.... This war of man against himself has continued long enough. And in the history of thousands of years of this war, barely a handful of people, whose names can be counted on one's fingers, can be said to have found God. So in a sense we lost this war, because down the centuries billions of people died without finding their souls, without meeting God. Undoubtedly there must be some basic flaw, some...

.... He does not shun love; being a man he does not run away from women. As one who has known and experienced God, he alone does not turn his face from war. He is full of love and compassion, and yet he has the courage to accept and fight a war. His heart is utterly non violent, yet he plunges into the fire and fury of violence when it becomes unavoidable. He accepts the nectar, and yet he is not afraid...

.... So for their adoration of Krishna, different people have chosen different facets of his life. Those who love the Geeta will simply ignore the BHAGWAD, because the Krishna of the GEETA is so different from the Krishna of the BHAGWAD Similarly, those who love the BHAGWAD will avoid getting involved with the GEETA. While the Krishna of the GEETA stands on a battlefield surrounded by violence and war...

..., the Krishna of the BHAGWAD is dancing, singing and celebrating. There is seemingly no meeting-point whatsoever between the two. There is perhaps no one like Krishna, no one who can accept and absorb in himself all the contradictions of life, all the seemingly great contradictions of life. Day and night, summer and winter, peace and war, love and violence, life and death - all walk hand in hand with...

... him. That is why everyone who loves him has chosen a particular aspect of Krishna's life that appealed to him and quietly dropped the rest. Gandhi calls the GEETA his mother, and yet he cannot absorb it, because his creed of non-violence conflicts with the grim inevitability of war as seen in the GEETA. So Gandhi finds ways to rationalize the violence of the GEETA: he says the war of Mahabharat is...

... only a metaphor, that it did not actually happen. This war, Gandhi says over and over again, represents the inner war between good and evil that goes on inside a man. The Kurushetra of the GEETA, according to Gandhi, is not a real battlefield located somewhere on this earth, nor is the Mahabharat an actual war. It is not that Krishna incites Arjuna to fight a real Mahabharat, Mahabharat only...

... symbolizes the inner conflict and war of man, and so it is just a parable. Gandhi has his own difficulty. The way Gandhi's mind is, Arjuna will be much more in accord with him than Krishna. A great upsurge of non-violence has arisen in the mind of Arjuna, and he seems to be strongly protesting against war. He is prepared to run away from the battlefield and his arguments seem to be compelling and logical...

.... He says it is no use fighting and killing one's own family and relatives. For him, wealth, power and fame, won through so much violence and bloodshed, have no value what soever. He would rather be a beggar than a king, if kingship costs so much blood and tears. He calls war an evil and violence a sin and wants to shun it at all costs. Naturally Arjuna has a great appeal for Gandhi. How can he then...

... understand Krishna? Krishna very strongly urges Arjuna to drop his cowardice and fight like a true warrior. And his arguments in support of war are beautiful, rare and unique. Never before in history have such unique and superb arguments been advanced in favor of fighting, in support of war. Only a man of supreme non-violence could give such support to war. Krishna tells Arjuna, "So long as you...

.... It is materialistic to think that one is violent or non-violent. He is a materialist who believes he can kill someone, and he too is a materialist who thinks he is not going to kill anyone. One thing is common to them: they believe someone can be really killed. Spirituality rejects both violence and non-violence. it accepts the immortality of the soul. And such spirituality turns even war into play...

... whenever a laughing, singing and dancing religion comes into being it will certainly have Krishna's stone in its foundation. Question 2: QUESTIONER: KRISHNA PLAYED A GREAT ROLE IN THE WAR OF THE MAHABHARAT. IT MEANS HE COULD HAVE PREVENTED IT IF HE HAD WANTED. BUT THE WAR TOOK PLACE, BRINGING HORRENDOUS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN ITS WAKE. NATURALLY THE RESPONSIBILITY SHOULD BE WITH HIM. DO YOU JUSTIFY HIM...

... OR IS HE TO BE BLAMED? It is the same with war and peace. Here too, we choose. We want to keep peace and eliminate conflict and struggle. It seems we cannot act without choosing. But the world is a unity of contradictions and dialectics. The world is an orchestra of opposite notes; it cannot be a solo. I have heard that once someone was playing a musical instrument. He played a single note on a...

... bricks are laid side by side. And it is the opposite kinds of bricks, placed together, that hold the heavy burden of the house on their shoulders. Can you conceive of using the same kinds of bricks in the construction of an archway? Then the house cannot be constructed; it will collapse then and there. The entire structure of our life is held together by the tension of its opposites - and war is a part...

... of the tension that is life. And those who think that war is totally harmful and destructive are wrong; their vision is fragmentary, myopic. If we try to understand the course of development that man and his civilization have followed, we will realize that war plays the largest share in its growth. Whatever man has today - all the good things of life - were found primarily through the medium of war...

.... If we find today that the whole earth is covered with roads and highways, the credit should go to war and to preparations for war. These roads and highways were first constructed for the sake of waging war, for the purpose of dispatching armies to distant lands. They did not come into being for the sake of two friends meeting or for a man and a woman belonging to two distant towns to marry. The...

... fact is, they came into being for the encounter of two enemies, for the purpose of war. We see big buildings all over. They all came in the wake of castles. And castles were the products of war. The first high walls on this earth were built with a view to keep out the enemies, and then other high walls and buildings followed. And now we have skyscrapers in all the big cities of the world. But it is...

... difficult to think that these highrises are the progenies of war. All of man's modern affluence, backed by scientific inventions and high technology - indeed all his achievements - basically owe their existence to war. In fact, war creates such a state of tension in the mind of man and presents such challenges, that our dormant energies are shaken to their roots and, as a result, they awaken and act. We...

... can afford to be lazy and lethargic in times of peace, but moments of war are quite different. War provokes our dynamism. Confronted with extraordinary challenges, our sleep ing energies have to awaken and assert themselves. That is why, during a war, we function as extraordinary people; we simply cease to be the ordinary people that we are. Confronted with the challenge of war, man's brain begins...

... to function at its highest level and capacity. In times of war man's intelligence takes a great leap forward, one it would ordinarily take centuries to make. Many people think that if Krishna had pre vented the war of Mahabharat, India would have attained to great affluence, she would have touched high peaks of growth and greatness. But the truth is just the opposite. If we had had a few more...

... people of Krishna's caliber and had fought more wars like the Mahabharat, we would have been at the pinnacle of our growth today. About five thousand years have passed since the Mahabharat, and for these five thousand years we have not fought a single major war. The wars we have had since then were baby wars in comparison with that epic war of the Kurukshetra. They have been quite petty and...

... First World War people thought Germany was destroyed, debilitated for good. But in just twenty years, in the Second World War, Germany emerged as an infinitely more powerful country than the Germany of the First World War. No one could have even dreamed this country could fight another war after she was so badly beaten in the first. Seemingly, there was no possibility for Germany to go to war for...

... hundreds of years. But just in twenty years time the miracle happened, and Germany emerged as a giant world power. Why? - because with will and vigor this country utilized the energies released by the First World War. With the conclusion of the Second World War it seemed that there might be no more wars in the world. But, so soon, the powers that fought it are ready for a much deadlier and dreadful war...

... than the last. And the two countries - Germany and Japan - that suffered the worst destruction and defeat in the last war have emerged, amazingly, as two of the most affluent countries in the world. Who can say, after visiting today's Japan, that only twenty years ago atom bombs fell on this country? Of course, after visiting present-day India, one could say that this country has been subjected to...

... recurring atomic bombardments. One look at our wretched state can make one think that, down the ages, we have been through unending destruction brought about by war after war. The Mahabharat is not responsible for India's degradation and misery. The long line of teachers that came in the shadow of that war were all against war, and they used the Mahabharat to further their anti-war stance. Pointing to...

... that great war they said, "What a terrible war! What appalling violence! No, no more of such wars! No more of such bloodshed!" It was unfortunate we failed to produce a line of people of the caliber of Krishna and also failed to fight more Mahabharats. Had it been so, we would have reached, in every succeeding war, a peak of consciousness much higher than the one reached during the...

... Mahabharat. And, undoubtedly, today we would be the most prosperous and developed society on this earth. There is another side of war which deserves consideration. A war like the Mahabharat does not happen in a poor and backward society; it needs riches to wage a great war. At the same time war is needed to create wealth and prosperity, because war is a time of great challenges. If only we had many more...

... wars like the one Krishna led! Let us look at this thing from another angle. Today the West has achieved the same height of growth that India had achieved at the time of the Mahabharat. Almost all the highly sophisticated weapons of war that we now possess were used in the Mahabharat in some form or other. It was a highly developed, intelligent and scientific peak that India had scaled at the time of...

... that historic war. And it was not the war that harmed us. Something else harmed us. What really harmed us was the fit of frustration that came over us in the wake of the war, and its exploitation by the teachers of those times. The same fit of frustration has now seized the West, and the West is frightened. And if the West falls, the pacifists will be held responsible for it. And its fall is certain...

... if the West follows the pacifists. Then the West will be in the same mess that India found herself in after the Mahabharat. India listened to her pacifists and had to suffer for it for five thousand years. So this matter needs to be considered fully. Krishna is not a hawk, not a supporter of war for war's sake. He, however, treats war as part of life's game. But he is not a warmonger. He has no...

... desire whatsoever to destroy anyone; he does not want to hurt anyone. He has made every effort to avoid war, but he is certainly not prepared to escape war at any cost - at the cost of life and truth and religion itself. After all, there should be a limit to our efforts to avoid war, or anything else for that matter. We want to avoid war just for so it does not hurt and harm life. But what if life...

... itself is hurt and harmed by preventing war? Then its prevention has no meaning. Even the pacifist wants to prevent war so that peace is preserved. But what sense is there in preventing a war if peace suffers because of it? In that case, we certainly need to have the strength and ability to wage a clear war, a decisive war. Krishna is not a hawk, but he is not a frightened escapist either. He says it...

... is good to avoid war, but if it becomes unavoidable it is better to accept it bravely and joyfully than to run away from it. Running away would be really cowardly and sinful. If a moment comes when, for the good of mankind, war becomes necessary - and such moments do come - then it should be accepted gracefully and happily. Then it is really bad to be dragged into it and to fight it with a...

... reluctant and heavy heart. Those who go to war with dragging feet, just to defend themselves, court defeat and disaster. A defensive mind, a mind that is always on the defensive, cannot gather that strength and enthusiasm necessary to win a war. Such a mind will always be on the defensive, and will go on shrinking in every way. Therefore Krishna tells you to turn even fighting into a joyful, blissful...

... affair. It is not a question of hurting others. In life there is always a choice of proportions, a choice between the proportion of good and of evil. And it is not necessary that war bring only evil. Sometimes the avoidance of war can result in evil. Our country was enslaved for a full thousand years just because of our incapacity to fight a war. Similarly, our five-thousand-year old poverty and...

... degradation is nothing but the result of a lack of courage and fearlessness in our lives, a lack of expansiveness in our hearts and minds. We suffered not because of Krishna. On the contrary, we suffered because we failed to continue the line of Krishna, because we ceased to produce more Krishnas after him. Of course, it was natural that after Krishna's war a note of pessimism, of defeatism, became...

... prominent in our life - it always happens in the wake of wars - and that a row of defeatist teachers successfully used this opportunity to tell us that war is an unmitigated evil to be shunned at all costs. And this defeatist teaching took root, deep in our minds. So for five thousand years we have been a frightened people, frightened for our lives. And a community that is afraid of death, afraid of war...

