Once in a while they go on giving a Nobel prize to a Russian scientist, to some scientist whom they
would like to get out of Russia; his being in Russia is dangerous for them. He is close to finding
something – or he has found it already – in which they are far behind.
Now you see the ways of the politicians? Give the man a Nobel prize – now you create trouble. The
scientist is not capable of resisting the temptation of accepting the Nobel prize, because that is the
world’s greatest honor. It does not happen to everybody; it happens once in a while to one individual
in millions.
Now, a poor scientist, howsoever great a scientist he may be – as a man he is a poor man with
all the desires to be famous, to be well known. Now, the politicians have put him into a dilemma:
if he accepts the Nobel prize he goes against the Russian establishment because the Russian
establishment knows perfectly well – politicians know each other well; nobody knows them as well
as they know each other. They speak the same language, they work the same strategies.
The Russian politicians know why the Nobel prize has been given to this man. By giving the Nobel
prize a rift has been created between the man and the Soviet government. The Soviet pressure will
be: ”Reject the Nobel prize. It comes from the capitalist world; it is not an honor, in fact it is an insult.
Reject it, and if you don’t reject it then you will be in trouble.”
And it has happened with many people: either they have been imprisoned ... that’s what the
politicians of the other side wanted, that they should be imprisoned so their work is spoiled. They
may have been coming close to something which may have made Russia the most powerful nation
in the world. They have disrupted it; they have sabotaged it in a very clever way – without interfering,
without saying a single world.
Or if the man has a world-wide reputation already – which scientists generally don’t have ... perhaps
a literary person, a poet, a novelist may have. If the person has a world-wide reputation, then from
all capitalist countries all the intellectuals, their institutions, academies and societies will start a great
campaign and movement against the Russian government.
Now, the Russian government has only two choices: either to release that man and stop this
campaign .... But they cannot keep this man any longer in the country; he has become an enemy.
And now he is in the hands of the enemies, he can become an informer. He is dangerous – he has
to be expelled. That too is good for the capitalist world. Once the man is expelled he is received
with great honor all over the capitalist world; he is made a hero.
If you look into the ways the politicians go on doing things you will be surprised. But they succeed
only with intellectuals, because intellectuals are really not intelligent people. If they were intelligent
then nobody could manipulate them, neither the communist nor the capitalist; nobody would be
capable of manipulating them. It would be impossible; they would see things clearly.
Intelligence is of the soul.
Intellect is of the mind.
Mind is just garbage. Mind is that which has been given to you by others. The whole collection,
the whole junkyard all kinds of people have been throwing in you – that is your mind. That mind
continuously suffers from an inferiority complex, is bound to suffer: it has nothing of its own, it has
no ground underneath its feet.
The mind wants power, prestige.
It can have power through politics, which is the criminal’s way. If your mind has a criminal tendency
then you will follow the path of politics. Politicians and criminals are not basically different people.
Politicians are successful criminals.
Criminals are unsuccessful politicians.
Criminals are poor, pitiable. They had tried but they failed. Politicians are of the same tribe, with
only one difference: they have succeeded.
And in this world success makes everything right. What you have done, how you have arrived, what
method and means you have used – who bothers about it? When you are successful it is enough
proof that you are a man of tremendous capacity. Your success is the proof.
And when you have failed, your failure is also a proof that you were hankering for the moon; you
were just foolish. Try to walk on the earth, don’t try to fly towards the moon; otherwise you will fall
and get multiple fractures. That’s what poor criminals have got – multiple fractures.
But the mind of the politician and the criminal is the same. Those who are not courageous enough
will go in a way which can lead either to the world of criminals or to the world of politicians. Of
course, of the hundred people who will walk on the path, ninety-nine will go to the world of criminals;
ninety-nine will be in the jails. One percent will also be in jail, but of a different kind: it is called the
White House.
All kinds of black deeds – naturally you have to call the house the ”White House” to hide them.
I have heard: a black man, very old, hair all white, was following a woman, a young girl – must
have been of the age of his grandchildren – with such lustful eyes that another old man, his friend,
stopped him and said, ”This does not suit you. It was okay at one time, but all your hair has become
white, and you are following that girl with such dirty eyes – everybody is shocked.”
Do you know what the man said? He said, ”You will never understand anything. My hair is white, but
that doesn’t mean that my heart has become white: it is still black and it is going to remain black.
Even if I were dead and this girl passed by my side, I would have opened my eyes and looked with
the same lustful eyes. What has hair to do with it? What kind of argument are you giving to me, that
‘your hair is white’? Let my hair be white – I am not!” But white hair helps you to hide black deeds.
I have always wondered why they call this topmost criminal place in the world the White House.
Perhaps unknowingly the idea came from their unconscious that everything inside is going to be
black, but from the outside you have to keep a white face, everything clean.
One person reaches to the White House, ninety-nine to the black houses.
So there are people who are not courageous enough to take this risk – ninety-nine percent possibility
of failing, and only one percent possibility of succeeding. They want far surer ground. Religion
provides that ground: there is no failure in it.
You become religious, you become a great religious leader. If you succeed you become a great
saint; if you don’t succeed, still you are a small saint, you don’t fail. The smallest saint is still a saint
– the lowliest priest is still in the same line as the pope. In religion there is no failure. So, cowardly
people – who are as much interested in gaining power, who are suffering as much from an inferiority
complex, who are on a power trip but don’t have the guts to follow the criminal path – find the path
of righteousness, ascetism, morality, prayer.
By becoming a saint they will also attain to power. Of course, this power cannot be very effective.
They cannot become Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin; they cannot have millions of
lives in their hands – and now such politicians have the whole of humanity’s life in their hands. Of
course these saints can’t have that much, but in a certain way, from a different aspect, they are more
powerful because the politicians will come to touch their feet, the presidents will come to bow down
in respect to them.
The politician does everything according to a particular strategy. If just before the elections President
Reagan goes to the Vatican to pay respects to the Catholic pope, it is not accidental, it is preplanned.
When Reagan goes to the Vatican and gives his respects to the Catholic pope, all the Catholics of
America are, without much effort, converted to giving him votes: this is the right man.
All the bishops, all the cardinals in America will now tell their congregations that Reagan is our man.
Now, to persuade so many Catholics in America ... if he had to go from home to home it would have
taken eternity. And how many stupid things politicians have to do! They have to go on kissing all
kinds of children – their noses are running and they are kissing them .... The politician has to do it.
This is easier, to go to the pope – just kiss his hand and millions of Catholics are on your side.
And the pope blesses you: that way he feels far superior to the presidents, prime ministers, kings,
queens. Of course his power is only airy-fairy, but you enjoy it. It has nothing substantial in it, it is
hollow inside. But it does not matter, because when the presidents and the prime ministers come,
the whole media is there, all the newspapers, all the television stations of the world, all the radio
stations are talking about the pope – you can feel a certain gratification. But the gratification is of
the same desire – the will-to-power.
That’s why I go on talking about the political leaders and the religious leaders without making any
distinction – because there is no distinction at all, only a superficial distinction. Their psyches are
functioning in the same way.
Neither the religious leader nor the politician is interested in the people whom they pretend to lead.
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