This is an enlighten story from Buddha’s life.
On a fine morning, Buddha visited a village and someone asked, ”Is there God?” And Buddha said, ”No, there is no God.” By midday, another person came to him and said, ”I think there is no God. What have you to say to it?” And Buddha answered, ”God is.” In the evening a third person said to him, ”I don’t know if God is or is not. What do you say?” To him, Buddha said, ”Better keep quiet; say neither yes nor no.”
Buddha’s disciple, who accompanied him on his tour, was flabbergasted when he heard his master’s three different answers to a simple question. So before going to bed in the night, he told Buddha, ”I was so astounded by your answers that it seems I will go mad. In answer to the same question whether God is or is not you said ’no’ in the morning, ’yes’ in the noon, and ’neither yes nor no’ in the evening.”
Buddha said to him, ”None of the answers were given to you; they were addressed to the persons concerned, those who had put their questions. They had nothing to do with you. Why did you hear them? How could I have answered you when you had not asked the questions? The day you will bring your question you will have the answer, too.” The disciple said, ”But nonetheless I have heard the answer.”
Buddha then said, ”Those answers were meant for others, and they were according to their different needs. The one who saw me in the morning was a believer, a theist, and he wanted that I should confirm his belief. He does not know whether or not there is God. He just wanted to satisfy his ego that I should also support his belief. He came to have my support, my confirmation. Therefore I said, ’No, there is no God.’ Thus I shook him to his roots. He did not know God; if he really knew he would not have come to me. He who knows does not seek confirmation of his knowledge. Even if the whole world denies God, he will say, ’God is; the question of denial simply does not arise.’ But this person is still inquiring, searching; he does not know on his own. That is why I had to say no to him. Actually, he had stopped searching, and I had to give him a jolt so that he begins searching again. The man who came to me in the noon was a non-believer, an atheist; he believed that there is no God. To him, I said, ’God is.’ He, too, had stopped searching; he also wanted that I should confirm his atheistic belief. But the one who came in the evening was neither a theist nor an atheist. So it was not proper to bind him with any belief because of both yes and no bind. So I told him that if he wanted the true answer, he would better keep quiet and say neither yes nor no. And as far as you are concerned, the question does not arise, because you have yet to ask your question.”
