Society's justice is revenge

Question 1:

Raso, it is one of the most significant questions to be asked - for the simple reason that man has never tried to remove the causes of injustice. On the contrary, in the name of justice, he has been taking revenge on the individuals who were not obedient to the social order, to the establishment, to the vested interests. They were condemned as criminals, punished - and it was thought that justice had been restored.

In fact, the people who had been punished were really the victims. Justice was not restored. In fact, the people who were the root causes of injustice in the world had taken their revenge. Their revenge was fulfilled, and people were made afraid to go against the social order in any way.

It is very strange that such a long history... and nobody has tried to look at why injustice exists at all.

We have been trying to look only at individuals, and they are not the causes, only symptoms.

For example, a poor man is forced to steal in certain circumstances. If you really want justice to be restored, his poverty should be removed. But no, you throw the poor man into jail for a few years, and you create more injustice in the society - because then his children are bound to become beggars, or pickpockets; his wife is bound to become a prostitute.

And the man you have jailed for a few years - you have taken away his humanity, his pride, his self-respect; you have humiliated him so much that back in the society he will find himself a stranger who nobody trusts, who cannot get a job, who everybody avoids. Nobody wants to be friends with him. He is again forced to steal.

It is a known fact that once a man is forced into jail as a punishment, he automatically comes back again and again to the jail. In the long run, the jail becomes his home, he becomes a jailbird. The outside world is just a holiday resort. Once in a while he is out in the world - but the world is not accepting of the man, does not treat him on equal terms with other human beings. Insulted, he also becomes revengeful.

Revenge cannot create anything else except revenge. Hate creates more hate, revenge creates more revenge.

In the jail he becomes more and more of an expert. He is no longer an amateur - the first time he was an amateur. In jail, which should almost be named a university for crimes, a teaching school, a productive field for criminals... in jail he learns that it is not the crime that is punished, it is being caught that is punished. Don't be caught, and you have not committed the crime. There are senior experts in the jail; they teach the novice, they initiate him into the secrets of the criminal world. Each time he comes out of the jail, he is more mature as far as crime is concerned.

But perhaps the old humanity was not interested in removing crime completely. It was only interested in punishing the disobedient, the misfit - those who wanted to go their own way, those who did not want to become a cog in the wheel, those who had a certain individuality. There was no other avenue open for them except crime. Crime was their sort of rebellion.

The rebellious man and his world will look into the causes. No man is born as a criminal; every man is born as a sage, innocent. It is a certain kind of nurturing, a certain kind of society, a certain upbringing, that reduces him into a criminal.

The society of the rebels will remove the causes. For example, poverty will not be allowed on the earth. And once poverty is removed, almost fifty percent of crimes will be removed, and fifty percent of judges, fifty percent of courts, fifty percent of law enforcement authorities, and fifty percent of laws - just by removing poverty.

Secondly, now science is absolutely certain that there are crimes which are hereditary. You are unnecessarily punishing a person - he needs sympathy, not punishment. For example, a rapist...

in a Mohammedan country this crime is thought to be so serious that death is the only punishment.

But rape can be removed completely.

In any aboriginal society rape does not exist because young children, the moment they become aware of their sexual energy and the upsurge of sensuality, are not allowed to live in their parents' houses. They have a hall in the village; all the young people live in that hall. They come in contact with all kinds of girls and all kinds of boys; they are allowed absolute sexual freedom, with only one condition - which seems to be very significant - that you can be with a girlfriend or a boyfriend for only three days; then you have to change.

This gives a chance for everybody to experience everybody else, and also it gives an immense opportunity to drop jealousy. It is absolutely impossible to be jealous because your girlfriend is now moving with somebody else. There is no fixed relationship; only for three days can you be together, then you move on, you change.

By the time they are of marriageable age, they are so experienced with every girl of the tribe and every boy of the tribe that they can choose the right partner; the one with whom they are in the most harmonious relationship. Strangely enough, in such a licentious society there is no rape - it has never been recorded in the whole history of mankind - and there is no divorce either. They have found the right person because they have been given the opportunity. Their love goes on growing, their harmony becomes richer and richer each day.

