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has asserted there something very fundamental. In fact nobody had ever said it so clearly before him. Nobody had ever raised the child to such a pinnacle.
In the past all the societies and all the civilisations have praised the old man because the old man seemed to them wise, knowledgeable, experienced. In the East the old man has been almost worshipped. The older more he is worshipped. Hence in India you will find people claiming old age -- they are not that old. Somebody will claim that he is one-hundred-and-fifty years old, and ho will look only sixty or at the most seventy.
I have heard a famous story: a man in the Himalayas used to claim that he was seven hundred years old. And Indians are very gullible, they immediately believe. A visitor from the West was surprised because the man looked not more than seventy -- at the most seventy -- and he was claiming to be seven hundred years old? So he tried to rind out in some way how
The old man had a small boy, for small errands, to bring milk and his food to him. The boy was not more than fourteen or at the most fifteen. The visitor bribed the boy. When they became very friendly the westerner asked him "Just tell me one things what do you think about your master's age? Is he seven hundred years old?" The boy said "I cannot say anything because I have only been with him for three hundred years."
In the East old age has been praised so much for the simple reason because the old man gathers experience, knowledge, naturally -- he lives life. But to grow old does not necessarily mean to grow up. To have much knowledge does not necessarily mean wisdom.
You can find old fools. In fact if you are a fool the older you are, the greater fool you will be. Whatsoever you are your age is not going to change it; it is going to add something to it. So a young fool becomes an old fool. That does not mean that just by becoming old he becomes wise, otherwise things would have been very easy, every old man would have been enlightened.
I love Jesus for many reasons: he has many insight of tremendous value -- this is one of his great insights: "Unless you are like small children you will not enter
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