"The scientific approach is the search for power; that's why Lord Bacon said 'knowledge is power.' Science has made man very powerful, so much so that man can destroy the whole planet earth. For the first time in the history of consciousness man is capable of committing a global suicide, a collective suicide. Science has released tremendous power. Science is continuously searching for more and more power. This too is an approach towards truth, but a partial approach.

"Then there are poets, mystics, people with the aesthetic sense. They look at truth as beauty – Jalaluddin Rumi and Rabindranath Tagore and others, who think that beauty is truth. They create much art, they create new sources of beauty in the world. The painter, the poet, the dancer, the musician, they are also approaching truth from a totally different dimension than power.

"A poet is not like the scientist. The scientist works with analysis, reason, observation. The poet functions through the heart – irrationaltrust, love. He has nothing to do with mind and reason.

"The greater part of religious people belong to the second dimension. The Sufis, the Bauls – they all belong to the aesthetic approach. Hence so many beautiful mosques, churches, cathedrals, temples – Ajanta and Ellora – they were created by religious people. Whenever religious activity predominates, art is created, music is created, great painting is created; the world becomes a little more beautiful. It doesn't become more powerful, but it becomes more beautiful, more lovely, worth living.

"The third approach is that of grandeur. The old Bible prophets – Moses, Abraham; Islam's prophet Mohammed; Krishna and Ram – their approach is through the dimension of grandeurthe awe that one feels looking at this vastness of the universe. The Upanishads, the Vedas, they all approach the world, the world of truth, through grandeur. They are full of wonder. It is unbelievably there, with such grandeur, that you can simply bow down before it – nothing else is possible. One simply feels humble, reduced to nothing.

"These are the three dimensions ordinarily available to approach towards truth. The first dimension creates the scientist; the second, the artist; the third, the prophets. The rarity of Buddha consists of this – that his approach is a synthesis of all the three, and not only a synthesis but it goes beyond the three."