The story is tremendously beautiful. It tells a very basic truth about man: wherever you go, you will always find yourself; wherever you look, you will always encounter yourself. The whole world is nothing but a mirror, and all relationships are mirrors. Again and again you encounter yourself – and again and again you misunderstand. You never realize the point, that it is your own face that you have looked at, that it is your own mood that you have come across.

Why have I started with this story of Aesop? – for a very basic reason. You can recognize Jesus only if you have recognized something of the beyond within yourself; otherwise not. You can recognize Buddha only if a part of you has become like Buddha; otherwise you cannot recognize. You cannot recognize that which has not happened to you.

If you are dark, only darkness can be recognized. If you are light, then you become capable of recognizing light. Your eyes can see light because they are part of the sun, because something within you has become of the nature of light. A deep transformation has happened within you. Only then is it possible to recognize a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Mohammed. Otherwise you will misunderstand them; you will think that you have understood them. It will be nothing but your own reflection, it will be nothing but your own echoes. It is your own voice that you have heard coming from them; it is your own face that you have looked at in their mirror.

So before you can understand Jesus, you have to understand yourself. Before you can have the vision that Jesus has something, at least something of the same vision has to be allowed within you.

These sutras are very significant.

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Phillipi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?”

Why did he ask this? The people were saying all sorts of things about him. People have always been gossiping. They feed on rumors and they go on expressing their opinions without knowing what they are doing.

Have you watched the same tendency in yourself? If you watch and observe, it will drop, and it is one of the basic requirements. If ever you want to know truth, you have to drop all gossiping. If you want to know what truth is, you have to stop making opinions without knowing anything. It is such a foolish attitude. You don’t know anything about yourself, but if you come across a Jesus, you immediately create an opinion about him. Have you ever thought about it – about what you are doing? You go on judging, not knowing anything even about yourself, which is the nearest point of consciousness to you. Who is more close to you than yourself? – and you have not known even that.

Jesus is far away from you. Stop rumoring, because those rumors will cloud your eyes; those rumors, those opinions, will destroy your perception, your clarity.

Why does Jesus ask what people are saying about him? Whenever a man like Jesus happens, the whole world is agog with rumors. People go on talking about him. Sometimes I have come across people….