The master came storming into the palace. So serious was his mien that none of the guards dared stop him. He came upon the throne room and faced the king.
“What is it you want?” said the king.
“I need a place to sleep in this inn,” replied the master.
“This is no inn,” replied the king. “This is my palace.”
“Who owned this palace before you?” asked the master.
“Why, my father, of course, who was king before I was,” replied the king.
“And before that?” asked the master again.
“Well, that would be my grandfather, my father’s father.” replied the king.
“I see,” said the master. “And this place where people stay for a while and then move on, did I hear you say it was not an inn?”
A man approached the master and asked, “Is there a God?”
“Of course,” said the Master.
A year later, the man came again and asked the same question.
“No, I don’t think so,” said the Master.
Yet another year later, the man came and asked the question once more.
The master did not answer but simply smiled.
Then the man said, “At last, I have caught you. You are a charlatan. For three years I have asked you the same question. You probably have not remembered but you once answered ‘yes’ and at another time, ‘no’, and now you simply smile and say nothing. If you really knew the truth, you would not have kept changing your answers.”
The master then led the man to a river and asked, “Look at the river, my friend. This river is not the same river as it was last year. It is not even the same river that it was a moment ago. It is ever-flowing, ever-moving, ever-changing.”
“When I give you an answer, I am not answering your question. I am answering YOU. In a year’s time, many things have happened and you have changed. The way you look at things have changed. The way you think has changed. The way you understand has changed. I, too, have changed much in this time. That is why I cannot keep on giving you the same answer every year. The nature of the question changes because the nature of the questioner has changed. The answer changes because the nature of the one answering has changed.”
“Remember, I am not a piece of dead scripture that you can open and expect to read the same thing every time.”
