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is to make up for the deficiency. He himself is aware of the fact that what he is saying is not out of his own experience. The wise one, however, always hesitates: he is afraid; he may not be able to put forth his experience as clearly as he feels it. He will contemplate a thousand ways in his mind before he speaks and yet he will be concerned that what he says may not be quite what he wants to express. One who does not know goes ahead and says what he has to say. He feels no hesitation, because he knows exactly all that he has to say.
But this was very difficult for an enlightened one like Buddha. He did not give answers to certain questions. He used to say, "There is difficulty in answering these questions." So people used to say, "There are better people in our village who answer all our questions. They are wiser than Buddha. We ask them whether God is, and they reply either yes or no confidently. Buddha does not answer because he does not know."
But for Buddha it was very difficult to answer yes or no, so he hesitated and said, "Ask something else, not this." It was only natural for people to say that he did not know and that he should admit his ignorance. But this also Buddha could not say, because he knew. In fact Buddha speaks a different language from us and this is what causes the difficulty.
So it has happened time and again that many people like Ramakrishna left this world without giving their message. They could not. It is a very rare combination for a person to know and be able to convey. When this rare combination takes place we call such a person a tirthankara, an avatar, a prophet, etcetera. So the number of en-ightened ones is not restricted only to those who have spoken. There have been many others who could not deliver their message.
Someone asked Buddha, "You have ten thousand bhikkhus here, and for the last forty years you have been teaching the people. How many people have reached the state of consciousness you are in?"
Buddha said, "Many have reached."
The person asked, "Then why can't we recognize them as we can recognize you?"
Buddha said, "You cannot recognize them because of the difference
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