Listening to me the same is possible. You can listen to my words; you can listen to me. If you listen only to the words you will leave a little more knowledgeable than when you had come here; your burden will be more not less. You will be deeper in bondage, not freed, because whatsoever I am saying, these are not words. Listen to the silence in them. Listen to the person who is speaking through them. Be with me! If you forget my words, nothing is lost. But if you carry only my words and you forget me, everything is lost.

Listening to me should not be through the head only, but with your totality. You are a unity. Everything is joined together. When you listen to me, listen from the heart, listen from the feet, the hands – become totally a listener, not just the head. If the head listens, then it goes on comparing with whatsoever you have known before. It goes on interpreting and, of course, your interpretations are yours not mine.

Everybody, if he is listening from the head, is going to listen from acquired knowledge, from some conclusions already achieved. Then he is not pure, not uncorrupted. Then he is listening from a corrupted mind – and whatsoever you interpret will be your interpretation.

I was reading one anecdote; it happened in a small school:

The teacher was telling the pupils about the discovery of America – Columbus and his journey and the discovery. One small boy was very, very excited, was listening very intently, attentively. So the teacher asked him to write an essay on the discovery of America. This is what that brilliant boy wrote:

Columbus was a man who could make an egg stand on end without crushing it. One day the king of Spain sent for him and asked: “Can you discover America?”

“Yes,” Columbus answered, “if you will get me a boat.”

He got the boat and sailed in the direction of where he knew America was. The sailors mutinied and swore there was no such place as America, but finally the pilot came to Columbus and said, “Captain, land is in sight.”

When the boat neared the shore Columbus saw a group of natives. “Is this America ?” he asked them. “Yes,” they replied.

“I suppose you are Indians?” Columbus went on.

“Yes,” said the chief, “and you are Christopher Columbus, I take it?”

“I am,” said Columbus.

The Indian chief then turned to his fellow savages and said, “The jig is up. We are discovered at last.”

A child listens with a childish mind, his own interpretations. Everybody listens with his own mind – then you are hearing but not listening.