"It is very potential, pregnant with deep meaning. But one has to contemplate over it, meditate over it, intensely. With consciousness, one has to make every effort to find the innermost meaning of it. And only that won't help much; that will help in the beginning – but if you really want to understand the story you will have to live it. You will have to live it – only then will you come to understand what it means.

"A few things before we enter into the story.

"Religion is not ritual. It is not something that you do, it is something that you become. So there is always a possibility of a false religion existing somewhere in the society. False religion is when the inner transformation has been substituted by outer ritual. Then you go on doing things, and those things will become a deep-rooted habit with you but nothing is achieved. People go to the church and the temple, they repeat the same prayers again and again, and nothing is happening to them. Somewhere on the way they have missed; somewhere on the way they have lost the real coin – and they have substituted it by a false coin.

"Remember this, that the real, authentic religion is concerned with the being, not with the doing. It has nothing to do with your outer way of life, it has something to do with your center. Of course, when the center changes the periphery follows; your outer life also changes. But the reverse is not true: you can change the periphery – the center will not change, and you will live the life of a hypocrite, a life of hypocrisy. You will have a different periphery from the center, not only different but just the opposite, the very contrary, and you will be split in two.

"Religion is not ritual, remember that. Religion is an inner consciousness, an inner awakening. Many things on the surface will change, but the change must occur within you first.

"Think of yourself as a circle with a center. The circle is concerned with others. The circle touches others' boundaries, other circles. The circle lives, the periphery lives in the society of other peripheries."