Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

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CHAPTER 2. SOURCE OF VIOLENCE IN MAN
The scientist says, we have investigated all the so-called boundaries, but we did not find them. The spiritualist says, when we looked within, we saw the limitless. The scientist talks in negative language; he says, there are no boundaries. The spiritualist talks in positive language; he says it is limitless. Both the statements mean the same thing. Today, religion and science stand very near each other. All their pronouncements stand very near one another. The scientist cannot say where our body ends. This body ends there where the Universe might be over.
I call this experience Empathy, when the stars are not far off, but when they begin moving within me, when I am not far off from them and I begin to dance on their rays. And when the waves of the ocean are not far from me, they become my waves; and when I am not far from them, I become a part of them. And when the flowers of trees become my flowers, the dried leaves fallen on the ground become my leaves, then I am not aloof from all these things. There is no greater delusion than the feeling of aloofness. To have the feeling of separateness is the greatest illusion, but we go on entertaining it.
To entertain such a feeling is useful, as there would be difficulty if it is not entertained. I cannot call it my wealth which is yours. Taking away your clothes, I cannot convert them into my clothes. Following worldly behaviour, your shop is not my shop, your building is not my building, though you would say 'everything is yours' when I am a guest in your house, but the statement is not to be taken seriously. So our purpose is served. But life is beyond such temporary arrangements. Such arrangements make certain indications and the worldly intercourse goes on. But one who considers such arrangements, such worldly intercourse as life, remains outside the great mysteries of life. Doors of the great palace of life do not open for him, there is no music of life-flute for him, the voice of God is not heard by him. In his pursuit of utility, he misses the life which is nondual, boundless and endless. One has to seek that nonduality beyond utility. It is to be investigated beyond my suggestions. It is to be sought after till it is achieved. Its achievement is called empathy by me. It is the nonviolence, it is the love, it is the nonduality, it is the liberation.
NONVIOLENCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Nonviolence is not social policy and law. If it is social tradition and law, it can never free itself from violence Nonviolence is not social, it is spiritual. If we make nonviolence a social law, then we may, some day, consider violence a necessity. And then it becomes such a disaster that violence will be considered necessary to protect nonviolence. Suppose a man commits violence against somebody, the court will commit violence - punish him because he had committed violence. If a country - a nation commits violence against another country, then the latter will react with violence against the former, because it is considered just to reply violence with violence.
To endure violence is injustice, and it is not proper to endure injustice. And the slogan of nonviolence, of which I am talking about is spiritual. And if we wish to discuss social nonviolence, there will always be a relative law of nonviolence also. It will accommodate both violence and nonviolence. These two will be mixed there, it will be like a Mixed Economy. Violence and nonviolence stand side by side here; only their aspects go on changing. Complete or total nonviolence is not possible on the social level. It is extremely difficult to achieve total nonviolence even on an individual level. It is not proper even to hope when we shall achieve it on a society level and a mass level. It is as improper as to hope for self-realisation on a society mass level.
It is not proper even to hope that all persons will achieve self-knowledge, because it is a matter of
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho