With a true master, things are never settled. It is always a beautiful chaos! The moment the disciple wants to settle, the master immediately unsettles. The master is always on the move…the new commune. And remember, even in the new commune I will go on talking about another new commune – it is not going to stop. We are not going to stop anywhere. So don’t think even for a single moment that once the new commune is established you will be relieved, you will take a deep sigh of relief: “Finally it has happened!” No, with a real master, anything final is not possible, nothing happens finally. It is always happening, it goes on happening. It is a constant process. It is not an event, it is a process, it is a movement, so nothing is ever established.
The disciple would like it, hence the question. The desire of the disciple is to come to a settlement, to an established relationship, as soon as possible, but the master cannot allow it. The moment things are settled you are dead – and the communion that transpires between the master and the disciple is always a growth. But our minds work in a totally different way, and what transpires between the disciple and the master is not a mind phenomenon, it is a no-mind phenomenon. The mind always wants establishment.
When Werner Erhard first started his EST it was E.S.T. – Erhard Seminars Training, that was its name. Soon he found that est has a beautiful meaning; it is a root word, it means is, isness, existence. So he dropped E.S.T. and made it EST. Now I would suggest to him to drop that meaning also. Now it is simply the short form for establishment. It has nothing to do with existence but with establishment.
He has been here. When he comes in the second round I am going to tell him, “Now make it clear that it is just a short form of establishment. Now it is no longer in any way rebellious – it is functioning in the service of the establishment.”
Hence the way the EST training happens in California is totally different from the way it happens in Bombay and Delhi. In Bombay it happens according to Indian culture, Indian religion, Indian values. If it happens exactly like it happens in California, the Hindus will be outraged. This is a compromise.
Any revolutionary cannot be ready for any compromise whatsoever, whatsoever the consequences. Compromising with each society, with each pattern, simply means you are now more interested in business, less interested in revolution. That is the way of the mind – the mind always hankers for establishment.
Remember, the mysterious experience that happens between the master and the disciple is never a mind phenomenon; hence there is no possibility of its ever becoming established. The master won’t allow it. If the master allows it, the master is not a master at all; he is only a teacher of a certain tradition – Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Jewish – but he is not a master.
A master belongs to no tradition. A master is basically a rebel. A master is non-compromising. A master is ready to be crucified rather than to be crowned. He will not compromise on any grounds. The teacher simply functions as an agent of the past, and because he functions for the establishment you can have an established relationship with a teacher. With a rabbi, with a priest, with an imam you can have an established relationship, but never with a master.