The master replied, “I do not lie. Eno lied.”

Eno was his master. He said that, “You should go to Eno. He lied to me that ‘Yes, truth can be possessed.’ But when I reached to the point, the cliff from where you jump into nothingness, it was a totally different story: I was possessed by it; I was nowhere to be found; the experience was too much. I cannot hold it in my hands; it was holding me from all directions.

“I am not lying. If you want any lie, you should go to my master Eno. He lied to me.” But it is said with great respect. “Because of his lie I could come to the point where truth possessed me. If he had not lied, I would not have moved a single inch.”

All masters have to lie, because there is no way to say the truth. But with some devices you can start moving towards the truth.

I have told you the story many times: A man’s house is on fire. He has very small children inside the house. A crowd has gathered outside and they are calling to the children, “Get out of the house. There are still windows and doors left. You can come out. In a few minutes there will be no way to come out.” And nobody dared to go in. It was dangerous. The fire was going so strong.

And just then the father of the children came from his shop. The children did not listen to the neighbors, because they could not understand. They really enjoyed the flames all around the house; they had never seen such a beautiful scene. They were dancing and enjoying and they could not understand why they should leave the house.

As the father came, the people told him, “Do something immediately, all the passages are being taken over by the fire. We have been shouting, but your children are strange. They dance, they are singing and playing. They are enjoying the beautiful flames all around.”

Now there was no passage and no time to enter. The father shouted, “I am here and I have brought all the toys you had asked for.”

The children jumped from the last window which was just going to be taken over by the fire. They came running out and they said, “Where are our toys?”

The father said, “Forgive me, today I have forgotten, but tomorrow I will bring your toys.”

He has told a lie. But the lie saved the lives of the children. You cannot complain against the father.

Nansen is not complaining against his master, he is saying he was compassionate enough to lie. “I am not lying, I am simply saying, ‘When it can be possessed.’ If some time comes when I can possess it, I will tell you. Right now it possesses me so I cannot tell you.”