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It is bound to be so. They sound egoistic because they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humility.

Try to understand; it is a delicate point. Whatever you call humbleness is a function of the ego. It is a modified ego. The enlightened person has no ego so he cannot have a modified ego, he cannot be humble. He cannot be humble in the sense you can understand.

Otherwise Krishna will not be able to say to Arjuna, “Leave everything and come to my feet. I am the God who created the whole existence – sarva dharman parityajya mamekam sharanam vraj. Come to my feet” What egoism! And Jesus will not be able to say, “I am the door, I am the way, I am the truth, I and my father in heaven are one. Those who follow me will be saved. Only those who follow me will be saved.” And when Buddha attained buddhahood, he declared to the skies, to the heavens, “I have attained the unattainable!”

They sound very egoistical. First, they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humbleness. Your humbleness is a modified, polished, cultured ego. But they sound egoistic because they are not humble. You know only two qualities, two ways, of being: humble or egoistic. They are not humble so they must be egoistic. You have only two categories. And egoism is easy for you to understand. It is your language.

When you say “I,” you mean one thing. When I say “I,” I mean something else. But when I say “I,” you will understand it in your way, not in my way. When Krishna said to Arjuna, “Come to my feet!” what does he mean? Of course you will understand if you said to somebody, “Come to my feet!” – so Krishna’s meaning must be the same. No, that is not his meaning. He has no “I” left, he has no “my” left, but he has to use your language, and you understand it in your own way.

So all enlightened masters sound egoistic because you are egoistic. You can understand their humbleness only when your ego disappears; otherwise it won’t allow you. The only way to understand those who have awakened is to become awake.

I go on observing continuously: I say something, you understand something else. But that’s natural. How can you understand my meaning? When I say something, the word goes to you, but not my meaning. My meaning remains in my heart. And then the word goes within you and you color it, you give it a meaning. That meaning is yours.

The words sound egoistic, but they are not – because if they are, then enlightenment has not happened yet. Enlightenment happens only when the ego has disappeared. The ego is the darkness of the soul, the ego is the imprisonment of the soul. The “I” is the barrier to the ultimate.

A Buddha is an emptiness. And when he says, “I have attained the unattainable,” he is simply saying the emptiness has realized its emptiness, nothing else. But to translate it into your words? He is simply saying the emptiness has realized its emptiness, but he has to say, “I have attained the unattainable.”

When Krishna says, “Come to my feet,” he is saying, “Here, look! The emptiness is standing before you. Dissolve into it!” But that won’t be direct. He has to use Arjuna’s language. He says, “Come to my feet.” If Arjuna is ready and willing to surrender – if he trusts and surrenders – when he touches Krishna’s feet, he will touch emptiness. Only then will there be a realization of what Krishna was saying: “There are no feet, there is no Krishna – just a tremendous quality of emptiness.” The temple of God is emptiness. Touching Krishna’s feet, he will bow down to emptiness, and the emptiness will pour down into him. But that will be possible only when he trusts.

Yes, many times I must sound very egoistic to you, but don’t be deceived. If you cling to the idea that I am egoistic, you will never be able to let go, to surrender, and then your ego will go on. Then there is no need to be here with me because then the whole point is lost. You are wasting your time.

There is only one way to be here with me: if you want to surrender. Otherwise go away. Find somebody somewhere else where you find it easy to surrender because unless you surrender, you will not come to know who you are. And without knowing yourself, you will not be able to know what has happened to a man whom we called enlightened. Only through your own experience will things become clear to you.

Yes, it sounds egoistic. Now there are two ways. If you think it not only sounds egoistic, but it is, then go away from me. The sooner you go the better, because all the time that you are here will be wasted. Or if you think it simply sounds egoistic, but it is not so, then surrender, then don’t wait – because sometimes waiting too long can become habitual. You can get addicted to it, and then you can go on waiting and waiting and waiting.

And I will not be waiting here for long. A little while longer and I will be gone. Then you will repent, then you will suffer, then you will be sad – but then it will be of no use.

It will be easy for you to touch my feet when I am gone because then there is no surrender. You can go and touch the feet of a statue. The statue is dead; there is no surrender. When you touch the feet of an alive man – who is alive just like you, who is in the body just like you – then comes the problem. The ego resists.

So either believe in your ego or believe in me. These are the only two alternatives. Up to now you have believed in your ego. What have you attained? I open another alternative for you. Try it.