If they were not here, would existence be poorer because of that?
All these considerations have to be looked into before you start raising the consciousness of the
world.
The greater masses of the world are not interested in consciousness.
They are more interested in unconsciousness.
You will be surprised because you may not have heard them saying that they are interested in
unconsciousness, but you can see them drinking alcohol – all kinds of narcotics are being used,
all kinds of drugs are being used. And there are other kinds of unconsciousnesses which are not
produced by chemical drugs.
For example, in a movie, for three hours, for what are you searching? You are searching for three
hours of unconsciousness. For three hours you become so involved in any idiotic story. And they
have been almost the same for centuries: just two men, one woman; two women, one man. There
are only two stories. I tried to find a third story – I have not succeeded. If any of you succeeds,
please inform me, help me, because I have found only two stories. And there is not much difference
in those stories: two women, one man; or two men, one woman. It is really one story. Only three
persons are needed; put them in all kinds of situations, create all different details, but the story
remains the same.
But it is helpful – you get involved in it. Millions of people seeing sports, millions of people
participating in political rallies, shouting slogans, screaming ....
I used to know one man in Jabalpur. I liked that man, I was really impressed by him: he was
something unique .... For one year I was living in a bungalow which was facing six roads, so all
kinds of processions were passing by there. And it was near the high court, the collector’s office,
the commissioner’s office. They were all just within a half-mile radius.
So every kind of procession – protests, either going to the chief justice, or going to the commissioner,
or going to the collector .... I used to enjoy seeing them. The most exciting thing for me was one
who was always in every protest, whether it was the communist party, socialist party, congress party,
president’s party – any party. And in India there are all kinds of parties.
Whether it was a religious protest – Christians protesting that something was being done against
their religion, or Mohammedans, Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists – he was always, inevitably there. I
could not believe it. That man was something! One day I caught hold of him and I said, ”You have
to come inside with me.”
He said, ”Right now I cannot come, I am going in the protest.”
I said, ”You can go later on – I will send you, I will drive you. But for five minutes you just come in –
because now it is too much, I cannot bear it any more.”
He said, ”But what is the problem? What have I done to you?”
I said, ”You have not done anything to me; I just want to know to which party you belong.”
He laughed. He said, ”As far as parties are concerned, I am a member of all the parties.”
I said, ”But ...?”
He said, ”You will not understand, nobody understands. I enjoy shouting, screaming. Now, who is
screaming against whom, that is not material. I simply enjoy – I shout, jump, have a flag. I don’t care
whose flag, I don’t have any flag of my own. And I am not interested in what they are demanding,
whether they get it or not, but I enjoy it.”
Now this man has no political interest, no religious interest. What his interest is, is in finding
unconsciousness in shouting, screaming, getting involved in something in which he has no
ideological interest. But he has psychological involvement, he forgets himself. For the two, three
hours that the protest continues, he forgets himself. Now, how can he miss if some other party is
protesting? His psychological interest is the same.
He said, ”It is not very costly.” In India you can become a member for one fourth of a rupee; that is a
one-year membership. And that too you don’t have to pay, somebody will pay for you, you have just
to vote for him.
So I asked him, ”So many parties, so many religions and you must be paying so much money ....”
He said, ”No, they pay it. And those idiots don’t even ask, ‘Are you a member of any other party?’
I have not yet been asked, so I have not yet been forced to lie. Nobody asks me. I say, ‘I want to
become a member of your party.’ They say, ‘Very good, you just become a member of the party,
fill in the form.’ I have filled in all the forms of all the parties. I go to all religious prayers, religious
meetings. I believe in the unity of all.”
I said, ”That’s very good.”
But he was really getting juice. You try protesting, shouting, and soon you get involved in it. Your
thinking disappears, your past, your present, disappear. You are suddenly herenow – but not in a
conscious way – through an unconscious trick. You can do it by alcohol, you can do it by politics,
you can do it by religion. You can do it in a church, you can do it in a movie house. You can do it in
a thousand and one ways, and people are using all kinds of ways.
People are not interested in consciousness.
Consciousness is painful, because you will have to drop so much which you have carried your whole
life thinking it very valuable.
You will have to uncover your wounds which you have covered and completely forgotten.
You will have to revive all worries and anguishes that somehow you have repressed.
You will have to face again your original face which you have lost far back. You have become
somebody else. You have been somebody else so long, that now to face your original face is going
to shatter you completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment