"The poor person suffers because he is hungry. The rich person suffers, not because he is hungry, but because now he knows that you may have a good house, good food, a good wife, a cozy family, a warm atmosphere, and still inside you are hungry – a spiritual hunger. Life is meaningless, pointless, accidental, empty. A great suffering arises. The poor suffers physiologically; the rich suffers psychologically.

"Why are the rich suffering? If it is only a question of richness, then the rich should not suffer. But it is again an alibi, a rationalization, so that you can continue in your old ways and your old patterns. That too proved to be another fallacy; now it too has become a clich.

"Then Sigmund Freud invented something else. He said, ‘It is because of your unconscious instincts, passions that you have carried from your animal nature. It is because of those wounds in the unconscious that man is suffering.’ Now what can you do about the unconscious?

"These are just different names for the same trick, the same strategy, ‘I am not responsible.’ Something else… The unconscious, history, economics, God, fate, karma, anything will do – xyz – anything will do. But one thing is certain: ‘I am not the cause of my suffering.’ And that is where your whole misery lies, in that trick.

"Understand well, you are the cause of your suffering, nobody else. To recognize this is the first step in being a religious person. You don’t throw your responsibility onto others, you simply recognize the fact: &lsquot;I am the cause of my suffering.’ And with that, of course, you will feel a little sad, you will look a little stupid. If you are the cause, then why do you go on creating suffering for yourself? You don’t like to suffer…

"In the beginning you will feel a little sad, stupid, puzzled, confused. But soon you will feel a great freedom. If you are the cause of your misery, then you can be the cause of your blessing, of your bliss; then great freedom is attained. When one takes responsibility for oneself, one becomes free. You become free from past karma, you become free from fate, kismet, you become free from history, you become free from psychology. You become free from all excuses. And once you have pinpointed the real cause, things start changing." Osho