"The inner has its own needs; they have to be nourished, evolved, brought to their ultimate peak in an awakened soul.

"The East, particularly India, is suffering by rejecting materialism; and Rajiv Gandhi is again insisting on the same fallacy.

"India is the oldest country in the world, but it has not developed science, it has not developed technology, it has not developed medical science. It has lived in utter poverty.

"This poverty cannot be dispelled without scientific, technological development. If you reject materialism, science is rejected automatically. By rejecting materialism, where will you land up?

"In his election propaganda he was talking of bringing the country into the twenty-first century. And now? – he wants to reject materialism. That means falling back thousands of years. You will have to reject electricity, you will have to reject trains, you will have to reject cars, you will have to reject your nuclear plants. Has he forgotten that he has been working hard to create nuclear plants? They don't belong to spirituality.

"You will have to reject all medical science, all surgery. You will have to reject all birth control methods. Do you want to kill this whole country, to commit suicide?

"And what is this heritage you are bragging about? From where does it start? From the Rigveda? That is the ancientmost scripture, it can be taken as a milestone.

"In Rigveda, human sacrifice was a routine thing. It was called narmedh, killing human beings as a sacrifice before a fictitious God, and ashvamedha, killing horses as a sacrifice to the fictitious God. And you won't believe it: Hindus continuously struggle for cows not be slaughtered. But in Rigveda there was gomedh, slaughter of the cow as a sacrifice to God.

"But God does not eat the meat, the flesh. What was happening to the flesh of men, horses and cows sacrificed? It was distributed as presents of God, as prasad. Do you want to go back to those days?

"Your ancient heritage does not believe in the equality of man. For five thousand years it has been torturing the sudras, the untouchables. Your ancient heritage believed in slaves. People were auctioned just like commodities, and particularly women were auctioned in open markets."