His words will be just the same as your words. Dictionaries cannot make any distinction, but you are not a dictionary – when a man like Gautam Buddha speaks, he uses the same words that everybody else is using but his words have a flavor, an authenticity, a sincerity of the heart, a tremendous love and compassion which the word itself does not necessarily carry.

But if you are open, available – if the arrow has struck you in the heart – then it opens a window that has remained closed perhaps for millions of lives. And from that small window tremendous experiences can float inwards, can transform you so totally….

It is said that in the great capital of Vaishali there used to be a thief, a master thief. He was known as a master thief because he was never caught; in fact the situation had become such that people bragged if the master thief had entered their houses. It became something prestigious, because the master thief would not go to a beggar. He would go to the emperors, to the kings, to the richest people.

Mahavira was staying for four months of the rainy season in Vaishali. The master thief was training his son in the art of which he was the master.

He said, “Listen, one thing: never go to hear this man Mahavira. Even if by chance you are passing and you hear a word or a sentence from the man, close your ears. Because he can destroy just with a single word my whole effort of making you my successor.”

Naturally it created a great curiosity in the young man. The father has been training him for years, and he is so afraid of a man that just a single word from him and the whole discipline can be destroyed! He might never have heard Mahavira, but his father created the curiosity. One day he went, but he heard only one sentence and became afraid of his father, because his father was no ordinary man – if he comes to know, he will kill him! There is no other punishment. But he heard one sentence and escaped.

That night his father was in the palace of the king, and much jewelry was stolen. The father escaped. The son was not part of the stealing process but the son was caught. He was coming from the discourse of Mahavira where he had heard only one sentence, which was absolutely meaningless.

The sentence which he heard was that in heaven men and women have a few strange things about them: one is that their feet are not the same as ours. Their feet are backwards; they walk forwards but their feet are backwards. This is not great philosophy.

But the young man was caught in place of his father because they looked alike. There was a difference in age, but in the dark night…The police used a strategy to make the young man confess. He was given so much alcohol that he fell asleep. When in the middle of the night he opened his eyes, he was in a beautiful palace, with such beautiful women – he has never seen such beautiful women – all kinds of delicious foods, ready for him. He thought, “Perhaps I have died and I have entered heaven!”