We don’t have any clergymen. It is not a religion, so these titles are not to make priests, these titles are simply indicating your states. A Siddha is one who has experienced deep meditation – just one step more and he will become enlightened. But then that one step is the most difficult, because even without becoming enlightened, one feels so blissful in this deep meditative state that one cannot imagine there can be more. This is the difficulty. One cannot conceive that there is any possibility of any more bliss, so what is the point of going anywhere? Now sit down and rest.

Siddha is a special category, because he never speaks. He never says what he has attained. He keeps it to himself. He cannot find any words to convey, he cannot find any people to convey, he is not articulate. He is a tremendously beautiful person, but just like a statue. He does not share. He does not know how to share. That is a different quality.

If you know how to share, then when you come to this moment you will know how to share this experience, too. But if you have never shared anything, then this experience is so great that one feels simply dumb, as if everything has stopped – time, breathing, heartbeat.

We give a separate name to Siddha, because he is as capable as others, but he is not articulate. Only eighty-four siddhas are known in the whole history. There may have been thousands. Why were these eighty-four known? Because they happened to be disciples of some enlightened person who declared them as siddhas. Otherwise they would have died unknown. Many have died unknown. They have never written anything, there is no writing of any siddha. They have not created anything, but they are as valuable as anyone else.

The second category is arihanta. He is also in the same state as siddha – just one step more – but he is articulate. In fact, he is too articulate, just the opposite of siddha. He is so articulate that he completely forgets that his journey is not yet complete. He becomes interested in teaching, in propagating, in writing. He is so overflowing with experience that he wants to share it, and in this sharing he forgets that one step is still to be taken. So these are the two polarities, the siddha and the arihanta.

The third category is the acharya, which is a very balanced category between the two. He knows how to be silent and he knows how to be expressive. He is the most important of the three, although all are in the same state. But he is the only one who is aware that his journey is not complete, that he has yet to go a little more. So he continues going in. He speaks, he explains, he shares, he remains silent. Whatever the situation demands, he does it. He is capable of being a siddha, he is capable of being an arihanta, and he is capable of one thing more: because of his balanced attitude, he is aware that there is still a little gap before he becomes enlightened.

These three titles you can lose, because none of the three is yet enlightened.

The Academy’s purpose is initiation into sannyas, then initiation into different mysteries of life – meditation, reincarnation – making people clear where they are, and also making them clear that there is still some journey left. What you have attained is great, but it is not the end. Even something greater is waiting for you.