..., eventually begins, deep down in its being, to be afraid of life itself. And we are that community - afraid of living. We are really trembling with fear. We are neither alive nor dead, we art just in limbo. In my view, mankind will suffer if they accept what Bertrand Russell and Gandhi say. There is no need to be afraid of war. It is true, however, that our earth is now too small for a modern war. A war, in...

... fact, needs space too. Our instruments of war are now so gigantic that, obviously, war on this planet is simply not possible. But it is so, not because what the pacifists say is right and has to be accepted out of fear, but because the earth is now too small for the huge means of war science and technology have put into our hands. So war on this planet has become meaningless. Now the shape of war is...

... of space. But it is true we have reached a point where war on this earth has become meaningless. But why it is so has to be clearly understood. War has become meaningless not because what the pacifists say has struck home with us, war has lost its meaning because the science of war has attained perfection, because now a total war can be a reality. And to fight a total war on this earth will be a...

... self-defeating exercise. War is meaningful so long as one side wins and another loses, but in a nuclear war, if and when it takes place, there will be no victor and no vanquished - both will simply disappear from the earth. So war on this earth has become irrelevant. And for this reason I can see the whole world coming together as one world. Now the world will be no more than a global village. The...

... earth has become as small as a village - even smaller than a village. It now takes less time to go around the world than it took to go from one village to another in the past. So this world has become too small for a total kind of war; it would be sheer stupidity to wage a war here. This does not mean there should be no wars, nor does it mean there will be no wars in the future. War will continue to...

... take place, but now it will take place on newer grounds, on other planets. Now man will go on newer adventures, newer incursions and greater campaigns. In spite of what the pacifists said and did war could not be abolished. It cannot be abolished because it is a part of life. It makes an interesting story if we assess the gains we have had from war. A careful observation will reveal that all our...

... cooperative efforts and institutions are the products of war. It is called cooperation for conflict: we cooperate to fight. And with the disappearance of war, cooperation will disappear. So it is extremely important to understand Krishna. Krishna is neither a pacifist nor a hawk. He has nothing to do with any "ism". In fact, an "ism" means choice, that we choose one of the opposites...

.... Krishna is "non-ism". He says that if good comes through peace, we should welcome peace, and that if good flows from war then war is equally welcome. Do you understand what I mean? Krishna says, and I say the same, that whatever brings bliss and benediction and helps the growth of religion is welcome. We should welcome it. We would not have been that impotent if our country had understood...

... Krishna rightly. But we have covered all our ugliness with beautiful words. Our cowardice is hiding behind our talk of non violence; our fear of death is disguised by our opposition to war. But war is not going to end because we refuse to go to war. Our refusal will simply become an invitation to others to wage war on us. War will not disappear just because we refuse to fight: our refusal will only...

... result in our slavery. And this is what has actually happened. It is so ironic that, despite our opposition to war, we have been dragged into war over and over again. First we refused to fight, then some external power attacked and occupied our country and made us into slaves, and then we were made to join our masters' armies and fight in our masters' wars. Wars were continuously waged, and we were...

... our bondage, to continue to live in servitude. This has been the painful consequence of all our opposition to violence and war. But the Mahabharat is not responsible for it, nor is Krishna responsible. Our lack of courage to fight another Mahabharat is at the root of all our misfortunes. Therefore I say it is really difficult to understand Krishna. It is very easy to understand a pacifist, because...

... he has clearly chosen one side of the coin of truth. It is also easy to understand warmongers like Genghis, Tamburlaine, Hitler and Mussolini, because they believe in war as the only way of life. Pacifists like Gandhi and Russell believe that peace alone is the right way. Both doves and hawks are simplistic in their approach to life and living. Krishna is altogether different from both of them, and...

... that is what makes him so difficult to understand. He says that life passes through both doors, through the door of peace and also through the door of war. And he says that if man wants to maintain peace, he needs to have the strength and ability to fight a war and win it. And he asserts that in order to fight a war well, it is necessary, simultaneously, to make due preparations for peace. War and...

... taking turns, just like passing fashions. For a while Hitler is stage-center, and then Gandhi appears and dominates the stage. For a while we take one step with Hitler's leg and then another step with Gandhi's leg. So in a way they again make for a pair of legs. After Genghis, Hitler and Stalin are finished with their war and bloodshed, Gandhi and Russell begin to impress us with their talk of peace...

... and non-violence. The pacifists dominate the scene for ten to fifteen years - enough time to tire their single leg, and necessitate the use of another. Then again a hawk like Mao comes with a sten gun in his hands. And thus the drama is kept on going. Krishna has his two legs intact; he is not lame. And I maintain that everyone should have both legs intact - one for peace and another for war. A...

... future. In regard to our future we need to have a very clear and decisive mind. Do we want a pacifist world in the future? If so, it will be a lifeless and lackluster world, which is neither desirable nor possible. And no one will accept it either. In fact, life goes its own way. While the doves fly in the sky, the hawks continue to prepare for war. and in the way of fashions, the pacifists will be...

... popular for a while and then the warmongers will take their turn, becoming popular with the people. Really, the two work like partners in a common enterprise. Krishna stands for an integrated life, a total life; his vision is wholly whole. And if we rightly understand this vision, we need not give up either. Of course, the levels of war will change. They always change. Krishna is not a Genghis; he is...

... not fond of destroying others, of hurting others. So the levels of war will certainly change. And we can see historically how the levels of war change from time to time. When men don't have to fight among themselves, they gather together and begin to fight with nature. It is remarkable that the communities that developed science and technology are the same that are given to fighting wars. It is so...

... can develop science only if we fight nature. And if man continues to fight he will first discover the secrets of this earth by fighting its nature. And then he will discover the secrets of space and other planets by fighting their nature. His adventure, his campaign will never stop. Remember, the society that fought and won a war was the first to land its men on the moon. We could not do it; the...

... pacifists could not do it. And the moon is going to exert tremendous significance on war in the future. Those who own the moon will own this earth, because in the coming war they will set up their missiles on the moon and conquer this earth for themselves. This earth will cease to be the locale for war. The so-called wars that are currently being fought between Vietnam and Cambodia, between India and...

... Pakistan, are nothing more than play-fights to keep the fools busy here. Real war has begun on another plane. The present race for the moon has a deeper significance. Its objective is other than what it seems to be. The power that will control the moon tomorrow will become invulnerable on this earth; there will be no way to challenge it. They will no longer need to send their planes to different...

... happened about three hundred years ago when the countries of Europe were rushing towards Asia. Merchant ships of Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and Britain were all sailing towards the countries of Asia - because occupation of Asia had become immensely important for the expansionist powers of Europe. But now it has no importance whatsoever, and so, soon after the Second World War, they left Asia. The...

... begun. Man has raised his sights to the distant stars, to the moon and Mars and even beyond. Now war will be fought in the vastness of space. Life is an adventure, an adventure of energy. And people who lag behind in this adventure, for lack of energy and courage, eventually have to die and disappear from the scene. Perhaps we are such a dead people. In this context also, Krishna's message has assumed...

... special significance. And it is significant not only for us, but for the whole world. In my view, the West has reached a point where it will, once again, have to wage a decisive war, which of course will not take place on the planet Earth. Even if the contestants belong to this earth, the actual operation of the war will take place elsewhere, either on the moon or on Mars. Now there is no sense fighting...

... a war on the earth. If it takes place here it will result in the total destruction of both the aggressor and the aggressed. So a great war in the future will be fought and decided somewhere far away from here. And what would be the result? In a way, the world is facing nearly the same situation India faced during the Mahabharat war. There were two camps, or two classes, at the time of the...

... the senses and their indulgence held no importance for them. This was the class against which the war of Mahabharat was waged. And Krishna had to opt for this war and lead it, because it had become imperative. It had become imperative so that the forces of good and virtue could stand squarely against the forces of materialism and evil, so that they were not rendered weak and impotent. Approximately...

... any weakness and escape from reality. His feet are set firmly on the ground; he is a realist, and he is not going to allow Arjuna to run away from the battlefield. Perhaps the world is once again being divided into two classes, into two camps. It happens often enough when a decisive moment comes and war becomes inevitable. Men like Gandhi and Russell will be of no use in this eventuality. In a sense...

... they are all Arjunas. They will again say that war should be shunned at all costs, that it is better to be killed than to kill others. A Krishna will again be needed, one who can clearly say that the forces of good must fight, that they must have the courage to handle a gun and fight a war. And when goodness fights only goodness flows from it. It is incapable of harming anyone. Even when it fights a...

... war it becomes, in its hands, a holy war. Goodness does not fight for the sake of fighting, it fights simply to prevent evil from winning. By and by the world will soon be divided into two camps. One camp will stand for materialism and all that it means, and the other camp will stand for freedom and democracy, for the sovereignty of the individual and other higher values of life. But is it possible...

... decision. But some values clinch the issue. Why was Duryodhana fighting? What was his motive in forcing such a great war? It was not that important whether the people on his side were bad or not, the important thing was his intention, his objective, the values for which he forced the war. And what were the values for which Krishna inspired Arjuna to fight bravely? The most important and decisive value at...

... stake in the Mahabharat was justice. The war had to decide what was just and what justice was. Again today we have to decide what is just, what justice is. In my vision, freedom is justice and bondage is injustice. The group or class that is bent on forcing any kind of bondage on mankind is on the side of injustice. Maybe there are some good people on their side, but all good people do not necessarily...

... sense. They had outer eyes but not inner ones. One who is blind can only beget blindness, and yet, this father is curious to know, "What is happening...?" Thirdly, one should note what Dhritarashtra is saying, "In that righteous land of the Kurus, men who have assembled to engage in the battle..." The land of righteousness ceases to exist the day people come there to fight a war...

... of war. When the possibility of war still exists, and when even a land of righteousness is turned into a battlefield, then how can we blame or criticize that which is unrighteous? The truth is that perhaps there have been less wars in the domains of unrighteousness as compared to the domains of righteousness or religion. If we were to think in terms of war and bloodshed, then the lands of...

... righteousness would look more like unrighteous lands than the actual lands of unrighteousness. One should understand the irony involved here - that up to now, wars have taken place in the field of righteousness. Do not think that he temples and mosques have become dens of war only today. Thousands of years ago, when it is generally believed that good people lived on the earth - and a wonderful person like...

... Krishna was present - even then people had gathered to fight in he righteous land of the Kurus This very deep rooted thirst for war, this very deeply ingrained desire for destruction, this very deeply hidden animal in man remains with him even in the land of righteousness. This animal makes preparation for war even in the holy land. It is good to remember his; and also that there is a greater danger in...

... OF THE WAR TO DHRITARASHTRA, WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN THE GITA? DID SANJAY POSSESS POWERS OF CLAIRVOYANCE OR CLAIRAUDIENCE? WHAT IS THE ORIGINAL SOURCE OF HIS MENTAL-POWER? COULD THIS POWER BE SELF- CREATED? Doubts have been raised consistently regarding Sanjay, which is natural. From a very long distance Sanjay reports to Dhritarashtra what is happening in Kurukshetra. Yoga has always believed that the...

