He said, “Of course. I have a plan.” They could not believe him.

They said, “What plan?”

He said, “Before I die I will take all the money in a boat, go deep into the ocean and jump with all my money, into the ocean.”

The friends could not believe their ears. They said, “Are you mad or something? Still your money will be left in the ocean and you will have to go alone.”

At least there would be a satisfaction that nobody else was enjoying his money.

You will find all kinds of greedy people and you will find all sorts of greed within yourself. And when greed is not fulfilled, anger arises, frustration arises. You become angry with the world, you become angry with yourself, you become angry with everybody.

You can see it in all old people. Why are they so irritated? Why is it so difficult to stand them? They are frustrated people; they have wasted their life in grabbing more and more. But the more is never satisfied. Now they are feeling angry at life, so any excuse is enough and they will become angry. Greed is the root cause and when it is not fulfilled, it leaves you with great anger, frustration, irritation, failure.

And in your anger and frustration and failure a third thing arises: delusion. Delusion is a consolation. Delusion is a way somehow to keep yourself together.

When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister of India, there were at least ten persons who believed that they were Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. At least one I knew personally because he lived in the nearby district, and I used to go to that city to lecture in their colleges. I loved that man because he used exactly the same clothes as Jawaharlal Nehru – with the Gandhi cap, with the hand-woven khadi, with a Jawahar jacket. And he talked like Jawaharlal.

He was a laughingstock but he never cared. He said to me, “These people are idiots.” And he used to send telegrams if he was going to visit a beautiful place which was nearby, Kanha Kisli, a beautiful forest with thousands of deer. He would just send a telegram – “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is arriving” – to the collector of that district, signed by the secretary of Jawaharlal.

And he deceived people many times. Circuit houses were emptied, cleaned – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is coming! And later on they would find that this man is bogus. Finally he was put in a madhouse.

It was not a new phenomenon. In England, when Winston Churchill was alive, there were at least three more Winston Churchills in England, believing absolutely that they were Winston Churchill.