"But your purity is a choice – a choice of God against the Devil, a choice of the good against the bad. You have already made a distinction, you have already divided existence. And a divided existence cannot lead to innocence.

"Innocence flowers only when existence is undivided. You accept it as it is. You don't choose, you don't divide, you don't make any distinctions. You don't know, really, what is good and what is bad. If you know, then you will calculate, then purity will be manufactured. It will not be a flowering.

"I will tell you one anecdote: Khalil Gibran has written a beautiful story. A priest was going to the temple. Just by the side of the road he saw a man almost at the verge of death – bleeding, dying, as if he had been attacked very severely – wounds all over, blood flowing, soaked in his own blood.

"The priest was in a hurry; he had to reach the temple in time, there must be people waiting. But he was a man of morality – I will not say of purity: he was a man of morality. He pondered what to do. He calculated and then he thought, 'It is better to help this man who is dying. This is what Jesus has said. It is better to forget the temple, the worshippers; they can wait a little. But this man has to be helped immediately, otherwise he will die.'

"So he went closer to the man, but the moment he saw his face he was scared. This face looked familiar, very evil-looking. Then he suddenly remembered that in his temple there is a picture of the Devil – and this is the man. This is the Devil, nobody else! So he started running towards the temple.

"The Devil called out; he said, 'Priest, listen! If I die you will repent forever. Because if I die, if evil dies, where will your God be? If the bad dies, how will you know what is good? You exist because of me. Think it over!'

"The priest stopped. The Devil was right: if the Devil dies, there will be no hell. And if there is no fear, who is going to worship God? All prayers are based on fear."