I had one colleague in the university who was very much curious about enlightenment. Even while I was teaching in the university I was moving around the country, finding people who can belong with me one day…but his interest in enlightenment was only that of a student. One day he came to me and I said, “This day is very special.”

He asked, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Today, if you want to be enlightened, I can manage it.”

He looked worried. He said, “But I have a wife and children….”

I said, “Enlightenment does not prohibit you from having a wife or children.”

He said, “If this is a day of such a strange quality I should come on some other day.”

But I asked, “What about enlightenment?”

He said, “Forgive me, I am only curious. I love you and I feel to be close to you, but enlightenment right now…? There are so many things to be done, and moreover do you think as a buddha I will look adequate?”

I said, “You don’t be worried about it. Enlightenment has nothing to do with whether you look like a buddha or not. Certainly you will be a special buddha.” He had very strange eyes – one looking this way, one looking that way. I said, “Don’t be worried because I don’t think that is a hindrance for enlightenment. It will be really very hilarious for people to see a buddha…” If he was talking to you he was looking another way. I said, “It will be a little strange when you are delivering sermons, but your eyes can be fixed. You don’t be worried; that is my responsibility. First you become enlightened.”

He said, “It is not only eyes. There are many things…I have false teeth. Do you think it will look right for a buddha to have false teeth? And if somebody comes to know…?”

I said, “You don’t be worried about these trivia.”

But he stood up. He said, “I am going home. First I have to ask my wife. I never do such strange things without asking her; she is a very pragmatic woman.”

I said, “It is up to you, but it has never happened in the whole history that somebody who becomes enlightened first asks the permission of his wife. You become enlightened; then you simply go and declare your enlightenment.”

He said, “At least give me some time to think.”

Then I said, “But such a day may not come again so soon. Today everything is ready.”

He said, “I can wait. It will do even if it comes two or three years later.”

And from that day he started avoiding me. If I was sitting in the common room he would not enter. He made sure that I was not in the university; then he would move everywhere freely. He would make sure that I was not in the library; then he would go to the library.

One day I arrived at his home. I said, “The day has come again.”

He said, “My God, I have been avoiding you all this time, and just within three months the day has come again? My wife is absolutely against it!”