For a long time, nobody uttered a word. Confucius caressed his beard and Einstein his hair. A cockroach moved swiftly from one wall to another. Gandhi broke the silence. He asked Einstein: �€œYou were a great scientist. Can you please explain how this silly cockroach managed to survive when the intelligent human race destroyed itself along with all other species?�€

Einstein asked Gandhi: �€œIf the cockroach has survived and human beings are finished, who was silly and who was intelligent?�€

Confucius patted Einstein on his back: �€œListen, Al, if I may, since you were younger than me by almost 2500 years. Our species was undoubtedly the most intelligent but least wise. I tried to explain that each one of us was a part of the whole and should behave accordingly but I was ignored. Later on, several of us had acquired an outstanding expertise in converting constructive science into destructive weapons, freedom into monopoly, and justice into revenge. Remember Al, how they managed to use your theories of relativity for the production of a deadly weapon. And you, Mohandas, don�€™t you know how they managed to use your concept of freedom to make new structures to shackle the poor.�€

Gandhi protested: �€œI agree but don�€™t blame the whole humanity for the folly of a bunch of rulers.�€

Confucius said: �€œWell, well, well. The rulers were not in fact as crooked as you think. They were simply more stupid than the rest. Merchants and entrepreneurs fooled them with temptations. The self declared men of religion offered blessings in return for land and gold. Scientists enticed them with promises to make nations great by creating more and more deadly weapons. Of course, Al, all scientists were not of the same league. But there were several who forgot that science without a philosophical premise was like sex without love. And Mohandas, your last man and woman watched all this quietly and participated in their own loot by the conspiracy of silence and sycophancy. You tried your best but it was no use. They made your statues around the world and forgot all about truth and non-violence.�€

Gandhi asked Confucius: �€œWhy did they have to make my statues?�€

Einstein intervened: �€œThat is pretty simple. I was around after you were gone. Those who believed in falsehood as their anthem of life thought that they could fool you by worshiping you.�€

Gandhi seemed surprised. �€œI was not there. They did not need to fool me.�€

Einstein said: �€œIt is basic science. Only those who could think had the ability to know�€“ including knowing whether you were there or not. Those who lived and ruled by total falsehood were incapable of thinking. As those could not think did not know anything. They were just running from here to there like the cockroach on this floor.�€

Confucius said: �€œThe cockroach runs to survive. So, it has survived. The bosses of our race ran in the pursuit of greed and more greed. So, greed devoured them and all other human beings.�€ He looked outside and asked the other two. �€œWhat are these huge structures? In my time, we had cottages and small palaces.�€

Einstein said: �€œIn my time, there were tall and big buildings but not so huge. However, I had seen the beginning of mad race. A new concept of greatness was taking birth just about the time I left the earth.  I could see the coming greatness of nations, greatness of buildings, greatness of weapons, greatness of corporations, and even greatness of dams.�€

Gandhi said: �€œI thought it was greatness of damn stupidity.�€

Confucius asked: �€œSo, Mohandas, do you finally agree that human beings were really more stupid than cockroaches? The irony was that our stupidity was hidden in our greatness. It was the failure to understand the real meaning of greatness that emboldened them to flout your second rule and gradually live and rule by violence.�€

Gandhi commented: �€œIt is Einstein�€™s fault. He should not have invented the famous equation that revealed that mass could be converted into energy.�€

Einstein said: �€œFirst of all, my theories of relativity were only the second most significant message I conveyed to fellow human beings. They did not build my statues but treated me as a hero. However, they didn�€™t care to listen to the most important message I had for them.�€

Confucius and Gandhi exclaimed: �€œMore important than your two theories of relativity?�€

Einstein said: �€œYes, indeed. I had warned them all that humanity would not survive unless people changed their basic approach to thinking. But nobody listened. What happened later was inevitable. By the way, the end had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. A hundred years after I left, they had become obsolete. Human greed and ambition had learnt the art of creating new germs, hybrid life, laser rays, satellite killers and killer satellites. When the time came, the pinnacle of human intelligence was placed at the service of stupidity. It took only a few hours to destroy atmosphere of the earth. What remains now are a few huge structures as testament to the folly of the shortest lived species on the earth. And, of course, the cockroaches remain as they had practised the art of survival for millions of years.�€

Then they suddenly saw a fly on the wall.

Confucius and Gandhi asked Einstein: �€œActually, a fly seems to have survived. Can you, dear Albert, manipulate the speed of light and move the earth back in time? Maybe the fly can explain what would happen in the future if the humble pleas of all three of us were ignored.�€

Einstein resisted for a long time and finally relented. As they all disappeared, he murmured: �€œA human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest �€“ a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

The cockroach again moved swiftly from one wall to another.