Religion is dead without laughter. It becomes alive only when you can have a total laugh, a passionate, intense laugh, so that it dances in all your cells, it vibrates in your whole being. Then it becomes something bigger than you, so that you are just a small thing in it; it surrounds you like an aura and you disappear into it.
That’s exactly what happens in laughter: your ego disappears. It may not disappear in your prayer; your prayer may even strengthen it. The prayerful become holier-than-thou. It will not go away because of your authorities and asceticism — it is even more solid and concrete. But when you have a good laugh, the ego is no longer there. For a moment a window opens, for a moment the ego is not there. And when the ego is not there, you are.
