All the rich people – officers, bureaucrats, professors, doctors, those who could afford a garden – were participants. But I was not interested in the people who were participating. I was interested in finding out who the gardener was, because the poor gardener was not even mentioned when the trophy was given to the winner. It was given to the owner of the garden. I was looking out for the gardener, because this army officer could not be a gardener himself – the poor gardener was not even there.

I followed his car. I looked around his house, I watched, and I found the gardener was working. When the army officer went in, he did not even tell the gardener, “I have won the trophy because of you. In fact, it belongs to you.” He simply went into his garage and then into his house.

I went into his garden. The old man, a poor man, was working. I asked him, “Have you heard that your roses have been chosen as the best for this year?”

He said, “Nobody has told me yet.”

I said, “How much is this army officer giving you as salary?”

He said, “Not very much.”

I said, “Whatever he is giving, I will give you double. You can tell me later how much he is giving. You just bring whatever you have into my car and come with me.”

He said, “But he is a dangerous man. He will search for me with his gun!”

I said, “Don’t be worried, I am no less dangerous. You don’t worry.”

So I brought him into my own house and I told him, “You start working, and every year I will not be going to the competition, you will be going. And all the trophies that you win will be in the house that I have given to you.”

He could not believe it. And he said, “But what about the army officer?”

I said, “I will take care of him. You need not be worried about it.”

And then I saw how he was winning. His whole art was never to allow any rosebush more than one flower. He would cut all the buds and leave only the biggest bud.

I asked him, “What is the secret of it?”

He said, “The secret is simple. The rosebush has a certain amount of juice. It can be distributed in a hundred flowers, but if you don’t allow it to be distributed it is bound to assert itself into one flower.”

I remained nine years in that university. For nine years continuously he was the winner. And his secret was just to allow one flower to grow. So it is possible…These are the uniquenesses I am talking about – that the same seeds in different hearts will bring different manifestations.

And that is how commentaries begin. The master dies. He had thousands of disciples who have listened to him. Now they start thinking, what is the significance of a certain statement or of a certain word? In the East it has been a very delicate affair. Not brutal logic, but a very subtle, very feminine art.

The word athato can mean now, it can mean here now, it can mean from now, it can mean from this point onwards. Because of these different meanings growing in different hearts, the whole meaning of the sentence will change. Just the first word will change the whole meaning.