In one of my post-graduate classes, the professor was a very orthodox brahmin from Bengal – so orthodox that I have never come across anybody else like him. He would not teach with open eyes because there were two girls in the class: girls he cannot look at, he is a celibate. It was a good opportunity, so I slept all the time. And he thought that perhaps I was also a great celibate!

So there were those two girls, and this boy who had been following me. The professor was very inquisitive. One day he got hold of me in the library and said, “It is very rare to find people these days who are committed to celibacy.”

I said, “You are under a wrong impression.”

He said, “Wrong impression?”

I said, “Why are you closing your eyes?”

He said, “I am a celibate and I don’t want to see any female face.”

I said, “That is true, that is also my reason – because both those girls are not worth seeing! But it is not celibacy. Day after day, those same two girls; I simply keep my eyes closed.”

He said, “My god! We are doing the same action but our reasons are so different.”

And that boy was the only other person in the class. He was such a great follower, but he was at a loss for what to do – to close his eyes because I was closing mine, the professor was closing his and just those two girls…But he was very much interested in those girls, although the girls were not showing any sign of interest in him. He was very disappointed. He told me, “You will have to help me. You have always helped – since I entered college you have been of great help; now you have to help.”

I said, “What is the problem?”

He said, “The problem is that I try in every way to talk to those girls but they don’t take any interest in me; they don’t even care about me. They pass by me as if I am not there – it hurts.”

I said, “You have to do something rightly.”

So I wrote a love letter for him, and I said, “Tomorrow you deliver it yourself.”

He said, “This is very dangerous; you have made me sign it. You have written all these things and if I am caught, if the girl freaks out, or anything…”

I said, “You don’t be worried; I will prepare the girl, because I have taken the responsibility. That’s why I am saying tomorrow you deliver it. Just give me one day’s chance to prepare the girl.”

I told the girl, “This boy is very poor – spiritually poor – he needs compassion.”

The girl said, “What can I do?”

I said, “You don’t have to do anything. He will deliver a love letter to you tomorrow; you accept it with a smiling face.”

She said, “You are creating trouble. I don’t like that fellow.”