Whatsoever I am saying is in many ways esoteric. That is why many times I become very confusing to you. Any exoteric teaching is never confusing, it is clearcut. It is just like two plus two equals four, it is always a simple thing. But the esoteric, the inner, the secret, is difficult to understand, because your understanding becomes disturbed with any new knowledge which has to be absorbed.

 

Any knowledge that you know, you can absorb easily. It can become a part of you; you can easily digest it. Anything which is new to you is hard to digest. And no esoteric knowledge can be delivered in mathematical terms. It has to be delivered mystically, it has to be delivered poetically. Then it becomes living. It means many things simultaneously.

 

I have been in contact with many esoteric groups. I have known many persons who are still alive who belong to some group. I have known many keys which were delivered by authentic teachers. But no key of the old tradition is enough, so I am devising new keys. Because I am devising new keys, I am not directly concerned with any esoteric group, as each esoteric group is interested in and is entrusted with a particular key to preserve. I am not interested in a particular key. I am interested in devising new methods, new techniques, new keys, because all the old keys have become in many ways irrelevant.

 

One thing has to be understood, that all these keys were developed in a world which was local, always local. For the first time, we are in a world which is absolutely non-local, universal. Really, for the first time we are in a world. Before, we were always confined to a particular part of the world. All those keys were developed for particular local conditions and cultures. Now, for the first time, the world is, in a way, a mixed-up mess. There is no particular culture, there is no particular conditioning. Everything is mixed up. And soon this is going to be more and more the case. Soon there will be a world citizen with no local background at all -- with a universal background.

 

Before this century ends, we will need -- we are already in need of — keys which are universal. For example, Jesus' key was for a particular Jewish group. This is really an irony of history, that Jesus invented a key, devised a key, for the Jewish mind, and now Jews are against him. And those who follow him are against the Jews. But the key was particularly devised for a Jewish-conditioned mind. As far as I am concerned, Christ can be used more easily with a Jew than with a Christian, because the Christian is just a later outgrowth; Jesus never knew any Christian. He himself was not a Christian, he was a Jew. But this is the irony of our history.

 

Buddha devised a key for a particular mind. Now only in India does that particular mind exist, but his key is nowhere in India. It exists in China, Japan, Ceylon, Burma and Tibet, but not in India. And he devised a key for a particular Hindu mind. He was Hindu born and as a Hindu he died. He never knew any Buddhism. So the key was developed for a Hindu mind. And then, around the key, there develops a sect which goes against Hinduism. Then the key becomes irrelevant. It is not of any use for anyone, except for a particular Hindu mind. But this is the irony of history. It always happens so.

 

So I am struggling and devising keys that are, in a way, universal -- not for a particular localized culture, but for the human mind as such. And soon we will need them, these local keys will not do. Neither will any amalgam do, nor will all these keys put together do. That makes even more nonsense. You are unlocking one lock with so many keys: something from the Koran, something from the Bible, something from Buddha, something from Mahavira. And there are many people with very good wishes, doing much wrong. They talk about the unity of all religions. That is talking about the unity of all keys for opening one lock -- the unity of all keys! One is enough, and too many keys will not enable you to open a lock. One might have opened it, now too many will not.

 

These are all local keys developed in a world which was divided. There was no universal mind. There never has been as far as our so-called knowledge of history is concerned. Sometimes this phenomenon of a universal mind has happened, but that is beyond our civilization, that is beyond our memory. Sometimes this phenomenon of a universal mind has happened previously also, but that has been completely forgotten.

 

For example, I will tell you one or two things. In England, they change the date at midnight. That makes no sense, really. It it absurd, no one will awaken out of his sleep just to change the date. It is illogical, impractical. The date should be changed in the morning -- that is common sense. You always change your calendar in the morning. But why has it been done this way? There is a secret.

 

In India, when it is 5:30 in the morning, it is midnight in England. There was a time, before this civilization, when the Hindu concept ruled over the whole world. Just like when the British Empire was all over the world, Greenwich time was the real time; everyone would refer to it. Now, with the fall of the British Empire, Greenwich time is nearly forgotten. After ten or fifteen thousand years no one will know about it.

 

There was a world before Mahabharat -- a prehistoric Indian war -- when the Hindu mind ruled over the whole world. Whenever it was morning in India, that was the time to change the date. It was midnight in England, so they also changed the calendar date then. That continued.

