"Communication is through words, and communion is through silence.

"So these days of silence have been immensely fruitful. Now only those are left for whom my presence is enough, my being is enough, for whom just the gesture of my hand is enough, for whom my eyes are enough – for whom language is no more a need.

But today I have suddenly decided to speak again – again after one thousand, three hundred and fifteen days – for the simple reason that the picture that I have been painting all my life needs a few touches here and there to complete it, because that day when I became silent, everything was left incomplete. Before I depart from you as far as my physical body is concerned, I would like to complete it.

"I have been speaking to Hindus, to Christians, to Jews, to Mohammedans, to Jainas, to Buddhists, to Sikhs, to people belonging to almost all the so-called religions. This is for the first time that I am speaking to my own people: not to Hindus, not to Mohammedans, not to Christians, not to Jews. It makes a lot of difference, and only because of that difference can I give the finishing touch to the picture that I have been painting. What difference does it make? To you I can speak directly, immediately. To the Hindus I had to speak through Krishna, and I was not happy about it. But there was no other way, it was a necessary evil. To Christians I could speak only through Jesus. I was not at ease about it, but there was no other way. So one has to choose the least evil. Let me explain to you…

"I do not agree with Jesus on all points. In fact, there are many questions which I have left unanswered, because even to touch them would have been destructive to those Christians who had come to me. Now they are clean. People say that I am brainwashing people. No, I am not brainwashing people. I am certainly washing their brains – and I believe in dry cleaning! So I can say to you now exactly what I feel; otherwise, it was a burden on me.

"To speak on Mahavira was necessary because without that it was impossible to get any Jainas to hear me. And with Mahavira I do not agree on all points. In fact, my disagreement is on more points than my agreement. So I had to do a strange job: I had to choose those points on which I could agree, and not talk at all about those points on which I was absolutely against. And even on the points on which I have a certain agreement, I had to manage another thing: that was to give new meanings to their words, to give my meaning to their words. It was not their meaning. If Mahavira comes he will be angry; if Jesus comes he will be angry. If this whole crowd of Jesus, Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu meets me somewhere, they will all be mad at me because I have made them say things they would never have dreamed of. They could not. Sometimes I have even put meanings into their words which go basically against them. But there was no other way.

"The whole world is divided. You can’t find a single man who is clean. Either he is a Christian – he is carrying one kind of dirt; or he is a Hindu – he is carrying another kind of dirt. Now it is possible for me to say exactly and directly things which may even sound bitter.

"You have asked why I call my religion the first and perhaps the last religion.

"Yes, I call it the first religion, because religion is the highest flowering of consciousness. Up to now, man was not capable of conceiving of it. Even now, only one percent of humanity is barely able to conceive of it. The masses are still living in the past, burdened with the past, conditioned by the past. Barely one percent of mankind is in a state now to conceive of religion. All the old religions are based in fear. Now, a real religion destroys fear. It is not based on fear." Osho