... VICTORIOUS IN BATTLE KRIPA; ASHWATTHAMA, VIKARNA, AND ALSO THE SON OF SOMADATTA, BHURISHRAVA. Many other heroes, as well who are ready to lay down their lives for me. They are armed with various kinds of weapons, and are very well skilled in war. Our army, in every way, is invincible and is guarded by Bheeshma, while theirs which is guarded by Bheema is easy enough for us to defeat. THEREFORE, STANDING...

... BHEEMA AS HIS ONLY TRUE RIVAL? This point needs to be looked into. The whole war is centered around Arjuna, but this is in hindsight - that is, after the war, at the conclusion of the war. Those who know the outcome of the war would say that Arjuna was pivotal throughout the war. But those who were standing at the threshold of war could never have perceived this. For Duryodhana, the possibility of a...

... real war rested upon Bheema. There were reasons for this. Even Duryodhana could never have depended upon a nice person like Arjuna for engaging in a war such as this. Duryodhana too has doubts in his mind regarding the steadiness of Arjuna. Duryodhana has some deep, unconscious feeling that Arjuna might desert the battlefield. Thus his understanding seems to be that if this war should proceed at all...

..., it will be because of Bheema alone. People like Bheema who are less intelligent but more powerful can be depended upon for fighting a war. Arjuna is intelligent; and where there is intelligence there is doubt, and where there is doubt there is conflict. Arjuna is rational; and where there is rationality, there lies the capability for thinking from a total perspective. With these qualities it is...

... difficult for one to enter the dangerous state of war with closed eyes. Duryodhana can depend upon Bheema to have a war. There is a deep similarity between them. Both are of the same nature; deep down both have the same kind of thinking, both are the same type of person. Hence if Duryodhana saw Bheema as the central figure on the opposing side, he was absolutely right. Gita also proves later on that...

... Arjuna is eager to desert. Arjuna appears as an escapist, which is highly possible with regard to a person like him. The war has proved tougher for Arjuna. For Arjuna, entering in war became possible only after he underwent a transformation. Only after attaining a new level of understanding could he agree to the war. Bheema was prepared to fight at whatever level of being he was. He accepted war as...

... naturally as did Duryodhana; hence, it is not coincidental that Duryodhana should see Bheema as the central figure. But this matter comes up at the beginning of the war, and Duryodhana does not know how the war is going to conclude, what the end will be - but we know. Remember, often life does not end the way it begins. Very often it ends undecided; it is always invisible. Mostly what we think will occur...

..., perhaps what Duryodhana said about being victorious would have come true. That Duryodhana's viewpoint did not prove true, and an unexpected element came into the picture, is worth some thought. Krishna had no idea that he would be able to bring Arjuna back into the war if he decided to desert. We, too, never know that the unknown divine may also have a hand in making things happen in life. Our...

... happening took place. There can be no prediction of the arrival of the unknown. That is why the first-time reader of this tale cannot but be shocked when he finds Krishna drawing the escaping Arjuna back into the war - certainly the reader is shocked. When Emerson read this tale for the first time, he closed the book; he was horrified. Because what Arjuna was saying there would be acceptable to all so...

...-called religious people. The argument Arjuna was making was exactly that of a so-called religious person. When Henry Thoreau came across this situation and found that Krishna was counseling Arjuna to enter into war, he too was horrified. Henry Thoreau has written that he never believed, he did not have the slightest idea, that the story would take such a turn - Krishna counseling Arjuna to enter into...

... war. Gandhi, too, faced the same difficulty, he was troubled because of the same reason. But life never proceeds according to set principles. Life is a very wonderful thing. It never runs on railway tracks, rather it flows like a current of the river Ganges - its course is never predetermined. And when God appears in the midst of all, he disturbs everything. Whatever was ready, whatever man had made...

..., whatever man thought - everything turns upside down. Duryodhana had never imagined that the divine would enter into war. Hence what he is saying is just an initial statement of the kind we all make in the early stages of our lives. Meanwhile, the unknown keeps intervening and the entire story changes. If we could see our lives in hindsight, we might say that whatever we intended went wrong. Where we...

... first. We pay attention to the beginning first. If we could just take the end into consideration first, the story of life could be very different. However, if Duryodhana should take into account the end first, there can never be the war. Duryodhana can never take the end into consideration. He would take the end for granted. That is why he says over and over again that although the army is great on...

.... Truth appears to lose in the beginning but becomes victorious in the end. But how can one possibly see the end from the start? One who sees becomes religious. One who fails to see keeps on slipping, like Duryodhana, into a blind war. BELOVED OSHO, ON THE ONE HAND THERE IS THE WILL OF THE UNKNOWN, AND ON THE OTHER THERE IS THE WILL OF THE INDIVIDUAL. SINCE THEY COME INTO CONFLICT, HOW WOULD AN...

... to Bheeshma's conch sound? No, it is simply a response. The conch sound of Krishna is merely a rejoinder though not to war or fighting. The conch sound indicates only the acceptance of challenge. No matter who gives that challenge, no matter what its implications be, no matter where that challenge might lead - it is accepted. It would be useful to understand a little more the nature of this...

... great joy spread all around. I his is acceptance - if in life one is faced with war, the war too is accepted. If life were to lead one into a war, that war also is accepted. Naturally, this action must be responded to. So consequently, Krishna and Pandavas blow their respective conches. It is interesting that the first conch sound comes from the side of the Kauravas. Obviously the onus of starting the...

... war is upon the Kauravas - Krishna is merely responding; his is a response from the side of the Pandavas. If there were to be a war then they are prepared to give a fitting reply - though as such they have no inclination for war. The Pandavas could have been the first to blow the conch; but they didn't. The Kauravas alone are responsible for dragging everyone into the war. The beginning of this war...

... is very symbolic. There is another thing to notice here, that it is Krishna who takes the lead in replying to the Kauravas. Since Bheeshma has initiated a challenge from the Kaurava side, it does not seem proper that Krishna be the one to reply to him. Such a reply was proper only for those warriors who are ready for war. Krishna's presence there is only as a charioteer. he is neither a soldier...

... are ready for the call which has come from God. They are willing to fight only as instruments of God. Therefore, this rejoinder accepting war having been given through Krishna is appropriate. It is better to meet defeat while fighting on the side of God than be victorious fighting against him. Now for the Pandavas even defeat can also be a joy, because now the fight is no longer theirs . If it is to...

... us to a point where eventually war is going to follow, then we leave ourselves in the hands of the supreme God." AND THE SUPERB ARCHER - THE KING OF KASHI, THE GREAT WARRIOR SHIKHANDI, DRISHTADUMNA AND VIRATA, AND THE INVINCIBLE SATYAKI, KIND DRUPADA AND ALL THE FIVE SONS OF DRAUPADI, AND THE STRONG-ARMED SON SUBHADRA; O LORD OF EARTH, EACH BLEW THEIR RESPECTIVE CONCHES. RESOUNDING HEAVEN AND...

... OUT WHICH ARE THOSE THAT I MUST ENCOUNTER WITH IN THIS WAR. Arjuna is beseeching Krishna to let him see the men with whom he has to fight. There are a few remaining things which we need to understand this morning, then we will continue this evening. Let us examine first Arjuna's request to bring him to a place from which he can see with whom he is going to fight. This indicates the fact that for...

... Arjuna this war is really a responsibility thrust upon him from outside - it is not a call from within. It is an obligation forced on him, it is not a desire from within. For Arjuna, this war is something he is compelled to do. Arjuna is asking to see with whom he will be fighting, because for him the fight is inevitable. He wants to see those who have come so eagerly to participate in this war. One...

... who is himself ready for war would not care to see whether the opponent is ready or not. One who is prepared for war is a blind man - he never sees the enemy, he projects the enemy. He does not want to see the enemy; in fact whoever he comes across is an enemy for him. He does not have to see the enemy, he creates enemies. He projects hostility. When the battle rages within, enemies crop up outside...

.... Only when a war does not take place within, does one have to inquire as to who is anxious and eager to have a fight. S,o Arjuna asks Krishna to place his chariot at such a point where he can see those who have assembled and are eager to fight. Secondly, it is the first rule of war that the enemy should be clearly identified. In all wars of life - whether taking place within or outside...

... - identification of the enemy is the first rule of order. Only those win wars who have distinctly identified their enemy, who can clearly recognize their enemy. Ordinarily, one who is eager to fight is never able to win; he is already so overwhelmed with his passion for war that it becomes difficult for him to recognize the enemy. His anxiety reaches such a point that it becomes difficult to recognize who he is...

... fighting. If we do not know who we are fighting, then defeat is certain. If one is to be victorious in time of war, more composure is needed than at any other moment. The state of being a witness required for a victory in time of war is greater than at any other moment. Arjuna is saying, therefore, that now he would like to see as a witness those who have come to fight - he would like to make an...

... cannot be present simultaneously. If an angry person should become interested in observing, anger will disappear. Arjuna is not angry here; that is why he is able to talk about observation. What he is saying is not out of anger. If is as if the war were just an extraneous matter for Arjuna. It is not affecting him anywhere; he simply wants to observe as a witness who is anxious to fight. This idea...

... regarding observation is of great significance. Right observation is the first sutra for a person to follow when he goes to war - whether to face the inner enemies or the outer. One should have a good look at those with whom the fight is going to be. If the fight is going to be against anger, then observe anger; if it is going to be against sex, then observe sex; and if it is to be against greed, then...

... fight one's eyes have to be closed. One has to go wild for fighting; there should not be any room for observation. Thus, even without further knowledge of the Gita, one who understands the principle of observation can say, in view of this sutra, that this man, Arjuna, is not dependable. This man will be of no use in war. He can easily withdraw himself from war because when he will see, he will find...

... in trouble. Only those can fight a war who are either thoughtless like Bheema or Duryodhana, or those who are "thoughtless" like Krishna. Thought is in between these two states. Thus, there are three things; thoughtlessness, which is a state preceding thought, where war takes place easily. There is really nothing to be done in order to enter war, one who is in this psychological fame of...

... mind is in a state of war already. Even when he loves, that love turns into a war; it ultimately turns out as hatred. Even his friendship turns out to be merely a step toward hostility. After all, in order to have an enemy one first needs to make a friend. It is difficult to create enemies without making friends. So even when a thoughtless mind makes friends, in reality it reflects nothing but...

... hostility; hence in such a state of mind war is natural. The second stage consists of thought. Thought always tends to be wishy-washy; it is always wavering. Arjuna is in this second stage. He is saying here, "Let me observe. Let me first understand; then I shall enter into war." No one in this world can ever enter a war while being so thoughtful. Krishna is in the third stage. It is a stage of...

... no-thought. Thought is absent here too, but it is not a state of thoughtlessness. Thoughtlessness and no-thought seem to be alike; however there is a fundamental difference between the two. The man of no-thought is he who, having realized the worthlessness of thought, transcends it. Actually, thought shows the futility of everything - life, love, family, even wealth, the world and war also. If one...

... complexity. One who is thoughtless can think; he will think because the power of thinking remains latent in him. One who is "thoughtless" has transcended thought, he has entered into meditation, into the state of samadhi. This problem will arise throughout the Gita as a result of the entire phenomenon of internal conflict. Arjuna can enter into the war in two ways: either he becomes thoughtless...

..., takes a step downward and stands where Duryodhana and Bheema are, or he rises to the point where Krishna is standing - he becomes a man of no-thought then also he can enter into the war. However, if Arjuna remains merely as he is, in the middle, engrossed in thought, then he will head toward the forest. He cannot go to war. He will run away, escape. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

...Preparing for the last world war...

