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CHAPTER 1. NONVIOLENCE
diseased. The body always follows the vital breath as a shadow.
That is why I say violence is a disease. Nonviolence is freedom from disease. Nonviolence is a perfect state of health.
Just as the English word disease is meaningful so also is the Hindi word swasthya. The meaning of SWASTHYA is not only health, as the meaning of disease is not illness only. Swasthya means one who has stood in oneself, one who is fixed in oneself, one who is absorbed or immersed in oneself, one who has become one's self. One who has attained one's self where there is no 'other' so that there is no scope of any conflict. There are no different tunes, all the tunes have merged into oneself. Such a condition is called swasthya. Nonviolence is swasthya in this sense, and violence is a disease.
In its journey of millions of years, the human body has accumulated poisonous ganglions which are quite necessary for emergency. When he was an animal, a beast, they were necessary. Suppose a tiger attacks an animal, it should have that power to create extraordinary capacity to run away from it. It would practise to run fast, learn running, and then would be able to escape. It is a matter of emergency, it should immediately get that much madness which would enable it to run away leaving all consciousness, because it would be perhaps difficult for it to save itself if it is conscious. That is why in its journey of millions of years the body has developed poisonous ganglions which are automatically thrown into the blood when emergency arises, and becoming bewildered or mad one can run. In fear man trembles. This trembling is a chemical variation. In this way, many chemical changes take place in the body of a person afflicted by the sex urge. If you happen to see animals in their mad condition when excited by sex, you will realise that something of it is still there in human beings. No sooner are they in this condition that a peculiar kind of bad smell begins to emit from their bodies. Really speaking, beasts know it only then that their females are ready for sexual intercourse, when that peculiar smell begins to emit from their bodies. At the moment of sexual intercourse, that peculiar smell begins to emit even from the bodies of men and women. Their bodies are passing through a sort of chemical change.
It is possible for us to cut some ganglions of man. We have seen a bullock and also seen a bull. There is no other difference between a bullock and a bull except for the removal of one ganglion. But what a difference between humility of the bullock and arrogance of the bull! The soul or spirit of the bullock did not develop, only his body became humble or pitiable. If some ganglions of human body are cut off, man would not be able to commit violence, but he would not also be nonviolent. These two are quite separate matters. Then man will be a humble, pitiable human being. Then he will be like an old person suffering from sex-desires but is unable to enter the world of sex. Such a person cannot evolve. Such a person, if created, will not oppose, will not rise in revolt. Slavery will be his soul. He will be non-rebellious. Violence remains there only in an important form. Violence will get accumulated there and go on whirling. There will be disease in the soul, the soul will be devoid of music harmony. But the body will be incapacitated even to send that musiclessness, absence of music - to others. We can break this bulb, but its electric current will not be cut off due to the breaking of the bulb, but the current will not be seen. Electricity is shining through the medium of bulb but the bulb is not electricity. Violence is produced through the medium of ganglions but they are not violence. And one more thing which should be borne in mind is that when violence itself is taking leave of man's mind, the accumulated source of poison and exciting substances making man disharmonious, will now begin to create a new chemical revolution in man's life.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
4
Osho
