"Scientific endeavor is to create that womb outside – with central heating, with central air-conditioning, with better clothes, with better technology. The whole effort is to create the womb outside.

"Religion tries to create the womb inside with prayer, with meditation techniques, with love, with God. But the effort is one: how to be again in those beautiful days. That lost womb is the source of the parable of Adam, Eve and the Garden of Eden.

"You ask: 'What is the desire for perfection?' The desire for perfection is that whatsoever is the case with you, it is never up to the mark. It is never as it should be, there is a gap. You can still imagine things being better; you can still imagine better days, better possibilities. One goes on hankering for those better possibilities.

"You can drop this search for perfection only if you move back through the birth trauma again. If you live it consciously and you remember consciously those days in the womb, immediately the desire for perfection will disappear; it disappears immediately. And the disappearance of this desire is a great relief, because only then can you start living moment-to-moment. How can you live with this desire for perfection? It is the source of all neurosis.

"The man who wants to become perfect is bound to become neurotic, because he can't be here. He is in the future, which is not. He cannot enjoy this moment, he can only condemn it. He cannot love this woman because he has the idea of a perfect woman. He cannot love this man because this man is not perfect. He cannot enjoy this food, this breakfast, this morning; nothing is ever fulfilling to him, it can't be. His expectation is there and he is continuously comparing, and continuously falling short.

"The man who lives in the desire for perfection lives a condemned life. The society also helps it: the parents, the schools, the colleges, the universities, the mahatmas, the priests, the politicians, they all help to make you neurotic.

"From the very childhood, you have not been accepted as you are. You have been told, 'Be like this, only then are you acceptable.' If you want to live a life of your own you will be condemned by everybody, everybody will be against you."