Andreas, I never asked anybody any such question. To ask the question is to search for guidance, is to seek for guidance. A question is always a need for an answer from somebody else. If you have questions to ask, you will have to choose a master.

A master is one who is ready to answer you. A disciple is one who is not only asking from curiosity but is ready to stake his whole being on his questioning, is ready to transform his life according to the answer given. If you really ask the question you have already become a disciple. That is the meaning of being a disciple: to ask.

Jesus says, “Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Seek and ye shall find.”

“Ask and it shall be given unto you….” Asking is the beginning of disciplehood. And unless you are a disciple, the master will not take much note of you, because many come just as curiosity seekers – out of curiosity but not really ready to inquire. Inquiry needs commitment, inquiry needs involvement, inquiry is risky, dangerous. It is not only intellectual, it is existential. So if you really want to ask, remember – let me make you alert – you are already becoming a disciple. And if you think that to choose a master is to prevent one’s enlightenment, please don’t ask questions.

And I was surprised, because Andreas has asked at least seven questions today. The largest number of questions is from him.

Secondly, you say, “You had no Master.” That is true, I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple. I accepted the whole existence as my master. It needs more courage to accept the whole existence as your master. If you cannot accept even a single man as your master, how can you accept the whole existence as your master – the trees and rocks and the rivers and the clouds? If you cannot love a single human being, how can you love the whole? It is true I had no master, but that does not mean that I was not a disciple. My disciplehood was a greater involvement than your disciplehood is. I trusted the clouds – which is very difficult. I trusted the trees – which is almost impossible. I trusted existence as such. If that is possible then you need not have any master in particular, because then everything is your master.

When a great Sufi mystic, Hassan, was dying, somebody asked, “Hassan, who was your Master?”

He said, “Now it is too late to ask. Time is short, I am dying.”

But the inquirer asked, “You can simply say the name. You are still alive, you are still breathing and talking, you can simply tell me the name.”

He said, “It will be difficult because I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months and years. It is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about.