"The moment you try to reduce it to knowledge, it slips out of your hands. And it is good that it is so miraculous that generation after generation, millions of people go through the experience; they know what it is yet they cannot say what it is.

"All that can be experienced is not necessarily explainable, and all that can be explained is not necessarily experienceable. Mathematics can be explained easily, but there is no corresponding experience. Science can be explained easily, but even the greatest scientist is not transformed by his knowledge. But an anonymous poet not only gives birth to poetry, he also goes through a deep revolution, a rebirth. His poetry is not just a composition of words; it is the juice of his very life. The greatest poets have not been able to explain their own poetry.

"Once Coleridge was asked by a professor of literature The professor was teaching at the university and he came across a point in one of Coleridge's poems where he was doubtful about the meaning. He was a sincere man. He told the students, 'You will have to wait at least one day. Coleridge lives in my neighborhood; I can ask him exactly what he means.'

"The professor went to Coleridge that evening. Coleridge said, 'You have come a little late.'

"He said, 'What do you mean – a little late? You are still alive.'

"Coleridge said, 'It is not a question of my being alive or not. When I wrote these lines, two persons knew the meaning; now only one knows.'

"Naturally, the professor inferred that the one person could not be anyone else but Coleridge. He said, 'So I have not come too late. Tell me what the meaning is.'

"Coleridge said, 'You have not yet got the point. When I wrote those lines, two persons knew the meaning: Coleridge and God. Now only God knows!

"'I myself have been wondering. Many times I have read it and wondered: what is the meaning? It is groovy – but very slippery. You feel that you are just about to catch it and it has gone just like a breeze. I am sorry. I have certainly written these lines, and I know there is some meaning, and I feel it, but you will have to forgive me."