"You are living in one of the most alive times ever. The New Man, in fragments, has already arrived, but only in fragments. And the New Man has been arriving for centuries, but only here and there. That's how things happen: when the spring comes it starts with one flower. But when the one flower is there, then one can be certain the spring is not far away – it has come. The first flower has heralded its coming. Zarathustra, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus – these were the first flowers. Now, on a greater scale, the New Man is going to be born.

"This new consciousness is the most important thing that is happening today, according to me. I would like to tell you something about this new consciousness – its orientations, and its characteristics – because you are to help it to come out of the womb, because you have to be it. The New Man cannot come from nowhere, it has to come through you. The New Man can only be born through your womb: you have to become the womb.

"Sannyas is an experimentation: to clean the ground so that new seeds can fall in. If you understand the meaning of the New Man, you will be able to understand the significance of sannyas too. And it is because sannyas is concerned with the New Man that the old orthodoxies of all kinds are going to be against me and against sannyas – because this is their end. If sannyas succeeds, if the New Man succeeds, the old will have to go. The old can live only if the New Man is prevented from coming.

"It cannot be prevented now, because it is not only a question of the New Man's coming into existence. It is a question of the survival of the whole earth – of consciousness itself, of life itself. It is a question of life and death. The Old Man has come to utter destructiveness. The Old Man has reached the end of its tether. Now there is no life possible with the old concept of man, but only death. The Old Man is preparing for a global suicide."