Of live and love and of war and warriors

ZARATHUSTRA IS A lover of life, and without any conditions. His approach to life is unique to himself. And because it is so unique it has to be understood very silently, without any prejudice, because he is speaking against all your prejudices; he is speaking against all your religions; he is speaking against all the values that you have thought are great.

When somebody speaks against everything that you have believed in, your mind stops listening; it becomes afraid, it closes, it becomes defensive. It is afraid; perhaps you have been wrong, and perhaps the man who is speaking against you may be right - it hurts your ego.

So the first thing I want to say to you is: Put your prejudices aside. That does not mean that you have to agree with Zarathustra; that simply means, before any agreement or disagreement give him a chance to make his standpoint clear to you. Then it is your freedom to accept him or not to accept him.

My own experience is that if you can listen to him silently, you will be amazed that although he is speaking against all your traditions, all your conventions, all your so-called great teachers, still, he has some tremendous truth in whatever he is saying. And that truth will be revealed in your silence, without any difficulty.

Once you have listened to him, it is almost impossible to disagree with him because he is saying the truth, although the truth goes against the beliefs of the crowd. Truth always goes against the beliefs of the crowd.

The truth is individual, and the crowd does not care about truth. It cares about consolation; it cares about comfort. The crowd does not consist of explorers, adventurers, people who go into the unknown, fearless - risking their whole lives to find the meaning and the significance of their lives, and the life of the whole of existence. The crowd simply wants to be told things which are sweet to hear, comfortable and cozy; without any effort on their part, they can relax in those consoling lies.

It happened... the last time I went to my hometown was in 1970. One of my old teachers, with whom I always had a very loving relationship, was on his deathbed, so the first thing I did, was go to his house.

His son met me at the door and told me, "Please, don't disturb him. He is just on the verge of death.

He loves you, he has been remembering you, but we know that your very presence may take away his consolations. And at the moment of death, do not do this to him."

I said, "If it was not the moment of death I would have listened to your advice - I have to see him.

Even if before he dies, he drops his lies and consolations, his death will have a value even greater than his life had."

I pushed the son aside. I went in the house. The old man opened his eyes, smiled, and he said, "I was remembering you and at the same time I was afraid. I heard that you were coming to the town, and thought that perhaps before I die, I might be able to see you one time more. But at the same time there was great fear, as meeting with you can be dangerous!"

I said, "It is certainly going to be dangerous. I have come at the right time. I want to take away all your consolations before you die. If you can die innocent, your death will have a tremendous value.

Put aside your knowledge, because it is all borrowed. Put aside your God, because it is only a belief, and nothing more. Put aside the idea of any heaven or hell, because they are only your greed and your fear. Your whole life, you have remained clinging to these things. At least before you die, gather courage - now you have nothing to lose!

"A dying man cannot lose anything: death is going to shatter everything. It is better you drop your consolations by your own hand and die innocently, full of wonder and enquiry; because death is the ultimate experience in life. It is the very crescendo."

The old man said, "I was afraid, and now you are asking me the same thing. I have worshiped God my whole life, and I know it is only a hypothesis - I have never experienced it. I have prayed to the skies, and I know no prayer has been ever replied - there is no one to reply to it. But it has been consolatory in the sufferings of life, in the anxieties of life. What else can a helpless man do?"

I said, "Now you are no more helpless, now there is no question of any anxiety, no suffering, no problems; they belong to life. Now life has slipped out of your hands, maybe a few minutes more you will linger here on this shore. Gather courage! Don't encounter death as a coward."

He closed his eyes, and he said, "I will try my best."

His whole family gathered; they were all angry with me. They were high caste brahmins, very orthodox, and they could not believe that the old man had agreed with me. Death was such a shock that it shattered all his lies.

In life you can go on believing in lies; but in death you know perfectly well that boats made of paper are not going to help in the ocean. It is better to know that you have to swim, and you don't have any boat. Clinging to a paper boat is dangerous, it may prevent you from swimming. Rather than taking you to the further shore, it may become the cause of your drowning.