... Osho The Hidden Splendor: Preparing for the last world war Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho The Hidden Splendor   Next > Preparing for the last world war From: Osho Date: Fri, 15 March 1987 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: The Hidden Splendor Chapter #: 7 Location: pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Archive Code: N.A. Short Title: N.A. Audio...

... Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, SINCE PEACE WAS OFFICIALLY RESTORED TO THE WORLD AT THE END OF WORLD WAR TWO, WHAT HAVE THE POLITICIANS BEEN DOING? Anand Maitreya, there has never been any peace. There have been only two periods in history: the period we know as war, and the period we call peace, which is a cover up -- in reality it should be called preparation...

... for another war. The whole history consists only of two things: war and preparation for war. And you are asking me, "Since peace was officially restored to the world at the end of World War Two, what have the politicians been doing?" The politicians have been doing exactly what they have always been doing: creating more conflict, more unrest, more discrimination, more destructive weapons...

... -- and preparing for the third world war. Once, Albert Einstein was asked: "You, being the scientist who discovered atomic energy, must be able to inform us what is going to happen in the third world war." Einstein had tears in his eyes and he said, "Don't ask me about the third world war -- I do not know anything about it. But if you want to know about the fourth world war, I can say...

... something." The journalist who was asking the question was immensely surprised and amazed: The man is not saying anything about the third world war, says he knows nothing about it, but he is ready to say something about the fourth world war? He asked excitedly, "Then please tell me about the fourth world war." Einstein said, "Only one thing can be said about it -- that it is never...

... going to happen." The third world war will be the last world war. For this last world war, politicians have been preparing since peace was officially restored after the second world war. The politician and his game are the ugliest things you can conceive of. We are facing a dark night, and I am reminded of the old saying that "When the night is darkest, the dawn is very close by." But I...

... hundred and five wars fought in sixty-six countries -- all of them in the Third World. One is necessarily tempted to ask, "Why in the Third World?" Preparing for the last world war America and the Soviet Union both have gone so far ahead in developing destructive weapons, that the weapons used in the second world war are out of date. For them, they are of no use. They have to be sold somewhere...

...; some market is needed, and the market is possible only if there is war. America goes on giving weapons to Pakistan. Then, naturally, India goes on taking weapons from the Soviet Union. And this has been happening in the Third World: one country purchases out-of-date material from the Soviet Union; then its enemy purchases from America. This is good business. And they don't want these people to stop...

... wars, because otherwise, where are they going to sell these weapons on which they have spent billions of dollars? And these poor countries and their politicians are ready to purchase them, although their people are dying of hunger -- seventy-five percent of their budget goes towards war. On the average, each war has lasted three and a half years. So who says peace has been restored? One hundred and...

... five wars in sixty-six countries, each war lasting at least three and a half years -- and you call it peace? These wars caused sixteen million deaths. In the second world war, there were also millions of deaths. Since the second world war, which is the time of peace, sixteen million people have been killed in wars -- and still you go on calling it peace? But the politicians are so cunning, and people...

... people have been killed, and yet in every school and every college and in every university, they go on repeating, "We are living in a period of peace." In fact, the world war was almost more peaceful! The majority of the wars have been in Asia. It is one of the strategies of the powerful nations and their politicians that they should fight always in some other country; the Soviet Union and...

... the war, who may be reading in their schools, who may be working in their factories, or who may be cooking in their kitchens. Preparing for the last world war Just a few days ago Ronald Reagan, for no reason at all, attacked Libya -- he bombed the civilian parts of Libya. His target was Kaddafi, and because Kaddafi has three houses inside the city, all his three houses had to be bombed. And in...

... an innocent country which has done no harm to him. This is as dark a night as humanity has ever faced. The current war budget is around seven hundred billion dollars per year. Every year, fifteen million people die from malnutrition and disease, and every year seven hundred billion dollars are spent on warfare. Every minute, thirty children die for want of food and inexpensive vaccines and every...

... one hundred and sixty million school-age children in twenty-three developing countries. Just one submarine! And there are thousands of submarines moving around the ocean all over the world -- American and Russian both -- and each submarine has nuclear weapons six times more powerful than all the weapons that were used in the second world war. And they are so costly that we could have provided our...

... become impossible for life to survive; secondly, all the ice at the north and the Preparing for the last world war south poles, on the Himalayas and the Alps and other mountains, will start melting because of the heat. And this will raise all the oceans by forty feet. It will flood all our cities, all our countries; it will drown almost the whole earth -- and this is not a flood that is going to recede...

.... But these politicians go on doing it. Just a few months ago I was in Nepal. Nepal is the poorest country in the world, but rather than dropping its arrangements for war, it has sold its forests -- eternal forests of the Himalayas -- to the Soviet Union. And the Soviet Union has cut whole mountainsides and left them dry. And for what? To create more newspapers. What is the need of so many newspapers...

... politicians in the jails, and all the criminals in the politician's positions -- they would prove more human. Preparing for the last world war The politicians go on hiding facts as long as possible, as if by hiding facts you can change anything. Now many countries are not declaring how many homosexuals they have. Families are not declaring that the person who has died, has died from AIDS. They are bribing...

... accurate report. It must be the minimum that jail authorities have accepted -- because people who are living in jails for twenty years, thirty years, and cannot come in contact with women, are bound to force homosexuality on each other. Preparing for the last world war The simplest thing would be... There are separate jails for women -- why should they be separate? The prisoners should live in a mixed...

... they were when he wrote them. He wrote them seven hundred years ago, but today it is not only a symbolic thing, it is going to become the reality: THE CONTINENTS BLASTED, CITIES AND LITTLE TOWNS, EVERYTHING BECOMES A SCORCHED BLACKENED BALL. THE NEWS WE HEAR IS FULL OF GRIEF FOR THAT FUTURE. BUT THE REAL NEWS INSIDE HERE IS THERE'S NO NEWS AT ALL. Preparing for the last world war This last sentence...

... have confined myself completely to my own people. Preparing for the last world war That is my world, because I know those who are with me may be asleep, but they are not blind. They can be awakened. Okay, Vimal? Yes, Osho. Generated by PreciseInfo ™ ...

... about other things you talk to Sheela and Savita. There is no problem which cannot be solved. But Brazil needs a commune. Q: I WOULD LIKE TO ASK SOMETHING ABOUT THE THIRD WORLD WAR. WE FEEL EACH DAY THE WAR COMING CLOSER AND CLOSER. IS THERE SOME POSSIBLE WAY TO PREVENT THE WAR? A: The truth is that the nuclear war is never going to happen. Even when I say it is coming closer and closer, the reason to...

... say it is not that the war is coming closer and closer, the reason is to awaken you somehow that the war is coming so close now there is no time to waste -- get up as quickly as possible before the war finishes you. But the third world war is impossible for the simple reason that both the nations America and the Soviet Union are equally balanced with nuclear weapons. And if a war starts, the whole...

... point of a war is to win, but in a nuclear war nobody wins. So war has lost its basic foundation. Why should you fight when both are going to be finished in it? The possibility of one becoming victorious and the other being defeated is no more there. So I say with nuclear war, war has reached to such totality that it has committed suicide. Now war is not possible -- I mean nuclear war is not possible...

.... Just the other day I saw a petition of American scientists who had made the first nuclear war plant in America -- the pioneers of nuclear weapons. Fifty scientists have signed the petition to the president and to the Supreme Court that we are trembling with fear -- what we have done. And we have already so much nuclear weapons on both sides that they are enough to destroy all life from earth within...

... ten minutes. Those fifty scientists who have been making nuclear war possible have visualized the situation that is happening. The same is happening in Russia -- the scientists are becoming aware that what they are creating is a mass scale world- wide suicide. It is so absurd and meaningless. Those fifty scientists have mentioned one thing which I have been telling again and again: that up to now...

... point where fighting becomes useless, war becomes utterly stupid. And even if seeing this stupidity the politicians decide to go for a nuclear war, then I think this earth deserves it. If its leaders are ready to destroy it, then perhaps it is good we finished. The universe will go on -- it has been going on before this earth was born, it will go on with the same beauty and with the same splendor. It...

..., I am totally convinced that war is impossible for the simple reason that that's why they have been postponing it. And they will go on postponing it -- they want to find something, either party -- whoever finds it first will immediately go for nuclear war because he can protect his country and you cannot protect your country. Then war again gains meaning -- somebody will be victorious and somebody...

... will be defeated. But I don't see there is any way to find an antidote. For the simple reason that 300 years of continuous creation of war mechanisms, destructive weapons, has led to the nuclear weapon. You have never worked for life, you have never thought about how to create more beautiful life-healthier, intelligent, lengthier. If side by side you were working for these 300 years, putting your...

... whole energy as you have been putting into war, perhaps you may be able to find an antidote -- but there is not time enough. If all the scientists of the world together start working now, perhaps in one hundred years they may be able to find a clue which nullifies all nuclear weapons. That seems to be impossible. So to me the third world war is over. We have passed it -- now think about the fourth...

.... And prepare for the fourth. Third is not possible. And I am not a pacifist, and I don't want my sannyasins to be pacifists. A pacifist is against war; so much so that if he had nuclear weapons he will fight with nuclear weapons against war. A pacifist is not a peaceful man. Our sannyasins are not pacifists, but peace loving, silence loving, trying to find their inner serenity. If we can create...

... around the world millions of people who are centered in their meditation, who know who they are, who know the tremendous bliss that comes when you enter into your innermost core, that will create a energy blanket around the earth. That is the only possibility to prevent. So directly I am not concerned with war. My concern is how to create more peaceful people, more loving people, more meditative people...

.... Because if the balance for peace-loving people is more in the world, then any war can be prevented. If there are millions of meditators in the world, nobody can force them to go war, to go destroy innocent people. In fact, these people who have attained some light within themselves will become a tremendous barrier -- not only against nuclear war -- but against any kind of war. I am aware that nuclear...

... war is impossible, and it is possible that the Soviet Union and America will come to a conclusion to drown all their nuclear weapons into the Pacific -- I don't know who gave it the name Pacific. Perhaps for this purpose -- and stop all traffic in the Pacific. Although it is five miles deep, there is always danger anything can trigger, and then it can become a chain explosion. So for at least a...

... decade, no traffic in the Pacific. Drown all the weapons there. And my feeling is, soon Russia and America will come to that conclusion. But that does not mean war will not happen. Then old type of war -- first world war, second world war -- those type of wars will continue. Thinking of the third world war, they look like children's play. But they were immensely horrible. So as far as I am concerned...

..., third world war is out of the question. But still other wars will be there. If we want to prevent all kinds of war in the world, then we have to spread the red people to the farthest corner everywhere, so that we have a commune of millions of young people who declare that they are the owners of the earth, and they refuse any kind of passport, any visa. Movement is our birthright, and the whole earth...

... is ours. If we have millions of people to destroy the boundaries of nations, the boundaries of religions, then there is nothing to fight for. Fight with whom? So my direct effort is not to prevent war or to be a pacifist and print pamphlets against war and protest and put posters on the walls and scream and shout. All that nonsense is not going to prevent. They were doing the same thing before the...

... first world war. They were doing the same thing before the second world war. They are doing the same thing before the third world war. They are just useless people. Good intentioned, but unintelligent. My effort is to create a vast atmosphere of peace around the earth and that will be enough. War will become impossible. In every country we will have thousands of sannyasins who will prevent that...

