So he said, “It was a very great shock, but it was true. I know I am boring. I bore myself with my thoughts. That’s why I go to others to bore them, just to get rid of my thoughts. If I am bored with my thoughts, I know perfectly well the other person will be bored, but everybody is under an obligation to me. Only this boy has no obligation and is not afraid of the consequences. And he is daring. He asked for a reward. He said to me, ‘If you don’t reward truth, you are rewarding lies.’”

This is how this society is in a mad space. Everybody is teaching you to be truthful, but nobody is rewarding you for being truthful, so they create schizophrenia.

The Indian Government has the motto “Satyameva jayat” – truth is always victorious. That is their motto, but every politician goes on lying to the people, giving promises which they know they cannot fulfill. And in every court Satyameva jayate, truth is always victorious, is written. But in every court it is not the truth that is victorious, it is the more efficient, more argumentative advocate who wins the case. It does not matter whether he is in favor of the criminal or against the criminal.

I used to have a vice-chancellor who was one of the biggest law experts in the world. He had three offices, one in London, one in New Delhi, and one in Peking, and he was continuously running from one country to another country. He had never lost a single case, and all the great cases in which millions of dollars were involved…all the maharajas of this country were his clients. But he was a drunkard.

He was fighting a case in the Privy Council in London. That was the highest appeals court for India under the British empire. The Supreme Court was here but if you wanted to go against the Supreme Court, the Privy Council was in London. And he was a Privy Council man; he was continuously fighting cases in the Privy Council.

That night he was at a party and drank too much. Next day he had a hangover. He was still a little drunk, but he had to go to the court. The case was between two states of Rajasthan, Udaipur and Jaipur. Both the maharajas were fighting for a certain bit of land: to which state did it belong? It was thousands of acres of land, and under his hangover he forgot which party he was fighting for, Udaipur or Jaipur.

So he went on criticizing the maharaja of Jaipur, and all his arguments were against him. Many times his secretary pulled his coat, but he simply wouldn’t listen. When it was lunchtime, the court stopped for one hour. Then the secretary said, “You have spoilt the whole case. You are fighting for the maharaja of Jaipur and you are arguing against him. And you have created such trouble. The man who is against the maharaja of Jaipur, who is fighting you – another great expert – is at a loss what to do, because you have already put all the arguments that he had prepared, against the maharaja of Jaipur.”

Now he was getting over his hangover; he said, “Don’t worry. There is still time.”