They were all angry but they could not say anything. And the old man, with closed eyes smiled and said, "It is unfortunate that I never listened to you. I am feeling so light, so unburdened. I am feeling so fearless; not only fearless but curious to die and to see what is the mystery of death."

He died, and the smile remained on his face. He died not as a camel; he died as a child.

Within those few moments, all the steps from camel to the lion, from lion to the child happened so quickly. It was not a question of time.

The metamorphosis of which Zarathustra is speaking is a question of intense understanding.

Listen to his words, because these are not ordinary words: these are words of a man who knows life from its very roots, and of a man who is uncompromising, of a man who will not accept any lie, howsoever comfortable, howsoever consolatory it may be.

These words are words of a soul which knows freedom. These words are like the roar of a lion.

These words are also the stammering of a child, utterly innocent. These words are not out of knowledge, they are not coming from the head - they are coming directly from his being.

If you can listen to them in silence and with deep sympathy, falling into a kind of rapport, only then, there is a possibility to understand this strange man, Zarathustra.

It is easy to understand Jesus; it is easy to understand Gautam Buddha. It is far more difficult to understand Zarathustra because nobody has spoken like him. Nobody could have spoken like him because they all were in search of followers.

He was not in search of followers. He was in search of companions, of friends, of fellow travelers.

He was not in search of believers: he will not say something just so that it appeals to you, just so that it fits with your prejudiced mind. He will say only that which is true to his experience. Even if nobody agrees with him; even if he has to go alone, and he finds no companions and no fellow travelers, still, he is going to say only the truth, and nothing but truth.

WHAT HAVE WE IN COMMON WITH THE ROSEBUD, WHICH TREMBLES BECAUSE A DROP OF DEW IS LYING UPON IT? Have you seen in the early morning sun, a rosebud with a dewdrop shining with the soft rays of the sun, almost like a pearl... and the rosebud is dancing in the wind?

He is asking, WHAT HAVE WE IN COMMON WITH THE ROSEBUD, WHICH TREMBLES BECAUSE A DROP OF DEW IS LYING UPON IT? There is no meaning, no purpose, in the sense purpose is understood in the marketplace. But the rosebud is immensely joyful - the dewdrop and the rising sun and the morning breeze. The moment is precious - it is a moment of dance.

This dance is not going to bring money; this dance is not going to bring fame; this dance is not going to make the rosebud respectable. This dance is not for anybody else to see; it is not waiting for an audience to applaud. This dance is a value in itself; it is a joy, purposeless, meaningless. It is not a commodity.

That is what is common between us and the rosebud. We should also rejoice in the moment. We should also dance in the sun, in the wind, in the rain. And the dance in itself is the reward. You should not ask, "For what?" We have forgotten all intrinsic values and Zarathustra is reminding us that values are not outside us, they are intrinsic.

When I was a student in the university, I used to wake up early, three o'clock in the morning. The university where I was, was surrounded by mountains, and at three o'clock in the night the roads were empty, no traffic. I used to run for miles. Slowly, slowly students started asking, "What is the purpose of it?"

I said, "Purpose? It is so joyous to be in the wind, in the silent night full of stars, no traffic on the road; the trees are fast asleep on both sides of the road. It was a fairyland, and to dance with the wind...."

A few became interested, just out of curiosity, "One day at least, I am going to come." Slowly, slowly a group of almost two dozen students started dancing on those roads. The manager of the university canteen approached me and he said, "I will not take any money from you for your food, for your milk, for your tea - even for your guests. But stop what you have started! These twenty boys used to eat two, three chapatis at the most; now they are eating twenty chapatis. You will kill me; I am a poor contractor: now twenty boys are eating almost the food that was enough for two hundred students.

Have mercy on me."

I said, "It will be very difficult for me to prevent them, because they have tasted the joy."

But he said, "Something has to be done, otherwise I will go bankrupt. You think of my children, of my wife, of my old parents."

