The power of the mystic

Question 1:

It was not total trust. Don't deceive yourself. A trust that is total cannot be shaken by anything. It is unconditional. You have just been hallucinating about total trust. Neither do you know what totality means, nor do you know what trust means.

If you trust existence, guns are part of existence too, just as roseflowers. And if you want roseflowers, you will need guns to protect them. But many people think life just a bed of roses. What are you going to do with the thorns? Those guns are the thorns. And it is such a simple thing to understand, even an idiot can understand it.

We have not harmed anybody, we are not going to harm anybody. But we are not going to allow anybody to harm you either. To harm is ugly. To allow somebody to harm you is the same, it is ugly.

Life in both the cases is harmed.

And what can these three dozen guns - which are not even automatic - do in a world which is full of nuclear weapons? America has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the whole world. Why should they be afraid of three dozen guns which have not been used at all in four years? And there is no possibility of using them....

But if you want, I can just withdraw them today. But then don't object if Hell's Angels come and harass you, if fanatic Christians come and harass you, if all kinds of criminals come and destroy your commune. Do you think that will be a more beautiful scene than these three dozen guns, which are not doing any harm to anybody? These guns were not there in the very beginning, but fanatic Christians started coming and harassing people, Hell's Angels started coming and being a nuisance.

You cannot remain naive about the facts of life. It is a struggle. In this struggle you have to remember only one thing, that you are not on the destructive side, that you are not attacking anybody, that you are not harassing anybody.

Since we have had three dozen guns and a security force, those fanatic Christians and Hell's Angels and Witnesses of Jehovah have not come again. It seems the gun is far more powerful than Jehovah, more powerful than Jesus Christ. And these are toy guns; in a nuclear world, these guns don't matter.

The attorney general has alerted the army. I have never seen such cowards in my life - to alert the army so that within three hours, any time, they can reach to Rajneeshpuram. People who are living silently, peacefully, meditating, rejoicing, dancing, doing no harm to anybody - for them the army is alerted. The army is not alerted against all the criminals in New York, in San Francisco and L.A.

Every moment there is a crime committed in New York - that is okay, that is the accepted American way of life. We are strangers; we are not committing any crime every moment. One person is dying of AIDS in L.A. every day. That means there must be thousands of homosexuals in L.A. Do you want to compete with New York and L.A. and San Francisco? Do you want to follow the American way of life, which is nothing but crime?

If you want, we can withdraw those three dozen guns; they don't matter. But you are being simply stupid. Those three dozen guns are keeping all the cowards away from you. And in Oregon I don't see anybody other than cowards.

We have been inviting the governor, the attorney general, to come and see: "Be our guest. Stay here for a day or two, go around the commune and see; these people are not criminals." They have never accepted the invitation. These cowards are afraid of toy guns, so why not keep them afraid?

And you are asking me, "People are searched...." It can be stopped, but then I cannot stay here with you, because the government is making every effort to destroy you. Then drugs will be brought in, planted here, and you will be arrested. That is their idea: one thousand sannyasins behind bars.

Right now they have no reason, but drugs just have to be brought and put in your houses. While you are working in the fields, making the roads, listening to me, your houses can become dangerous.

Then who is going to be responsible for those drugs? It is perfectly right; anybody who enters here should be totally searched. We don't want any kind of interference with our people's lives.

But if you are happy, you have nothing to lose - you will only lose me. Then I cannot stay here a single moment, because I cannot see you imprisoned, harassed, beaten; your houses bulldozed - which you have created with tremendous creativity, love.

And you go on asking these stupid questions. Just last night, one woman sannyasin wrote a letter, that in the press conference when I asked people if they were with me to raise their hands - ten thousand hands were raised, and she says she wanted to stand against me. And still she writes to me, "Beloved Master, I love you too much." Is she blind - she cannot see ten thousand hands? To me it does not matter, she could have stood up. But why, in the first place, should you be in this commune?

