He said, “How can it be? a saint who can see the future – which horse is going to come first in the race…I have to touch his feet.”

I said, “That is your decision, but the Shrimad Bhagavadgita is really not the Shrimad Bhagavadgita.”

He said, “What? Then what is it?”

I said, “What does it have to be – it is the Koran Sharif. There is only one book in my suitcase, and you will see – let the servant bring it.” He went to bring it: it was the Koran Sharif. One man had continually been at me for years that I should speak on the Koran Sharif, the bible of the Mohammedans. This time he had brought the best translation, just published. So I said, “Then let the book come, and you will see.”

And when the book came he said, “My God, you are really a Mohammedan. I feel like killing you! – three times I have taken a cold shower, and again I have to take a cold shower. You could have simply said, ‘Bring the Koran.’”

I said, “This is my own way. You don’t have to dictate to me.”

Before taking a shower he tried to find the conductor. But the conductor was not in the compartment, so he took a shower. And while he was taking a shower the conductor came in, because the man had asked for him. I was there, I told him the whole thing. He laughed loudly. I said, “When he asks you to change the compartment and put him into some other compartment – there are seats vacant, but you simply say that those seats are booked; passengers will be getting on at the coming stations.

“And say to that man, ‘He’s neither Mohammedan nor Hindu; he is a Christian – and in fact he is a sudra who has turned into a Christian.’”

And to touch the feet of a sudra – a sudra is the lowest Hindu caste – after touching even the shadow of a sudra you have to take a bath…just the shadow!

He came out. Seeing the conductor he was very happy. He took him aside and he told him, “This man seems to be crazy or something. Four times I have taken a shower – and the night is getting colder and colder, and the water is ice cold. And he goes on deceiving me: he finds ways, and I get caught in them. I don’t want to go inside. You just give me a seat somewhere else.”

The conductor said, “What do you think he is, Mohammedan?”

The conductor said, “I have known him for years. He is a sudra who has turned and become a Christian.”

The man said, “My God, a sudra! I feel like jumping out of the train and finishing myself! Four times I have touched the feet of a sudra. Never in history has any brahmin done that. Now I cannot go inside the compartment.”

But the conductor said, “I am sorry, all seats are booked. You will have to. Don’t touch his feet – he does not tell to you to. Does he tell to you to?”

He said, “No, he does not say anything, but he manages it in such a way that I feel like touching them.”