I said to him, "You come with me to the vice-chancellor, because I cannot prevent them. In fact, their number is going to grow, because they are spreading the news to everybody: 'We have been idiots, wasting the most significant time in sleeping; and dancing under the stars in the early morning breeze is so beautiful that we have never known any other experience so ecstatic. Health is just a by-product of it. We are feeling our intelligence become sharper, but that too is a by-product. We are not going for this morning dance in the dark to sharpen the intellect or to have a better body, a more athletic body.' "

I had to explain to the vice-chancellor that this poor contractor was in a difficulty, and he should take care that the budget that has been given to him will be enough; and these twenty dancing students are not going to remain twenty!

The vice-chancellor said, "But this is going to be difficult. If you turn on the whole university, not only will this contractor go bankrupt, but the whole university will go bankrupt. Twenty chapatis each student!"

I said, "But what can I do?"

He said, "But what is the purpose of it all?"

I said, "You come one day, because it is a purposeless activity."

He said, "I am coming tomorrow."

And I told the contractor, "You also come."

And they both joined us, and they said, "My God, it is really beautiful. This silence, these stars, no traffic on the road, no fear of anybody watching you.... You can just dance like a small child."

The vice-chancellor said to the contractor, "I will make arrangements. You will not go at a loss, don't be worried. I can understand that those who have tasted cannot be prevented."

Once in a while, the vice-chancellor used to join us. And when the vice-chancellor joined us and a few professors, it became prestigious.

I used to go, whenever it was raining, on a lonely street; and soon a few people started going with me, without any umbrella - just enjoying the rain.

The vice-chancellor said to me, "Now you are creating more trouble. Soon the man who takes care of the laundry will be here. From where do you get these ideas? The rain has been happening every year. I have been here for ten years, and nobody has gone into the rain before; and you are spreading the idea that going into the rain is such an ecstatic experience."

I said, "You come one day."

He said, "You are a great salesman! I am not going to come because I know you must be right."

But he came. I said, "What happened?"

He said, "I could not resist the temptation that perhaps I am missing something. My whole life I have never been just going under the rain, under the clouds, under the lightning."

He was old, but he enjoyed it so much. He hugged me, he took me to his home, and he said, "You are a little crazy, there is no doubt about it; but your ideas are significant. But please, don't spread this new idea in the university; otherwise, students will leave the classes, and go into the rain."

It was so beautiful, because all around the university there were hills, tall trees, and no traffic at all.

It was outside the city, and dancing with the rain and with the wind...

There is no reason for life. That's what is in common with the rosebud. Gautam Buddha will not say that; neither will Mahavira, nor Jesus, nor Moses. They will all give you reasons, goals, purposes; because that is what appeals to your mind.

IT IS TRUE: WE LOVE LIFE, NOT BECAUSE WE ARE USED TO LIVING - not just as a habit - BUT BECAUSE WE ARE USED TO LOVING.

The emphasis has to be remembered. We love life, not because we are used to living. You cannot say, "I have been alive for seventy years, now it has become an old habit - that's why I go on living, that's why I want to continue living, because to drop old habits is very difficult."

No, life is not a habit. You love life, not because you have become accustomed to living, "but because we are used to loving."

Without life there would not be any love. Life is an opportunity: the soil where the roses of love blossom.

Love in itself is valuable; it has no purpose; it has no meaning. It has immense significance; it has great joy; it has an ecstasy of its own - but those are not meanings. Love is not a business where purposes, goals, matter.

THERE IS ALWAYS A CERTAIN MADNESS IN LOVE.

And what is that madness? The madness is because you cannot prove why you love. You cannot give any reasonable answer for your love. You can say you do a certain business because you need money; you need money because you need a house; you need a house because how can you live without a house?

In your ordinary life, everything has some purpose, but love - you cannot give any reason. You can simply say, "I don't know. All I know is that to love is to experience the most beautiful space within oneself." But it is not a purpose. That space is not cerebral. That space cannot be converted into a commodity. That space is again a rosebud, with a dewdrop on top of it shining like a pearl. And in the early morning breeze and in the sun, the rosebud is dancing.

Love is the dance of your life.

Hence those who don't know what love is have missed the very dance of life; they have missed the opportunity to grow roses. That's why, to the worldly mind, to the calculative mind, to the computer mind, to the mathematician, to the economist, to the politician, love appears to be a kind of madness.

