Forever wakeful, they mind the law.

[Guest guest]

The devotees of a master, of an awakened one, are continuously wakeful and they

are continuously making every possible human effort to be in tune with the

universe, not to fall out of step with the universe -- because that is what

misery is.

 

To be in tune, to be harmonious with the universe, is bliss, is joy, is music,

is poetry. You start blooming the moment you are in tune with the whole.

Whenever you are not in tune with the whole, something goes berserk in you. Then

the whole no more nourishes you; then you are no more rooted in the whole. Then

you become an uprooted tree, then you are undernourished. Then your green

foliage starts disappearing. Then flowers can't happen to you, because flowers

are possible only when you are overflooded with joy, overflowing with joy.

 

They know their brothers on the way.

 

The real devotees are so awake that they immediately, intuitively recognize

anybody who has the same quality -- the brothers on the way. A sannyasin, if

really meditative, will immediately know another sannyasin. This is not an

intellectual understanding -- not that he infers that this must be a sannyasin

-- but a simple intuitive feeling. Something strikes him deep down in his being.

Something so similar is there present in the other person that he knows without

any mental effort and exercise. He knows through the heart that the other is

also on the way.

 

How do you recognize a man when he is awake? And how do you recognize a man when

he is asleep? Sleepers cannot recognize other sleepers and sleepers cannot

recognize that somebody is awake, that is true. But if you are awake you know

who is asleep and who is awake. Exactly in the same way, on a higher plane, it

happens again: the people who have a little bit of awareness immediately become

aware of the brothers on the way.

 

That's how the commune arises, through this recognition. A commune is not a

church. A commune is not an organization. A commune is not based on a dogma, on

a creed. The commune grows out of this intuitive recognition that the other is

also in tune with the whole. You can hear the music! You can hear something

which cannot be heard by the outer ears. Something immediately rings a bell in

your heart. It is a mysterious phenomenon.

 

Buddha says: they know their brothers on the way. Wherever you will find anybody

who is meditative, out of your meditation you will be able to recognize him.

 

Every commune has arisen in this way. Of course, every commune has fallen and

become a religion finally. That's the way of the world. Once the master is gone,

the commune slowly slowly, starts losing its quality of awareness, it becomes

more and more formal. When the first disciples have also disappeared it is no

more a heart phenomenon, it becomes a head phenomenon. When the second line of

disciples has also disappeared, it is only because of your birth that you are a

Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. Then you are following a dead path which

leads nowhere.