From the very beginning it was thought that he was upside down. His parents were in trouble. If they would say, “Go to the right,” he would go to the left. Finally his old father thought that rather than bothering with him, it is better, if they want him to go to the left, to order him to go to the right – and he is bound to go to the left.

One day they were crossing the river. On their donkey they had a big bag of sugar, and the bag was leaning more towards the right so there was a danger that it may slip into the river; it had to remain balanced on the donkey. But to tell to Nasruddin, “Move the bag towards the left,” will mean losing the sugar – he will move it towards the right.

So he said to Nasruddin, “My son, your bag is slipping; move it towards the right.” And Nasruddin moved it towards the right.

The father said, “This is strange, for the first time you have been obedient!”

Nasruddin said, “For the first time you have been cunning. I knew you wanted it to be moved towards the left; I could see with my eyes where it needs to be moved. Even in such a subtle way you cannot make me obedient.”

Just to go against obedience is not moving your intelligence higher. You remain on the same plane. Obedient or disobedient, but there is no change of intelligence.

To me disobedience is a great revolution. It does not mean saying an absolute no in every situation. It simply means deciding whether to do it or not, whether it is beneficial to do it or not. It is taking the responsibility on yourself. It is not a question of hating the person or hating to be told, because in that hating you cannot act obediently, disobediently; you act very unconsciously. You cannot act intelligently.

When you are told to do something, you are given an opportunity to respond. Perhaps what is being told is right; then do it, and be grateful to the person who told you at the right moment to do it. Perhaps it is not right – then make it clear. Bring your reasons, why it is not right; then help the person – what he is thinking is going in a wrong way. But hate has no place. If it is right, do it lovingly. If it is not right, then even more love is needed, because you will have to tell the person, explain to the person, that it is not right.

The way of disobedience is not stagnant – just going against every order and feeling anger and hate and revenge towards the person. The way of disobedience is a way of great intelligence. So it is not ultimately obedience or disobedience. Reduced to the basic fact, it is simply a question of intelligence – behave intelligently.

Sometimes you will have to obey, and sometimes you will have to say, “I am sorry, I cannot do it.” But there is no question of hate, there is no question of revenge, anger. If hate, anger or revenge arises, that simply means you know that what is being told is right, but it goes against your ego to obey it; it hurts your ego. That hurt feeling comes up as hate, as anger.