... that it is going to commit global hara-kiri. It seems war has become our way of life, and the mounting number of wars are nothing but our mounting steps to collective death and destruction. And this destruction is the cumulative effect of mankind's choice of suffering. Really, war is of our own choosing, it does not descend out of the blue. And when we court suffering religiously, when we accept it...

... flowers wither - who knows if new flowers will open the next morning? The Japanese don't have even this much hope and patience in their hearts. So the last two world wars were fought by peoples who have been traditionally associated with the cross and the custom of hara-kiri. If the Third World War happens, it will spell the destruction of mankind; it will be a case of collective crucifixion of the...

... came to Jesus because they were influenced by the cross. But it is undeniably true that a civilization based on crossianism, on sado-masochism, was destined to lead mankind to self-destruction. Actually there is no sense in accepting the cross and worshipping it. Even if life bears a cross, it is in our hands to replace the cross with a flower. In my view, Krishna's flute is exactly the opposite of...

..., and he will fight for it if need be. If the great values of life - without which life would cease to be life - are in peril, Krishna will not hesitate to defend them with missiles. Not that he relishes violence or war, but if it becomes unavoidable he will not shirk the responsibility. That is why, from the beginning, he does everything to avoid the Mahabharat. He leaves no stone unturned to avert...

... war and save life and peace. But when all his efforts for peace fail, he realizes that the recalcitrant forces of death and destruction - forces that are against righteousness and religion - are not amenable to an honorable peace. He readies himself to fight on behalf of life and religion. As I see it, life and religion are not two different things for Krishna. And therefore he can fight as...

... MATERIALLY RICH BEFORE THEIR SPIRITUAL POVERTY AGAIN BECOMES EVIDENT? BUT THE BURDEN OF THE WEST ALREADY LIES HEAVY ON THE WORLD: THE ATOMIC BOMB; VIOLENCE THROUGH FRUSTRATION; THE AUTO-MATIZATION OF THE SOUL; THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS AND THE POLLUTION OF THE AIR AND SEA SO THAT IT IS UNCERTAIN WHETHER THE ENVIRONMENT CAN MAINTAIN ITS DELICATE BALANCE. CAN THE WORLD SUPPORT ANOTHER WEST? Ruparahi...

... your victory - nobody will be there. War is not going to happen. The Third World War is not going to happen, and it will not be because of Buddha and Christ and their teachings of non-violence and love, no! It will be because of the atom bomb. Because death is absolute now, suicide will be complete. Not only will man be destroyed, but birds, animals, trees, all life will be destroyed on earth. This...

... is the only possibility of dropping war forever. We have become too efficient in killing; now killing can be allowed no more. Think this way and you will be surprised - then the future is bleak no more. You say, "... violence through frustration." That's true. Whenever one feels frustrated... and the world is feeling frustrated, particularly the West. Frustration comes as a shadow of...

... machine. But now it will not need any intelligence at all; it will be so obvious that man is a machine. And you say, "... the destruction of the forests and the pollution of the air and sea so that it is uncertain whether the environment can maintain its delicate balance. Can the world support another West?" That is one of the most beautiful things about science and technology: it creates...

... each pyramid was made in such a way that millions of people died in making it. That was the only way to make it. All the beautiful palaces of the world, and the forts.... Much violence has happened, only then could they be made. The Great Wall of China - millions of people died in making it. They were forced, generations of people were forced, to just make this China Wall. Now people go and see it...

... give birth to a star, it has to be welcomed. Order, system, is not always good, is not always beneficial. Disorder is not always harmful. One has to look into each case to determine it. It depends. If destruction is the goal, then destruction is violence. It is ugly. If creation is the goal, then who has eVer been able to create anything without destruction? You have to be destroyed. And that's my...

... can disappear too. Anything that is, is going towards annihilation. The tree was there yesterday, now it is gone. The flower was there in the morning; in the evening it has gone, withered away. The child was alive and now the child is dead. Everywhere you see that birth is continuously followed by death. - Existence is surrounded by non-existence. Life seems to be always provoking death - they seem...

... ready to die because it is a false artefact, it is a pseudo phenomenon. And to keep it alive you will have to keep pushing the river. So first conflict, struggle, violence, aggression, are needed for the ego to exist. They are the fuel, the food for it. But they create misery. And the greater misery comes when ego has been created - then fear arises, the fear of death. So the ego simply suffers. The...

... succeeded because of them! So each revolution turns to counter-revolution because the people who had brought them into power are more dangerous people. Try to understand. The mind of a revolutionary is a destructive mind: he knows how to destroy, he does not know how to create. He is very capable of provoking people into violence, but he is absolutely incapable of helping people to become calm and quiet...

... take to destroy it? Just take a bulldozer and within a day the land will be flat. To destroy is very easy, so people become very interested in destruction; they think this is a shortcut. To create is very difficult. And again I will remind you: because all political revolutions are destructive - they are capable in destroying - they can provoke people into destruction. It is very easy to provoke...

... people into destruction because people are frustrated, people are in misery; you can provoke them into any revolt. But the moment they have destroyed, the problem arises: "Now what to do?" They don't know how to create, and your so-called revolutionaries don't know what to do now. Then everybody is at a loss. The misery continues, sometimes even becomes deeper, uglier. After a few years...

..., again people forget and again they start thinking in terms of revolution - and the political leader is always there to lead you into destruction. My work here is of creativity. I am not provoking you into any destruction, I am not telling you to blame others for your misery. I am telling you you are responsible, so only those who have the guts to take this responsibility can be with me. But this is a...