A commune has to be an organic unity - not a union but an organic unity, just like the body is. The left hand cannot go against the right hand. The legs cannot go against the head. The heart cannot go against the head. This is not a union, it is an organic unity. A commune has to be organic, one.

Whoever wrote that letter - either she should change her attitude, or she should leave. There is no reason - why be here? Why live in antagonism with five thousand people? She seems to be somebody planted by the FBI, by the attorney general, or by some other agency. She is not a true sannyasin.

And she is also a coward. What is the point of writing the letter to me? You should have stood up and seen what happened then. While I was here, nothing would have happened. But when I would have left, five thousand people - they are not cannibals; otherwise they would have made a good breakfast of you. But they can play football; that is not against spirituality.

So remember: if you don't feel at ease with the whole, just leave the place. And don't ask stupid questions. Before you ask a question, think over what you are asking. Those security people are for you, so that you can meditate without disturbance, you can work without disturbance, you can live without disturbance.

And strange, that just three dozen security people can keep you in peace for four years. You should be grateful to these people, because they are bored with the guns, just standing with the guns for four years, no chance to use them. And if sometime they have to use them, by that time they may have forgotten how to use them. They are for your security, and you seem to be against them. You are nuts or something!

If the government takes the responsibility that no nuisance will be done in this commune, we can withdraw the security forces - and what security forces against the greatest world power!

In these four years, I have seen that Adolf Hitler did only one thing wrong: rather than attacking Russia, he should have attacked America! These cowards, who are afraid of three dozen ordinary guns - not even automatic.... The American seems to be the most cowardly, spineless...!

You made the Constitution, and you have put the people to whom this land belongs into reservations.

The reservation is nothing but the American name for concentration camps - yes, without barbed wire. You have a more sophisticated way: you give those Red Indians pensions. Now, people who have nothing to do, and get enough money, what do you expect them to do? They will gamble, they will drink, they will fight. They are all drunkards, gamblers - rowdy. These people cannot think of independence, they cannot think of freedom. You have not put barbed wire around them, you have put barbed wire around their very soul!

If Americans have any integrity and dignity, the first thing they will do is: give the government to the Red Indians. They will decide who is going to stay here and who is not going to stay here. Let them decide about Ronald Reagan's green card, because his forefathers entered this country without any visa, they had no green cards. They committed crimes.

And it is a very simple thing to understand: If Adam and Eve disobeyed God and every Christian is still born in sin because of Adam and Eve, then what about Americans? Your forefathers committed all the crimes, and it was only three hundred years ago. Suddenly you have become president, you have become governors, you have become attorney generals, you have become judges, Supreme Court judges, and you have started deciding. This is not your country.

This thing has to be brought to their notice, and to the whole world's notice. You talk against the Soviet Union, you talk against slavery - and that's what you are practicing here.

Those three dozen security people keep all the idiots away. And I perfectly approve of it. If just by having guns, without even using them.... And I have told them not to use them unless it becomes necessary; and I will not let it become necessary.

Tomorrow, before the American embassy in India, ten thousand sannyasins are protesting - this is the beginning - that we are being mistreated. Every American embassy around the world will have to face the sannyasins. If anything is done to my people here, I have my people around the world: no American embassy can function. I have enough people in every country to force their government to disconnect their relationship with America.

This country is not a democracy; this country is simply hypocrisy! But till the whole world is awakened against this country's criminal politicians, we have every right to defend our small minority.

They are trying to destroy it in every way.

They go on moving so slowly, and the reason is, they want to make some deal with the criminals who are hiding in Germany, in the Black Forest. They want to give them immunity, so that they can point to innocent sannyasins and accuse them of all the crimes that they have committed. That's why they are delaying.

Out of the twenty criminals only one young woman, Ava, came back from Seattle. She is trying to give her testimony, and they have been postponing. I don't understand it. She has been in the group who committed all the crimes; she is an eyewitness, she can expose the whole group. Not taking my interview, not taking Ava's interview, simply indicates one thing: they want to make some deal with Sheela and her gang, so the criminals are protected and the commune can be destroyed.