THERE IS ALWAYS A CERTAIN MADNESS IN LOVE. BUT ALSO THERE IS ALWAYS A CERTAIN METHOD IN MADNESS.

This statement is so beautiful, so remarkable. Love appears to others, who have never experienced it, as madness. But to those who know love, love is the only sanity. Without love, a man may be rich, healthy, famous; but he cannot be sane, because he does not know anything of intrinsic values.

Sanity is nothing but the fragrance of roses blossoming in your heart. Zarathustra has a great insight when he says, "But this madness, the madness known as love, is always with a certain method, it is not ordinary madness."

Lovers don't need psychiatric treatment. Love has its own method. In fact, love is the greatest healing force in life. Those who have missed it have remained empty, unfulfilled. The ordinary madness has no method, but the madness called love has a certain method in it. And what is that method? It makes you joyous, it makes your life a song, it brings great grace to you.

Have you watched people? When somebody falls in love there is no need for him to declare it. You can see in his eyes a new depth has arisen. You can see in his face a new grace, a new beauty. You can see in his walk a subtle dance. He is the same man, but yet he is not the same man. Love has entered his life, spring has come to his being, flowers within his soul have blossomed.

Love makes immediate transformations.

The man who cannot love cannot be intelligent either; cannot be graceful either; cannot be beautiful either. His life will be simply a tragedy.

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.

It will hit you hard if you don't put your prejudices aside, because all the religious teachers have been telling you, "Your life is futile because it is nothing but a soap bubble. Today it is there, tomorrow it is gone. Your life in this world, in this body, is not of any worth because it is momentary. Its only use is that you can renounce it. And by renouncing it you can attain to virtue in the eyes of God."

A strange ideology! But it has been for centuries dominating the human mind without ever being challenged. Particularly in the East, the world is illusory, and why is it illusory? - because it is changing; anything that changes is of no use, is worthless. Only the permanent, that which always remains the same, is significant. And you cannot find anything in the world that always remains the same.

Naturally, people like Adi Shankara, who has influenced India the most - all the Hindu monks that you see in India are followers of the Shankara.... His whole approach is based on the emphasis that the world is an illusion, because it is impermanent. "Seek the permanent and renounce the impermanent." More or less, that is the attitude of all the religions of the world.

Nietzsche, following Zarathustra, is the only contemporary who raises a great question that the idea of permanence may be just an idea because there is nothing which seems to be permanent.

Except change, everything changes - unless you want change to be the god, because that is the only permanent thing in the world. You cannot find anything else which can even give a hint of a permanent god.

Zarathustra is very strange. His insight is very clean and clear. He says, WHO LOVE LIFE, because life is a changing thing. It is every moment a flux. When you came into this Chuang Tzu Hall you were another person; when you leave this Chuang Tzu Hall you will not be the same person. You only appear to be the same.

In these two hours, so much changes in you; it is just like in two hours the Ganges has been taking so much water, miles down... although it appears still the same, it is not the same water that was there two hours before.

Heraclitus would have agreed with Zarathustra, but he was not aware of Zarathustra's existence. He is the only Western philosopher who says that life is a flux, a river. And remember, you cannot step in the same river twice - because it will not be the same.

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.

The people who know most about happiness are those who are in rapport with the changing life, who can even love soap bubbles, shining in the sun, creating small rainbows. These are the people who know most of happiness.

Your saints know only misery - just look at their faces. It seems life has disappeared from them - they are dead fossils. Nothing changes in them; they live a life of ritual and they are condemners of everything that changes.

Why is pleasure condemned? - because it is changing. Why is love condemned? - because it is changing. Why have these religions created marriage in place of love? It is because marriage can be given at least an illusory permanency through laws, through conventions, through society, through fear of losing respect, through fear of what will happen to our children. So they have managed to make marriage something permanent. That's why all the old religions are against divorce, because divorce again exposes marriage as something not permanent - it can be changed.

For thousands of years, small children were married. There are even cases on record where children were married who were not even born, who were in their mother's womb. Two families will settle, that if a child is a boy and another child is a girl, then the marriage is settled.

