He used to lie down and paint, and one day an old woman came to pray. She was not aware of Michelangelo on the ladder far away, and she was too old; perhaps she could not see that far either. But she was praying to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Michelangelo was bored with the work, and just wanted to have a little break. She was praying again and again, so he boomed like God from far away on the top of the ladder, “I am here! I am Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God! You tell me and I will tell my mother and my father: What do you want?”

The woman was a very fanatical Christian. She looked up, but she could not see because she was almost blind. She said, “You shut up! I am talking to your mother!”

Michelangelo writes in his diary, “I could not have believed that this could happen!” – and the woman continued her praying.

To whom are you praying? To whom is it addressed?

Meditation is not addressed to anyone; it is a pure inquiry, an exploration of your ultimate depth and of your ultimate height. The moment you know your ultimate height and your ultimate depth, you know the very secret of existence. That secret is not a person, that secret is enlightenment. That secret makes you a buddha, a godly man.

Buddha can say anything about truth, but not Jesus. Jesus lived in hallucinations himself. To the modern, contemporary psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, he will look like a lunatic. He was.

His disillusionment came at a very late stage. When he was crucified he was still faithful, was still believing that his father, God, was going to come on a white cloud and save him. But no white cloud came, and nobody came to save him. Finally, in despair and frustration he shouted at the sky – again at the sky – “Why have you forsaken me?”

This is the end result of believing, of having faith in a truth that you have not realized yourself. It is hearsay. You have heard other people saying that there is a God, but have you met anyone who has seen God?

What truth are they defending? and against whom?

Truth is self-evident. It needs no defense, it is our ultimate being. Neither a sword can destroy it nor nuclear weapons, nor fire can burn it, nor death can touch it. There is no question of defending the truth.

The question is knowing the truth.

The moment you know the truth you are no more. The dewdrop has slipped from the lotus leaf into the ocean. Now only the truth is. And all around, everywhere, from the smallest leaf of grass to the greatest star far away, millions of light-years away, it is the same one existence, one cosmos of tremendous intelligence.

You disappear. You are no more a Christian, you are no more a Hindu, you are no more a Mohammedan. You are not, truth is.