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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 355
Meera, essentially there are no differences at all. Essentially there cannot be any differences. The whole of
mankind is one species of being. But different races have evolved different qualities. They have lived in different
climates, they have encountered different situations, they have passed through different histories; naturally they
have learned to behave in different ways.
For example, the Jews had to experience a totally different history from anybody else. They have lived for
centuries without a country, they have wandered all over the world, they have lived without security, without a
home; naturally that has made them very money-minded. When you don’t have a home, when you don’t have a
country, then all your security becomes focused on money; then it is only money that can save you. And when
you become focused on money, naturally you become more clever than others in earning it. Your whole being
turns into a money-making machine. That’s what a Jew is a money-making machine. Nobody can defeat him in
that because they have lived a totally different past.
When you are living in your home surrounded by the same kind of people, the same race, protected by the
country, by the society, you need not worry too much about money. Even without money you are not going to
die, people will support you, you can depend on that. But the Jews had no way to depend on anything else;
hence money became their country, money became their religion, money became their home, money became their
security. That was bound to happen.
In a country like India where for thousands of years everybody has been told to seek and search for his salvation....
And, of course, you can seek and search only for your salvation; you cannot seek and search for somebody else’s
salvation, that is not possible. The inward journey has to be done in absolute aloneness. But the by-product of it
has been that Indians have become very selfish. It was bound to happen. It is an ugly phenomenon, but too much
insistence on going inwards, extreme insistence on going inwards, has made people very selfish, because there is
nobody who is yours. That has been the teaching of all the mahatmas: ”You are alone. You are born alone, you
have to live alone, you have to die alone. Nobody is going with you. All relationships are just superficial, so don’t
be bothered much by them and don’t invest much in them.” That has made India more selfish than any other
country.
This is one of the most selfish countries in the world. It is because of this selfishness that India has remained
in bondage for thousands of years because everybody thinks only of himself. So if an enemy comes and conquers
the country, who bothers about the country? The country does not really exist; there is no idea of nation in India.
Individuals are there, but there is no nation. Hence all kinds of quarrels and small divisions and subdivisions...
you will not find the same thing happening anywhere else in the world. Every political party goes on splitting
into many, many small fragments. Then those small fragments start splitting into smaller ones, and the process
seems to be unending unless you are your own party! You are the member and you are the president and you
are the secretary. When only you are left alone, only then will the process stop. And who knows whether there
too the process will stop or not? because the habit of splitting everything has gone so deep that you may start
saying, ”Legs are not part of my party, the lower part of my body is not in my party, only the higher. The higher
part is superior and the lower is inferior. The higher part means the brahmins, and the lower means the sudras,
the untouchables.”
Every race has passed through different phases, different climates. This is a hot country. A hot country makes
people lazy, so you cannot compete with Indians as far as laziness is concerned. They are utterly lazy and lousy!
You cannot compete with them, it is impossible; they will surpass everyone in that. No country can have any
superiority as far as laziness and lousiness is concerned. Indians are the tops!
Because it is a hot country and the climate is not provoking people to work more, people have remained poor. If
one person in the whole family earns then it is enough. If just enough is available to survive, Indians are satisfied,
more than satisfied. Of course, they find rationalizations for it, they find great spiritual rationalizations for it
”We are very contented people.” That is all nonsense. The reality is that they are simply lazy and the climate is
hot and they don’t want to work so they have to create a philosophy to support themselves: ”We are not much
concerned about mundane things, we only think of spiritual things.”
India condemns everybody as materialist and those materialists have always been coming and conquering these
great spiritualists! And all their spiritual power has not been of any use. All their Sai Babas, etcetera, have not
been of any help. All they can do is, they can produce ash, holy ash, through their spiritual powers, nothing else.
Just ordinary magic tricks, any stupid person can do it nothing to do with spirituality.
This country has not been able to create science, technology, because, the Indians will say, ”We are so spiritual
we don’t bother about creating material wealth.” But they all hanker for it, deep down they all are longing for it.
Their hearts are full of desires, but because of their old habit of laziness they can’t do anything.