The judge could not believe his eyes. He said, “At this age? Any moment you can pop off. What are you asking for? What will you do with the divorce? How long have you been married?”

The man said, “It must have been at least sixty years or even more.”

The judge said, “I cannot believe how you lived together for sixty years, and now at the end of your life, you want a divorce? Why have you waited so long?”

The old man said, “We had to wait till all our children died! Now is the chance to be free and enjoy life.”

Their whole lives they lived together – it must have been utterly stale. But the love that is of the mind is simple: you can change your camera because the camera will not create any trouble. It won’t fight you, it won’t have tantrums, it won’t drag you to the court, it won’t ask for money. It is a simple thing.

Because of this simplicity, most of the people in the world have changed from loving human beings to loving machines, all kinds of machines – it may be a car…It is simpler, you can change it any moment; there is no barrier. People have started to love animals. There are dog lovers who are carrying their dogs everywhere. It is better because you can control, you can beat your dog and still it will welcome you with its tail. It is a joyous experience.

People have other kinds of animals – birds, parrots – and they pay too much attention to them. It is not a simple fact. It shows something deeper about our existence: we cannot love human beings; it is a constant trouble.

One wife had just married and was talking to her friend. The friend said, “This man is a drunkard. You should not have married him; it will be a constant trouble.”

The woman said, “No. I will change his habits. It may take a few years, but I will make him docile, obedient. He is a good man.”

The other woman said, “You are living in a fantasy. I have had a dog for five years and I have been teaching him with no effect. I tell him that trees are not toilets – he won’t listen. I beat him, I don’t give him food – he looks very sad. Finally, I also start feeling sympathy for the poor…but he will not change his habits. A dog is so stubborn, and you are thinking of changing a man, and that too, a drunkard!”

But the very idea that you will change your wife and you will change your husband and you will change your friend, is dangerous. It means conflict from the very beginning. It means it is going to be a struggle, not a joy, not a dance, but a fight.

People start drinking just to avoid the struggle that is waiting at home. When they are drunk then it does not matter even if the wife beats them, they are unconscious. Millions of people are drinking poison for the simple reason of avoiding those whom they had thought they loved.

A man was drinking whiskey….