In India even now, seven-year-old, eight-year-old children are married, although it is against the law.

But it is not against convention. Why so much hurry to marry children who are not even aware what marriage means, what is happening. The reason is that before they become young and love arises in their hearts, marriage should have happened. So when love arises in their hearts they already have a wife - the wife has already a husband. It is to destroy love that child marriage was propagated all over the world.

It is not a coincidence that marriage creates more misery in the world than anything else, because it destroys the only possibility of happiness, the happening of love. The heart never dances; people live and die without knowing love. Birth is not in your hands; death is not in your hands. Only love was your freedom: that too society has destroyed.

These are the only three things which can be major incidents of your life: birth, love and death.

Birth you cannot control - your own birth; nobody asks you, you just find yourself one day born. And the same happens with death - it does not ask you either, "Are you ready? I am coming tomorrow."

- no advance notice; just suddenly it comes, and you are dead.

Only love is the freedom standing between these two. That too, society has tried to snatch away from you, so that your whole life becomes just a mechanical routine.

TO SEE THESE LIGHT, FOOLISH, DAINTY, AFFECTING LITTLE SOULS FLUTTER ABOUT - THAT MOVES ZARATHUSTRA TO TEARS AND TO SONG. He is saying, that seeing soap bubbles, seeing butterflies, seeing rosebuds dancing in the wind - seeing such light, non-serious, you could even call them foolish, dainty, affecting little souls flutter about - that is what moves Zarathustra to tears and to song. His tears are of joy, that life is so alive that it cannot be permanent - only dead things can be permanent. The more lively a thing is, the more changing it is. This changing life all around brings tears of joy to Zarathustra, and brings songs to be sung.

And he makes his central statement: I SHOULD BELIEVE ONLY IN A GOD WHO UNDERSTOOD HOW TO DANCE. He doesn't need any other argument; he doesn't need any other evidence, any other proof. All he wants is to know: Can your god dance? Can your god love? Can your god sing? Can your god run after butterflies? Can your god gather wildflowers and enjoy, with tears and songs? Then he is ready to accept such a god, because such a god will be truly representative of life, such a god will be nothing but life itself.

The coming statements are even more difficult to digest. It needs good digestion; Zarathustra is for strong souls. He is not for the weak and the impotent. He does not make it a quality to be meek, to be humble. Those are not qualities in his tremendously significant vision; but to be strong, to be proud of your being, to have dignity, freedom, the qualities of the lion, the qualities of the child; but never to have the qualities of a beast of burden. He is not for the patience of the camel. He is absolutely against those who are readily 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 experience, that when you choose a friend you need not be very cautious - anybody will do. But when you choose your enemy, you have to be very cautious, because the enemy has to be someone with the best qualities possible. Because you are going to fight with him.

And whenever you fight with someone, slowly, slowly you become exactly like your enemy.

Never choose the wrong enemy; otherwise, even in your victory, you will be defeated because you will have to learn the same strategies, the same cunningness, as your enemy; otherwise you cannot fight with him.

Choose the enemy who is wise, and to fight with him you have to be wise. Choose your enemy who is intelligent, because to fight with him you have to be intelligent. Choose your enemy remembering perfectly that, fighting with him you will become like him. Whether you are defeated or you are victorious is secondary. The primary concern should be the choice of the right enemy.

And without the enemy, you don't have a challenge. This will look very strange, because all the religions, and all the so-called philosophers have been teaching you, "Don't have any enemies." But that will take away all challenge to growth, all challenge to be 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 risen higher - that would have been logical; this seems to be very illogical that India's fall begins with Gautam Buddha and Mahavira.

Indians have become so cowardly that they cannot even think retrospectively of what caused India's fall. In the times of Gautam Buddha, India was known all over the world as a Golden Bird. It was so rich, so intelligent, so civilized, so cultured and the West was still 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 years, India remained a slave, not of one country, but of many countries. Whoever wanted to conquer was welcome. Such a vast country, remaining a slave for two thousand years, is unprecedented in the whole history of the world. There was no resistance; people behaved the way Zarathustra describes the camels. They sat down, and they asked to be loaded, and they felt it a great happiness that they were carrying the heaviest load. The camel who was carrying the heaviest load became the hero. And India became poor; it lost its guts.

