Water from mountains flows downward trying to find out pits, ditches or lakes. Water runs downwards; then the same water, becoming well heated, is transformed into vapour and then begins to run towards the sky, begins to find heights, begins to ride on clouds, begins to travel towards the sun. It is the same water, it is the energy, but it is transformed; there comes a revolution.

 

A violent mind is in search of ditches and pits. It flows downwards. It is heading for a fall. A nonviolent mind becomes very fine – is transformed into vapour – and starts to reach peaks of mountains. It is a journey toward, the sky. It is on a journey to the sun. It is a flight towards the highest. It is eager to go towards the direction of liberation and God. A violent mind is always in search of ’the other’.

 

That ’other’ is the abyss. A nonviolent mind is in search of the ’self’. When we are in search of the ’other’, we shall experience as if we are on a downward journey. Why is it so?, because the ’other’ is the abyss, ’the other’ is the downfall, the ’other’ the hell. Why is the ’other’ a road leading to the downfall? Why? One thing becomes certain that we do not have any joy or tranquility with ourselves. We are in search of the ’other’. There is no joy within one’s self.

 

Man becomes so miserable with himself as he does not become even with his enemy. Man does not get as bored even with the greatest of bores as he gets bored with himself, what is the meaning or cause of this? It is very interesting to see that no man wants himself as his companion. And he becomes very unhappy when some other person does not want him as his companion, though he has already rejected himself. He has already declared we cannot make himself his friend. You are not willing to sit alone with yourself even for one hour.

 

In case you are required to sit alone for the whole day, you become nervous, or you perhaps think of committing suicide, or you will be confused about what to do. It is very difficult to live with one’s self, because he alone can live with himself who has achieved the highest of joy within. One who is full or misery within is anxious to live with another.

 

So I told you violence is unhappiness – uneasiness within. That is why a violent mind is always in search of another, sometimes it is in search of a friend and sometimes in search of an enemy. And it does not take much time in doing so, as the friend can be made an enemy or an enemy can be made a friend very quickly. Man is always in search of another as he desires to save himself from himself. So I tell you the other is an abyss. One who desires to be saved from one’s self, can never go on a higher journey. Is it possible that a person who is not willing to reach his ’self’, can gather that much courage to reach God? Can a person who is not willing, touch the highest peak of supreme existence? That is why we are in search of another, and there will certainly be violence in us as long as we remain in search of another. Violence enslaves others.

 

There are many kinds of slavery. There are sweet kinds of slavery which are worse than bitter ones, because there is some honesty, some sincerity in bitter types. Sweet kinds of slavery are very dangerous, they are sugar coated. They have poison within and sugar outside. We have made all our relationships sugar coated and poison is kept within inside. The poison comes out as soon as a little of the coating is removed. Then we somehow repair the coating and carry on with our relationships. But this fact – to be in search of others is a solid proof that we are unable to get that joy of being with ourselves. Then violence will start again and we shall be in search of another because we cannot live without him. We shall certainly make him a slave without whom we cannot live, we shall certainly possess him, we shall certainly be his master, we shall certainly claim ownership of him. And we shall destroy those – kill those – whose masters we become.

 

That mastership can be of any type, because all types of ownership kill and destroy. Ownership is a very subtle violence, it is a subtle murder. This ownership is the killing of somebody slowly. A religious teacher also can enslave somebody and kill him. There are many types of slavery. When we chain somebody, grip his neck tightly, become dependent on him, then we hang like a stone – a weight – on his neck. And this action of hanging is a downward journey. There is no end to this journey. It goes on spreading.

 

Ours is such a mind which remains in search of another. Such a mind journeys downwards. Its violence goes on increasing. Such a mind will assume many forms, it will have thousands of faces, it will have thousands of ways, it will suppress others, harass them, torture them. There can be very subtle and cunning ways and methods of torturing such as, a father can torture his son, a son can do so to his father, a mother can torture her son and the son can torture his mother. Psychologists say humanity has been doing this since long; it has been torturing one another, but we do not have any idea of it. This will continue to be so, so long as man is not pleased with his own self, so long as he is not ready to live with his own self, his journey begins with his own self. It leaves the outside and enters within because the other is always the outer, the other is always the without. He will certainly be out.

 

As long as the search continues for the other, he (the other) will always be out, even though that ’other’ be a wife, or a beloved, or a lover or even God. If anyone looks even at God as some other person then violence will continue and in that action there cannot be freedom from violence. That is why Mahavira rejected ’God of the outside’ because he thought ’if God is the other’, there would be a way for violence. So very few people understood why Mahavira rejected God. The ignorant thought Mahavira was an atheist, they thought Mahavira said so because God is perhaps non-existent.

