He was a complete crackpot; he wanted to live only on water. And because in one of my lectures I had mentioned that I know a man who has lived for many years only on water, you brought that young man – because he was moving from place to place, inquiring for somebody who can teach him the art of how to live on water.

You had not said a single word about yourself. You were only concerned that somehow either he drops this idea or he finds some way – it had become a torture. There are ways people can live…but they need years of training, and they lead nowhere. What is the point? Even if you can live only on water that does not make you spiritual; that does not bring liberation to your being. And it takes fifteen to twenty years’ long training to come to the point where you can drop all food, and just air and water are enough for you.

So I told the man, “It is possible and I can give you the address. But if you want my advice I would say don’t go there because that man is cracked. You are only half cracked right now; there is still time to come back. What are you going to gain? Why are you obsessed with the idea?” The obsession was that if you live only on pure water and air, you become physically immortal.

I said, “That is nonsense! Many people have lived on water and air and none of them are alive; not a single one has become immortal. If you really want to become immortal, I can show you the way; because it is not a question of becoming immortal, it is a question of discovering. You are immortal already – you are just not aware. Awareness has to be brought…” and just as I was talking to the man about awareness and meditation – he was not interested; he disappeared, he never came again.

But Veena was caught. That was accidental! Since then she has been doing meditation, sometimes successfully, and whenever you succeed in meditation there are moments of failure; there are days and there are nights.

Naturally, after so many years, fifteen or sixteen years, she feels like “I’m trundling along in a creaky old bullock cart, while you are flying by in all your beauty and grace and vastness.”

You should be happy, at least you have a creaky old bullock cart! There are millions who don’t have even that. And if it is too creaky just ask some Italian sannyasin to make it a little greasy. Sarjano can do it. And to make a flying bullock cart will be a great joy and a miracle – just take a little care with the bullock cart. Anyway it is moving. Or perhaps you would like it to go on being creaky because that gives you the idea that you are moving. But there is no hurry. You need not fly. Sometimes it is dangerous.

Just the other day I received a letter from Canada. A young woman wants to come here, but the problem is she is very much afraid of flying. Now from Canada to here, coming in a creaky old cart will really take so long. So she has asked me, “First help me to get rid of this paranoia. I cannot enter an airplane.”