Once it happened, I was staying in a house and I told the friend with whom I was staying that people are imitators.
He said, "All?" I said, "All." He said, "Then give me a demonstration." I said, "You wait."
I told him, "When the next person comes to see me, the moment he enters, you touch my feet, put a hundred-rupee note at my feet."
And it happened: when the next people came to see me -- three people came to see me together -- he immediately touched my feet and left a hundred-rupee note there, and all three touched my feet and left hundred-rupee notes immediately!
I said, "What do you say now? And these are the people who have been coming to see me for years, and not even a single paisa -- and suddenly hundred-rupee notes!"
I asked them, "Why did you do this?"
They said, "Why? -- because we thought maybe this is what we have to do. If it is being done, then it must be done."
People are imitators. In temples and mosques, in churches, you will find them bowing down. Somebody is bowing down to a cross -- why? Can you really answer why you go on bowing down to the cross? -- because your parents have been doing it. And ask the parents, Why? -- because their parents have been doing it, and so on and so forth. People simply imitate. Imitation is easy, it remains on the surface. It is not a commitment, commitment goes to the heart.
-Rajneesh
