Revolution

 

 

Revolution is possible only in the individual soul. The social revolution is a pseudo phenomenon, because the society has no soul of its own. Revolution is a spiritual phenomenon. There can be no political revolution, no social revolution, no economic revolution. The only revolution is that of the spirit; it is individual. And if millions of individuals change, then the society will change as a consequence, not vice versa. You cannot change the society first and hope that individuals will change later on.

 

That's why revolutions have been failing: because we have taken revolution from a very wrong direction. We have thought that if you change the society, change the structure, economic or political, then one day the individuals, the constituent elements of the society, will change. This is stupid. Who is going to do this revolution?

 

For example, in 1917 a great so-called revolution happened in Russia. But who is going to take charge of this revolution? Who is going to become powerful? Joseph Stalin became powerful. Now Joseph Stalin had not gone through any revolution himself; he was a by-product of the same society that he was changing or was trying to change. He proved a far more dangerous czar than the czars that he had destroyed, because he was created by those czars. He was a by-product of a feudal society. He tried to change the society, but he himself was a dictatorial mind. He imposed his dictatorship on the country, revolution became counter-revolution -- and this has been the misfortune of all the revolutions that have happened in the world because the revolutionary is the same type of person. He has been created by the past, he is not new. What is he going to do? -- he will repeat the past. Labels will be new -- he will call it communism, socialism, fascism; that doesn't matter. You can have fancy names; fancy names only befool people. [....]

 

We go on giving fancy names, but deep down the reality remains the same. Nothing happened in 1917. One czar was replaced by another czar, and of course more dangerous. Why more dangerous? -- because Stalin had destroyed the czar, he was a stronger man, certainly more cunning. He knew how the czar had been destroyed, so he had all the ideas of how to protect himself so he did not go the same way. He created a greater slavery in Russia than there was before. Because he was afraid that sooner or later he would be thrown away, so he had to break all the bridges and he had to throw all the ladders that he had used. And he was more cautious; the czar himself was not so cautious because he was a born czar. He had got it through inheritance, he had taken it for granted. Stalin had worked his way himself: it had been a torturous way and a long journey, and he had to destroy many enemies.

 

After the revolution he started destroying and killing all those people who could be in some way competitors with him. Trotsky was murdered because he was the next man, very close, and in fact more influential in Russia than Joseph Stalin because he was an intellectual Jew, was a greater orator, had more mass appeal. Stalin was nothing intellectually compared to Trotsky. He had to be killed. And there are possibilities than even Lenin was poisoned by the doctors. And then the years that Stalin remained in power, he destroyed all potential competitors. One by one, all the members of the Politburo were killed. He must have been the strongest man in the whole history of humanity, and he turned the whole country into a big prison.

 

This is how revolutions fail. The first reason is because we try from the wrong end.

 

Secondly, once a revolution has succeeded we have to destroy the revolutionaries, because the revolutionaries are dangerous people. They have destroyed the first society, they will destroy the second, because they are addicted to revolution. They know only one thing, they are experts only in one thing: in throwing governments -- they don't care what government. Their whole expertise and their whole power is in throwing governments. Once a revolution succeeds the first work of the people who come in power is to destroy all the remaining revolutionaries -- and they had succeeded because of them! So each revolution turns to counter-revolution because the people who had brought them into power are more dangerous people.

 

Try to understand. The mind of a revolutionary is a destructive mind: he knows how to destroy, he does not know how to create. He is very capable of provoking people into violence, but he is absolutely incapable of helping people to become calm and quiet and go to work and create. He does not know that language. For his whole life he has been a revolutionary. His whole work, his whole expertise, is to provoke people to destroy; he knows only that language. And you cannot hope to change his whole life pattern at the end of his life.

 

So those who are in power have to destroy all the remaining revolutionaries. Each revolution kills its own fathers -- it has to be done -- and once those fathers are killed, the revolution has turned into a counter-revolution. It is no more revolutionary, it is anti-revolutionary. [....]

 

All revolutions will go on failing in the same way, because their very foundation is wrong. Revolution cannot be imposed from above. Who will impose it? The people who impose it will be part of the past; they will continue the past. Tell the people that there is no future for political revolutions. Only one kind of revolution is possible, and that is spiritual revolution. Each individual has to change in his being, and if we can change millions of people then the society will change. There is no other way, there is no shortcut.

 

And this too has to be understood: It is an inherent characteristic of any developing system that heroes emerge and are heroes only in the context which stimulated their creation. As these heroes overcome and change such contexts, the heroes themselves become the context to be changed.

