"People listened; he was a very articulate man. Even while listening to him about suicide – it looked beautiful, worth listening to – nobody followed him. He himself lived to the very ripe age of ninety. He himself didn't commit suicide. While on his death-bed, somebody asked, 'You taught continuously about suicide. Why have you yourself not committed it?' The old, dying philosopher opened his eyes and said, 'I had to be here just to teach people.'

"Clinging to life is very deep. Patanjali calls it abhinivesh, lust for life. Why is it there if there is so much misery? People come to me, and with deep anguish they talk about their miseries, but they don't seem to be ready to leave life. Even with all its miseries, life seems to be worthwhile. From where does this hope come? – it is a paradox and has to be understood.

"In fact, you cling to life more if you are miserable. The more miserable you are, the more you cling. A man who is happy does not cling to life. This will look paradoxical on the outer surface, but if you penetrate deeply, you will understand what is the matter. People who are suffering are always hopeful, optimistic. They always hope that something is going to happen tomorrow. People who have lived in deep misery and hell have created heaven, the idea, the paradise. It is always tomorrow; it never comes. It is always there, hanging like a bait in front of you somewhere in the future.

"It is a trick of the mind: heaven – the greatest trick of the mind. The mind is saying, 'Don't be worried about today, tomorrow is paradise. Just somehow pass through today. It is nothing compared to the happiness that is waiting for you tomorrow!' And tomorrow seems to be so near. Of course it never comes, it cannot come. Tomorrow is a non existential thing. Whatsoever comes is always today, and today is hell. But the mind consoles; it has to console, otherwise it will be almost impossible to bear – the misery is intolerable. One has to tolerate it.

"How can you tolerate it? The only way is hope, hope against all hopes, dream."