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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 343
living according to their own light. If it fits with society, good; if it does not fit with society it is bad for society
but it has nothing to do with you. Society has to change itself. Socrates is not going to change himself, Jesus is
not going to change himself according to society, Buddha is not going to live according to the crowd. The crowd
consists of blind people, of utterly unconscious people who are fast asleep, who know nothing of themselves. To
follow them is the most stupid thing in the world that a man can do. One should be intelligent enough to wake
up one’s own consciousness.
Religion consists not of conscience but of consciousness. Hence, even an atheist can believe in morality. Of
course, in Soviet Russia or communist China they have to follow a certain code of morality. They may not believe
in God, but they have to enforce morality on people. In fact, they have to enforce it even more because the fear
of God is lost. Now the state has to be really very dangerous, because that is the only fear which will keep people
confined within the boundaries of morality.
It is not accidental that the Russian government and the Chinese government don’t allow any freedom; they
cannot allow it. Capitalist countries can allow a little freedom because God is there to help. You allow a little
freedom, God won’t allow that freedom it compensates. But in a communist country there is no God so there is
no fear of the supreme, the ultimate, and no other life so there is no fear of hell.
Communist countries have to create hell here, right now, so they create concentration camps; they use Siberia as
a substitute for hell. And they have created all kinds of very complicated tortures, all kinds of inhuman tortures.
Even the devil himself can learn much from them! Now in Russia if you don’t agree with the society you are
immediately declared a mental case not that you are politically of a different opinion, no, that is impossible. There
can’t be any possibility of somebody being politically different from the government policy, from the authoritarian
principles, from the recognized ideology. Only an insane person can think that he is different. How can you go
against Marx, Engels and Lenin? Impossible! This unholy trinity rules absolutely. The Russian government is
totalitarian; it has to be because it has to function in such a way that the fear of God has to be replaced by
something; otherwise people will become unmanageable.
Communist countries are bound to become totalitarian. They cannot be democratic, it is impossible, because
who will do the work of keeping people afraid and trembling? Unless they accept God and hell.... God and hell are
very helpful because they do almost all of the work. For a religious person a so-called religious person that fear
is enough to hold him back, and the rest can be done by the government, but that is a lesser part, not more than
twenty or twenty-five percent. Seventy-five percent of fear comes from the psychological creation of a conscience.
In a communist country there is no question of conscience, and of course the question of consciousness does not
arise at all because no such thing as meditation is accepted.
A few people in Soviet Russia have become interested in my way of thinking. They have started meditating,
but they have to meditate hidden underground in their basements. They cannot tell somebody else that they are
meditating because meditation means you have gone insane! ”There is no need to meditate at all. Why should
one meditate? There is no soul to experience, no God to experience. Man is nothing but a by-product of matter.
When death comes all ends, nothing remains beyond death, nothing abides.” So consciousness cannot be allowed
because meditation is not allowed: meditation is the science of releasing consciousness. And conscience cannot
be created because the old ways of creating fear are no more accepted. The whole work has to be done by the
government. Of course the government becomes ugly, the government becomes a monster.
But the same is happening in other countries too in more subtle ways. Communists are gross; the capitalist
countries, the so-called democratic countries, are not so gross, they are subtle, but they do the same thing. They
keep you tethered to the crowd, but in such an indirect way that it needs great intelligence to become aware of
the fact that you are chained. Those chains are invisible.
Religion really consists in creating a different kind of morality, not the so-called ordinary morality, but a morality
which is spontaneous, a morality which arises by itself and is not imposed, a morality which is a consequence of
your own intelligence.
Buddha is talking about that when he says: The master IS CALM. He means that he has gone deep into his
center, he has penetrated his being to the very core, and he has settled there; now he is at rest. All hustle and
bustle has dropped, all running hither and thither has disappeared. Now he knows there is nowhere to go. He has
arrived home, he has found his ultimate shelter, the ultimate refuge. Now he knows, ”This is my shrine.” Sitting
in that shrine he is absolutely calm. You cannot see where he is, but you can feel his calm. You can feel him like
a cool breeze, you can feel him as a shower of silence. If you come close to him, suddenly you will be touched
by something invisible. Your heart will start dancing. Not that he has done anything to you, but your mind can
deceive you, your mind can start rationalizing.