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your inner emptiness remains as it was before.
So there are ignorant but very knowledgeable people in the world, and the vice versa is also true: there are people who are tremendously wise without any knowledge at all. So there is a kind of knowing ignorance -- wisdom; and also an ignorant knowing -- knowledge.
The man who lives in the heart is ignorant in the sense that he does not know anything from the outside. His ignorance is a kind of innocence, but out of that innocence something grows. Because it is yours, it transforms you, and because it is yours it cannot be taken away from you; not even death will be able to defeat it.
Prem means love, bhakta means devotion, a devotee. There are three stages for the seeker. One is the stage of the student: his approach is intellectual, that of curiosity, he wants to collect information. He can only find teachers, he will never find a master. His search is for a teacher who can teach him, not for a master who can transmute him. His search is for a teacher because he thinks that truth can be taught. Truth cannot be taught, it can only be caught; it is like an infection. It is not a question of the master telling you what it is. It is getting in a deep communion with the master, falling en rapport with the master. Then something is transferred -- not verbally, not visibly, but something is certainly transferred, and that transmission beyond scriptures is the beginning of a new life. But that cannot happen to the student; he is not longing for it in the first place.
The second stage is that of a disciple; it is higher than the student. He wants to be transformed. He is not in search of information but in search of transformation. He will look for a master. He will not be interested in, or satisfied with, teachers, he will not be satisfied with scriptures; he will need a living phenomenon so he can participate. But the disciple, although he surrenders, still he remains. His surrender is still his surrender. It is his will, it is his decision to surrender; and when it is your will, you can cancel it any moment, you can withdraw. The disciple can leave the master. It is the disciple's choice to be
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