The people are substitutes
An actress who had received a magnificent diamond necklace as a gift from her admirer -- one of those Greek shipping magnates -- hit upon what she thought was a foolproof device for safeguarding it. She simply left it conspicuously open on her dressing table when she went out, with a note nearby reading,"This is just an imitation, dear burglar. The original is stashed carefully away in my safe-deposit box."
One night, however, she returned to find the necklace gone. In its place was this penciled message: "Thanks, lady -- the substitute is just what I wanted. I am a substitute myself. The burglar who usually cases this hotel is away on vacation."

The people you see in the marketplace are substitutes, and the people you see in your monasteries and ashramas and temples, they are also substitutes. Nobody seems to be real and authentic. It is very difficult to come across a real man. The world has become so false. And why has it become so false? Because we are trying to do something which is not possible. What we are trying to do is: we are trying to be happy by pretending happiness, we are trying to be loving by pretending lovingness, we are trying to be holy by pretending holiness. We are trying to paint our faces and wear masks -- to know our original face. This is impossible. This is more impossible than this story:

A very ugly girl was sitting at the beach, when the waves washed a bottle at her feet. She opened it -- and out blew a huge genie in a billow of smoke. "I have been a prisoner in this bottle for five thousand years," cried the genie, "and now you have freed me. As a reward, I will fulfill any wish you make." Ecstatic, the ugly girl announced, "I want a figure like Sophia Loren, a face like Elizabeth Taylor, and legs like Ginger Rogers." The genie looked her over carefully, then sighed, "Baby, just put me back in the bottle."

But this may be impossible, but humanity has been trying to do the even more impossible. The most impossible thing is to come to the real through the false, to come to the authentic through the pseudo. It is impossible. It cannot be done. And down through the centuries humanity has tried to do it. And your so-called religions have been helping people to become more and more false. The whole world is full of false people.