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them, I have become generous; otherwise they were always saying, 'He is just an egoist; he has given to us not because we needed anything, he has given just to humiliate us!"
The old saint is right: `GIVE THEM NOTHING. RATHER TAKE SOMETHING OFF THEM AND BEAR IT WITH THEM -- THAT WILL PLEASE THEM BEST; IF ONLY IT BE PLEASING TO YOU! AND IF YOU WANT TO GIVE TO THEM, GIVE NO MORE THAN AN ALMS, AND LET THEM BEG FOR THAT!'
His advice is very significant and based on deep psychological truths. Just give them alms. Don't give them too much. Give them enough so that they start wanting more. Then they will always be wagging their tail around you. Give them only when they beg, and they will be happy with you, because you have not reduced them to beggars. They themselves have begged. It is not your fault; they cannot be angry with you.
But a man like Zarathustra cannot do that. `NO,' ANSWERED ZARATHUSTRA, `I GIVE NO ALMS. I AM NOT POOR ENOUGH FOR THAT.' A great statement: I AM NOT POOR ENOUGH FOR THAT. To reduce somebody to begging, and to give in such little amounts that it creates the desire for more in them, shows my poverty. I am not poor enough for that.
I have abundance: abundance of love, abundance of peace, abundance of truth, abundance of wisdom, abundance of freedom, and these things cannot be given in parts. They can be given only as a whole. You cannot cut truth into pieces. You cannot cut love into fragments. Either you give or you don't give. But if you give, you have to give it wholeheartedly, with totality. It does not matter even if they crucify you; it does not matter if they become irritated and annoyed with you.
THE SAINT LAUGHED AT ZARATHUSTRA AND SPOKE THUS: `SEE TO IT THAT THEY ACCEPT YOUR TREASURES!' -- because they have been always rejecting them. Deep down they want the treasures, but when somebody comes to give them, they reject them. There is a joy in rejecting: why have you rejected Buddha or Mahavira or Jesus? By rejecting, you have shown them: "You may have the treasure, but we are not so poor to accept it. You may be rich in having it. We are rich, more rich than you, in rejecting it."
The old man's
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