Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 18

CHAPTER 2. SOURCE OF VIOLENCE IN MAN
see them, kept on gazing at them and were not willing to go out from the museum. And as long as they did not get out other visitors wishing to buy tickets stood at the gate There was no question of their entrance. Then there was a great difficulty in managing the whole show. At last visitors inside were asked to go out because the visitors outside were continuously tapping on the door so that they might enter the hall. So the collector of curios found out a clever device to solve the difficulty. Perhaps he might have learnt this device of cleverness from nature. There were about ten to twelve halls in the museum. To guide visitors to go from one hall to another, a small board with an arrow was kept in each hall. There was a board with an inscription, 'There are other wonderful things', and an arrow pointing to the next hall. So this man played a trick and put the largest arrow on the board in the twelfth hall with an inscription, 'Please proceed further and see more wonderful things which you have never seen or heard about.' And when a person went out of this hall, he was directly put on a highway. Now it was impossible for him to turn back to the hall. There stood a watchman at the door. If one desired to enter the museum again, he had to buy a ticket and enter through the front door. From the day this board was placed there in the museum, there was no congestion because people were directly put on the highway in their curiosity to see wonderful things.
Once Lao Tse asked Confucious: 'Do you know of that age when people were so religious-minded that none talked about religion?' One has to talk about religion only in an irreligious society. Where is the need of talking about religion if people are religious-minded? No one else except a sick person talks about health. Generally the sick person himself becomes a doctor because he is discussing and talking about health and medicines. Such a person reads many magazines and pamphlets on health and books on Naturopathy. Sickness does not make the poor fellow so conscious as to forget it by discussing and talking about health. Similarly, an immoral society talks about morality; an amorous or sensual society talks about celibacy; a fallen society talks of their progress and a poor community talks about wealth. We discuss that matter which we haven't got. There was a lot of violence in the times of Mahavira, nonviolence was not understood in its depth, so he was compelled to discuss celibacy separately. Only the discussion about nonviolence was considered enough by Rishabha, and perhaps it was not necessary even to discuss it in the times before Rishabha. When violence grips the mind tightly discussion about nonviolence starts immediately. So I said sex is a kind of violence and absence of sex is the blooming of nonviolence.
SYMPATHY AND EMPATHY
Sympathy has been looked upon as a very valuable attribute. It means you become unhappy and show your sorrow on seeing some one else unhappy. It also means 'to experience', that is to experience along with another. But the person who experiences unhappiness when the other is unhappy does never experience happiness when the other is happy. You show your feelings of sorrow and unhappiness if anybody's house catches fire, but you do not show happiness if some one else builds a big building. It is very important to understand this matter. What does this mean?
This means sympathy is a kind of deception. That sympathy is genuine when you experience unhappiness in the miseries of others and experience joy and happiness in the happiness of others. But we are able to experience or show unhappiness in another's unhappiness, though many a time we are unable to experience happiness in another's happiness. That is why, it will not be correct to say we are able to show sorrow when another is unhappy'. If we are able to be happy in the happiness of others, then and then only, would it be proper to show our sorrow in their unhappiness. On the contrary, we derive some pleasure in the unhappiness of others. We take some pleasure in
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho