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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 273
We live in the mind. The mind can even become a saint, can pretend to be holy, but it will not be. It is
impossible; it is not in the very nature of the mind to be holy. Just look at the history of religions they are full of
bloodshed. In fact more crimes have been committed in the name of religions than in the name of anything else.
More people have been killed, butchered in the name of religion, God, truth, Christianity, Islam, than in the name
of political ideologies even. Religion tops the list. Religion has been far more mischievous; it has even defeated
the politicians. It could defeat them for the simple reason that the politician cannot hide himself for very long;
sooner or later he is exposed. But the religious person can hide himself for centuries and you will never know.
The people who crucified Jesus have not even yet understood that they committed a sin. I have not come
across a single Jew who accepts it consciously, that it was a crime to crucify Jesus. And it is not that there are
not good Jews, not that there are not saintly Jews, not that there are not learned rabbis... there are very pious
people. Even a man like Martin Buber could not gather the courage to say, ”We have committed a crime in the
past.” No, that seems impossible. The crime was on Jesus’ part because he tried to declare himself the Son of
God. That is the crime: that he tried to project his image as the messiah, as the messenger of God. That was
the crime and he was rightly punished Jews are absolutely convinced of that.
Two thousand years have passed; I have not come across a single book written by a Jew who can accept that
”We committed a mistake.” It seems impossible. They can’t see it because the crime was committed in the name
of religion.
Thousands of Christians have been killed by Mohammedans, and vice versa. And these wars have been called
jihads holy wars. Now, no war is ever holy, no war is a jihad; all wars are unholy. What excuse you find, that is
another matter; that is just an excuse to fight. You want to fight, you want to kill and destroy. You find good
excuses, beautiful excuses holy wars... and millions of people destroyed.
In these holy wars millions of women were raped; now, that rape is holy. If murder is holy, why not rape? That
too is holy it is done in the name of religion. Everything that is done in the name of religion is good.
Your saints, who look so holy and pious, are the causes of all this nonsense, of all this nuisance in the world.
When are we going to get rid of all this stupidity? Is man not yet mature enough? Has not the time come yet
that we should get rid of all this foolishness that has remained overwhelmingly powerful down the ages? Is not
the time ripe to disconnect ourselves from the past?
But the only way to disconnect yourself from the past is to disconnect yourself from your mind because your
mind is the past. Mind means the known, the past. Mind is history, mind is time. Mind is Christian, Hindu,
Mohammedan, mind is Indian, German, Chinese. And unless you get out of the hold of the mind, whatsoever
you do is going to be mischievous. It may or may not appear mischievous to you that is another matter but it
is going to be mischievous. Out of mind nothing good can ever happen.
Good is a by-product of meditation, and bad, a by-product of mind.
A man said to Mulla Nasruddin, ”How is your great friend, the lawyer?”
Mulla said, ”I’m afraid he is lying at death’s door.”
”These lawyers! At death’s door and still lying?”
That’s the state of the mind: it goes on lying even at death’s door. In fact, as death comes closer to you you
start lying more and more, you start deceiving yourself with many more fictions, you start creating myths around
you of God, of heaven, of hell. You start creating dreams and you start living in dreams because your whole life
is shattered. You have wasted the opportunity. You have not been creative, you have been destructive.
And remember, nobody can be neutral. Either you create something in life or you destroy; either you live in
the mind or you live beyond the mind. If you live beyond the mind you become creative. To be in meditation is
to be creative. Then whatsoever you do is beautiful; it brings more glory, more blessings to the world. Otherwise
whatsoever you do is going to make the world more ugly.
The table and the chair were profoundly in love. They decided to get married and in due course they had a
new arrival.
”What shall we christen him?” asked the chair.
”Chable,” was the other’s logical reply.
Of course the child of a table and a chair should be called a chable. And that’s what people are doing: they go
on producing chables. That seems to be their only productivity: all that they can do is produce more children.
A woman was telling me, ”I hate my husband! From my very guts,” she was saying, ”I hate my husband! I am
afraid some day I may kill him, may poison him!”
I said, ”If you hate him so much, then how come you have eighteen children?”
She said, ”I was trying to create such a crowd that he would get lost in it.”
People hate and still they go on reproducing because their productivity knows no other way.