But I am not going to let it happen. And if it happens, America will repent for it, because our fight will not end here in Oregon. It will go on into every nook and corner of the world.

They have never faced nonpolitical mystics.

This will be a new experience for the idiots.

I am really excited.

Question 2:

It is always the right time. You just have to remember: who is going to prepare food for you? You can play music, you can be creative; but don't ask for food, don't ask for houses, don't ask for clothes - because others also want to be creative. Everybody has his own guitar. Do you want that you play the guitar, and the others make the roads and the houses for you? And they should prepare food for you?

Do the necessary work that keeps you alive, and in the remaining time you are free. Who is preventing you? Play music in the night when you are free. But then you have your girlfriend, your boyfriend.... Sacrifice something. Either sacrifice food, clothes, houses, or sacrifice girlfriends and boyfriends. Every creativity needs sacrifice, because who is going to do all the other necessary things for you?

I have been getting reports every day that people are not turning up in time in a few places. For example in the dairy, people are not coming on time; then the milk cannot be delivered to the commune in time. The cows are waiting for you, but you are missing.

You have got freedom, but you don't understand that freedom brings more responsibility than slavery.

Slavery has no responsibility. It seems most of the people in the world are happier with slavery than with freedom, because in slavery they have to do something. Somebody is goading them continuously to do it!

In freedom, nobody is there to force them. But if people who prepare food are not reaching there in time, then you will not get your lunch in time, or you may not get your lunch at all.

I will see. One week more, and I warn you: if you cannot take responsibility and work as a responsible member of a commune, then you are asking for a strict discipline, order - good names for slavery.

Seven days more... otherwise, I will advise all the presidents of the corporations, all coordinators, to enforce the hours - because in four years it has never happened; you were always on time in every place. People are leaving early, coming late, coming whenever they want, not coming whenever they do not want. You are behaving in a very unintelligent way. You are asking for a fascist rule! It seems you have become addicted to the relationship of master and slave.

I am reminded that in the French revolution there was one central jail, which was only for people with lifelong imprisonment. Their chains had no keys, because the locks were never to be opened.

When they died, then their hands would be broken and the chains taken off.

The revolutionaries thought that all those people, almost two thousand, who had been living in the jail for their whole life - somebody had lived there for fifty years, somebody for forty years, somebody for thirty years - should be released. But do you know what those prisoners said? "We don't want to be released."

The man who had been there for fifty years - he was caught when he was twenty - said, "I have completely forgotten the outside world, and here life is more comfortable. Food is given at the right time every day, we don't have to bother about it. And my eyes have become accustomed to this dark cell in which I have lived for fifty years. And these heavy chains on my hands and on my feet have become almost part of my body. Without them I will feel something is missing. I don't think I can even sleep without them."

But revolutionaries are revolutionaries - they forced them. They cut their chains and forced them to get out of the prison. But by the evening almost everybody was coming back. They said, "Outside, our eyes hurt; that much sun we cannot tolerate. Who is going to give us food? For fifty years, getting food without any trouble - now we don't know any skill to earn our livelihood. Who is going to give us clothes? And the greatest problem is, we cannot sleep without the chains. Please give us our chains back! And we want to sleep in our dark cells." The revolutionaries could not believe it.

But this is a reality of all human beings. For four years there was no complaint, and you were perfectly happy. Now I am receiving letters of complaint, that this is wrong and that is wrong, and guns should not be here. Everybody should be allowed to do whatever he wants - play music, do painting, write poetry, or just lie down by the side of the lake and have a good sunbath.

I am not saying that you should not do this, but first comes the commune's survival. You should do everything that the commune's survival needs. Then play music, paint, sculpt, or do whatever you want: dance, sing. But the commune's necessary work should not suffer.

If within seven days it does not change, then you will be back under a strict disciplined order. And those who cannot fit will have to leave the place. Why should anybody else take your responsibility?

You have to be responsible for yourself. Outside in the world, do you think you can go on playing music and somebody will come with all kinds of dishes, Chinese food, and spaghetti, because you are such a great musician? Spaghetti comes first. Your music is your private affair.

