Buddha’s insight was that first, to bring the experience down to the level of language evolved by blind people, some kind of braille-ish language is needed. Then to find disciples, then to teach them to hear rightly – that is, to listen….

“And if a man is capable of all this,” Buddha thought, “even without me, sooner or later he will become enlightened. It may take a little more time, but that does not matter in the eternity of time.”

The story is beautiful…. In Buddhism it is said that gods came, after waiting seven days for Buddha to speak. In Buddhism there is no God, but there are gods. And gods are not creators of the world. They are just people like you who have earned so much virtue in their past life that they are given a holiday period in paradise. As they spend their virtue, they have to come back to the earth again, back into the misery, the suffering. Yes, they enjoyed the weekend in heaven…. Those people are called gods in Buddhism.

The gods became very much afraid, because they were waiting for Buddha to speak. If they can understand Buddha, then there will be no need for them to end the weekend. If they can understand him and become enlightened, then there is no need to come back into the world of suffering, misery, pain, anguish, anxiety – gods are not superior to enlightened people in Buddhism.

So seven gods, representing all the other gods, came down on the seventh day when Buddha had decided not to speak, and persuaded him, “All your arguments are right, but there may be just a few people who are on the margin, just on the borderline, a little push and they may jump into a new existence. And we have waited for a man of enlightenment for thousands of years; now you have become enlightened and you are not going to speak! One enlightened man in thousands of years, and he is not going to speak, he is not going to be of any help to anybody.”

I am telling this story to make it clear to you that ten percent of buddhas, enlightened people – that is the meaning of buddha – have remained silent.

They have achieved, they have known, they have arrived home, and the experience and the ecstasy is so tremendous – who has time, or energy, or inclination to go back on the county roads to find disciples?

Nine percent of buddhas have spoken, but they have not criticized Jesus, God, heaven, hell, or anything, for the simple reason that they were aware of the fact that it is very difficult to attract people to your vision, and if you start hitting them…. A Christian comes and you speak against Jesus – rather than changing the man’s enquiry into a deep intimacy, you create an enemy.

Only one percent of enlightened people have tried that. And I am the one percent – because I am not interested in any bullshit. I am not interested in increasing my numbers, I am not a politician. I don’t care a bit about more and more people becoming sannyasins.