You have heard the story of the naked king, right? The king was fooled by some cloth makers. They said, “We are weaving you and stitching you the most fantastic dress of all time. And he paid them a lavish sum. They came and they decorated him with the dress, and the dress was not there at all, but who dares to say that? Even the king will not dare say that because the cloth makers were clever enough to establish that only those with evolved minds and high IQs will be able to look at the dress. Now, even the king does not dare to say that he cannot find any dress upon himself. Having worn the dress, he is advised now to display himself to the public. So, a procession is taken out. And the king is standing like a king—regally; well, all naked! And the entire population, huge swathes, teeming waves of people upon people, so much public—they are all overjoyed. One fellow says, “Do you look at how beautifully the red contrasts with the blue.” The other one says, “Yes, yes that is obvious, but I am amazed at how the diamonds are sparkling on the shoulder.” And the lady says, “These threads, well, are they gold or silver?” Now, this is going on, and no one is talking of the obvious. The obvious is the king's fat and naked body. No one is saying, “How big that tummy is. How ugly is the groin and the testicles.” No one is talking of the obvious. People are referring to the imaginary. Can you see the king? Must be a very fat and ugly king. Even when he is displaying himself, he has put one leg up on the pedestal, so as to look more royal. And all his ornaments are hanging about him, and no one is talking about that. Until one little kid says, “What is that! What is that! (laughing) Is that what mamma calls as naked?” Even the kids, so many of them, would have looked at the king and wondered, “Look at this, look at that, all his dangling stuff”, but even the kids did not dare to whisper. One kid said, “Isn’t the king naked?”, and then the others had no option left. The broken glass had now been shattered. He didn’t break the glass; he just shattered it. It was easy to shatter, because it was already broken.