So make it clearly understood that only seven days... and you have to learn responsibility; otherwise you lose your freedom. I cannot help it. Your president, Prem Hasya, is continuously coming to me, "What to do? People don't come to work. They have a strange idea of freedom."

I respect your freedom.

I want you to remain totally free.

But that is possible only if you accept your responsibility.

And your freedom will be only in proportion to your responsibility - neither less nor more.

Question 3:

Don't be worried. I have given seven days' time: either you do it, or it will be done the way it has been done for four years. It is your choice.

Question 4:

They are two totally different things: personal power and power over others. Not only are they different, they are diametrically opposite.

The person who knows himself, understands his own being, understands the meaning of his life, suddenly has an explosion of power. But it is more like love, like compassion. It is more like moonlight than like sunlight - cool, calm, beautiful. Such a man has no inferiority complex at all. He is so full, so contented, so utterly blissful, there is no reason for him to feel any ambition to have power over others.

I call it the power of the mystic.

Power over others is political, and the people who are interested in power over others are people who feel a deep inferiority complex. They are continuously comparing themselves with others, and feeling themselves inferior. They want to prove to the world and to themselves that it is not so - they are superior beings. All politicians suffer from an inferiority complex. All politicians need to be treated psychologically.

These are the sick people, and because of these sick people the whole world has been in immense suffering. Five thousand wars in three thousand years!

And there is no end for the seeker of power over others, because there are always people left out of his power. That makes him still feel his inferiority. Otherwise, what is the need for anybody to become Alexander the Great? - just sheer stupidity. The man died when he was only thirty-three.

He could not live for a single moment, he could not love for a single moment. His life of thirty-three years was, in the beginning, preparing to become a world conqueror, and the remaining part was fighting, killing, burning. The only idea in his mind was to become the world conqueror.

When he was going to India, on the way, passing the boundaries of Greece, he met one of the rarest men in the history of man, Diogenes. He used to live naked. He was so beautiful, it was perfectly suitable for him to live naked.

Clothes serve many purposes, of climate, of culture, but the basic purpose.... All the animals can manage to live without clothes in every climate all around the world. What is wrong with man? Is he the most vulnerable and weak animal in the whole world? No. Clothes were first invented because all people don't have beautiful bodies. You know people by their faces. In fact, even you yourself, if you see a picture of your body naked, without the head, you will not be able to recognize that this is your body.

Diogenes was an immensely beautiful man; he needed no clothes. He lived by the side of a river. It was early morning and he was taking a sunbath. He had only one companion, a dog, and only one possession, an old type of lamp.

Alexander heard that Diogenes was very close when they were passing the boundary of Greece.

He said, "I have heard so much about the man. He seems to be a little strange, but I would like to see him." Alexander went to see Diogenes - Diogenes was resting. His dog was sitting by his side.

Alexander said to him, "Diogenes, Alexander the Great has come to see you. It is a great favor, it is unique; I have never gone to see anybody."

Diogenes did not even sit up. He remained lying on the sand, laughed, looked at his dog and said to the dog, "Have you heard? A man calling himself great - what do you think about it? He must be suffering from great inferiority. This is a projection to hide some wound." It was a truth. Even Alexander could not deny it.

Alexander said, "I don't have much time; otherwise I would have sat here and listened to some wisdom from you."

Diogenes said, "What is the hurry? Where are you going - to conquer the world? But have you ever thought, if by chance you succeed in conquering the world, what will you do then? - because there is no other world, there is only one world. Right now, fighting, invading, you can go on forgetting your inferiority; but when you have succeeded, your inferiority will come back, will surface again."

Alexander said, "Returning, I will come and stay for a few days here and try to understand.

Whatsoever you are saying hurts, but it is true. In fact, just the idea that there is no other world makes me sad. Yes, if I conquer the whole world, then what am I going to do? Then I will be just useless, and all that is hidden in me is bound to surface."

