You are so restless that your restlessness needs to be busy somehow or other. That is why, whatsoever is said against smoking, it cannot be stopped. Only in a meditative world can smoking stop – otherwise not. Even if there is danger of death, of cancer, of tuberculosis, it cannot be stopped, because it is not a question of just smoking, it is a question of how to release the restlessness.

People who chant mantras can stop smoking because they have found a substitute. You can keep chanting Ram, Ram, Ram, and this becomes a sort of smoking. Your lips are working, your mouth is moving, your restlessness is being released. So japa can become a sort of smoking, a better sort, with less harm to the health.

But basically it remains the same, that your mind cannot be left at rest. The mind has to do something, not only while you are awake but even when you are asleep. Watch your wife or your husband sleeping some day, just sit for two or three hours silently and watch the face. You will see the monkey not the man. Even in sleep much goes on. The mind is engaged. This sleep cannot be deep, it cannot be really relaxing, because work is going on. By day it continues, there is no discontinuity; the mind goes on functioning in the same way. There is constant inner chatter, you go on talking with yourself, an inner monologue, and there is no wonder you get bored. You are boring yourself. Everybody looks bored.

Mulla Nasruddin was telling a story to his disciples – it must have been a day like this. Suddenly the rain started, and a passer-by, just to protect himself, came under the shed where Nasruddin was talking to his disciples. He was just waiting for the rain to stop but he couldn’t help listening.

Nasruddin was telling tall stories. Many times the man found it almost impossible to resist interrupting, because he was saying such absurd things. But he thought again and again, “It is none of my business. I am just here under the shed because of the rain, and as soon as the rain stops I will go. I need not interfere.” But at one point he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t contain himself. He interrupted, “Enough is enough. Excuse me, this is none of my business, but now you have overdone it!”

I must first tell you the story and the point where this man could not contain himself…

Nasruddin was saying, “Once it happened, in my younger days I was traveling in the forests of Africa, the Dark Continent. One day a lion suddenly jumped out just fifteen feet away from me, and I was without any arms, without any protection, alone in the forest. That lion stared at me and started walking towards me.”

The disciples became very excited. Nasruddin stopped for a moment and looked at their faces. Then one disciple said, “Now don’t make us wait, what happened?”

Nasruddin said, “The lion came nearer and nearer, just five feet away.”

Another disciple said, “No more waiting. Tell us what happened.”

Nasruddin said, “It is so simple, it is so logical, you can conclude it yourself. The lion jumped, killed me and ate me!”