 

Mahavira said ’There is no God except you.’ The only reason for this statement is that if there is God as ’the other’, the violent mind will make even God the means of going out and going downward. Mahavira said, ’there is no God outside, we have to make a journey within. The soul within is God himself.’ And as soon as one enters within, his journey to the highest peak begins. There are very great heights within, and there are very deep abysses outside. There are peaks as high as Gaurishanker within and there are depths as deep as the Pacific Ocean in the outer world.

 

If any one goes deeper and deeper in the outer world he will go on falling in bottomless pits where there will be darkness, misery, death, torture and hell. And if any one climbs within, towards the Self, there will be great heights, there will be peaks of Kailash, there will be peaks of gold, there will be liberation – moksh, there will be heaven. That journey is of within. When life force becomes violent, it degenerates, and when it becomes nonviolent, it is sublimated. In both the cases, life energy-life force – is one and the same thing. When it flows in the world outside, it gives misery and brings pain and unhappiness, and when it travels within, it gives happiness and brings happiness.

 

If in any moment when you have experienced the highest joy, you must have known that you are absolutely alone. If in any moment when thrills of joy have spread in you, you must have experienced that you are within yourself. If in any moment when a single drop of the rain of joy had fallen within you, you must have experienced, I alone am here, no one else.’ You must have always got miseries by being associated with others, and you must have always experienced happiness within yourself.

 

We also follow a golden deer when we desire happiness from another. No sooner do we believe that the golden deer is existing, than our fall begins. Our degeneration begins that very moment when we believe that the other can give us happiness. It is our experience of the whole life that we got nothing but unhappiness and miseries from the world outside. But the hope persists that happiness will one come day. But it has never been achieved. We always hope it will come in future, but looking at the past, can you say if it was ever achieved? Has anyone ever got happiness from the other? On the contrary, the fact is one gets as much unhappiness from him from whom one had expected to get as much happiness.

 

That is why, that son whose marriage is arranged by his parents does not get that much unhappiness from his wife as the son who goes in for a love-marriage, gets from his wife. There is a greater possibility of getting dashed on the rock of love-marriage, because one whose marriage is performed after consulting horoscopes, etc. does not entertain high hopes of happiness. He will also get unhappiness but that will be in proportion to the hopes of happiness predicted according to the horoscope. We get that much unhappiness as much as we hope for happiness in life. Those who hope for much happiness are rewarded with much unhappiness. There is no way to give him unhappiness who does not hope for happiness.

 

Life-force becomes violent when it flows towards another. It flows towards miseries, it flows towards hell. We all are in search of our own hells. When life-force travels within, it becomes submitted. Life-force is the same. There are no different ’forces’ in the world, only the directions are different. ’Forces-Powers’ are not different in the world, the only difference is that of going up or Coming down.

 

It is like your going down or climbing up the steps of a staircase of a temple. It can be like this: you and your friend are standing on the same staircase, your face is downwards and your friend’s face is upwards. Then heaven and hell both will be there on the same staircase. Your neighbour whose face is upwards will be in heaven on the same step while your face which is downwards will be in hell on the same step. Therefore, know that there are no such geographical positions – places like heaven and hell. Everything depends on which direction one’s mind’s attitude looks at. Violence is the decline and nonviolence is the upward movement of life-force.

 

NATURE OF VIOLENCE

 

Violence is a thing given to man by nature but it is not the nature of man. It is animal's nature, it is the nature of beasts. Man has passed-travelled-through this nature and so has carried all the experiences -- impressions of that animal life with him. Violence is like this: suppose a man is passing on a road and is covered with particles of dust and when he enters a palace, he refuses to remove those particles of dust saying they have come with me, they are a part of me. Those dust-particles are those things which have stuck on man's soul while passing through an animal life. They have become fixed but they are not the nature of man. Violence is natural far beasts, it is their nature because they have no choice in this matter. Violence is not natural for man because he has a choice in this matter.

 

In fact, manhood to be human -- begins with this choice. Manhood begins with this decision. Manhood begins with this resolve. Man is standing at the cross roads. All beasts are on a unidimensional road. They can therefore have no choice.

Man can become violent or nonviolent as he wishes. This is man's freedom. Beasts haven't got it. It is the helplessness of a beast. That is why there is no difference between the nature of beasts and the fact of being beasts. There is no distance between the future and the past of a beast. There is no difference in being a beast and in the possibility of what it can be. The beast is what it can be. That which is possible, is actual. There is no distinction between the actuality and possibility of beasts. The whole matter is different in the case of man. Man can be different from what he is The actuality of man is not his possibility. He can be something else tomorrow from what he is really today. So we can't tell any dog that you are something less of a dog, but we can tell a man, you appear to be something less of a man. To tell any dog that you are something less of a dog is completely an absurd statement. It doesn't have any meaning. All dogs are complete dogs. There may be weak dogs, there may be strong ones also but there is no difference in their doghood. But there is a difference of degrees in manhood. We cannot tell any Krishna that there is no difference in manhood -- gentlemanliness -- between you and Hitler. We cannot tell any Buddha that there is no difference between you and Ravana. It so happens at times, That we have to say about someone, there is hardly any gentlemanliness in him, and we have to say about some other person that there is not much of humanity in him that he can be called divine-god. Whenever we use the word God for some person, it means that there is so much humanity in them that it is found insufficient to call him man. What a man is, is not everything; much more can happen to him. There is a very great potentiality in him. His past is linked with his journey -- through beasthood, that condition is that of violence. And what he can be is his nonviolence.

