.

"Every child born is not really alive until he breathes. He has very few moments left. If he breathes after the birth, in those few moments life enters. If he does not breathe he will remain dead.

"Those first few moments of life are the most important. The doctors, the parents, all become concerned when a child is born. will he breathe? will he cry? and the breathing start? Or will he remain dead? Again, as in all the myths created, in every man Adam is born again.

"The child cannot breathe on his own. To expect that is impossible because the child does not know how to breathe, nobody has taught him. This is going to be his first act, so this cannot be his act.

"Let me repeat it: This is going to be his first and the most significant act – that's why it cannot be his act. If God does it – okay; if God is not willing – finished.

"The whole has to breathe in him, that's why those few moments are full with suspense, doubt, apprehension, fear – because both possibilities are still open. The child can remain dead. Then nothing can be done. The child cannot do anything, the parents cannot do anything, the doctors cannot do anything; humanity is helpless. It is up to the whole.

"Only prayer can be done. We can only wait in deep prayer. If the whole moves into the child the child becomes alive, otherwise not.

"This first breath is taken by the whole. And if the first breath is taken by the whole then everything else which depends on breathing cannot be your act. If you think you are breathing then you have taken a very wrong step. And because of this wrong step ego will be created. Ego is accumulated ignorance.

"You missed. You have not been breathing, the whole has breathed into you, but you have taken it as if you are breathing."