But there were a few moments when they had to say something…. One of my relatives was a little crazy – not much, just a little crazy. He was going to be married: they had arranged a beautiful girl for him, a good house, a good family. Now this was the time they had to tell me, “You remember, don’t create any trouble. Don’t let it be exposed that he is a little off center. Nobody will be able to figure it out; it will take years to figure it out, that he is off center.”

I said, “I don’t interfere in anybody’s work, nor do I want anybody else to interfere in my work. Whatever I am going to do, I will do.”

They were afraid. They kept the relative away from me, but I found him one day at the riverside, where he used to go to have a bath. I went there and told him, “Are you aware what these people are planning for you?”

He said, “What? They are arranging my marriage.”

I said, “Marriage is okay, but before the marriage they will force you to sit upon a horse. And do you know horse-riding?”

He said, “I don’t.”

I said, “Simply refuse to sit on the horse – whatever happens.”

He said, “I am not going to sit on any horse. He may throw me off his back, give me a few fractures – and after all those fractures, what am I going to do with the marriage? Forget all about it.”

I said, “No, don’t drop the idea of marriage, but don’t sit on the horse.” Now in India it is very difficult to get married without sitting on a horse. The boy has to sit on the horse, and that’s how the procession goes to the girl’s house.

But he simply refused! They persuaded, they tried hard, they said, “The time is passing.” And everything has to be done in India through astrology. The astrologer decides when the marriage procession should start, when they should reach the house, by what time exactly, minute to minute, the marriage should be performed.

He said, “You have all been befooling me. You have been telling me about marriage, but nobody told me that you will force me to sit on a horse. If you had told me this before, I would have refused to marry.”

They inquired, “But who has told you?”

He said, “Everybody knows, in this house there is only one person who takes care about everybody’s freedom. He has informed me, ‘You will be forced; don’t compromise.’” It was such a struggle! And they were all looking for me, but I had disappeared because there was going to be trouble for me.

They had to force him, physically – four persons forced him on a horse – and I was sitting by the way. And when the procession came there and he saw me, he jumped off the horse.

He said, “Enough is enough! Now the procession cannot go anymore, because the person is here whom I have promised I would not sit on the horse. You somehow persuaded me, forced me….”

They all came to me and said, “Somehow persuade him; only you can do it. Half the journey is complete; just a little more, just fifteen minutes more he has to be on the horse, and then in his whole life, nobody is going to force him.”