In aboriginal societies divorce is unknown, adultery is unknown. Not that they have any commandments, but by the simple fact that everybody has known everybody else in the tribe...

and after this knowledge and experience they have chosen their partners. Parents don't arrange marriages; the young people choose for themselves.

In a rebellious society the pattern will be the same. And particularly after the invention of the pill, it is absolutely absurd that a man has to marry a woman he has not known intimately, or a woman has to marry a man she knows nothing about. The pill should have been a great revolution, but all the religions are preventing that revolution. They think the pill is an invention of evil forces, that it should not be used.

The old pill was only ninety-nine percent reliable because sometimes one could forget to take it.

Now, two other pills have come into existence. One a woman can take after making love, so there is no question of any loopholes; and another pill has come into existence which the man can take - no need for the woman to take any pill.

With these pills available, men and women can experiment until they find a person who they would really love to be with forever. And they need not be in a hurry to rush to the church, they can wait.

For a year or two they can see how their intimacy goes; whether it goes deeper and becomes richer, or whether as time passes it fades away. Before deciding on a life partner, this seems to be simply logical - to experiment, to experience as many people as possible. Adultery will disappear, rape will disappear.

And science will find, as we have already been finding, that there are crimes which a man is committing under biological laws - he is forced to commit them by his heredity. Then he needs hospitalization, medical care; or, if he has something wrong with his mind, then he needs a psychiatric hospital. But there is no question of calling him a criminal, and there is no question of giving him any punishment.

All punishment is crime. Just because we have not been able to find the causes... or perhaps we were not willing to find the causes, because to find the causes would mean changing the whole social structure, and we were not ready for that great revolution.

The rebellious man is ready for every revolution in every area of life. Injustice disappears... and there is no question of any justice.

It is very difficult to conceive of a man without jealousy, a man without anger, a man without competitiveness, a man without a lust for power, but it is all possible. We have just never thought about how to remove the causes.

Why do people want power? Because whatever they are doing is not respected. A shoemaker is not respected like the president of a country. In reality, he may be better as a shoemaker than the president is as a president. The quality should be praised - if a shoemaker is a better shoemaker, then he need not be interested in being a president. His own art, his own craft, will bring him dignity and the respect of the people.

It actually happened - because Lincoln's father was a shoemaker, and Lincoln became the president. The whole American aristocracy was very much shocked that they had to live under a shoemaker's presidency. In the Senate they were all aristocrats, super-rich people. The first speech that Lincoln delivered on the inauguration of his first term was interrupted right at the beginning. A man, very arrogant and egoistic, stood up and showing his shoes said, "Mr. Lincoln, by accident you have become the president. But never forget that your father was a shoemaker. In fact, in my family your father used to come to make shoes for everybody. The shoes I am showing you were made by your father."

The whole Senate laughed; they thought they had humiliated Lincoln. But it is difficult to humiliate people like Lincoln. There were tears in his eyes, and he said, "I am immensely grateful to you for reminding me of my father. He was a perfect shoemaker, and I know I cannot be that perfect a president. I cannot beat him. But I will try my best to at least reach close to his greatness.

"As for your family and the shoes my father has made, I can inform the whole Senate that there may be other aristocratic families that my father used to make shoes for. He has taught me a little bit of the art of shoemaking too. If his shoes are not working well - if they pinch you, if they are too tight, or too loose - I can always mend them. I am my own father's son. Never feel embarrassed - just inform me. I can come and do my best. Of course, it will not be the same as my father, but he is dead."

There was great silence... the senators could not believe it - what mettle is this man Lincoln made of? You cannot insult him. He can turn your insult into great respect. And he is so humble, how can you humiliate him? Only arrogant people can be humiliated.

A commune where rebellious people live will be non-competitive, will give equal opportunity to everybody to be himself. It will accept everybody the way he is. And all are needed - the shoemakers, and the toilet-cleaners, and the presidents - all are needed. In fact, there may come a time when there will be no need of presidents, no need of prime ministers, no need of government itself; but there will never come a time when there will be no need for a shoemaker or a toilet-cleaner.

They are far more essential, they serve society in a more fundamental way. All respect is due to them.

When everybody is respected as he is, when his profession is respected whatever it is, you are cutting the very roots of crime, of injustice. And when there is no money as an agency for exchange, nobody can become richer and nobody can become poorer.

