"In the first place, sannyasins are increasing all over the world; there is no question of their decrease. Secondly, I don't believe in converting anybody. I believe that the very effort to convert somebody is trespassing his freedom, his being. I can say what I want to say, but there is no effort to convert anybody to sannyas. In my whole life I have never converted a single person to sannyas. Although there are one million sannyasins around the world, they have all come to me of their own accord. And I am against all kinds of missionary work, conversion, making people Christians or Hindus or Mohammedans. Every individual has the right to be himself.

"I can say to the person – not as an authority that, 'I am the only begotten son of God, so you have to believe me, and unless you believe me you are lost. If you believe me you are saved.' These strategies are simply cunning, political, playing on man's fear and greed; exploiting man, taking advantage of his innocence, ignorance.

"I am against the whole company of messiahs, prophets, founders of religions. A single man has declared war against all the religions of the world. For thirty-five years continuously I have been fighting with every argument that they have proposed, and they have not been able to support any of their dogmas, and they have not been able to answer any of my questions.

"So the people who have come to me have come out of their own freedom, intelligence. They could understand me, what I am saying, and they could see the fallacy that I was showing them. But unless somebody comes to me, asks for sannyas… I am in no way going to interfere into his fundamental right of being himself. Right or wrong, that does not matter – who am I to decide what is right for him, what is wrong for him? I can say how I have found my bliss, my joy; that's all. If your heart starts feeling me, if your heart starts beating with me, and a desire arises in you for adventure, for new spaces, new ecstasies, I am available – not as a leader but only as a friend."