Edison was such a prominent scientist, such a great teacher, that nobody ever referred to him by name. His parents died early and he was so involved in his work that he had no friends. All that he had were scientists who were studying under him. Obviously they could not call him by his name, Edison. They all called him `Professor'.
Slowly slowly he himself forgot what his name was. If for fifty years nobody uses your name and then suddenly somebody calls you by your name, it is possible you will get a shock. You will feel that somehow you remember this fellow ... a memory, a faraway echo in the mountains. But ordinarily this does not happen because every day you are reminded of your name.
It was a special case with Edison. His parents died early, and he was a genius from his very childhood. He alone was capable of inventing one thousand things which had never existed in the world. You will not be able to find anything around you on which there is not Edison's signature.
In the first world war the ration card was for the first time introduced, and everybody had to go to the office to register. Obviously every office where names were registered was crowded, people were standing in queues. Edison also stood in a queue. When the man standing ahead of him gave all the information and got his ration card and went away, the clerk looking at the list called the name loudly, "Will Mr. Edison come up now?" And Edison looked here and there. He could not remember ... there was a certain memory that he used to know a fellow of the name Edison, but not for fifty years had anybody called him by his name.
A man in the queue recognized that the fellow standing in front was the famous Edison, and he was looking here and there. The man said, "The one you are looking for, you are. Have you forgotten your name, Professor?"
He said, "My God, it is good that you reminded me, otherwise I would have lost my ration card. I was trying hard to remember; the name seems to be familiar, but I could not connect it with myself. For fifty years people have been calling me `Professor', `Doctor', but nobody has ... because I don't have any friends, I don't have my parents."
Buddhahood is nothing but another name of your basic nature, your essential nature. And nobody has ever pointed it out to you. On the contrary, everybody has been sticking names, degrees ... creating a personality around you, and slowly slowly you start accepting it.