"The moment you compromise and lose your individuality, you have lost everything. You have committed suicide. The people who are fit in the world are people who have destroyed themselves.

"Certainly it needs courage, a tremendously strong sense for freedom; otherwise, you cannot stand alone against the whole world. But to stand against the whole world is the beginning of such a great joy, rejoicing and blessing that those who have never been misfits cannot understand it.

"All the great names in the history of man were just misfits in their society. All the people who have contributed to the happiness of man and the beauty of the earth have been misfits. To be a misfit is a tremendously valuable quality.

"Never compromise on any point.

"The very compromise is the beginning of your destruction.

"I do not mean that you have to be stubborn; if you see something is right, go along with it. But the moment you realize that something is not right, then even if the whole world feels it is right, it is not right for you. And then stick to your position – that will give you stamina, strength, a certain integrity.

"My sannyasins are all misfits in the world.

"That's why a great problem has arisen for those sannyasins – very few – who have left the commune for their own reasons. I have nothing to say against their leaving the commune; I don't want anybody to be here against his will. Here there is no society, only a communion of individuals with all their freedom intact. The freedom to leave the commune is one of the basic rights of every sannyasin.

"But now those few sannyasins, just a dozen, are in a dilemma. They cannot fit with the society They could not fit in the society, that's why they had come here. Now it is even more difficult for them to fit with the society, so they are in a limbo. They cannot fit with the society, and the milieu where they were acceptable as they were – nobody was trying to change them – they have left.

"In Santa Fe those twelve are known as 'the dirty dozen.' Now they are hankering to come back."