No, it is not true to say that timing is everything, because once you start thinking that timing is everything, you will stop seeking, searching. You will simply wait for the spring to come, you will become just absolutely unaware of the fact that for enlightenment no season is right or wrong, no climate is right or wrong. Every moment is right, you just have to catch hold of your own being. But it has been said even by Gautam Buddha that timing is needed.

I want you to know that Gautam Buddha is simply trying to console those who cannot gather courage in this moment. He does not want to discourage them with “You will never become enlightened.” He is saying, “You will become enlightened, just wait for the time, for the ripening, for the cause.”

But I say unto you, in spite of Gautam Buddha, that no timing is needed, no causation is needed, because you are already enlightened – just you are afraid to declare it, just you are afraid of what people will say. “I am enlightened? People will laugh, they will say, ‘Look at this fellow, he is enlightened.’”

Every day Neelam brings news to me that somebody is creating trouble, walking naked in this place because he thinks he has become enlightened. But just by walking naked has nothing to do with enlightenment.

One woman was declaring herself a master and one man was declaring his enlightenment – and both are cuckoos. So I told Neelam, “It is better to put both the cuckoos together.” The woman has been declaring herself for almost fifteen years. I said, “Neelam, tell the woman that if she is really a master and enlightened to take care of this fellow. ‘He is very new, needs care!’”

And that fellow is a much bigger cuckoo.

The woman was cured. She said, “I am no more… He is too much! I take back my words that I am enlightened, that I am a master. If this man has to be taken care of, I refuse. I will be simple from now onwards.”

And for three, four days she has proved simple. The greater cuckoo managed to get the smaller cuckoo to be silent. Now she is asking me what to do with the remaining cuckoo. I said, “Simply wait, somebody will be coming who is bigger. Give him into his charge: ‘Here is your first disciple.’ There is no other way.”

And when Anando told the enlightened man, “Either be silent and stop disturbing other people or you will be given to a greater cuckoo!” for at least one and a half days he has been behaving silently, just being afraid, because here there are so many potential cuckoos! I have even told Neelam to make a special office and department where cuckoos meet and discuss their enlightenment.

Enlightenment is not something that you have to shout on the streets. Enlightenment is your recognition of your silent inner flame. This will make you saner, not cuckoo; this will even help create a certain energy-field around you which can trigger other people to enlightenment.

But you don’t have to be a nuisance. You cannot force anybody to enlightenment. You can kill him, that is not difficult, but even dead he will remain unenlightened. Enlightenment is not something that can be done from outside.