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could I say? Where there were so many persons to speak I was the only one to listen. Even then I kept quiet. Perhaps my very silence started speaking and at last all of them were attracted to me. Perhaps they were all tired and wanted to rest.
When I was so caught, I had to say something. I told a story: "In a village there was a custom that whenever a young man was married, either he or his side had to spend at least Rs. 5000/- for the marriage. That village was very rich and no marriages were performed there for less. Even in the scriptures of that village this was written. Nobody had read those scriptures, but this was the saying of the priest of that village. And who could question the priest? He remembered by rote all the scriptures written in some lingua franca of the past, and scriptures have all along been axiomatic. What is there is the truth. What else could be the symbol of truth? To be in the scriptures is the sign of truth. But it so happened once that a young man performed his marriage with Rs. 500/- only, and his bride also came. Undoubtedly, that young man must have been a revolutionary; otherwise how could he do so? The villagers asked: "How many rupees you spent?" He said : "Five hundred". Then the village Panchayat was called and the Panchs told him, "It is all wrong. A marriage cannot be performed without spending Rs. 5000/-." The young man laughed and said: "Whether a marriage can be performed with Rs. 500/- or not is meaningless You keep on discussing. I have got my wife and I am happy".
After saying so, the young man went away to his house.
I also got up and told those old men "Friends, Good-bye. You carry on your discussions. I will make a move now".
5.
Man is all alone. He is in darkness. He is without support. He is unsafe and afraid. This alone is his worry. The way to get rid of it is religion. Religion is fundamentally the way of working in fearlessness.
But the religions, only in name, are most afraid of the fearlessness itself. Their support and life itself is the 'fear' in the hearts of men. Fear itself is their food and life. The fearlessness is the end of their life. The fear in men has
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