The nature of man is that which it will be when it will evolve itself fully. The reality about man is what he has accumulated in his journey uptil now. That is why I say violence is acquired, nonviolence is the nature. So violence can be given up; but nonviolence can only be achieved, it cannot be given up. It is very necessary to understand this difference.

Every sinner has a future and every sinner has an opportunity to be a saint in future. We can tell every sinner honestly that he is a saint of the future. Every saint has a past and in every saint's past is the past of a sinner. We can tell every saint honestly that you were a sinner in the past, but then the saint has no further future. The saint means one who has achieved his entire nature, he has now become what he could have become. The flower has bloomed fully. A bud has a future. If a bud wishes to be a flower, it can become a flower. So when we tell a bud that it is your nature to be a flower, it doesn't mean we are talking of a fact, we simply talk of potentiality. When we tell a bud it is your nature to be a flower, it means, if you wish to be a flower, you can be a flower. Thus if man says violence is my nature, he is talking like the mistaken bud, which thinks that it can be a bud for ever. Violence is not the nature of man; it is the acquisition of his past, it is the impression of his past. Violence is man's conditioning which was unavoidable through the process of his evolution from beastly life. Beast is to be pardoned because violence is unavoidable in its life. Man cannot be pardoned, because violence is his choice; it is not inevitable when he chooses violence.

Violence is inevitable for beasts, it is a responsibility for man. It is a fact for beasts, for man it is merely a historical memory. It is the present for beasts, it is past for man. We have the choice in front of us. Man can take a decision to be nonviolent; he can take a decision to be violent also. That is why when a certain person takes a decision to be violent, no beast can compete with him. Really, no beast can be as violent as a man can be, because a beast is violent by nature while man becomes violent by planning. So, even after a through search among beasts, we cannot get such violent beasts as Chengez Khan, or Taimur, or Nadir, or Hitler. If we consult the history of beasts and ask them if they had parallel examples they would reply, 'We are very poor in that, we do not have any memory -- any record -- in this matter.' It is very interesting to know that no animal except man becomes atrocious towards its own fellow-members. No animal kills another animal of its class, does not commit violence towards it. This distinguishing feature is also there in the violence of animals.

Man is the only animal who kills other men. It is interesting to know that if an Indian wolf is left near a Pakistani wolf, it will not harm the other, but to keep an Indian near a Pakistani is full of danger. Language experts say this is perhaps due to difference in language. The opinion of the linguists seems to be true. They say, as both the wolves do not speak any language, the Pakistani wolf does not speak Urdu and the Indian wolf does not speak Hindi, so they do not know they are foreigners. But man from one province becomes a foreigner in another province. Gujaratis are foreigners in Marathi province, the Hindi speaking people are foreigners to those speaking Tamil. If what the linguists say is correct and I feel there is truth in it, we shall be compelled one day to make man speechless -- silent -- so as to make him a human being. Perhaps it would be difficult to create humanity without being speechless in the world.

Man is rational only in the sense that he rationalizes his follies, he is not rational in any other sense. Aristotle definitely said Man is a rational animal but the history of man uptil now does not prove it. History has disproved Aristotle. Man seems intelligent only in one thing and it is this, he is trying to rationalize his follies. Even when he kills someone he rationalizes his action. He says I shall have to kill him because he is a Mohammedan; he is a Hindu, he is not an Indian, he is a Pakistani etc. As if it is a sufficient cause for being killed to be a Pakistani or enough to kill a person if he is a Mohammedan.

Man finds out a cause to kill, such as this man is rich, he should be killed, this man is a communist, he should be killed. When old causes become worthless, new ones are being found out. New causes prove that old ones have become useless, they are not to be used now. Let us find out new ones. Uptil now we have killed many Hindus and Muslims, let us now make Hindus and Jains quarrel. If we do not succeed in Hindu-Jain quarrels, let us start dividing them into the rich and the poor. Let us have a class-war. Thus when man wants to commit violence, to kill, he conveniently finds out causes.

Animals never kill without a cause. I am telling you this that if we understand violence of man we shall see that man becomes violent without any cause. So violence is his choice and that is why no animal can become as cruel and violent as man can be. To be violent is simply the nature of animals, it is not its choice, that is why there can be a Nadirshah and there can be a Mahavira among mankind. Nonviolence is not the choice of animals. But man has to make a choice of nonviolence.

 

- Osho, “The Perennial Path: The Art of Living, #1”