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Yes, Chinmaya, clarity always brings a sense of humor. One starts laughing, not at others but at oneself, at the whole ridiculousness of ego games, the whole stupidity of the human mind. And when there is laughter, tears are not far away; they are aspects of the same energy. They are not diametrically opposite, they are complementary.

Whenever there is deep laughter, tears are bound to follow; whenever there are deep tears, laughter will soon follow. They go together; they are parts of one climate – the climate of clarity, depth, height.

You may be surprised to know that schizophrenics cannot laugh, and a person who cannot laugh has something of schizophrenia in him, is mentally ill. Schizophrenics start laughing only when they are getting out of their schizophrenia. It has been observed that a psychoanalyst can terminate treatment once he sees a schizophrenic laughing. This is a fact of great importance.

Many so-called saints are really schizophrenic, they cannot laugh. And if you cannot laugh, how can you weep, how can you cry? Both become impossible, and when laughter and crying are impossible, your heart is completely closed. You don’t have any emotions, you start living only in the head; your whole reality consists of thoughts. Thoughts are dry: they cannot bring laughter, they cannot bring tears. Tears and laughter come from the heart. Clarity is of the heart, not of the mind; confusion is of the mind.

So, it has been a good experience: your schizophrenia is disappearing, I can terminate the treatment. Laugh more, cry more, become a child again. Seriousness is your disease: drop seriousness and don’t confuse seriousness and sincerity. Seriousness is not sincerity. Sincerity need not be serious; sincerity can have laughter, can cry, and can weep. Seriousness is a blocked stage of mind, a stage where you cannot flow; it is a state of unflowing stagnancy. Serious people are ill people.

Religion has been destroyed by serious people. There is one thing about serious people that you have to remember: they are very articulate, because they live in the head. They are logic choppers; they can express well. And because they have no heart, because they cannot feel, they are very authoritative. A man of feeling cannot be authoritative – how can compassion be authoritative?

A man of feeling always hesitates; he cannot make dogmatic statements. The man of feeling whispers, persuades, he cannot convince; he comes indirectly, like a subtle breeze. But the serious person, the person who lives in the head, the schizophrenic, is articulate, verbal, logical, rational, loud, authoritative, and these qualities enable him to gather a following.

All political leaders are schizophrenic. The crowd follows them because of their dogmatic statements; their dogmatic statements convince people. People are very vague, uncertain, insecure, and they need somebody to make them feel secure, even if he is a fool, an Adolf Hitler. It is a great puzzle to those who ponder over human problems how Adolf Hitler, a mediocre person of below average IQ, could convince a country like Germany, an intellectual country, an intelligent country, a country of professors, philosophers, thinkers. How was it possible that this idiotic person, Adolf Hitler, could convince people of such an intelligent race?

To me, it is not a problem at all. I can see through and through how it happened. Adolf Hitler was dogmatic; whatsoever he said, he said it absolutely. Only a foolish person can be dogmatic. Lao Tzu hesitates. Lao Tzu says: “I walk as one walks in cold winter in a cold stream. Everybody is certain except me; I am uncertain, I hesitate. I cannot claim knowledge, because all is so mysterious.”

Now, Lao Tzu is not going to convince people. If you hesitate, nobody is going to follow you. People are in deep confusion. They need somebody to shout so loudly in their ears that they are convinced: “This man must be true, this man must be in the know about things. How can he shout so loudly? How can he argue so loudly? Only truth can be so loud.” They are mistaken.

These dogmatic people go on repeating; Hitler continued to repeat the same theme. Slowly, slowly, when any untruth is repeated again and again it begins to look like a truth. People need somebody to lean on: they are uncertain, and need somebody who is absolutely certain. Politics is dominated by schizophrenics; religion is also dominated by schizophrenics. These people are very, very articulate, convincing, they lead masses, establish religions, churches, organizations.

Jesus could not manage to lead many people; it has been estimated that he had a following of less than five hundred. And when he was crucified, thousands gathered to jeer at him. He had only twelve close disciples, only twelve – a man with the qualities of Jesus. What happened, was he not convincing?

He was not convincing in the way that people need. He was saying things in a mysterious way: in parables, in metaphors, in poetry. He was not logical, he was utterly illogical. He was vague. He was hinting, pointing, but he was not assertive.

Christianity was not born with Christ, it was born with Saint Paul, who must certainly have been a schizophrenic. Saul – his original name – was at first against Christ, so anti-Christ that he wanted to destroy all the Christians. One day he was traveling to the country where Jesus’ followers were slowly gathering, slowly becoming courageous, slowly starting to teach people, spreading the message. He was going there to argue, to discuss, to defeat them.

The story goes that on the road something happened, he was possessed by the spirit of Christ. He fell down on the road, dust in his mouth. He could not believe it! He saw Jesus. He asked forgiveness, he became converted. He changed his name from Saul to Paul. And this man was the founder of Christianity.

Now, what actually happened in psychological terms? This man must have had a split personality; he must have been a schizophrenic. Nobody appeared, no Christ appeared. But he was very much against Christ with one part of his mind, and completely unaware of another part. When he went deep into that part which was against Christ, the pendulum swung from one extreme to another extreme. That’s how it always happens.

He was going to persecute Christians – that small number of people who were talking of Jesus, remembering the man and the beauty of the man, the suffering that he went through for them, and the message that he had given to them. Slowly, slowly the word was spreading and this man Saul was going to persecute these people. And he was able to argue well. Jesus’ followers would not have been able to convince him; he would have convinced them. They were simple people, innocent people, farmers, fisherman, carpenters, uneducated people.

When you go to one extreme the pendulum swings back of its own accord. This is what actually happened. The pendulum swung, moved to the other extreme, and another part of his being took possession of him. He had a dream, a vision – there was no Christ, but he saw him. He was convinced and he was converted; this schizophrenic created the whole Christianity. He was going to persecute Christians: he converted the whole world to Christianity. He created the church.

It has always been so. Whenever a religion is born, sooner or later schizophrenics will catch hold of it. They are great leaders; they convince people. Their impact is great, their slogans convert people. They are loud, logical; they collect proofs, they argue.

Because of these people, no religion remains pure for long. The really religious persons are those who are not articulate, who are innocent, those who are simple, meditative, loving, who cannot convince anybody. They simply live religion; they cannot create great religions, great religious empires.

It is good that humor is arising in you, Chinmaya. Allow it, don’t crush it. Help it to come, let it surface. Humor will join your split parts, will glue your fragments into one whole. You may have observed that when you have a hearty laugh, suddenly all fragments disappear and you become one. When you laugh, your soul and your body are one – they laugh together. When you think, your body and soul are separate. When you cry, your body and soul are one; they function in harmony.

Remember always: all those things are good, for the good, which make you one whole. Laughing, crying, dancing, singing: these things make you one piece, functioning as one harmony. Thinking can go on in the head, and the body can go on doing a thousand and one things; you can go on eating, and the mind can go on thinking. This is split. You walk on the road: the body is walking and you are thinking. Not thinking of the road, not thinking of the trees that surround it, not thinking of the sun, not thinking of the people who are passing, but thinking of other things, of other worlds.

But laugh, and if the laugh is really deep, if it is not just a pseudo laugh, just on the lips, suddenly you feel your body and your soul are functioning together. It is not only in the body, it goes into your deepest core. It arises from your very being and spreads toward the circumference. You are one in laughter, or in crying, or in dancing, or in singing! Whatever makes you feel one, is good, is meditative, is prayerful.