We transformed the desert into a garden. It was for sale for forty years, and nobody was ready to purchase it--at any price. What will you do with that desert?

But our creative people made houses, made dams, created small rivers. We had enough water in our reservoirs so that even if for five years there was no rain, we had reserves of water. We had planted so many trees that it was not going to be long before the trees would attract the clouds.

We were cultivating in the desert enough food for the commune. Five years more and the commune would have been absolutely independent. We had our own cows for milk, we had our own hens laying eggs for people's breakfast. We had our own fields, we had our own greenhouses--because in the desert the sun is so hot, and unless you make a greenhouse...We had our own greenhouses for vegetables, for fruits.

There was only one house, and there was only one family to look after this big place. It is one hundred and twenty-six square miles--three times bigger than New York. Of course it was calm. There were no birds to sing, there were no trees to blossom. It was a dead place; we made it alive.

Now birds have started coming. Nature has a tremendous harmony when there are so many people loving, singing, dancing. Birds have started coming to this place, flowers have started blossoming.