declaring himself the new prophet
Have you heard the famous anecdote? In Baghdad it happened:
A man declared, in the days of Caliph Omar, "I am the real prophet. After Mohammed I have been sent to the world." Of course, Mohammedans cannot tolerate such a thing -- at least not Mohammedans. If he had been in India he would have been tolerated, but Omar could not tolerate it. He was thrown in the jail. But after seven or eight days another man declared that he was God Himself. Now this was going too far. That man was thrown into jail. After a few days Omar went to the jail to see them because both were beaten badly, punished badly. He thought, "Now they may have come to their senses." He went and he asked the man who was declaring himself the new prophet -- and he was laughing! His whole body was covered with wounds, blood was flowing out of the wounds, but he was laughing loudly. Omar said, "Why are you laughing?" He said, "When God told me, 'You are going to be my last prophet, the final prophet', he told me also that 'They will treat you badly -- they always treat prophets very badly.' And now the prediction has come true. So I am laughing -- it simply proves that I am the prophet!" While this dialogue was going on, the other man who was tied to another pillar, started laughing even more loudly. Omar asked, "What is the matter with you?" He said, "This man is a liar. I never sent him. In fact, after Mohammed I have not appointed any prophet to the world. Mohammed is my last prophet!"
You can find many people in madhouses, and the psychoanalysts' understanding depends on them. And when Jesus declares that "I am God's only Son, the only begotten Son!" of course he is mad. Certainly! -- because there are mad people who declare such things. He is also mad. When Krishna declares that "I am the Creator and the Destroyer of the world!" certainly he is mad. This is the ultimate in being an egoist. How can you be more egoistic than this: "I am the Creator and the Destroyer of the world"? And Buddha says, "I have attained to the Ultimate, and even gods come to my feet to have instructions from me." Now these are mad people! Psychoanalysis still remains at the level of the pathological. It has not even known the normal human mind, and it has not even touched the super-normal. But sooner or later, a great revolution is going to happen, because if psychology does not change itself, then it will be in a rut, then it will go stale and die. It has to move. Everything alive has to move ahead. And this much I can say about psychology: it is very much alive and there is hope. Much work is going on, and by and by psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, are becoming more and more interested in meditation.