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higher, nobody lower.
I am not against anybody. But my basic work is to expose before you all the diseases, the bondages, so that you are not caught in them, so you can remain free, so you can have a merger with existence, without any barrier. And ego is the only barrier. It can come in so many ways that unless you are really alert it will deceive you. It can become so subtle -- almost like a shadow -- that it will follow you, and you will not be aware of it.
I would like to tell you a small story. Two monks, Buddhist monks, are returning to their monastery; they come to a ford. The current is very powerful. It is a hilly place. A young, beautiful girl is waiting there, waiting for somebody to help her to cross. She is afraid to enter alone.
One monk, who is the older one of course... because he is older, he walks ahead -- all games of the ego. If you are older, you have to walk ahead; younger monks have to walk a little back. They cannot walk parallel to the older monk; of course, they cannot walk ahead. And these are the people who are talking continuously of dropping the ego! Even physical age is used to fulfill a certain ego. The older monk comes first. The young girl asks him, "Bhante" -- Bhante is the Buddhist equivalent of 'reverend' -- "Bhante, would you help me; just hold my hand? I am afraid, the current is so strong and perhaps it may be deep."
The old man closes his eyes -- that's what Buddha had said to the monks: that if you see a woman, particularly if she is beautiful, close your eyes. But I am surprised: you have already seen her, then you close your eyes; otherwise how can you determine she is a woman, and beautiful? You are already affected, and now you close your eyes. And remember, with closed eyes the beautiful woman will become even more beautiful -- she will become a dream girl. And Buddha had said, "Don't talk, don't touch a woman" -- because just talking, you may get caught; touching, you may forget that you are a monk.
So he closes his eyes and enters the ford without answering the woman. You see the ugliness of it. And these people are saying, "Help, serve"and that poor girl was simply asking, "Hold
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