The miracle of money is that it can be accumulated. You cannot accumulate wheat. How much can you accumulate? - it will get rotten. You cannot accumulate flowers, you cannot accumulate milk products, how much can you keep? You have to share them, and you have to be quick to share them - because the fresher they are, the better. The currency note never gets old, and the currency note never gets rotten. You can go on collecting currency notes.

The division of classes in the society between the poor and the rich is because of currency notes.

The rebel will remove all currency, all money.

Everybody should get his needs fulfilled. The commune will be responsible to take care of the individual. The commune will make every effort to be richer, to be healthier, to allow people to live more comfortably, to live more luxuriously. But for that you don't need a great bank account, and you don't need to reduce thousands of people to starvation.

The rebel will look at every problem of life from its very roots. He will not repress the symptoms, he will destroy the causes. And if all the causes of injustice are destroyed, then justice is restored for the first time.

Right now, we are all living under injustice, multidimensional injustice. And to keep this injustice prevailing, we have armies, we have police, we have national guards, we have courts and we have judges. These professions are absolutely useless! All these people should be taught some craft - shoemaking, weaving clothes, carpentry. If they cannot do anything very skillful, then unskilled labor - they can at least carry bricks, participate in the construction of houses and roads. At the very least, all your judges and all your great law experts can become gardeners.

But the whole justice establishment is there to protect the many injustices that are in existence, and the people who are in power want those injustices to continue.

The world of my vision, the world of the new man, will remove all causes. Many crimes - murder, rape, even stealing - are hereditary. You need your chemistry to be changed, your hormones to be changed. A few crimes are committed because you have a wrong psychology; you need a good brainwash, and more clarity of vision. And all this should not be considered as punishment. If somebody is suffering from tuberculosis you send him to the hospital, not to jail, and to be in the hospital is not considered to be criminal. And once you are healthy, and back in the society, your dignity is not destroyed.

There are many problems which have not even been touched by the old man. They have been avoiding them, postponing them. Their greatest fear was that the powerful people were one of the causes of all crimes, that the rich people were a cause of all crimes, that the priests were a cause of all the sexual crimes, sexual perversions, homosexuality, lesbianism. They never brought those causes to light.

Now governments all over the world are concerned about AIDS, and many governments have decided that homosexuality is a crime, punishable by at least five years of jail. This is so stupid, one cannot consider humanity to be behaving intelligently, because the jails are one of the places where homosexuality thrives. In American jails they had a survey made, and thirty percent of the inmates confessed that they were practicing homosexuality. And if thirty percent are confessing, the percentage of real homosexuals is bound to more - maybe fifty percent, maybe sixty percent.

Now homosexuality is to be condemned as a crime, and homosexuals will go underground. Right now they have their own clubs, their own restaurants, their own discos, their own gay bars. They will have to go underground, and they will become more dangerous because they will not admit that they are homosexuals.

It is almost an impossible task to test five billion human beings to know who is suffering from AIDS and who is not. Just in Texas, when they passed the law that homosexuality should become a crime punishable by at least five years of imprisonment, thousands of homosexuals protested against the State Assembly. Nobody would have thought that Texas - a very backward state in the United States, a desert - has so many homosexuals. And it must have more because these were only the protesters; many may not have come to protest, because that declares that you are a homosexual.

If this is the situation in Texas, what about California? Perhaps in California it is difficult to find someone who is not a homosexual. There is no need to give any prison terms. Just raise a big wall around the whole state of California, why bother about sending single individuals to jail? And there are millions of lesbians all over the world as well. The real culprit is religion, which has been teaching people to be celibate. It is celibacy that has created homosexuality. Celibacy should be condemned as a crime, it should be punishable.

But these are the people who are in power - the priests, the pope, the shankaracharyas, the jainacharyas, the presidents like Ronald Reagan. They are all fanatically religious. And to see that celibacy is the cause needs a little more intelligence. Any idiot can be a fanatic - in fact, only idiots can be fanatic. An intelligent man is not fanatic, there is no need. He has arguments and evidence and reasons for whatever he does; whatever his way of life, it is based on experiments and intelligence, not on a fanatic attitude.

The future man will destroy all the causes of injustice. And if something comes from heredity, it is a very simple matter of changing your hormones, changing your chemistry, your physiology. If something is in your mind, that too can be operated upon.