 

A certain hero is born in a certain situation. For example, Mahatma Gandhi was born because of the British Empire. He was meaningful only in the context of the British Empire. Once the British Empire died Mahatma Gandhi was meaningless. The context was not there; from where can you get the meaning? So once the context is changed, then the hero himself becomes a useless burden. Lenin became a burden to those who came into power, Gandhi became a burden to those who came into power. Jayaprakash has become a burden right now to those who are in power -- and this is the history, the whole history. But there is a fundamental law working: It is an inherent characteristic of any developing system that heroes emerge and are heroes only in the context which stimulated their creation.

 

Political leaders are temporary leaders. They exist in a certain context; when the context is gone they are gone.

 

That is where Buddhas are different: their context is eternity. Their context is not a part of time. This is where Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, remain eternally meaningful: because they are not part of time their message is eternal. Their message exists in the context of human misery, human ignorance. Unless the whole existence becomes enlightened, Buddha will not become irrelevant.

 

That's why I say political leaders come and go, they are on the stage just for a few moments. Only spiritual beings remain, abide.

 

Buddha is still meaningful and will remain meaningful, forever and forever, because enlightenment will always be a need. Politicians don't make the real history of humanity; they only create noise. The real history is something else that runs like an undercurrent. The real history has not yet been written, because we become too engrossed in the temporal things. We become too obsessed with the newspaper which is only relevant today and tomorrow will be meaningless.

 

If you have eyes to see, see the point: become interested in the eternal.

 

Old, ancient societies were not interested in the day-to-day too much. Their interest was deeper. They were not brought up on the newspaper, radio and television. They recited the Koran, they meditated on the Gita, they chanted the Vedas, they contemplated the statues of Buddha and Mahavir. These are eternal phenomena.

 

That's why I say the events that happen every day are almost meaningless, because the moment they happen, immediately they disappear because their context changes. Political revolutions have been happening and disappearing; they are bubbles, soap bubbles. Maybe for a moment they look very beautiful, but they are not eternal diamonds.

 

The eternal diamond is the inner revolution. But the inner revolution is difficult because the inner revolution needs creativity and the outer revolution needs destructiveness. Hate is easy, love is difficult. To destroy is easy. To create a Taj Mahal takes years -- it took forty years and fifty thousand persons working every day -- but how many days will you take to destroy it? Just take a bulldozer and within a day the land will be flat.

 

To destroy is very easy, so people become very interested in destruction; they think this is a shortcut. To create is very difficult.

 

And again I will remind you: because all political revolutions are destructive -- they are capable in destroying — they can provoke people into destruction. It is very easy to provoke people into destruction because people are frustrated, people are in misery; you can provoke them into any revolt. But the moment they have destroyed, the problem arises: "Now what to do?" They don't know how to create, and your so-called revolutionaries don't know what to do now. Then everybody is at a loss. The misery continues, sometimes even becomes deeper, uglier. After a few years, again people forget and again they start thinking in terms of revolution -- and the political leader is always there to lead you into destruction.

 

My work here is of creativity. I am not provoking you into any destruction, I am not telling you to blame others for your misery. I am telling you you are responsible, so only those who have the guts to take this responsibility can be with me. But this is a real revolution. If you take the responsibility for your life you can start changing it. Slow will be the change, only in the course of time will you start moving into the world of light and crystallization, but once you are crystallized you will know what real revolution is. Then share your revolution with others; it has to go that way, from heart to heart.

 

Governments, social structures, have been changed many times, but nothing really changes. Again the same thing is repeated.

 

That's why I don't call my sannyasins revolutionary but rebellious -- just to make the differentiation. Revolution has become too contaminated with the social idea. Rebellion is individual.

 

Rebel! Take responsibility for your life. Drop all that nonsense which has been put inside you. Drop all that you have been taught and start learning again from ABC. It is a hard, arduous journey.

 

And remember one thing more:... thus both coping systems and governments begin as useful and gradually become counter-productive. This is the nature of the evolutionary process itself.

 

Whatsoever happens on the outside may look in the beginning as if it is very productive; soon it becomes counter-productive -- because life goes on changing. Life goes on taking jumps into the unknown and your structures always lag behind. And each structure in its own turn becomes a grave; it has to be broken again.

