Even Gautam Buddha remained silent for seven days after his enlightenment, thinking, “What is the point? First, I cannot say what I have seen; there are no words for it. Words are impotent and the experience is so immense, so vast….

“Words are so small, they are for day-to-day use. They are not made by enlightened people, they are made by blind people living in darkness. Those words have connotations of ignorance. Now, to express light through those words is almost impossible.”

“Secondly,” Buddha thought, “even if I speak, manage somehow to deliver the message, who is going to listen?”

People are interested in money, in power, in politics, in becoming bigger and bigger, higher and higher compared to others. Who is really interested in enlightenment? It is just an accident if you come across a man who is enlightened and get infected. The thing is contagious, and there is no way of preventing it – and no antidote.

So Buddha said, “Even if I speak, people are not going to listen. Perhaps they may hear, but hearing and listening are totally different things.”

When I am speaking even buffaloes are hearing, donkeys are hearing, but they are not listening. Hearing is a simple thing; you have ears, that’s all, nothing else is needed. The buffalo will go on chewing the grass – and you will go on talking about enlightenment. And man is not much different; in fact he is worse, because the buffalo at least has no rush of thoughts in her mind. She is a simple being, just chewing grass, enjoying the morning sun, the cool air – tremendously happy.

Have you seen any buffalo laughing? You must think that buffaloes don’t laugh because they are in tremendous misery. You are wrong. You laugh because you are in tremendous misery. You need the laughter just to keep you going.

Jews have the most beautiful jokes in the world, because they have suffered the most in world. Strange…I have been searching my whole life for a single Indian joke – I have not found one.

They have lived peacefully. India has never invaded any country, has never been aggressive, violent, has had no desire to become bigger and bigger, huge; India has never been imperialistic. It has been invaded by many people, and for two thousand years it has been a slave country under Hunas, Turks, Moguls, British people, Portuguese people, French, you just say the name – and India has been invaded by everybody.

And why did such a vast country, almost a continent, yield so easily? They were not interested in fighting. Small groups of people…what is England? – not bigger than a district in India. What is its population? If all the Indians had pissed simultaneously, England would have drowned. No atom bombs would be needed!