"But the other is reduced, the other is almost destroyed. And exactly the same is being done by the other. He is trying to manipulate you, to dominate you, to possess you, to use you. To use another human being is very unloving, so it only appears like love; it is a false coin. But this is what happens to almost ninety-nine percent of people, because the first lesson of love that you learn is in your childhood.

"A child is born, he depends on the mother. His love towards the mother is a deficiency-love: he needs the mother, he cannot survive without the mother. He loves the mother because mother is his life. In fact, there is no love, he will love any woman – whosoever will protect him, whosoever will help him to survive, whosoever will fill up his need. The mother is a sort of food that he eats. It is not only milk that he gets from the mother, it is love too – and that too is a need.

"Millions of people remain childish all their lives, they never grow up. They grow in age, but they never grow in their minds; their psychology remains juvenile, immature. They are always needing love, they are hankering for it like food.

"Man becomes mature the moment he starts loving rather than needing. He starts overflowing, sharing; he starts giving. The emphasis is totally different. With the first, the emphasis is on how to get more. With the second, the emphasis is on how to give – how to give more and how to give unconditionally. This is growth, maturity, coming to you.

"A mature person gives. Only a mature person can give, because only a mature person has it. Then love is not dependent, then you can be loving whether the other is or is not. Then love is not a relationship, it is a state.

"What will happen if all the disciples disappear and only I am here? Do you think there will be any change? What happens when a flower blooms in the deep forest with nobody to appreciate it, nobody to know its fragrance, nobody to pass a comment and say 'beautiful'; nobody to taste its beauty, its joy, nobody to share – what happens to the flower? It dies? It suffers? It becomes panicky? It commits suicide? It goes on blooming, it simply goes on blooming."