"The master looks sometimes mad, sometimes irrational, sometimes stubborn. But the only reason that he cannot behave like you, that he cannot be part of the crowd mind, is that he has become awakened and the crowd is fast asleep.

"To understand a master you have to learn great sympathy – only that will create a bridge. That's what the relationship of a disciple to the master is. You can listen to a master without being a disciple. You will hear the words but you will miss the meaning. You will hear the song but you will miss the music. You will hear the argument but you will miss the conclusion. You will know what he is saying but you will not be able to see where he is indicating.

"To understand the significance – which is wordless – to understand the meaning, a totally different kind of relationship is needed. It is not that of a speaker and the audience: it is that of two lovers. It has to be a love affair; then only is there sympathy enough to have a bridge, to have communication.

"And once the sympathy is there, it is not very far away from empathy. Sympathy can be transformed into empathy very easily; in fact, it changes into empathy of its own accord. Just as you sow seeds and in the right time they sprout and the spring comes and there are many flowers, sow the seeds of sympathy – that is, initiation into disciplehood – then soon there will be flowers of empathy.

"In sympathy there is still a little distance. You can hear – you can hear a little better than before, you can understand more clearly than before – but still things are in a state of vagueness: more clear than before but not absolutely clear yet; in a state of twilight. The night is no more but the sun has not risen yet and it is very misty. You can see but can't decipher things accurately.

"Empathy means now there is no distance any more. Now the disciple is drowned in the master – he has become a devotee. Now the master is drowned in the disciple; they are not separate entities any more."