You will be surprised to know that your mind has seven hundred centers, and these centers control everything in your life - hunger, thirst, sensuality, sexuality - everything. If something is wrong in those centers, if they are malfunctioning, they can be put right. Now brain surgery is in a position to know exactly which center controls which act.

With the collaboration of science, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychiatry, the rebel will be able to remove all injustice, and the very question will become irrelevant.

Raso, you are asking, "What is justice for a rebellious man?" To destroy all the causes of injustice...

to help people to be healthier, to be more sane, to change their chemistry so their anger and their violence disappear. To give everybody the same respect as anybody else has - because everybody is helping the society to be beautiful and to be richer, is helping life to be meaningful and significant, and they all should be rewarded with honor.

Then politics will disappear automatically, lust for power will disappear automatically. If there is no money to steal, stealing will disappear automatically. If everybody's needs are fulfilled, then people will not be mad enough to go on stealing unless they are suffering from something - for example, kleptomania.

I had one professor who told me, "You have to do something about my son."

I said, "What is the matter?"

He said, "Everything is right, but he is a kleptomaniac, he steals things. He does not need them, so it is not a question of need. He steals useless things, just one shoe - now, what are you going to do with one shoe? - any kind that he can manage. And he keeps them all in a cupboard, labeled, dated, from whom."

I made friends with the boy. He was only fourteen; that is a vulnerable time, because one becomes sexually mature. And his father was a very religious type; he would not allow his boy to have any friendships with girls. I watched the whole situation. I said, "I would like to see your collection."

He said, "Really? - everybody condemns me for my collection. You have given me the right word. It is a collection; they say it is stealing."

I said, "No, why should it be stealing? You don't need anything; you have everything that you need. It is a beautiful collection. And it shows your intelligence, how many people you have been cheating."

He said, "You are my man."

"You just take me to your collection."

He opened the doors. It was full of all kind of junk. He had taken away somebody's cycle seat; there was no need, what could he do with that cycle seat? And when I saw one shoe, I said, "Where is the other?"

He said, "I have left it there, because I don't need shoes, and anyway they are not my size."

"But why have you brought this one?"

He said, "That professor thinks himself a great genius. You know the professor of botany - so arrogant - he had bought new shoes that very day. I had to hang out around his house for hours, so that when he went out... the moment he went out I took away one shoe, and since then he has been searching for his new shoe. I never allow anybody to see my collection. You are the first."

I said, "It is an historical collection." I saw a few buttons, half a fountain pen, somebody's hat; he had slips attached to them - the name to whom the hat belongs, on what date it had been taken away from the owner.

I talked with his father. I said, "He is not a thief, because in his whole collection there is not a single thing of any use. He simply wants to do something. He has too much energy, and you don't allow any outlet for him."

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Just let him find a girlfriend."

He said, "You will corrupt him."

I said, "I am going to correct him! You are corrupting him. Just give me a chance; otherwise he will turn into a great thief, and he will completely forget for what purpose he has started all this."

And once he got a girlfriend, he stopped stealing things. One day he asked me, "What do you think?

I would like to return this collection to their owners because it is unnecessary."

I said, "That will be a great joy. They will also enjoy it. You simply go and distribute things from wherever you have collected them."

He said, "I have got everything recorded...."

One has to look into the cause of why something is happening - why a man has been murderous, why a man has been suicidal, why a man has been a thief, why a man has been committing all kinds of crimes. There must be causes which can be removed. Once the society is no longer under a power bloc - the politicians, the priests, the capitalists - all causes can be removed. People will completely forget the word 'justice', because there will not be any justice or injustice in existence.

There is one tribe in Burma, a very small tribe, whose whole history is a great example of what I am saying. There has never been any murder, there has never been any suicide, there has never been any rape, there has never even been fighting.

The simple reason is that for centuries they have practiced something of a deeper psychoanalysis than even Sigmund Freud knew. Everybody has to tell his dream in the morning. Most of the people don't dream, because there is no repressive order; without repression, dreams cannot exist.

But once in a while somebody dreams that he has slapped somebody else - it is a small tribe, everybody knows everybody else. Then he has to go to that person with sweets and fruits and flowers and offer his apology, "Forgive me, in my dream I slapped you."

