Their senses became the doors. It is very difficult to find a person whose every sense is functioning at the maximum. We know it perfectly well: there are people who cannot smell anything, their nose is dead; there are people who are called “colorblind.”

For example, George Bernard Shaw did not realize until the age of sixty that he was colorblind. It was just a coincidence that on his sixtieth birthday some friend sent him a suit as a present, but he had forgotten to add a matching tie. And Bernard Shaw liked the suit very much. He wanted to wear it on his birthday when all his friends were going to be there. So he asked his secretary, a young woman, to go with him to find a matching tie.

The secretary was puzzled, because the suit was green and Bernard Shaw chose a yellow tie.

She did not think that this was a good match; it would look very odd and awkward. Even the shopkeeper said, “Sir, this tie won’t go with this suit.” Bernard Shaw said, “Why not? They are of the same color.”

That day he realized that between green and yellow he could not make any distinction. He was blind to the color yellow: it looked like green. You will be surprised to know that almost ten percent of people are colorblind. It is not a small percentage: out of every ten persons, one person is colorblind. He may not know his whole life – and eyes are the most important factors.

Musicians know perfectly well that there are people who have an ear for music; all people don’t have the ear. In a factual way everybody has an ear, but to have an ear for music is a totally different thing. You need a very deep sensitivity about sound and about silence.

There are many people who don’t have much sensitivity about taste, or about touch. You may have come across people…if you shake hands with them it feels as if you are shaking hands with the dead branch of a tree: you don’t feel any energy, any warmth, any love being transferred. And with other people, when you shake hands with them, you know there has been a dialogue: your hands have spoken to each other things which you cannot say.

Buddha and Mahavira, were both very alert in choosing people to make small groups of five; each was perfect in at least one sense. The five together were perfect in all five senses. Buddha promised his disciples, Whenever five of you are together in deep silence and meditation, the sixth also will be present – I am the sixth.

So if you are sensitive – and meditation makes you more and more sensitive – then even when I am gone and its only my physical body that is no longer here, your sensitivity will not let my consciousness go away so easily. I will remain amongst you for a little while.