"Ramakrishna accepted his offering and then said, 'Now these coins are mine – you go to the Ganges and throw them all into the river.' Ramakrishna lived in a temple just on the bank of the Ganges.

"The man was very much shocked. 'Ten thousand gold coins, solid gold coins, and this fool is saying, 'Throw them into the river!' And I have always thought that this man had become enlightened – he is simply mad!' He hesitated.

"Ramakrishna said, 'When you have offered them to me they no longer belong to you. Why are you hesitating? I can send somebody else to throw them away. You please go.'

"The man went, reluctantly of course, and he didn't come back. One hour passed. Ramakrishna inquired, 'What happened to that man? Has he escaped with the coins? Go and inquire.'

"Somebody was sent. There was a great crowd, he had gathered a great crowd, and he was throwing each single coin, one by one, and counting them!

"When Ramakrishna was told, 'This is what is happening – it may take a few hours more,' Ramakrishna went himself, hit the man on the head and said, 'Are you mad or something? When you collect coins, of course you collect them one by one, it is a gradual process. But when you are throwing them away, why are you counting? Just throw the whole bag! Whether they are ten thousand or a few more or a few less, it doesn't matter. The Ganges won't take any note of it!'

"This is the situation. When you stop gathering knowledge you also unlearn slowly, not because unlearning has to be slow. It is only your clinging mind. It is the mind that does not want to renounce knowledge, hence it goes on postponing. It finds beautiful rationalizations.

"The idea of gradual enlightenment is one of the most beautiful rationalizations, and it appeals to the mind because all that mind knows is gradual. The whole language of the mind is the language of time. Whatsoever the mind can do has to be done in time, it needs time.

"But enlightenment does not happen in time. When I say it can happen in a moment, please don't misunderstand me – the moment is not part of time at all! I am saying it can happen immediately; it needs no time at all, not even a single moment is needed."