... politicians and everything. Because these children are not doing anything wrong, and they belong to the whole country. So create peaceful people, and if time arrives, we will risk all our peace-loving people. And I don't think that any country can go to war. It has never happened that the people of the same country are opposing its own government, that "War is not going to be our game anymore."...

... Contents Notes What are you going to do about it? Sensational interview with rabbi Abe Finkelstein about Jewish control of the world Contents 1. The Genesis of War 2. The Social Value of War 3. Early Human Associations 4. Clans and Tribes 5. The Beginnings of Government 6. Monarchial Government 7. Primitive Clubs and Secret Societies 8. Social Classes 9. Human Rights 10. Evolution of Justice 11. Laws and...

... augmented misery; therefore government, comparative law and order, slowly emerged or is emerging. The coercive demands of the struggle for existence literally drove the human race along the progressive road to civilization. 1. The Genesis of War (783.4) 70:1.1 War is the natural state and heritage of evolving man; peace is the social yardstick measuring civilization’s advancement. Before the partial...

... socialization of the advancing races man was exceedingly individualistic, extremely suspicious, and unbelievably quarrelsome. Violence is the law of nature, hostility the automatic reaction of the children of nature, while war is but these same activities carried on collectively. And wherever and whenever the fabric of civilization becomes stressed by the complications of society’s advancement, there is...

... always an immediate and ruinous reversion to these early methods of violent adjustment of the irritations of human interassociations. (783.5) 70:1.2 War is an animalistic reaction to misunderstandings and irritations; peace attends upon the civilized solution of all such problems and difficulties. The Sangik races, together with the later deteriorated Adamites and Nodites, were all belligerent. The...

... disputes by holding a public show at which the disputants made fun of and ridiculed each other, while the audience decided the winner by its applause. (783.7) 70:1.4 But there could be no such phenomenon as war until society had evolved sufficiently far to actually experience periods of peace and to sanction warlike practices. The very concept of war implies some degree of organization. (784.1) 70:1.5...

... animals are bellicose. Among the early causes of war were: (784.4) 70:1.8 1. Hunger, which led to food raids. Scarcity of land has always brought on war, and during these struggles the early peace tribes were practically exterminated. (784.5) 70:1.9 2. Woman scarcity — an attempt to relieve a shortage of domestic help. Woman stealing has always caused war. (784.6) 70:1.10 3. Vanity — the desire to...

... exhibit tribal prowess. Superior groups would fight to impose their mode of life upon inferior peoples. (784.7) 70:1.11 4. Slaves — need of recruits for the labor ranks. (784.8) 70:1.12 5. Revenge was the motive for war when one tribe believed that a neighboring tribe had caused the death of a fellow tribesman. Mourning was continued until a head was brought home. The war for vengeance was in good...

... standing right on down to comparatively modern times. (784.9) 70:1.13 6. Recreation — war was looked upon as recreation by the young men of these early times. If no good and sufficient pretext for war arose, when peace became oppressive, neighboring tribes were accustomed to go out in semifriendly combat to engage in a foray as a holiday, to enjoy a sham battle. (784.10) 70:1.14 7. Religion — the desire...

... to make converts to the cult. The primitive religions all sanctioned war. Only in recent times has religion begun to frown upon war. The early priesthoods were, unfortunately, usually allied with the military power. One of the great peace moves of the ages has been the attempt to separate church and state. (784.11) 70:1.15 Always these olden tribes made war at the bidding of their gods, at the...

... chosen from each side, as in the instance of David and Goliath. (785.3) 70:1.20 The first refinement of war was the taking of prisoners. Next, women were exempted from hostilities, and then came the recognition of noncombatants. Military castes and standing armies soon developed to keep pace with the increasing complexity of combat. Such warriors were early prohibited from associating with women, and...

... women long ago ceased to fight, though they have always fed and nursed the soldiers and urged them on to battle. (785.4) 70:1.21 The practice of declaring war represented great progress. Such declarations of intention to fight betokened the arrival of a sense of fairness, and this was followed by the gradual development of the rules of “civilized” warfare. Very early it became the custom not to fight...

.... The Social Value of War (785.6) 70:2.1 In past ages a fierce war would institute social changes and facilitate the adoption of new ideas such as would not have occurred naturally in ten thousand years. The terrible price paid for these certain war advantages was that society was temporarily thrown back into savagery; civilized reason had to abdicate. War is strong medicine, very costly and most...

... dangerous; while often curative of certain social disorders, it sometimes kills the patient, destroys the society. (785.7) 70:2.2 The constant necessity for national defense creates many new and advanced social adjustments. Society, today, enjoys the benefit of a long list of useful innovations which were at first wholly military and is even indebted to war for the dance, one of the early forms of which...

... was a military drill. (785.8) 70:2.3 War has had a social value to past civilizations because it: (785.9) 70:2.4 1. Imposed discipline, enforced co-operation. (785.10) 70:2.5 2. Put a premium on fortitude and courage. (785.11) 70:2.6 3. Fostered and solidified nationalism. (785.12) 70:2.7 4. Destroyed weak and unfit peoples. (785.13) 70:2.8 5. Dissolved the illusion of primitive equality and...

... selectively stratified society. (785.14) 70:2.9 War has had a certain evolutionary and selective value, but like slavery, it must sometime be abandoned as civilization slowly advances. Olden wars promoted travel and cultural intercourse; these ends are now better served by modern methods of transport and communication. Olden wars strengthened nations, but modern struggles disrupt civilized culture. Ancient...

... warfare resulted in the decimation of inferior peoples; the net result of modern conflict is the selective destruction of the best human stocks. Early wars promoted organization and efficiency, but these have now become the aims of modern industry. During past ages war was a social ferment which pushed civilization forward; this result is now better attained by ambition and invention. Ancient warfare...

... supported the concept of a God of battles, but modern man has been told that God is love. War has served many valuable purposes in the past, it has been an indispensable scaffolding in the building of civilization, but it is rapidly becoming culturally bankrupt — incapable of producing dividends of social gain in any way commensurate with the terrible losses attendant upon its invocation. (786.1) 70:2.10...

... At one time physicians believed in bloodletting as a cure for many diseases, but they have since discovered better remedies for most of these disorders. And so must the international bloodletting of war certainly give place to the discovery of better methods for curing the ills of nations. (786.2) 70:2.11 The nations of Urantia have already entered upon the gigantic struggle between nationalistic...

... Militarism is autocratic and cruel — savage. It promotes social organization among the conquerors but disintegrates the vanquished. Industrialism is more civilized and should be so carried on as to promote initiative and to encourage individualism. Society should in every way possible foster originality. (786.10) 70:2.19 Do not make the mistake of glorifying war; rather discern what it has done for society...

... so that you may the more accurately visualize what its substitutes must provide in order to continue the advancement of civilization. And if such adequate substitutes are not provided, then you may be sure that war will long continue. (786.11) 70:2.20 Man will never accept peace as a normal mode of living until he has been thoroughly and repeatedly convinced that peace is best for his material...

... welfare, and until society has wisely provided peaceful substitutes for the gratification of that inherent tendency periodically to let loose a collective drive designed to liberate those ever-accumulating emotions and energies belonging to the self-preservation reactions of the human species. (786.12) 70:2.21 But even in passing, war should be honored as the school of experience which compelled a race...

... of arrogant individualists to submit themselves to highly concentrated authority — a chief executive. Old-fashioned war did select the innately great men for leadership, but modern war no longer does this. To discover leaders society must now turn to the conquests of peace: industry, science, and social achievement. 3. Early Human Associations (787.1) 70:3.1 In the most primitive society the horde...

... bringing their choice maidens for the sex gratification of their onetime enemies, the sex appetite being utilized in combating the war urge. The tribe so honored would pay a return visit, with its offering of maidens; whereupon peace would be firmly established. And soon intermarriages between the families of the chiefs were sanctioned. 4. Clans and Tribes (788.3) 70:4.1 The first peace group was the...

... family, then the clan, the tribe, and later on the nation, which eventually became the modern territorial state. The fact that the present-day peace groups have long since expanded beyond blood ties to embrace nations is most encouraging, despite the fact that Urantia nations are still spending vast sums on war preparations. (788.4) 70:4.2 The clans were blood-tie groups within the tribe, and they owed...

... were always subordinate to the tribal chief, the early tribal governments being a loose confederation of clans. The native Australians never developed a tribal form of government. (788.12) 70:4.10 The clan peace chiefs usually ruled through the mother line; the tribal war chiefs established the father line. The courts of the tribal chiefs and early kings consisted of the headmen of the clans, whom it...

... neither peace nor war can be run by a debating society. The primitive “palavers” were seldom useful. The race early learned that an army commanded by a group of clan heads had no chance against a strong one-man army. War has always been a kingmaker. (789.4) 70:5.6 At first the war chiefs were chosen only for military service, and they would relinquish some of their authority during peacetimes, when...

... their duties were of a more social nature. But gradually they began to encroach upon the peace intervals, tending to continue to rule from one war on through to the next. They often saw to it that one war was not too long in following another. These early war lords were not fond of peace. (789.5) 70:5.7 In later times some chiefs were chosen for other than military service, being selected because of...

... unusual physique or outstanding personal abilities. The red men often had two sets of chiefs — the sachems, or peace chiefs, and the hereditary war chiefs. The peace rulers were also judges and teachers. (789.6) 70:5.8 Some early communities were ruled by medicine men, who often acted as chiefs. One man would act as priest, physician, and chief executive. Quite often the early royal insignias had...

... activities. (792.1) 70:7.16 All secret associations imposed an oath, enjoined confidence, and taught the keeping of secrets. These orders awed and controlled the mobs; they also acted as vigilance societies, thus practicing lynch law. They were the first spies when the tribes were at war and the first secret police during times of peace. Best of all they kept unscrupulous kings on the anxious seat. To...

... offset them, the kings fostered their own secret police. (792.2) 70:7.17 These societies gave rise to the first political parties. The first party government was “the strong” vs. “the weak.” In ancient times a change of administration only followed civil war, abundant proof that the weak had become strong. (792.3) 70:7.18 These clubs were employed by merchants to collect debts and by rulers to collect...

..., kinship, and marriage; the first social distinctions were based on sex, age, and blood — kinship to the chief. (792.8) 70:8.4 2. Personal — the recognition of ability, endurance, skill, and fortitude; soon followed by the recognition of language mastery, knowledge, and general intelligence. (792.9) 70:8.5 3. Chance — war and emigration resulted in the separating of human groups. Class evolution was...

... in the days of barbarism there was entirely too much war to permit representative government to function effectively. In the long struggle between division of authority and unity of command, the dictator won. The early and diffuse powers of the primitive council of elders were gradually concentrated in the person of the absolute monarch. After the arrival of real kings the groups of elders...

... Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: QUESTIONER: SPEAKING IN THE CONTEXT OF KRISHNA AND JESUS, YOU OBSERVED, "THE CIVILIZATION THAT BEGAN WITH THE CROSS HAD TO END UP IN AN ATOMIC WAR, AND THEREFORE THE MODERN CIVILIZATION IS FACED WITH A CHOICE BETWEEN THE CROSS AND THE FLUTE." BUT EH QUESTION IS THAT THE CIVILIZATION THAT BEGAN WITH THE FLUTE...

