Eknath said, “You are a strange man. You see that every morning there is such chaos, and one or two hours unnecessarily are wasted in finding things: where you have put them, whose thing has gone into whose luggage. Everybody has to open everything and ask everybody, ‘To whom does this belong?’”

The thief said, “This much concession you have to give to me.”

Twenty-six years of a false personality imposed by people who you loved, who you respected, and they were not intentionally doing anything bad to you. Their intentions were good, just their awareness was nil. They were not conscious people – your parents, your teachers, your priests, your politicians – they were not conscious people, they were unconscious. And even a good intention in the hands of an unconscious person turns out to be poisonous.

So whenever you are alone…a deep fear, because suddenly the false starts disappearing. And the real will take a little time. You lost it twenty-six years ago. You will have to give some consideration to the fact that the twenty-six years’ gap has to be bridged.

In fear that “I am losing myself, my senses, my sanity, my mind – everything” because the self that has been given to you by others consists of all these things, it looks like you will go insane. You immediately start doing something just to keep yourself engaged. If there are no people, at least there is some action. So the false remains engaged and does not start disappearing. Hence people find it the most difficult on holidays. For five days they work, hoping that on the weekend they are going to relax. But the weekend is the worst time in the whole world – more accidents happen on the weekend, more people commit suicide, more murders, more stealing, more rape. Strange! And these people were engaged for five days and there was no problem. But the weekend suddenly gives them a choice, either to be engaged in something or to relax – but relaxing is fearsome; the false personality disappears.

Keep engaged, do anything stupid. People are running towards the beaches, bumper to bumper, miles-long traffic. And if you ask them where they are going, they are getting away from the crowd – and the whole crowd is going with them. They are going to find a solitary, silent space – all of them! In fact, if they had remained home it would have been more solitary and silent, because all the idiots have gone in search of a solitary place. And they are rushing like mad, because two days will be finished soon; they have to reach. Don’t ask where!

And on the beaches, you see they are so crowded, not even marketplaces are so crowded. And strangely enough, people are feeling very much at ease, taking a sunbath. Ten thousand people on a small beach taking a sunbath, relaxing! The same person on the same beach alone will not be able to relax. But he knows thousands of other people are relaxing all around him. The same people were in the offices, the same people were in the streets, the same people were in the marketplace; now the same people are on the beach. The crowd is essential for the false self to exist. The moment it is lonely you start freaking out.