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and again in the past. It is said the day Gautam Buddha died a man came running. Buddha had told his disciples, "This is my last meeting with you in the body. I am going to leave the body. Before I leave, if you have any more questions left" -- he had been answering for forty-two years -- "if anything is still left in anybody's mind, ask it, because I won't be here anymore."
The disciples were crying, weeping. What can you ask? For forty-two years Buddha had been answering even those questions which you had not asked. He had been answering questions which you had wrongly asked. But he had answered rightly. He was not only answering you, he was also creating questions for you. In forty-two years he had done everything that was possible. Now, what to ask at the last moment?
They said, "No, we are just grateful."
Buddha closed his eyes, he moved the first step inwards -- that is, he moved away from the body to the mind. The second step: he moved from the mind to the heart. The third step he was just going to take, from the heart to the feeling of am-ness, asmita. It cannot be called "I" -- it is far more refined -- just am-ness. And then... the last jump into nothingness. While he was just moving in, the man came running.
He said, "But I have a question."
The disciples said, "Now don't disturb him. Where have you been? He has passed through your village at least thirty times."
He said, "I know, but sometimes there was such a crowd of customers in my shop. Sometimes I was engaged in my son's marriage; sometimes my wife was sick -- and so on and so forth. I always thought, next time when he comes I will go to him. Just now I heard that he is leaving the world. What about my question?"
The people said, "You seem to be an idiot. Thirty times he passed, and thirty times you missed. And now, when he has just taken leave of us... now it cannot be done."
But Buddha came back. He opened his eyes, he said, "No, let him ask. Let him be answered because I don't want it to be known in history, for the coming generations, that a Buddha was alive and yet somebody returned from his door empty-handed. Let me do my part. If he
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