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of the mystic's disciples protested on behalf of the king, saying this was being very hard on the poor man -- after all he was emperor and this was his very own capital. The mystic replied that when you take off your clothes you take off your defenses too, you become a nobody.... ]
Have you observed this -- that when you are naked, you are nobody? When you are dressed in your particular dress, you are somebody. Can you make any distinction between a criminal and a high court judge if they are standing naked~ between the murderer and the president of a country if they are standing naked? Impossible to judge. But if they are in their regalia -- the king with the crown and the judge with his wig and black suit -- then of course one knows who one is. We know people through their clothes. Naked, a person simply becomes undefended.
The mystic said, 'It is not hard. He has been a king. He has too many defenses that ordinarily people don't have; that's why I have to be hard on him.' The disciple asked, 'Why are you asking him to run around the town? You never asked us. And why this nonsense that he should beat his head with a shoe?!' The mystic said, 'I wanted him to feel humiliated. If it is not accepted, if it is not welcomed, then he will not be able to do it. He will simply refuse it. So it is a kind of a test.'
If you accept something, even humiliation, it becomes humbleness and it is a beautiful quality. But if you resist, if you don't want it, then only does it look like humiliation. Humiliation is just an interpretation of the ego.
So the first thing I would like to tell you is to take an interest in very small things which are not projects of the ego. Even if you do them well, nobody is going to award you a nobel prize. Howsoever clean you make the bathroom or the floor, and howsoever well you work in the canteen, you are not going to get any victoria cross. Nobody will ever know anything about you. Nobody will say, 'Heeren the great.' Nobody will ever hear your name.
So, activity has to be allowed, and be as active as you can so that no energy remains pent up. Don't dam up the energy; let it flow. If you have nothing to do, go
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