"Whenever a child is born the society immediately starts changing the child to the abnormal pattern – the unnatural pattern through which everybody else is suffering. Psychologists have been trying to probe deeply into the mystery of where a child goes wrong and they have stumbled upon the age of four. Somewhere near that age the child becomes part of society; somewhere around that age he is no longer natural. Before the age of four he is still part of the great world of trees, flowers, birds and animals; before the age of four he is still wild. Then he is domesticated; then the society takes over. Then he lives according to rules, morality, right and wrong; he is no longer total. Then everything is divided. Before he moves he has to decide deliberately how to move, what to do, and what not to do. The 'ought' has entered and that 'ought' is the disease. Discrimination has come in. Now the child is no longer part of the divine – he has fallen from that grace.

"Try to understand: this is the meaning of the biblical story of Adam's fall. Before he ate from the tree of knowledge he was natural, he lived in the Garden of Eden. That Garden of Eden is here; these trees are still living in it; these animals are still part of it; the sun and moon and stars are still moving in it.

"Here and now is the Garden of Eden – but you are out of it. Why was Adam turned out? He ate the fruit of knowledge. And at the age of four every Adam and every Eve are turned out again.

"It is not something that happened in the past; it happens every time a child is born – again the Adam comes into being, again the Eve comes into being. Up to the age of four there is no knowledge. By the age of four the child starts understanding what is what. Then he misses the path, then he is no longer natural, then the spontaneity is lost. Now he will live according to the rules.

"Once you start living according to the rules you will suffer."