"Man remains open, man remains liquid, man remains flowing. Man is more like a process than like a defined thing. That is man's glory, and his misery too – because he constantly hankers to know who he is. And again and again he stumbles into the darkness of his being. His being is not illumined – hence the search, the inquiry.

"On this point man has to be understood. because only from this understanding can he start working towards a definition, towards realization, towards truth.

"When I say 'man is born without definition' I mean that man is not born ready-made. What existentialists say is true – they say that in man, existence precedes his essence. In a tree, the essence comes first, then the existence. The same is true about everything else, except man. Essence comes first – the seed, the essential program, the essential design. The blueprint comes first. Then the blueprint unfolds and becomes existence.

"In man just the reverse is the case. First he starts existing – without any blueprint, without any design, without being programmed in any way. He simply starts existing as a nothingness, as nobody. And then, by and by, he has to create his own identity, he has to create himself. He has to work it out, hence the anxiety. One may be able to, one may not be able to – who knows? One may succeed, one may not succeed…there is no guarantee in man.

"A dog is bound to succeed – he will become a dog. There is no more to it. A peacock has no fear of being a failure. A tiger need not worry, need not suffer from insomnia. He is already that which he can be.

"Man is not that which he can be, man is just a beginning – and the end remains unknown. Man brings no program into the world, man is not born ready-made. He is born as utter freedom.

"So the responsibility is great – because otherwise you will go on missing your own soul. The responsibility is towards yourself. You will never feel fulfilled, you will always remain empty. If you don't start discovering, creating, inventing, if you don't start working for your being, you will remain just an existence without an essence."