But Diogenes said, "You will never return, because this kind of ambition is unending. Nobody comes back." And strangely, Alexander never came back. He died while he was coming back, before reaching Greece. And a beautiful story has been told since then, because the same day Diogenes also died. It is just a story, but very significant.

There is a river, according to Greek mythology, which you have to pass before you enter paradise.

Diogenes was just a few feet ahead, Alexander just behind him. Seeing Diogenes, the same beautiful man, naked - and now Alexander was also naked, but not with that beauty - just to cover up, Alexander said, "This is a strange coincidence, the meeting of a world conqueror with a beggar!"

Diogenes laughed and he said, "You are right. Only on one point are you wrong - you don't know who is the conqueror and who is the beggar. Just look at me and look at yourself. I never conquered anybody, yet I am a conqueror - a conqueror of myself. You tried to conquer the whole world, and what have you got? Just a sheer wasting of your whole life. You are just a beggar!"

The personal power belongs to the mystic - one who has had his flower of consciousness blossom, who has released his fragrance, his love, his compassion, far and wide. It is a very subtle power.

Nothing can prevent it; it simply reaches to your heart. It simply makes you fall in tune with the mystic - into a kind of synchronicity, a harmony. You don't become a slave, you become a lover. A great friendliness, a great gratitude arises in you.

Just the presence of the mystic creates an immense aura. In that aura, whoever is open, available, receptive, immediately starts feeling like bursting into a song or into a dance.

Political power is ugly. Power over others is ugly. It is inhuman, because to have power over somebody means to reduce that person to a thing. He becomes your possession.

For example, in China, for centuries the husband had the power over his wife even to kill her. The law allowed it, because the wife was nothing but a possession - like you possess a chair, and if you want to destroy it, it is not a crime; it was your chair. And if you kill your wife, it was your wife.... For centuries no man in China had been punished for having killed his wife - up to this century.

Power over anybody reduces the other person's individuality, reduces his spirituality, and he becomes just a commodity, a thing. For centuries men and women have been sold in the markets like any other commodity. Once you have purchased a slave, you have all power over the slave. This may fulfill some insane and sick psychology, but it is not healthy. No politician is healthy - I mean spiritually.

When Nixon was caught bugging and tapping other people's phones, and he had finally to resign as the president, Mao Zedong's remark is remarkable. He said, "Every politician does it. There is nothing special in it. Why are they making so much fuss about it? Poor Nixon has just been caught doing it."

And even after Nixon's resignation as president, Mao sent a special plane, his own plane, to take Nixon to China - to console him, to say that this is just stupidity. "Whatever you were doing is being done all over the world. All the politicians are doing it. What was wrong was being caught. You were an amateur."

What politicians are doing all over the world, all through history, is simply inhuman, ugly. But the reason, the basic reason is that they have a deep feeling of inferiority, and they want to prove to themselves that it is not so. "Look, you have so much power, so many people in your hand you can make or mar, so many nuclear weapons in your hand. Just push a button and you can destroy the whole planet."

Power over others is destructive - always destructive. In a better world anybody who is ambitious, who wants to be more important than others, ahead of others, should be treated psychologically.

Only humbleness, simplicity, naturalness - no comparison with anybody.... Because everybody is unique, comparison is impossible.

How can you compare a roseflower with a marigold? How can you say who is superior and who is inferior? Both have their beauty, and both have blossomed, danced in the sun, in the wind, in the rain... lived their life totally.

Every human being is unique. There is no question of anybody superior or anybody inferior. Yes, people are different. Let me remind you of one thing; otherwise you will misunderstand me. I am not saying that everybody is equal, as communists think. I am absolutely against communism, for the simple reason that the whole philosophy of communism is against psychology and against all psychological research.

Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, but nobody is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable. You are you, I am I. I have to contribute my potential to life; you have to contribute your potential to life. I have to discover my own being; you have to discover your own being.

It is perfectly good to be powerful as a mystic.

It is ugly, disgusting, stinking to have even a slight desire for having power over others.

Question 5:

There is every possibility.

Question 6:

And what do you think I am doing here!

Question 7:

That's great!

Okay?