... ALSO ENDED UP IN A WAR - THE WAR OF MAHABHARAT. PLEASE EXPLAIN THE ANOMALY. The cross is the symbol of death. It is okay as an emblem of the grave, but it is dangerous to accept it as a symbol of life. But many so-called religious people have treated human life and body as no more than a grave, and it is going to result in a disaster. A man bearing a crucifix on his breast declares that life is not...

... led him to the doorstep of war - a war that is going to be a total war. For the first time, mankind is on the brink of committing global suicide. But he has asked for it by opting for misery. We know very well that sometimes individuals driven up the wall commit suicide in despair. But for the first time a situation for collective suicide has arisen, when the whole of mankind has become so miserable...

... 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...

... last two world wars were mostly fought by Christian countries. A few non-Christian countries that were involved in these wars were dragged into them by their imperialist masters, who were all Christians. Japan was the only non-Christian country that willingly joined the war as an aggressor. But Japan has ceased to be an eastern country except geographically; it is now virtually a part of the western...

... 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...

... except happiness, blissfulness, is a religious quality. In this sense Krishna is truly a religious person, whose whole being exudes nothing but happiness and bliss. And such a person can bless the whole of mankind, he is a living blessing to the world. But you ask why did the war of the Mahabharat happen in a civilization that had accepted the flute as its symbol? I say, this happened in spite of...

... Krishna's flute. Krishna is not the cause of the Mahabharat. There is no relationship whatsoever between the flute and war. But there exists a logical relationship between the cross and war. The Mahabharat took place in spite of Krishna and his flute. It simply means we are so attached to sorrow, so steeped in misery that even Krishna's flute fails to bring a ray of hope and joy to our hearts. The flute...

... continued to play, and we plunged into the vortex of war. The flute could not change our sado-masochistic minds; Krishna's flute could not become our flute too. It is interesting to know how difficult it is for someone to share in another's happiness. It is so easy to share in another's sorrow. You can easily cry with someone crying, but it is so hard to laugh with some one laughing. You can easily...

... the simple reason that we don't know what happiness is, we are only unhappy in ourselves. I repeat, the Mahabharat happens in spite of the flute. It is interesting to note that after the advent of the cross it takes two thousand years for war to grow to its present dimensions of a massive war enveloping the whole earth, but the Mahabharat takes place even when Krishna is playing his flute. The truth...

... is that the flute and its message is not rightly understood and appreciated. It fails to make an impression on the sado-masochistic minds of the people. Another thing worth considering in this context is that Krishna participates personally in the war. You cannot think of Jesus joining a war of any kind. If someone suggests to him to do so, he will say, "Have you gone mad? Don't you know what...

... he does not ask for more than a mile." Now this person cannot be goaded into fighting a war. It looks somewhat paradoxical and complex that while Jesus refuses even to resist evil, Krishna feels no compunction in leading a destructive war like the Mahabharat. But the reason is obvious. For Jesus, life is so miserable and meaningless that it is not worth fighting for. For Krishna, on the other...

... hand, life is so blissful that even a war can be risked for it. I would like to go into this matter rather deeply, because it is significant for us and our times. For Jesus, life as it is is so utterly miserable and meaningless that a slap or two on the cheek will not add to its pile of miseries. It can be said that his cup of suffering is so full that any more suffering will not make a difference...

.... So he turns his other cheek to you so you don't have to take the trouble of turning it yourself. He is already so miserable that you cannot make him any more miserable. For this reason, Jesus cannot be persuaded to take part in war. He alone can agree to fight who declares that life is a blessing and not a curse, that life is bliss and not suffering. He will stake everything to defend the joy and...

... bliss of life. He will do anything for the sake of life. Not only Jesus, even Mahavira and Buddha will not say yes to war. Only Krishna is capable of doing it. If there is any other person in the world of spiritualism and religion who can come near Krishna in this respect, it is Mohammed. At some level, at some depth Mohammed is closer to Krishna than others, although he cannot be fully with Krishna...

..., 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...

... naturally as he can dance. It is remarkable that a man like Krishna, even when he goes to the battlefield, is happy and joyful; he never loses his bliss. And men like Jesus are sad even as they keep a distance from the battlefield. Krishna can be blissful even on the battlefield, because war comes to him as part of life; it cannot be segregated from life. As I said earlier, Krishna does not divide life...

... into black and white, good and evil, as the moralists and monks do. He does not subscribe to the view that war is purely evil. He says that nothing is good or evil under all circumstances. There are occasions when poison can work like nectar and nectar can work like poison. There are moments when blessings turn into curses and curses into blessings. Nothing is certain for all time and space, under...

... all circumstances. The same thing can be good in one time and bad in another; it is really determined by the moment at hand. Nothing can be predetermined and prejudged. If someone does so. he is in for troubles in life, because life is a flux where everything changes from moment to moment. So Krishna lives in the moment; nothing is predetermined for him. For long, Krishna does his best to avert war...

..., but when he finds that it is inescapable he accepts it without hesitation. He does not want that one should go to war with a heavy heart, he does not believe in doing anything reluctantly in fact. If war becomes inescapable he will go to it with all his heart and mind. With all his heart he tries to avert it, and when he fails, he goes to war whole-heartedly. In the beginning of war, as you know, he...

... has no mind to take any active part in it. He tells Arjuna that he will not use his particular weapon - sudarshan - on the battlefield, he will only work as Arjuna's charioteer. But then a moment comes when he takes the sudarshan in his hand and becomes an active participant in the war. As I said, Krishna lives in the moment; he lives moment to moment. In fact, every blissful person lives in the...

... happens in spite of Krishna. And yet Krishna becomes a participant in the war, because a partisan of bliss can become a partisan of war too. And Krishna believes that war is as much part of life as peace is. One cannot be without the other. And war will be with us as long as life exists on this earth. Maybe, the character of war will change, its structure and shape will vary, its plane, strategy, and...

... style will be different, but war will continue. It is impossible that war will ever disappear from the earth. It can only disappear from the earth if man himself disappears from here. Or it can disappear if man becomes perfect. Unless the human race as a whole reaches its perfection, or becomes extinct as a species, there is no way to abolish war. Man as he is cannot do without war. War has always...

... been with us; it is with us now, and it is going to be with us in the future. Then what is the problem in regard to war. Krishna's answer to this question is, war should be righteous, it should be waged for the highest values of life like freedom and truth. In the same way, peace needs to be righteous. Remember, some kinds of peace can be unrighteous, irreligious, and war can be made to uphold...

... religion and truth. The pacifist thinks that peace is always righteous, and the warmonger thinks that war is right in every case. Krishna is neither a partisan of peace nor of war; he really has no "isms." He is not bound to any ideology, he is liquid like water. He is never stagnant, he is always moving with life. He is not solid and immobile like a rock; he is fluid like air. So he says...

... as your words reveal you to be. When war faces you, war that forces of unrighteousness have unleashed, it does not become you to talk like a coward. Where is your manliness, your skill?" Peace is not necessarily righteous, nor is war unrighteous. It depends on the conditions that bring the forces of peace and war into play. But then you can say that warmongers are right in claiming that war is...

.... Length: N.A. GOD IS DAY AND NIGHT, WINTER AND SUMMER, WAR AND PEACE, SATIETY AND WANT. SEA WATER IS AT ONCE VERY PURE AND VERY FOUL: IT IS DRINKABLE AND HEALTHFUL FOR FISHES, BUT UNDRINKABLE AND DEADLY FOR MEN. THE NATURE OF DAY AND NIGHT IS ONE. THE WAY UP AND THE WAY DOWN ARE ONE AND THE SAME. EVEN SLEEPERS ARE WORKERS AND COLLABORATORS IN WHAT GOES ON IN THE UNIVERSE. IN THE CIRCLE THE BEGINNING AND...

... ideas about him in your mind. Empty you go to him, because that is the only way to go: empty you become a door, he can enter. Only receptivity is needed, not concepts, not philosophies, doctrines -- this is what Heraclitus means. These words are very, very wonderful. Listen: GOD IS DAY AND NIGHT, WINTER AND SUMMER, WAR AND PEACE, SATIETY AND WANT. Never have such wonderful words been uttered before...

..., and never since. GOD IS DAY AND NIGHT, WINTER AND SUMMER, WAR AND PEACE, SATIETY AND WANT. Many have said many things about God, but no one is comparable to Heraclitus. There have been people who said: "God is light," but then where do you put the dark? Then you have to explain from where the dark comes. "God is day," many have said, "God is sun, light, the source of light...

..., it is always there. It exists as if without any cause, uncaused; it was always, it will be always. So the Essenes chose darkness as the symbol of God, but Heraclitus alone chooses both. To choose one extreme is still logical, rational; reason is working. To choose both together is irrational; reason is simply bewildered. God is day and night -- both together, no choice -- winter and summer, war and...

... peace. It will be difficult for people like Tolstoy, Gandhi, Bertrand Russell, if God is war AND peace. They think God is peace; war is created by men. War is ugly, something the Devil may have invented -- God is peace. Tolstoy cannot agree, a Gandhi cannot agree that God is war also. A Hitler cannot agree that God is peace also; God is war. Nietzsche cannot agree that God is peace also; God is war...

... peace; then war is from the Devil. But it is not possible. What is peace without war? Is there any possibility of peace without war? And will not that peace be simply dead if there is no war? Just think: no war in the world, just peace -- what type of peace will it be? It will be cold, it will be a dark night, dead. War gives intensity, tone, sharpness, life. But if there is only war and no peace...

..., then too death will happen. If you choose one opposite of the polarity, if you choose one polarity, everything will be dead because life exists between polarities -- war and peace, both; satiety and want; contentment and discontentment, both; hunger, want, desire, passion, peace, satiety, contentment; the way and the goal, both. Difficult to comprehend, but this is the truth. It is God who desires in...

... light also, coolness which is warmth also -- if you have not known that, you have missed the greatest climax. Where opposites meet, there happens the ecstasy, the ultimate, the ultimate orgasm with the universe -- where opposites meet. God is both man and woman, war and peace. And man has been in difficulty because he has always been choosing. The society has always remained lopsided, all societies...

... and civilizations have remained lopsided, because everything depends on choice. We have created a society in the world which is male-oriented, war-oriented. The woman has been cut out, she has no contribution to make -- she is dark, she is peace, she is silence, she is passivity, compassion, not war; woman is satiety, not desire. Man is desire -- the excitement, the adventure, war; always going...

... somewhere, always reaching somewhere, finding something, seeking, searching. Man is the vagabond, woman is the home. But when they both meet -- when the vagabond meets the home, where desire and satiety meet, where activity and passivity meet -- there arises the greatest harmony, the hidden harmony. We created the society male-oriented, so there is war -- and the peace is not true. Our peace is just a gap...

... between two wars; it is not true, it is just a preparation for another war. Go back and look at history: the first world war and the second world war -- the gap between is not peace. The gap between is just getting ready for another war. It is not real peace, it is just a preparation. And if peace is not real, the war will also be unreal. In the past, war was beautiful; now it is ugly, because it has no...

... opposite to it. In the past warriors were beautiful people; now warriors are just ugly. War doesn't give you anything; otherwise, it is an adventure, it brings you to a peak of existence, you put yourself totally into it. Warriors were beautiful: they encountered death, they went to meet death on the front. Now a warrior is nowhere to be seen -- he is hidden behind the tanks, throwing bombs, not knowing...

... man who dropped the bomb, he was not aware who was going to die; and then he went back home and had a good sleep. He had done his duty, hiding himself. What type of war is this? It has become ugly. In the old days, to be a warrior was one of the greatest possibilities -- bringing your potential to a peak. But now it is nothing, it is just like an ordinary mechanical duty: you push the button and the...