 

But I am showing you a way where there is no need for any structure inside. Consciousness can remain unstructured. That is the meaning of the word 'freedom'. Consciousness need not have any structure, any character. Consciousness can live moment-to-moment without any structure, without any morality, without any character, because consciousness is ENOUGH. You can respond, and your response will be good and virtuous because you responded consciously. Live consciously, without any structure, so you will never be caught in a counter-productive system. Otherwise that too happens: you learn one thing; it is beautiful, but only for a few days will it remain beautiful. Soon it will become a habit and again you will find yourself surrounded by a habit, encaged.

 

Real life has to be lived without habits. You have heard, again and again you have been told, "Drop bad habits." I tell you: Drop habit as such! There are not good and bad habits: all habits are bad. Remain without habits, live without habits; then you live moment-to-moment out of freedom -- and this is the life of a revolutionary.

 

And remember also: So in the light of their past service, do not blame any program for being counter-productive as you remove it. Housecleaning should be guiltless. You will remove a program as it no longer fits your developing gestalt, but avoid the temptation to be harsh with the program you remove, because they were necessary stepping-stones to get to where you are now. Love them for this while defusing their power over you for upcoming phases.

 

Whatsoever you do will become a habit, sooner or later. The moment you see it has become a habit, drop it. It is counter-productive now, it is counter-revolutionary now. It will pull you backwards, it will not allow you to move forwards. It will keep you tethered to the known, it will not allow you to go into the unscheduled, unmapped, unmeasured. So whenever you remove a habit don't feel guilty -- 'Housecleaning should be guiltless'; and it should not be harsh either. When you remove a habit, howsoever good it has been, when you remove it don't feel guilty. Don't think, "My mother taught me this. If I am removing it I am betraying her." [....]

 

Don't feel guilty when you drop a program, and don't feel harsh either -- because these are the two extremes. Either people feel guilty or they feel very harsh, antagonistic, angry. There is no need to even feel angry, because whatsoever the poor old woman knew and thought would be good for you she taught you. It served its purpose. In fact, who knows? -- if you were not a Catholic Christian you may not have come to me. It has brought you here. So whatsoever has happened in the past has been used as a stepping-stone; feel grateful to it.

 

No need to feel guilty, no need to feel harsh. Whenever you remove a program, remove it -- just like you remove your clothes. When your body grows, your clothes become small. You don't feel guilty because you are removing pyjamas your mother had given you that don't fit you anymore. You have to remove them! And you don't feel angry either. You need not first beat them and throw petrol on them and burn them and make such fuss about it. You don't do that either. because you know they have served their purpose.

 

Man is a growing gestalt. Every day new things are to happen. Every day you have to absorb the new and make a place for the new; the old has to be gone. The old has to be said goodbye to, with all thankfulness.

 

If you can remember these two things -- never feel guilty when you remove an old program and never feel harsh when you remove an old program -- you will be moving towards the revolution I am intending you to understand. A revolutionary is not really angry. Why should he be? There is no reason. Whatsoever your parents could do, they did, and they did it with all good wishes. It is another matter that whatsoever they were doing was not useful, was not making you free, but that was not their intention. Their intention was good. And they could not have done otherwise; they had lived in a different world.

 

So remember, when you bring up your own children, remember: don't give them programs, give them understanding. Don't give them fixed rules, just give them the vision to see things so they can find their own rules. Don't give them knowledge, just give them awareness. That's what I would like my sannyasins to do with their own children: give them awareness so that whenever and wherever they are...

 

And remember, they will not be in the same world in which you are living and you have lived. They will have their own world. You cannot dream about it, you cannot think about it. They will never repeat the same life-pattern as you. They will have their own lifestyle.

 

Give them awareness: wherever they are they can find a way. Give them light, give them eyes to see, to understand, and give them courage to be free. Give them enough courage so that whenever they find something is not right in their program they can put it away, they can drop it. This is love.

 

Don't enforce any pattern on them. They will be living in a totally different world, so give your love but don't give your knowledge. The world is changing so fast that whatsoever you give will be out of date soon and will become a burden on them, and they will feel guilty if they drop it. Or if they really want to drop it they will have to be angry with you. In both ways it is not good, so don't create that situation for your own children.

 

Live a life of revolution and impart revolution to your children. Live a life of revolution and impart revolution to all those you love. Only this revolution will never fail... but this revolution has not been tried yet. but it has not been tried. Buddha talked about this, but it has not been tried. I am talking about this; it depends on you whether it will be tried or not. The revolution that can succeed has not been tried, and the revolutions that have been tried have all failed.

 

-Osho, "The Secret of Secrets, Vol 2, #6, Q2"