Zarathustra has to be understood very deeply: he's not saying that you have to be violent, he's not saying that you have to kill, and he's not saying that you have to destroy. That would be a misunderstanding. That misunderstanding happened to Adolf Hitler. These were the 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, but just to protect one's dignity, one's freedom; it is such a simple logic.

But India has not understood even now. Nobody blames our ideology of non-violence for making us weak, defenseless, vulnerable. It has taken away our very force and strength to resist against anyone who wants to enslave us.

AND I AM ALSO YOUR BEST ENEMY. That sentence will make it clear. On the one hand, he says:

MY BROTHERS 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 ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AN ENEMY.... You should be always preparing as if you are looking for the enemy - FOR your ENEMY. AND WITH SOME OF YOU THERE IS HATE AT FIRST SIGHT.

In the beginning, your being a warrior will have some color of hate in it, but that is your weakness.

One has to be a warrior without any hate. One has to be a warrior just as a sport, with the sportsman's spirit - not to fight because 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 are nothing but lies - ancient lies. But the world has become completely without warriors; nobody will accept the challenge. On the contrary, they will close the doors of their country, they will not let me in - these are the cowards.

I have come to their country - I am alone. Their church has the whole country behind it; and the government behind it, the army and all the weapons with them. I am empty handed, I have just my understanding of truth, and I want to discuss with those people who have been dominating those countries for thousands of years. But they are such cowards that rather than accepting my challenge, they pressurize their governments, their parliaments to pass laws that I cannot enter their country.

It was not so in the past - particularly in this country. Mystics used to move around the country challenging anybody who had opposite opinions, for a public discussion. And those discussions were not with any hatred, they were full of reverence for each other, respect for each other. They were not to prove that I am right and you are wrong. Instead, they were a search, together, to know what truth is.

Truth is not mine, and cannot be yours. But it is possible that my opinion may be closer to truth, and your opinion may not be so close; or your opinion may be closer to truth, and my opinion may not be so close.

These discussions around the country raised the level of consciousness and intelligence of people.

People heard their great thinkers wrestling with each other, with subtle logic. The whole atmosphere was freedom of expression, and freedom to convince others, or to be 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: "My religious feeling is hurt".

Almost all the time, there are at least a dozen cases going on all over the country against me. Just now in Kanpur, they have put a case against me in the court - ten Christian associations together - that I have hurt their feelings, because in one of my statements I said, "THE BIBLE is a pornographic book."

Now those people don't understand that in the court, they will look idiots. There are five hundred pages, not less than that, in the whole BIBLE, which are pornographic. I am sending those five hundred pages to my advocate, so that there is no need to argue. He can just present those pages, and ask these people, "Are these pornographic, or not?"

If these are not pornographic, then nothing can be pornographic, and if these are pornographic, then THE HOLY BIBLE is the most unholy book in the world, and it should be banned in every country.

But it is not only about THE BIBLE, the same is the case with Hindu PURANAS - so ugly, so obscene. Fortunately, nobody reads them.

But I am not so fortunate; these are not good times for the intellectual growth of humanity. If any statement hurts your religious feeling, first look into your religious book - I am not hurting your religious feeling: your BIBLE is. I am simply quoting from THE BIBLE. The Christians should burn The Bible, because it is hurting their religious feelings.

If your religious feeling is hurt, that shows only a weakness. You should have courage enough to argue. They should have written articles against me, but they cannot, because they know that in THE BIBLE, there are pornographic portions. They should have challenged me for a public discussion; and I was ready for a public discussion in Kanpur - in their churches.

For me, it is not a problem at all - I just have to open their own BIBLE... at random, I can open and read. There is no need to remember which pages - the pornography is spread all over it. But even to say something, howsoever truthful it may be, immediately they go to the court. What kind of camels? They want the law to support them, they don't have any logic to support them. One goes to the court only when he has no means of supporting himself intelligently.

