Violence Is Not the Problem — Humanity Needs More Creativity

Violence Is Not the Problem — Humanity Needs More Creativity

“The whole of humanity is in the same situation. We have worked for thousands of years to make the Earth a big madhouse, and we have succeeded, unfortunately. It is the same everywhere; people are killing each other. There is violence everywhere for the simple reason that we have, in subtle ways, not allowed people’s energies to be creative, and whenever creative energies are prevented they become destructive.“Violence is not the real problem. The real problem is how to help people to be creative. A creative person cannot be violent because his energies are moving in the direction of godliness. We call God the creator. Whenever you are creating something you participate in God’s being. You cannot be violent, you cannot be destructive; it is impossible.“But for thousands of years we have destroyed every possible door to creativity. Instead of helping people to be creative we train them to be destructive. We have respected the warrior, the soldier, too much. In fact, the warrior is something which should be condemned not respected — he is destructive. The soldier should not be respected.“We need sannyasins, not soldiers. We need lovers, not fighters. But love is condemned and violence is praised. What is great in Alexander the Great? — nothing but violence. He is great because he was the most violent person of those days. He killed throughout almost all the known world of his day — he killed millions — and still we go on calling him Alexander the Great. What is great in your kings and emperors and their history? Why do you go on praising them? They should be completely forgotten. Nadir Shah, Genghis Khan, Tamurlaine, why should they be remembered? Why should small children be told all the stupidities that man has done to man? — because we still want people to fight.“The politician lives on violence, the nations live on violence. If the violence disappears, there will be no Italy, no India, no Japan. There will be only one humanity. Why these boundaries? But without these boundaries the politician disappears, and he does not want to disappear, obviously. He has a great vested interest in the boundaries and the boundaries have to be defended. And the only way to defend is to kill, and whosoever is the bigger killer is the winner.“The same is true on a smaller scale in people’s lives. People are taught to be violent because unless you are violent you are not going to succeed in life. You have to be very violent, only then can you fulfill your ambitions. A gentle person cannot succeed, he is bound to fail because he cannot be competitive. He cannot push and pull people, he cannot step over people’s heads.“All the politicians are criminals for the simple reason that crime pays. You only have to be cunning enough not to be caught. The most fundamental rule of this violent life is: all means are good if they fulfill the end. And of course, rather than arguing — because argumentation is a long thing and it may never come to any conclusion — it is better to pull out the sword, it decides things immediately. It is easier to fight with a person and decide who is right. “Might is right.” That rule still remains; the rule of the jungle.“We call man civilized? He has yet to be civilized. Civilization is only an idea which has not yet been realized. Man is just superficially civilized, not even skin-deep. Just scratch a little and you will find the animal coming out — a ferocious animal, far more ferocious than any wild animals because wild animals, howsoever wild they are, don’t carry bombs — atom bombs, hydrogen bombs. Compared to man and his violence all animals are left far behind.“In the past this has been the rule. The buddhas are exceptions. Of course, they are the only civilized human beings. The remaining crowd of people, the mob, is very uncivilized.“It is the same here in this country: a great spiritual country, a long, long heritage of religion, and still people are killing — it makes no difference to people.“Just now all over the country there are riots. And strange: in Moradabad where the riots started, the Mohammedans had gathered to pray. It was their religious festival, Id, and they had gathered to pray. And after the prayer meeting the violence erupted. It means the people who had come to pray had brought weapons with them. Immediately one hundred and thirty people were killed. What kind of hypocrisy is this? What kind of insanity? People who have come to pray are hiding knives, swords, bottles full of acid. They have come ready, prepared. Everything seems to be pre-planned. And they have been there to pray. What kind of prayer can be possible in such a situation?“The word Islam means peace and Islam has created more violence in the world than any other religion, and the word means peace.“Christianity says, “God is love” and Christianity has killed millions of people, burned people alive. And God is love!“It is a very unconscious state of affairs. People are living unconsciously, not knowing what they are doing, why they are doing, not even pondering over it.”Excerpted from: Osho, Guida Spirituale, Talk #2 — Bliss is a ConsequenceViolence Is Not the Problem — Humanity Needs More Creativity was originally published in OSHO Times on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.