"Really, you fall in love with the master, and nothing is wrong in that. And when you fall in love with the master you start worshipping. But the master takes it only as a game. If he is also interested in it and takes it seriously or significantly, then he is not a master at all. To him it is just a game – but a good game, because it can help the disciple.

"How will it help the disciple? The more the disciple worships the master, the nearer he will come to him, the more intimate he will become, the more he will be surrendered, receptive, passive. And the more he is passive, receptive, surrendered, the more he can understand what the master is trying to do. And when the intimacy comes to the last point, when only an inch separates, when just a minute separation remains, when the intimacy has become so deep that now the master can lead the disciple toward himself, then the master can help the disciple to become free from him.

"In the beginning it is impossible. You will not understand if the master starts trying to free you from himself – you will not be able to understand. In the beginning you need someone to lean upon, in the beginning you need someone to depend upon; in the beginning you need someone to whom you can be a total slave. This is an inner need. And you cannot be made a master from the very beginning; the beginning will be a sort of spiritual dependence.

"But if the master also feels satisfied that you are depending on him, then he is not a master. He is harmful, he is dangerous; he doesn't know anything at all. If he also feels gratified, then this dependence is mutual. You depend on him, he depends on you. And if the master depends on you in any way, he cannot be of any help. But if he rejects you from the very beginning there will be no intimacy. If there is no intimacy, the final step cannot be taken.

"When you trust your master so much that if he says, 'Leave me,' you can leave him, only then will you be able to be freed."