I have been speaking my whole life. I have never been heard. And so much is written against me - lies and condemnations without any foundation in truth. But I have not gone to any court; I can answer those people myself. Once anybody goes to the court against me, then I make it a point to hit him harder, and more often until he's completely silent.

The world needs warriors of intelligence, and if your opinion is defeated, your honesty should still cry triumph over that. Don't be worried even if your opinion is defeated, at least your honesty will be your triumph.

YOU SHOULD LOVE PEACE AS A 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 against nuclear weapons, atomic weapons, bombs, because these are ugly things; they don't make men warriors. A nuclear missile can destroy the whole country - there is no question of any fight. We should drown all these weapons in the Atlantic. We should move back to swords, and teach people swordsmanship. We should move back to the bow and arrow, because that gives dignity to man, an athletic beauty to man; and it is not destructive.

It has been found, particularly in Japan where they have developed swordsmanship with meditation and archery also with meditation, that if two swordsmen who are both deeply meditative are fighting, they can go on fighting for hours - nobody will be killed. They both have the same intuitive sense.

Before the other attacks, your sword will be ready to protect you.

It has happened many times in the history of Japan, that equal meditators fighting with swords have not been able to defeat anyone; but both have been victorious, because both have shown the art, and their intuition; and the same is with archery.

Those are human means because they dignify you. Bombs - nuclear and atomic, and others - can be dropped even by a plane without a pilot; the plane can be 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 hate charity because the basic idea of charity is ugly; it humiliates human beings. But Christianity has made it so prominent that even other religions, who had never thought about it, are following. They have to, because charity has become almost equivalent to religiousness.

But charity has not created anything great in the world, that is true. How many orphans of Mother Theresa have proved to be geniuses? How many orphans have become musicians? How many orphans have proved to be scientists? How many orphans have proved, in any dimension of life, their dignity?

In fact, from the very beginning their dignity has been taken away, they are orphans; their souls have been killed. Rather than having charity, it is better not to have orphans. And orphans can be prevented; there is no need for orphans. Poverty can be prevented; there is no need to throw alms to the poor.

First, you make the poor, and then you give charity to the poor; it is such a great deception. All the richest people of the world have their own trusts and foundations for charity. On the other hand, they go on exploiting people; otherwise, from where does their super-richness come?

For example, perhaps you may have never thought 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 manufacturer in the world.

By his weapons, millions of people were killed. And with all the money that he accumulated, he created a foundation, a charity, and now every year just from the interest on the money, all the Nobel Prizes are given. The original money remains in the bank, just the interest... and nobody bothers that this money is blood-soaked. And the name of Nobel has become one of the greatest names in history.

Charity is a strange game: First you cripple people and then you help them. First you destroy their environment, their ecology, and then from the same people, who have been destroying the ecology of the earth, comes the money for charity.

The pope goes on teaching against birth control. And it is only the poor people who create more children; rich people don't create more children, because they have other enjoyments in life. The poor man has nowhere else to go when he comes back home, because everywhere - if he goes to a disco, or a restaurant, or a movie - money is needed. Only sex is his entertainment which is free.

He creates dozens of children; the pope goes on telling people that to prevent children is an act against God; and then poverty goes on growing; then charity is needed; then these poor people cannot afford.... They leave their children by the side of the road. All the orphans that Mother Theresa goes on collecting are from the streets of Calcutta. People simply leave their children on the street - even a one-day-old baby.

Mother Theresa's seven hundred sisters, sisters of charity, go on collecting these babies. Mother Theresa goes on around the world 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 enslaved: then only the world will know a peace which will not be the peace of the graveyard. It will be the peace of a beautiful garden, where birds sing, and flowers blossom, and a cool breeze comes.

Life, not death, should be your goal, and a life which is enriched by love; a life which is ready for any emergency; a life one can live dangerously without any fear.

First try to understand Zarathustra, and let his meaning go deeper into your being. Then you can allow your prejudices to come in, and you will find your prejudices are empty.

Zarathustra may be alone, but truth is with him: You may be with the whole world, but truth is not with you.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.