Yes, there was a screen: alchemists pretended that they were trying to make gold out of base metals. This people can understand; gold they understand immediately. And if these people are trying to make gold out of baser metals, they are ready to support, to do anything for these people.

Never was any gold made out of base metals. It was just a pretense. They had tubes and bottles and lamps and the whole paraphernalia – it looked as if it was a scientific lab, but that was just in the front of the school. Behind that facade the real alchemy was going on.

Those were mystery schools, and certainly they were not cheating anybody. They were trying to transform the base metal in you into gold – but that was metaphorical language. And they had to do that; otherwise, Christianity was there to kill all these people, because religion was Christianity’s monopoly.

How do you dare! All that you are expected to do is to believe in Jesus Christ. What is the need of a mystery school and a search inwards? Jesus has given you all that is needed. You simply believe in him. He is the savior, and on the last day, the judgment day, he will choose his sheep and save them. So all that is needed is simple faith, belief. Why go through all this arduous journey, when a shortcut is available?

Alchemists knew that nobody can save you. There is no savior, and there has never been any savior, and there will never be any savior. You can save yourself or not – it is absolutely an individual freedom and responsibility. But for that a certain school is needed.

My only fault is that I thought, “This is the twentieth century and man has become more cultured, more civilized; we are not living in the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages” – and I created this mystery school without any facade.

But somebody has to bring it into the open, because there are millions of people who want to be seekers, who don’t want to be believers. They need to know that they are not alone, that there are millions of other people around the world who are working on the same lines, that there are people who have arrived, reached, found the ultimate source of life.

But the mob will never understand you. There is no need to bother about the mob. Don’t waste your time about others understanding you. You put your whole energy into understanding yourself. The mob has remained always in the Dark Ages, and it seems it is determined to remain always in the Dark Ages. It is their freedom and their choice. Let them remain whatever, wherever, they want to be. Don’t be bothered whether they understand you or not.

You put your total energy – because your own inner work needs your totality, and life is short, and nobody knows about tomorrow. So not even a single moment has to be lost in unnecessary worries.