And he came to tell me that within fifteen days there were so many ups and downs – one day passed, another day passed, no employment – and doubt started arising, and belief was getting shaken. “But on the fifteenth day I received the order – I was employed. This has made me a firm believer in God.”

I said, “Your firmness is based on a very superficial thing. You try one, two, three times more. Even a scientist, before declaring his results, experiments many times until he becomes absolutely convinced that this is the only result that comes. And you have not tried even twice. You try one time more.”

He said, “Now I am such a firm believer, you tell me what to try.”

I said, “You have so many problems, I don’t have to tell you. Your wife is sick” – she had tuberculosis – “and you have tried” – and he was a poor man, could not manage, unemployed: “So why don’t you give God another try? Just one chance. Tell him if within fifteen days your wife is cured, then you will do all these things again that you are going to do now. But if in fifteen days the wife is not cured, then your belief in God is finished.”

He said, “It seems worth trying.”

And what was to happen, happened: the wife was not cured. It was just a coincidence. What could that monkey have done? – and that too not alive, just a stone monkey. Just a coincidence. He became so angry – at me, not at his belief. I said to him, “You cool down, just see the point. I have simply helped you to see the simple fact that it was a coincidence. If it was a reality, Hanumana would have done it again. If you are not convinced, you can try once more. You can try as many times as you want. But your belief is rooted in such a stupid idea: that God arranges an order to be sent to you from the employment exchange, and that too is persuaded by the monkey. And now you are angry with me – for what reason? I have not done anything to you. I have simply given you another chance to check. And you have come to know now that it was coincidence. Now the doubt is there – that you befooled yourself, that neither Hanumana had a part in it, nor Rama had a part in it. You were simply befooling yourself.”

A belief is an escape. I told him, “You are angry because I have showed you your wound. You cannot escape from that wound so easily. And even if you escape the wound is not going to disappear. You can turn your back on it, that will help it to become worse; it may become a cancer. Something has to be done – escape is not the way.”