... bomb falls and kills -- you are not confronting anybody. War without real peace also becomes false. And when war is false, how can peace be real? We have been choosing. We have been creating society according to a male pattern. The man has become the center, the woman has been thrown off center. It is lopsided. Now there are women who are thinking of creating a society according to the pattern of the...

... woman, where man has to be thrown off the center. That too will be lopsided. God is both male and female; there is no choice. And male and female are opposites: dark and light, life and death. And opposites are there. A hidden harmony has to be sought. Those who come to know the hidden harmony, they have realized the truth. GOD IS DAY AND NIGHT, WINTER AND SUMMER, WAR AND PEACE, SATIETY AND WANT. SEA...

... WATER IS AT ONCE VERY PURE AND VERY FOUL: IT IS DRINKABLE AND HEALTHFUL FOR FISHES, BUT UNDRINKABLE AND DEADLY FOR MEN. And everything is good and everything is bad -- it depends. War is good sometimes, peace is bad sometimes -- it depends. Sometimes peace is nothing but impotence, then it is not good; it may be peace, but it is not good. Sometimes war is nothing but madness, then it is not good. And...

... one has to watch and see, without any prejudice. Not every war is bad and not every peace is good, and one should not become addicted. For Nietzsche, every war is good; for Gandhi, every peace is good -- both are addicted. And God is both. Says Heraclitus: SEA WATER IS AT ONCE VERY PURE AND VERY FOUL... For fishes it is life; for you it can become death. So don't create absolute ideas, remain...

... flexibility. You look to the situation, you become aware to the situation, you are sensitive to the situation -- and then you act. The action comes through the encounter of the situation and you, not from a past mind. THE NATURE OF DAY AND NIGHT IS ONE. War and peace are one; and desire and desirelessness are one. The phenomenon is the same: peace is war inactive; war is peace active. The nature of man and...

...Of live and love and of war and warriors...

... Osho Zarathustra A God That Can Dance: Of live and love and of war and warriors Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Zarathustra A God That Can Dance   Next > Of live and love and of war and warriors From: Osho Date: Fri, 30 March 1987 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Zarathustra A God That Can Dance Chapter #: 9 Location: pm in Chuang Tzu...

... METHOD IN MADNESS. AND TO ME TOO, WHO LOVE LIFE, IT SEEMS THAT BUTTERFLIES AND SOAP-BUBBLES, AND WHATEVER IS LIKE THEM AMONG MEN, KNOW MOST ABOUT HAPPINESS. TO SEE THESE LIGHT, FOOLISH, DAINTY, AFFECTING LITTLE SOULS FLUTTER ABOUT - THAT MOVES ZARATHUSTRA TO TEARS AND TO SONG. I SHOULD BELIEVE ONLY IN A GOD WHO UNDERSTOOD HOW TO DANCE. OF WAR AND WARRIORS WE DO NOT WISH TO BE SPARED BY OUR BEST ENEMIES...

..., NOR BY THOSE WHOM WE LOVE FROM THE VERY HEART. SO LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH! MY BROTHERS IN WAR! I LOVE YOU FROM THE VERY HEART, I AM AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF YOUR KIND. AND I AM ALSO YOUR BEST ENEMY. SO LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH!... YOU SHOULD BE SUCH MEN AS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AN ENEMY - FOR your ENEMY. AND WITH SOME OF YOU THERE IS HATE AT FIRST SIGHT. YOU SHOULD SEEK YOUR ENEMY, YOU SHOULD...

... WAGE YOUR WAR - A WAR FOR YOUR OPINIONS. AND IF YOUR OPINION IS DEFEATED, YOUR HONESTY SHOULD STILL CRY TRIUMPH OVER THAT! YOU SHOULD LOVE PEACE AS A MEANS TO NEW WARS. AND THE SHORT PEACE MORE THAN THE LONG. I DO NOT EXHORT YOU TO WORK BUT TO BATTLE. I DO NOT EXHORT YOU TO PEACE, BUT TO VICTORY. MAY YOUR WORK BE A BATTLE, MAY YOUR PEACE BE A VICTORY! ONE CAN BE SILENT AND SIT STILL ONLY WHEN ONE HAS...

... ARROW AND BOW; OTHERWISE ONE BABBLES AND QUARRELS. MAY YOUR PEACE BE A VICTORY! YOU SAY IT IS THE GOOD CAUSE THAT HALLOWS EVEN WAR? I TELL YOU: IT IS THE GOOD WAR THAT HALLOWS EVERY CAUSE. WAR AND COURAGE HAVE DONE MORE GREAT THINGS THAN CHARITY. NOT YOUR PITY BUT YOUR BRAVERY HAS SAVED THE UNFORTUNATE UP TO NOW.... THUS LIVE YOUR LIFE OF OBEDIENCE AND WAR! WHAT GOOD IS LONG LIFE? WHAT WARRIOR WANTS...

... available to be enslaved. WE DO NOT WISH TO BE SPARED BY OUR BEST ENEMIES, NOR BY THOSE WHOM WE LOVE FROM THE VERY HEART. SO LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH! MY BROTHERS IN WAR! I LOVE YOU FROM THE VERY HEART, I AM AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF YOUR KIND. AND I AM ALSO YOUR BEST ENEMY. SO LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH!... YOU SHOULD BE SUCH MEN AS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AN ENEMY - FOR YOUR ENEMY. This has been my...

... stronger, to be great in war, to be clever, to be alert of the opportunities. Zarathustra is not against war; that's where he differs from Gautam Buddha and Mahavira. It is for you to remember that it was only after Mahavira and Gautam Buddha, two great teachers, the highest quality teachers, that India started falling down. It should have been otherwise. After Buddha and Mahavira, India should have...

... in the state of barbarity. What happened? Suddenly, India started falling down. If you listen to Zarathustra, you can see the reason. Both Gautam Buddha and Mahavira taught India non-violence - no war, but peace. But peace is a very delicate phenomenon. People were very much ready for it, not because they have understood Gautam Buddha or Mahavira, but because it was a good consolation to their...

... cowardliness. Peacefulness is a beautiful word to cover up your impotence. No war seems to be a good defense, and the ultimate result was that small tribes of barbarious people, who were thousands of years behind India, conquered India - butchered people, raped the women, burned cities. India remained with the consolation: We are peaceful people, we are non-violent people, we cannot fight. For two thousand...

... sentences which created the second world war, but Adolf Hitler could not understand the delicate and the subtle meaning of Zarathustra. Zarathustra is saying that you need not be aggressive, you need not be destructive, but you have to be always prepared. If you want peace, your bow and arrow should be ready. He's not saying that you start killing. He's saying that if worst comes to worst, the enemy...

... should not be left to destroy you, to rape your women, to destroy your property, to take away your dignity, to make you slaves. MY BROTHERS IN WAR, I LOVE YOU FROM THE VERY HEART. I AM, AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN, OF YOUR KIND. If one really wants to be non-violent, one should be a warrior, one should be a samurai, one should know the art of swordsmanship, and one should know archery - not to kill anyone...

... IN WAR! I LOVE YOU FROM THE VERY HEART, I AM AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF YOUR KIND. I am a warrior, and still I want to say to you: AND I AM ALSO YOUR BEST ENEMY, because I am not aggressive. Remember, I am a warrior. To put it differently, one has to be a non- aggressive warrior; only then, can one protect his dignity, and his freedom. SO LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH!... YOU SHOULD BE SUCH MEN AS ARE...

... of hate, but to fight for the sheer joy. The challenge should not go unreplied. YOU SHOULD SEEK YOUR ENEMY, YOU SHOULD WAGE YOUR WAR - A WAR FOR YOUR OPINIONS. And it is not only the ordinary war in which you fight with arms; you should also seek your enemy for your opinions. I have been around the world, challenging all kinds of prejudices, challenging all kinds of opinions which according to me...

... convinced by others. It is truly the real war: the war of opinions. The war with arms is ugly, is animal; but the war between opinions, philosophies, religions is to raise the whole of humanity higher. But people have become so impotent in every direction that if you say anything that goes against somebody's prejudice, immediately he goes to the court. He does not come to me; he goes to the court: "...

... MEANS TO NEW WARS. You should not become a pacifist, because to become a pacifist is to become victim to those who do not believe in pacifism. You should love peace, but you should always be ready for new wars. Those wars need not happen, but you should not relax your bow, and you should not forget your arrows. Your swords should not collect dust. You should be ready always for war, ordinary war, or...

... intellectual war; but your readiness should be there. Your very readiness will give you a beauty, and a grace. AND THE SHORT PEACE MORE THAN THE LONG. The longer the peace, the more one relaxes, the more one starts thinking that there is going to be no war. One should be aware that war can be any moment on any level. I DO NOT EXHORT YOU TO WORK BUT TO BATTLE. I DO NOT EXHORT YOU TO PEACE, BUT TO VICTORY. MAY...

... YOUR WORK BE A BATTLE, MAY YOUR PEACE BE A VICTORY! ONE CAN BE SILENT AND SIT STILL ONLY WHEN ONE HAS ARROW AND BOW; OTHERWISE, ONE BABBLES AND QUARRELS. MAY YOUR PEACE BE A VICTORY. YOU SAY IT IS THE GOOD CAUSE THAT HALLOWS EVEN WAR? Zarathustra is certainly a man of tremendously great insights. YOU SAY IT IS THE GOOD CAUSE THAT HALLOWS EVEN WAR? I TELL YOU: IT IS THE GOOD WAR THAT HALLOWS EVERY...

... CAUSE. It is not the good cause of communism, democracy, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, God - these are "good causes" for which people have been warring for thousands of years. But Zarathustra says that it is not the good causes that make the wars holy, that make the wars crusades; on the contrary, it is the good war, a war which is an art in itself, that hallows every cause. In fact, I am...

... controlled by remote controls. The plane will come to the target, drop the bombs, and return to its airport. But this is sheer destructiveness, stupid destructiveness. It is not war: it is pure violence; it is a suicide which should be avoided. Wars should not be condemned: the weapons that we have developed should be condemned. War as such, is an art, like any other art: painting, music, dance...

..., architecture; so is archery, swordsmanship, wrestling. If peace reigns over the world - no battle, no war, no challenge - human beings will become pygmies; then there is no possibility for the metamorphosis. Then camels will become even uglier, and will forget completely that they have a possibility to become lions. WAR AND COURAGE HAVE DONE MORE GREAT THINGS THAN CHARITY. In fact, just like Zarathustra, I...

... about this: the Nobel Prize is being given to people who create peace, who serve the poor, who create great literature, or scientific inventions - and with each Prize goes almost one quarter million dollars. But do you know from where this money has come? The man in whose name the Nobel Prize is being given earned the whole money in the first world war by creating weapons. He was the greatest weapon...

... collecting funds to raise these orphans. And then these orphans will produce more children - strange games. Poverty can be prevented. Anything that needs charity should be prevented - charity is an ugly concept. Sharing is another thing. You share with your equals. Charity means degrading the other person. Zarathustra is right: WAR AND COURAGE HAVE DONE MORE GREAT THINGS THAN CHARITY. NOT YOUR PITY BUT...

