The fisherman had never thought about it – a simple, poor fellow. He said, “I have never thought about it, but because you have raised the question, I can see the point, that life must be something more.”

Jesus said, “If you come with me I will teach you how to catch men, rather than catching fish.”

The man looked into Jesus’ eyes…such depth, such sincerity, so much love that you cannot doubt this man, such a great silence surrounding him that you cannot say no to this man. The fisherman threw his net into the water and followed Jesus.

As they were getting out of the town a man came running and told the fisherman, “Where are you going with this stranger? Your father who was ill for many days has died. Come home!”

The fisherman asked Jesus, “Just give me three days so that I can do the last rituals which a son is expected to do when his father dies.”

And this is the statement that I want you to remember: Jesus said to that fisherman, “Let the dead bury their dead, you come with me.” What does he mean, “Let the dead bury their dead, you come with me…. The whole city is full of dead people; they will manage to dispose of your dead father. You are not an absolute necessity to them. You just come with me.” People like Jesus have such a certain authority in their very presence – the fisherman followed him.

Every moment something is becoming dead. Don’t be antique collectors; that which is dead, leave it. You go with the life, you flow with life, with your totality and intensity, and you will never face any dilemma, any problem.

Sannyas is such a simple happening, but it is a simple happening only to the intelligent, not to the retarded. It is not for idiots…at least, I have never seen any idiot even thinking about sannyas. The idiots belong to the world of the buffaloes. They are perfectly at ease, although their life has no meaning, no flowers, no fragrance. No song ever arises in their heart; they don’t ever feel like dancing to abandon. Their life is very lukewarm. It never gets to such an intensity where one becomes almost a flame – a torch burning from both ends simultaneously. And only these few people have known the truth of life and the beauty of life and the ecstasy of life.

You are saying, “But to take sannyas…I feel such an egoist – jealous, lazy – that maybe I shall never be a good sannyasin.”

Who told you that you have to be a good sannyasin? Here are only sannyasins; nobody is good, nobody is bad. We don’t believe in those categories. Have you ever seen a deer which is beautiful or a deer which is ugly? Those categories don’t exist – all deers are simply so alive…. Here nobody takes note whether you are a good sannyasin or a bad sannyasin. You can be a good Christian or a bad Christian, a good Hindu or a bad Hindu. But sannyas is not a religion; it is a search.