... root cause is that man is not silent. Hence violence, all kinds of violence. Because of Vietnam and because of Attica, much peace of mind is needed. They are symptoms of something like cancer inside human consciousness. They are not diseases themselves, they are simply symptoms. And they cannot be cured directly - until and unless the root cause is cut absolutely, destroyed absolutely. Man has lived...

... in war, down the ages, always. Out of three thousand years, only seven hundred years were not of war - and not in one stretch. Sometimes for one day there was no war on the earth, sometimes for a few days; otherwise the war has continued. War is the greatest thing that man has remained involved with. Destruction seems to be very very attractive; killing and murder seems to be the goal of the human...

... violence. Only pools of peace all over the world, many many Buddhas, will be able to create a new vibe, a new wave, a new consciousness, in which war becomes impossible - in which all energy moves in a creative way, all energy moves towards love. So don't say... I understand the logic of it. The logic is, if man becomes very peaceful then he will not bother about Vietnam. I understand what you mean by...

... commitments. You renounce all possibilities to live, to relate, to love. They may not be fighting, but they are no more loving either. So withdrawal will bring a peace which is warless, loveless. But what is the point? You have thrown the baby with the bath-water. Love has to grow. The whole energy that goes into violence, fighting, struggle, war, has to be transformed into love. Peace in itself cannot be...

... greed the problem, Zen does not call aggression, violence, the problem. Zen calls the root problem desiring - and all other problems arise out of desiring. Cut the root, and the whole tree disappears. Question 6: OSHO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE EXACTLY? Selling water by the river. Master Sogaku Harada died at the age of ninety-one. At his funeral service hung a piece of calligraphy written by himself...

... courage you cannot dare to make your love a reality. It needs all the guts to be loving, because the society is anti-love. It is based on hatred; it lives in hate, it lives on hate, because this whole society is somehow centered around violence. People are doing violence in a thousand and one ways: through accumulating money, through becoming politically powerful, and so on, so forth. Persons are...

... for it. Ambedkar was not ready to do even this much violence to Gandhi. Ambedkar said later that Gandhi would be wrong to think that he had changed his heart. He still believed he was right and Gandhi was wrong, but he was not prepared to take the responsibility for the violence that Gandhi was insisting on doing to himself. In this context it is necessary to ask if Ambedkar used the right means, or...

... Gandhi? Of the two, who is really non-violent? In my view Gandhi's way was utterly violent, and Ambedkar proved to he non-violent. Gandhi was determined till the last moment to pressure Ambedkar with his threat to kill himself. It makes no difference whether I threaten to kill you or to kill myself to make you accept my view. In either case, I am using pressure and violence. In fact, when I threaten to...

... our dreams and desires, but it is never really achieved. Gandhi could not say at the time of his death that he had attained to his lofty ends of truth and non-violence and celibacy, for which he worked hard throughout his life. He died experimenting with them. If the means were right, then why did he not achieve his ends? What was the difficulty? If the means are right, there should be no difficulty...

... within that there is no space left for any impurity to exist. To be arrogant, to be egoistic, one needs to have something - money, power, prestige. And to be impure one needs things like avarice, anger, hate, and violence. It is significant that while anger is something, non-anger is just the absence of anger. Violence is something; non-violence is just its absence. If a person is utterly empty of...

... everything - greed, hate, violence, money, and fame - he is really poor in spirit, and only such a person is really rich and affluent. And he will, as Jesus says, "inherit the kingdom of heaven. The poorest is the richest, he has everything worth having. In this context there is yet another very significant saying of Jesus. He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all else shall be added...

..., inspiration is a continuity. People are bored, hence they search for excitement - any kind of excitement; through sex, through drugs or through traveling, through violence. If they cannot commit violence then at least they can see it on the TV or in the films, or they can read a detective novel. That is a vicarious way of living violence. That's why whenever there is a war people become very excited. This...

.... These are all very selfish people. All meditators are selfish because they are more concerned about their own growth than they are concerned about the blind and the deaf and the dumb. Life's aim is life itself What is virtue? Who is going to decide? According to Mohammedanism, animals are created by God for man to eat. There is no question of violence; their very purpose is to be nourishment for...

... humanity -- so says the holy KORAN. Now, no Eastern religion can accept Mohammedanism as a religion. Mohammed married nine wives. He was continuously fighting. His whole life was a life of war, although the word that he has for his religion is Islam and Islam means "peace". But a strange man -- his religion is peace and his whole life is nothing but violence. Even on his sword it was written...

... days in India on coal tar roads. Jaina monks and nuns all have their feet burned. And what are they doing? They put towels around their feet. Now I said, "This is stupid, because that is a kind of primitive shoe. Why can't you purchase a shoe made of synthetic leather, in which no violence is involved? Life's aim is life itself Or a rubber shoe in which no violence is involved, or a cloth shoe...

...-dimensional, circular, because the path is towards the peak of human consciousness. If you practise renunciation it never goes beyond you. Whatsoever you practise remains below you. If you are angry, whatsoever you practise will be poisoned by your anger. If you are violent, you may practise love, but in your love there will be violence. It is natural because it is your practice. How can you practise...

... to be strong in spirit.] ... You will have to understand the paradox. If you want spiritually to be strong you have to be absolutely weak. That's why I was insisting on knowing what you meant by being strong, because if you want to be strong in the world, there are other ways. You have to have a very strong ego, will power, resistance. violence, aggression, ambition, competition, greed. You have to...