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And he left.
Then the village pundits did not go a fourth time. They tried very hard to coin the fourth answer but they could not. The fact is, there are only three answers -- yes, no, or both.
The fakir tarried long in the village, hoping they would come again but they did not. When someone asked him why he still stayed on, he said: "I am waiting for them. They might come for the fourth time, but they have not come."
"How can they?" the man asked. "What answer they could give you for the fourth time, they do not know."
The fakir, said, "If I were to tell you, my answer would also become useless, because for you, it will again become a ready-made reply."
The fakir then writes in his autobiography: "I waited for them to come and take me once more to the temple; and if they gave no reply when I asked the question, and if they waited in silence, I would have had to speak -- for their silence would have proved the sincerity of their quest."
They should be people with no pre-conceived notions, who set out on this quest with an open mind. Those who are burdened with beliefs can never never set out on this journey. Therefore, the first thing I want to stress in this matter is that only those who are able to break the prison-walls of doctrines and concepts can set out in quest of Truth.
We are all captives in the hands of dogmas and words and scriptures -- Truth cannot be for us. These dogmas are of gold, inlaid with precious stones. A cage can be of gold and of precious stones but that does not make it less of a cage. The lure in fact makes it more dangerous for one strives to break through an iron cage but a golden cage might still be attractive. We have thus bound our own minds ourselves, and until we free ourselves from all these bondages, we can never rise towards Truth; for till then, we cannot see that which is. We shall, till then, try to see things as we want them to be, and as long as we desire something, we cannot know that which actually is. As long as we design Truth in our own fashion, till then we implant ourselves on Truth.
As long as we say God should be like this -- playing the flute, carrying the
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