 

You will be surprised that in England, the parliament made a special act three hundred years ago to begin the year with January 1. Before three hundred years ago, the year was ending with March 25. But what does it mean to end the year with March 25? There is no meaning in it. But that was the day in which the Indian year ended. On March 25 the Indian year ends, and that was so all over the world. They had to make a special act to change it.

 

The word `December' means the tenth month, but it is the twelfth. December comes from dush -- ten in Sanskrit. But why is it the twelfth month? It is the tenth in the Indian year. The old tradition had continued; their calendar was derived from India.

 

The last week of December is known all over the world as Xmas. X is Roman for ten, and mas in Sanskrit means month. Xmas means the tenth month, it means December. But why? December should not be the tenth month. But it has been tenth in the Indian calendar, before Mahabharat happened, about five thousand years ago.

 

In Mahabharat, which also means a prehistorical Indian scripture, we have a story that Arjuna was married to a Mexican girl. The Sanskrit word maxika became Mexico. And in Mexico, the civilization that existed has so many Hindu symbols that you cannot help but say that it was a Hindu civilization. The whole of the Mexican civilization was Hindu -- Hindu temples, Hindu gods. Even the deity Ganesh was found there, but now it is almost as if it never was.

 

We have come again to a universal world in which Arjuna can marry a Mexican girl. Soon again there will be no localized cultures. For this unfocused culture we have to devise new, more liquid keys -- less solid and more liquid, which can be used with so many locks.

 

I have known so many esoteric groups -- in this life and before. I have been in contact with many esoteric groups, but I cannot tell you their whereabouts. I cannot tell you their names, because that is not permitted, and it is of no use really. But I can tell you that they still exist, they still try to help.

 

Some groups are still very alive -- for example, Ashoka's group. If Ashoka has done something more meaningful than any emperor has done anywhere in the world, it was creating this esoteric group of nine. Akbar tried to imitate Ashoka in many ways. He made a group of nine, but it was meaningless. They were just courtiers -- Nava Ratna, the Nine Jewels of Akbar. But they were just imitation jewels -- exoteric. Someone was a poet, someone was a warrior, and that makes no sense. But Akbar knew from somewhere that Ashoka had a group of nine wise persons, so he made a group of nine jewels. He did not know everything about Ashoka's group.

 

The Ashoka group has persisted for two thousand years. It is still alive with the key, still working. The whole theosophical movement was initiated by this group. That is why in theosophy Buddha became the suprememost person. And the whole theosophy, in a way, was Buddhist or Hindu. That is why in Western countries it was thought that it was an Eastern effort to convert the West -- that it was just Hinduism working in a new garb. This is true in a sense, because the initiator group was a Buddhist group.

 

You can also be in contact with some esoteric group. There are techniques and methods. But then you will have to do much work upon yourself. As you are, you can never be in contact. You will just pass by an esoteric circle, but you will not even be able to detect it. You will have to change yourself, tune yourself, for new dimensions, for new vibrations to be felt; you will have to be sensitive.

 

Then you will not ask me, "Have you been in contact with an esoteric group?" You will know just by sitting near me, you will know just by looking into my eyes. You will feel just by hearing my words, or even by hearing my silence. You will understand. But that will come only if you change yourself, attune yourself, for the new reality -- if you open yourself for new dimensions.

 

Esoteric groups are and always have been there. Only you are closed -- closed in thought, closed in thinking, closed within yourself -- no opening, no window, no door. The sky is there -- just open the window, and you will know the sky and the stars. Howsoever far off they may be, just by opening your window, which is so near, you come in contact with far-off stars. In a way, it is illogical. By opening such a near window, how can you come in contact with far-off stars? If I tell you, "Open this window behind you and then you will come in contact with the whole universe," you will say, "It is absurd. Just by opening this window which is so near, how can I be in contact with what is so far?" But it is so. Open a window in your mind, make a meditative window, and you will be in contact with so many far-off lights, with so many happenings which are always around.

 

Just around the corner, just around you, everything is happening. But you are blind or asleep or just unaware. I am here; you cannot conceive of what is happening here. You cannot conceive of it!

 

-Osho, "I Am the Gate, #8, Q1"