Each of the priests had a boy to serve him, to go and fetch things for him, to go on errands. The priest of the first temple told his boy servant, “Never talk to the other boy. Those people are dangerous.”

But boys are boys. One day they met on the road, and the boy from the first temple asked the other, “Where are you going?”

The other said, “Wherever the wind takes me.” He must have been listening to great Zen things in the temple; he said, “Wherever the wind takes me.” A great statement, pure Tao.

But the first boy was very much embarrassed, offended, and he could not find how to answer him. Frustrated, angry, and also feeling guilty because, “My master had said not to talk with these people. These people are really dangerous. Now, what kind of answer is this? He has humiliated me.”

He went to his master and told him what had happened. “I am sorry that I talked to him. You were right, those people are strange. What kind of answer is this? I asked him, ‘Where are you going?’ – a simple formal question – and I knew he was going to the market, just as I was going to the market. But he said, ‘Wherever the winds take me.’”

The master said, “I warned you, but you didn’t listen. Now look, tomorrow you stand at the same place again. When he comes ask him, ‘Where are you going?’ and he will say, ‘Wherever the winds take me.’ Then you also be a little more philosophical. Say, ‘If you don’t have any legs, then? Because the soul is bodiless and the wind cannot take the soul anywhere!’ What about that?”

Absolutely ready, the whole night he repeated it again and again and again. And next morning very early he went there, stood on the right spot, and at the exact time the boy came. He was very happy, now he was going to show him what real philosophy is. So he asked, “Where are you going?” And he was waiting…but the boy said, “I am going to fetch vegetables from the market.” Now, what to do with the philosophy that he had learned?

Life is like that. You cannot prepare for it, you cannot be ready for it. That’s its beauty, that’s its wonder: that it always takes you unawares, it always comes as a surprise. If you have eyes you will see that each moment is a surprise and no ready-made answer is ever applicable.

And all the old religions have supplied you with ready-made answers. Manu has given his commandments, Moses has given his commandments, and so on and so forth.

I don’t give you any commandment. In fact the very word commandment is ugly. To command somebody is to reduce him to a slave. I don’t give you any orders, you are not to be obedient to me or to anybody else. I simply teach you an intrinsic law of life. Be obedient to your own self, be a light unto yourself and follow the light and this problem will never arise. Then whatsoever you do is the thing to do, and whatsoever you don’t do is the thing that has not to be done.