"Just because of his old habit he goes on seeking people to ask him questions. He does not know a thing about engine trouble. And he is not a horse, he is just using that poor old horse as a medium. So don't mind him.'

"But this is how it happens on all the roads of life. The old ghosts go on haunting, and they know all the answers – you have only to ask. Just for the asking they are ready to give you all the answers. And life goes on changing and they don't know a thing about engine trouble. Life goes on changing moment to moment. You cannot find the answer in the past because nothing is the same today. You cannot find the answer in the past because the answer is not the thing, it always dies with the man who has discovered it. But ghosts go on haunting. Your Vedas, Korans, Bibles, Gitas, they are ghosts. They are not realities now, they are long dead, but they have an appeal.

"So first try to understand why the dead have so much appeal, why the dead past has so much appeal over the living, why the dead go on pulling your legs. Why do you carry them? Why do you listen to them? You are living, you are fresh. Why do you look to the past, to the authorities and to the experts?

"The first thing: the longer a person has been dead, the greater is the tradition. Time…time hallows everything. If Buddha is alive you can barely tolerate him. At the most, if you are very kind to him, you may go and listen. But you cannot believe that he is a bhagwan. You cannot believe that this man has known the ultimate because he will look just like you: a man of blood and bones, young or old, ill or healthy, as prone as you are to death – just like you. Hungry, he needs food; sleepy, he wants a bed; ill, he has to rest – just like you. Thirsty, he drinks the same water; hungry, he eats the same bread – just like you! How can you believe that he has known the ultimate, the deathless? Difficult, almost impossible."