"Sadists are not very attracted towards religion. The other type is attracted toward religion, the masochists. They torture themselves. They become great mahatmas, they become great saints, and they are revered by the society because they torture themselves. A perfect masochist always moves directly toward religion, just as a perfect sadist moves toward politics. Politics is the religion of the sadist; religion is the politics of the masochist. But if a masochist is not too certain, then he can also find some other sub-paths. He can become an artist, a painter, a poet, and can allow himself to suffer in the name of poetry, literature, painting.

"You must have heard the name Vincent van Gogh, the great Dutch painter. He was the perfect masochist. If he had been born in India, he would have become a Mahatma Gandhi; but he became a painter. He had not much money. His brother used to give him only enough to survive. So, out of the seven days of the week he would eat only on three days, and the other four days he would fast in order to paint.

"He was in love with a woman, but the father of the woman wouldn't allow him to see her. So he forced his hand on a burning flame and he said, 'I will keep my hand on the burning flame until you allow me to see her.' He burned his hand.

"A prostitute told him, 'Your ears are very beautiful,' because there was nothing else to appreciate in his face. He was one of the ugliest men, he had ugly features. The prostitute must have been in a difficulty with this man, so she told him that his ears were very beautiful. He went back home, cut one of his ears off with a knife, packed it, went back to her with blood flowing all over, and presented the ear to the woman saying, 'You liked it so much that I would like to give it to you as a gift.'

"He continued painting in the hottest part of France, Arles, in the summer when the sun was very hot. Everybody told him, 'You will get ill, the sun is too hot.' But the whole day, particularly when the sun was hottest, at full noontide, he would be standing in the fields and painting."