... YOUR BRAVERY HAS SAVED THE UNFORTUNATE UP TO NOW.... THUS LIVE YOUR LIFE OF OBEDIENCE AND WAR! WHAT GOOD IS LONG LIFE? WHAT WARRIOR WANTS TO BE SPARED? Long life is not the goal. Even if you have a small life, have it in its totality, have it in its intensity - make it a song, make it a dance. Just the length of life is absolutely meaningless. The depth of life has intrinsic value. These are...

... statements which will go against your prejudices. First you will have to understand them before your prejudices start distorting them, disturbing them, changing their color, interpreting them. Keep your prejudices away; first, try to understand what he means. And once you have understood, you will not think that he is for war. He is not for violence, he is not for destruction. But he does not want man to...

... lose the qualities of the warrior. He does not want man to become a coward. He does not want man incapable of accepting challenges in life, whether they are of war or of intellectual opinions. Man should be ready always: his sword should be sharp, and his intelligence should be sharp too. Then only, there can be peace; when everybody is so intelligent, so artful, and so ready to die, though not to be...

.... Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, I SEEM TO HAVE HEARD YOU SAY THAT PEOPLE ARE ATTRACTED TO WAR BECAUSE IT IS EXCITING, WHEREAS PEACE IS BORING. IN MY OWN EXPERIENCE I SEEM TO ENJOY INDULGING MY PERSONAL DRAMAS AND TRAUMAS, AND WHEN I'M NOT INDULGING THEM LIFE IS A BIT FLAT. IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE ATTRACTED TO PEACE? WILL THE NEW HUMANITY FIND PEACE, RATHER THAN WAR, EXCITING...

...? It has never happened. Man has never found peace exciting. It seems that the way man is, war certainly will remain exciting, because the peace that you know is not the real peace; it is the peace of a cemetery, not the peace of this mandir! No war is going on, everything is silent - do you think it is flat? The new man will know this peace twenty-four hours round the clock, waking or sleeping. And...

... the peace that is not only absence of war but a positive flowering within you, a positive wordless song within you, is totally different. Up to now man has known peace, but that peace was only preparation for war. History can be divided into two parts: the period when people are fighting, and the period when people are exhausted, tired, ruined, preparing for another war from scratch. War or...

... preparation for war: these are the only two periods human history has known up to now. Peace has never been known, because peace is something which the individual has to create. War is something which the crowd, the nation, the politician, the ideologies, the churches create. Peace, each individual has to create. It will be far better to say that he has to discover it, because it has not to be created, it...

... not going on around you, naturally you feel flat. It seems nothing is happening, time has stopped; you feel dead. It is a well-established fact that whenever there is war in the world, wherever it is, people look more happy, excited. They wake up early in the morning waiting for the newspaper to come. What is happening? What has happened last night? They cannot wait, they want to know it immediately...

.... People are carrying their transistors glued to their ears not to miss a single bit of information. Life is no longer flat, there is excitement, because every moment something new is happening - victory or defeat, something is happening. You can look forward to some news. When there is no war, then tomorrow's newspaper will be carrying exactly the same as today's news. I used to live in a place... just...

... party. Their lives have become flat, they are ready even to make Adolf Hitler a religious prophet. They are ready to do anything, but excitement is needed. After each ten or fifteen years the flatness becomes so thick in everybody's mind that a war becomes a certainty. Any excuse will do. Forty years have passed since the second world war. This is the longest period. The credit does not go to you, the...

... credit goes to the nuclear weapons, because both the parties which are capable of fighting, the Soviet Union and America, are afraid. They know perfectly well nobody is going to win, that everybody is going to be finished forever. The whole of life on the earth is going to disappear. It does not matter who starts the war, the other party will start only ten minutes later. So anybody can start, it does...

... not matter. The other party will be only ten minutes late, and in ten minutes you cannot be victorious. You can destroy a few cities, but you cannot be victorious. Your missiles are aiming at Moscow; their missiles are aiming at New York, Washington, San Francisco - just a push-button game. They are frozen out of fear, that's why forty years have passed. And I know that unless the war begins...

... accidentally, the third world war is almost impossible. It is very close, any moment it can happen, but it will be just an accident: some technological defect, some scientist getting nagged too much by his wife, some politician losing his power, his grip, some country wanting to have the attention of the whole world, some crackpot somewhere. There are so many crackpots, and most of them are in politics. Pots...

... without cracks don't go into politics; they have other, useful things to do. A crackpot is of no use. That's why politics is the only profession in the world where no qualification is needed. Everybody is perfectly qualified. Now there is so much power in the hands of the politicians that they themselves are afraid. They would like to win the war, but it is impossible; both the parties are equally...

... balanced. And the war is not going to be between two countries; nuclear weapons will spread it all over the world. Perhaps within twenty-four hours all life on earth will disappear. This is frightening. That's why the war has not happened, and perhaps may not happen. But it is always very close; anything can go wrong. I was just talking to one journalist, and I was saying to him that you should not...

... depend on machines. And now the whole war game is not between man and man - that is out of date - the whole war game is between technological nuclear weapons. Even the missiles which will carry the weapons will not have any pilots with them, there is no need. The missile itself can be programmed where to go, where to drop the bomb. I was saying to him that man has become so dependent on technological...

... deepening. Unless we can create millions of people around the earth who have experienced this kind of peace, war is inevitable, because people cannot survive flat lives. It is better to go into a war and have a little excitement, although it means death. If a man who has not known inner peace is forced to live peacefully, he will either murder or kill himself. Even that will provide some excitement...

... area of loving energy. People will start stopping you in the street and asking you what has happened to you - it is something invisible, but very tangible. I am going to remain here. You are going to spread like waves in the ocean to the whole earth. I am not fighting against the third world war, for the simple reason that there is only one way to fight it, and that is to create a peaceful humanity...

... ON AIDS AND ON THE THIRD WORLD WAR, BUT NEVER ABOUT BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER. DO YOU THINK THERE IS STILL A NEED FOR THE THIRD WORLD WAR EVEN IF TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORLD POPULATION IS GOING TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH FROM AIDS? Certainly there is no need for the third world war. AIDS will do whatever the politicians want to be done by a third world war. But it is not in my hands. Politicians don't want to...

... faster. Perhaps they are not worried because they know that anyway the third world war is going to be there - AIDS or no AIDS. In the politician's mind it seems that there is no way out anymore: they are geared towards the third world war. Yes, it is a concern to me. The third world war can easily be avoided if people learn a little meditativeness. Then their whole excitement and support for war...

... out.... Now they have nothing to lose, but they can give something - AIDS - to as many friends, lovers, as possible. And each person who comes in contact with these people will become a new source. Within fifteen years, the world will be covered with people who have AIDS, and it will be impossible to prevent it. So you are right - what is the need of the third world war? The need is that the...

... don't agree with the idea that these two contending parties, the Soviet Union and America, are not going to come to an agreement. They are bound to come to an agreement, because the forces are equal and war is meaningless. The only meaning of war is if someone becomes victorious and someone is defeated. That's how wars have always been. But if a war is going to destroy the whole globe, and both the...

... forces are equally balanced, and both the forces are aware of the fact that after the war there will be nobody even to write the history - who won the war, who was defeated in the war.... Both the contenders will disappear. This fact is preventing them from clashing. And this fact will become more and more powerful, because they are both piling up more and more nuclear weapons. The more nuclear weapons...

... there are, the less is the possibility of a third world war. So first, I do not agree that they are not capable of coming to an agreement. In fact, without it being said, the agreement is already there. One thing both the parties know: that war is going to destroy all. War for the first time in history has become meaningless. So what the Italian philosopher suggested is wrong. Secondly, he suggested...

..., burning people alive, destroying cities, putting cities on fire. Which pope has been able to prevent a war? And you say, "Unfortunately, nobody listens to the pope." And lastly, you ask me if I am given the chance one day, what kind of agreement I would like to have between the Soviet Union and America. One day is too long; I do not need to do that much work, and don't think I cannot manage it...

... weapons in the Pacific." And as far as little wars are concerned, you can go on playing the game, there is no problem. Man needs to fight once in a while; till the whole of humanity becomes meditative he will need to. So with old methods, the methods that were used before the first world war, you can continue to play the game. It is just football, it is not much of a problem. To me, it is so simple...

... totally different way than he has ever responded before. For example, there has never been so much awareness about peace, and there has never been so much antagonism towards war. In fact, war was always respected in the past, and peace was never thought of as anything more than a gap between two wars -- nothing positive, just a preparation for a new war. You need some time. A war destroys so much that...

... you cannot immediately start another war; hence a time of peace is needed. This is not authentic peace, it is simply cold war. The war and all its components continue underground, preparing for a more dangerous and a more destructive war in the future. The whole past has been respectful of the warrior. It is only just now in these few past years that war has become a dirty four-letter word, and...

... peace has become for the first time a desire and a longing of the very heart of humanity. As far as I am concerned, war has become almost impossible. The impossibility of war is based on two fundamentals. One is a human consciousness about the futility of war. Nobody can claim that it is something beautiful, something honorable, something which gives dignity to humanity. Slowly, slowly it has...

... penetrated into human consciousness that war takes away all dignity. It makes man fall below animals, because even animals don't kill their own species; lions don't kill other lions, deer don't kill other deer. It is only man who kills other human beings. It is a disqualification, not a great quality to be honored. So the first thing is that war has fallen into disrespect, into utter futility, stupidity...

...; it has lost all its past glory and significance. Secondly, the war materials -- atomic energy and nuclear weapons -- have reached to such a point that they have made war impossible. Unless the whole of humanity suddenly goes mad, war is impossible, because the only purpose of war was to defeat the enemy, the only purpose was to be victorious. Victory was the end. But now, with nuclear weapons...

..., there is no defeat, no victory; no one is defeated, no one becomes victorious, all are dead. The whole life on the planet simply disappears. What Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Zarathustra and the great teachers of humanity have not been able to convince man about, has been done by nuclear weapons. Now war means only one thing: a global suicide. And no man is ready to commit suicide. In fact, the...

... closer comes the possibility of a third world war, the deeper becomes the urge to live -- and to live more consciously, and to live more lovingly, and to live more intensely. A longing for life itself has never been so intense and so profound as it is today. I predict the impossibility of any war in the future. And this is going to change a thousand and one things in life, because if war becomes...

... moment, because he can see the possibility of what I am saying: that there is not going to be any war, because you cannot convince five billion people to die for no purpose. Gorbachev has made history by taking the step single- handedly, but America is still piling up.... The American masses should rise up in a rebellious uproar against their own government, because now even Ronald Reagan cannot say...

... shocking that not only was America known, it was so well known that maps of it existed. Then what had happened? In Indian mythology, one of the great warriors of Mahabharat, the great Indian war of five thousand years before, had married a woman from Mexico. The word in Sanskrit literature for Mexico is Makshika. Mexico is a distortion of a Sanskrit word Makshika, because the description is exactly of...

... are not going to listen to the protest of the whole intelligent world, then the only way will be an absolute boycott; forgive the fools - - and forget them, so they can be discovered again by some Columbus. The steps that Gorbachev is taking are immensely valuable, and are very convincing to the whole world that his intentions are for a beautiful co-existence. There is no need of any war. You can...

... begin. Chidananda, you are right that we cannot throw away the responsibility on some fictitious God, that he will end the world. We are perfectly aware that if a third world war happens, we will be the only responsible people to have destroyed ourselves. I think changes happen only in such dangerous and critical moments. If life goes on smoothly and comfortably great changes don't happen, but if life...