And he says, “What is wrong with me? I am not sick. The doctor cannot make any difference to me.”

The truth is, the doctor is sick. The doctor is not honest.

The boy is very intelligent in seeing things. He has a strange clarity. He says, “I have been watching this doctor” – because the doctor lives just in front of his house; his dispensary is there – “and seeing that poor people get well quickly, and rich people linger on for months. And I am sitting there outside and enjoying the whole scene – what kind of society is this? The poor man gets well because the doctor wants to get rid of him; you cannot get much money out of him. Instead the poor man starts asking, ‘Give me some money; I will return later on for the medicine. You are suggesting fruits and milk, but you will have to give me some money.’

“But the rich man, once he falls sick, is kept sick; he is sent to this expert for x-rays, to that expert for something else. It seems to be almost a conspiracy of experts exploiting the rich sick man.”

I asked him how the boy was doing. He said, “Because of him, I feel so ashamed to go out of the house. And I always wanted you to help me, but you think he is right and we are wrong. You want me also to go naked? – so I cannot raise the question, ‘What should be done with him?’”

I said, “He needs nothing to be done, he is no harm to anybody. Give him work; he is always ready to work, he enjoys working. But he is not ready to have a mask. He is not ready to be continuously an actor, dressed up.”

But the whole society that we have created is almost a drama. Here, everybody is repeating dialogues from books, from films, from stories. Nobody is opening his own heart.

I can understand your problem. You are afraid to ask authentic questions because they will expose you.

People ask questions which make them feel very knowledgeable. They want to ask questions not to get the answer, but just to show their knowledge. Whenever you ask a knowledgeable question, you don’t feel guilty, you feel great.

But I am a crazy person. I never answer those questions which come out of your knowledge. I simply throw them away.

I only answer questions which open up your wounds, because once your wounds are open there is a possibility of healing. Once you expose yourself, you are on the way to transformation.

Once you are sincere in asking a question, you will listen to the answer because it is your need, it is your food. Your question was your thirst, and the answer can quench it.