THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

204 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
The gods argued with Buddha. They said, ”We agree about that one person: he will find it whether you tell
him or not, he is so intelligent; if he can understand you immediately, then he will find it by himself. And we also
agree about the others, that thousands will not understand you at all; they will, on the contrary, misunderstand
you. But they are already misunderstanding, what more misunderstanding can there be? So you need not be
worried about that point. They are already in confusion, you cannot confuse them any more.”
And this is my experience too: howsoever I try I cannot confuse you any more! You have already touched the
rock bottom; there is nothing below it, you can’t go deeper than that. You are utterly secure.
So the gods said, ”You cannot confuse them more. They are so skillful in confusing themselves, they have done
it already to the maximum. So about that we don’t agree.
”And one thing more: there may be one or two people among ten thousand who are just between these two
sorts of people the one who can understand you and the millions who cannot understand you and are bound to
misunderstand you. Between these two do you think,” they said to Buddha, ”there is not a possibility of a few
people, one or two or three yes, they will be very few, they can be counted on the fingers who may be just in the
middle, neither so confused that they cannot be helped at all nor so clear that they can find their path on their
own? Speak for them; they will be helped by you.”
And Buddha had to agree; it was not an argument for argument’s sake. People like Buddha don’t argue for
argument’s sake; he saw the truth of it. He said, ”I have to agree with you. Yes, there are a few people who are
exactly in the middle, on the boundary line. If I don’t say anything to them they may be lost in the crowd; if
some help is given to them, a little hand, they may be pulled out of their mud. I will speak for them.”
He was going to be an arhata. Arhata means one who has arrived but is unconcerned about others, almost
cold, does not care a bit. He became a Bodhisattva; that is the second category.
Bodhisattva means one who is not only a mystic but also a master, who has not only known himself, but tries
to make it known to others. Of course, the work of the Bodhisattva is far more difficult; the arhata is in a better
position. The Bodhisattva has to struggle with all kinds of insanities insane people, split people, schizophrenic
people, neurotics, psychotics. Humanity is full of these people. The Bodhisattva has to go into the crowd, into the
mud where you are, because that is the only way to help you out. Unless he comes amongst you, unless he lives
with you, unless he relates with you, communicates with you, in a thousand and one ways seduces you, creates
the longing for truth in you, he cannot help you. And these are not easy things.
People are not concerned about truth at all. They are concerned about money, they are concerned about power,
about prestige. They are not interested in being liberated, they don’t want to be sane. They protect their insanity
in every possible way because they have invested so much in their insanity. It is their insanity and they are very
proud of it.
Are you not proud of being a Christian, of being a Hindu, of being a Mohammedan? Are you not proud of being
a German or British or an Indian? You are proud of all these insanities. These divisions have been destructive.
These divisions have proved curses to humanity. They have been calamities, but you are very proud. Everybody
seems to be proud.
I have heard:
An Englishman was talking to an Italian. And the Englishman asked the Italian, ”If you had been given a
choice before you were born, what nationality would you have chosen?”
He said, ”Of course I would have been British!”
And the Englishman asked, ”How would you have felt?”
He said, ”I would have felt very proud!”
These were the days of the second world war and the Italians and the Germans were being defeated. They were
losing their prestige and their power, they were condemned all over the world.
The Italian asked the Englishman, ”If you had not been born British, how would you have felt?”
And the Englishman said, ”I would have felt ashamed.”
That’s why the British seem to be the most neurotic of all very much obsessed with being British, as if it is
something very great.
The same is the case with the Indians; they also suffer from the same chronic disease. They feel very proud of
being Indian. They don’t think that anybody else in the world is really human; all are a little below. But that’s
how everybody thinks deep down.
When the first Westerners reached China, they wrote in their diaries that they could not believe the Chinese
were human. Encountering such a different race for the first time it must have been difficult for them to accept
them as human. And what about the Chinese? Their records say that looking at the Western people they were
very much puzzled they had never thought that monkeys could talk like human beings!