It looks very crazy, but whether you slap somebody when you are awake or you slap somebody when you are asleep, is there any difference in your action? It is the same action. Perhaps you wanted to slap him while you were awake, but you somehow repressed the desire; perhaps he is stronger than you - hence the dream. But you have to go to give him fruits and sweets, and ask his forgiveness. And unless he forgives you, you cannot leave his door.

That society has lived in such peace for centuries. If it can happen in one tribe, it can happen on the whole earth - because man is the same.

Justice will be a very natural thing. Once in a while someone will go berserk, but that does not need punishment: it needs help, it needs love, it needs compassion. The source needs to be found - why did it happen? That man has to be put in a psychiatric hospital and taken care of, with great respect.

And when he is back, he is to be welcomed - he is cured.

All crime is illness, sickness. It does not need any punishment; it needs understanding, and it needs treatment.

Question 2:

Milarepa, I don't even know what is happening in Anando's room! Just the other day, Niskriya wanted to photograph the ghost. And ghosts are known not to like being photographed. So the ghost disappeared. He was searched for everywhere.

In the morning, when Avesh was cleaning my Mercedes limousine, he suddenly felt a presence, so he looked back - that gentleman was sitting reading his newspaper in the back seat. He almost fainted, because there is only one key - by mistake the other key has not yet come from the company - and that key is with Avesh.

Finally he gathered courage. He informed Anando, "Please take your ghost back because I have to clean the car, and he has given me such a shock! I was thinking that the last moment of my life had come, and that now Anando will have two ghosts instead of one because where else am I going to live? I will have to live with this old man." And he was sitting in the back seat, reading his newspaper - that is the only work he does. So he is back in Anando's bathroom again.

That night she had not been able to sleep; she slept for one hour, and then she could not sleep.

She must have become accustomed to the presence of the ghost - he is a nice man, a gentleman - and she must have been thinking continually, where has he gone? She reported it to me, thinking that I must know everything. I said, "At least about ghosts I don't know much. You will have to go to Kaveesha Devi; she's the head of the department of all kinds of spooky things."

A priest visiting a small village asked a young boy to direct him to the church where he was going to preach that evening. After the boy had given him directions, the priest said, "You must come along tonight, and bring all your friends."

"What for?" asked the boy.

"Because I will tell you how to get to heaven."

"You must be joking," laughed the boy. "You did not even know how to get to the church."

No, Milarepa. I am not the center of anything, except of myself. And that's enough - more than enough - to be the center of your own being. More than that is not possible; it is not in the laws of existence.

To be the center of your own being is the highest peak of consciousness, the greatest ecstasy, and the ultimate liberation.

Seven-year-old Johnnie was walking home from school with his new seven-year-old girlfriend.

Johnnie looks at her with worshipping eyes and says, "You are the first girl I have ever loved."

"Bother it," she replied. "Just my luck - another amateur."

Only amateurs in the field of spirituality can claim such things - that they are the center of the world, that they are the only begotten son of God, that they are the saviors of the whole world, that they are the messengers of God; these are all amateurs. They don't even understand a simple law, that everyone has to save himself, everyone has to be a savior unto himself. That is the only possibility.

You cannot save another being. Perhaps your saving yourself may ignite, trigger something in the other but you are not to think that you are the savior of the other. The other has seen your growth, your spring, and has remembered that he also belongs to the same world, to the same consciousness, to the same humanity. There must also be somewhere his own spring. There must still be hiding somewhere his own flowers. You can remind somebody, you can become a remembrance, a beckoning light, a lighthouse, but more than that is not possible for any human being.

But it is more than enough to be a center to yourself. Then your peace becomes infectious; then your silence starts spreading around, catching other people's hearts. Then your love starts overflowing and reaching unknown strangers, and giving their heart a new dance, a new song. But this happens naturally; you are not the doer of it.

All that is expected of you is to grow to your utmost center, invite your spring, and wait for the flowers to blossom and release their fragrance. Then whatever happens around you is not your doing; you have become contagious. Not only are diseases contagious, blissfulness is also contagious, ecstasy is also contagious, wholeness is also contagious. But you cannot take the credit for it. It is enough that you have found your center.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.