Nature is absolutely innocent. It knows nothing which can be
called corruption. Corruption is something manufactured
by man. The child is born absolutely innocent, there is no
seed of corruption in him. The corruption is created by the society for
its own purposes. It does not want innocent people around because
there is nothing more dangerous, more rebellious, than innocence.
All the societies are afraid of innocent people because they will
not support anything that goes against their innocence, that goes
against nature. Hence, the first thing every society does is to corrupt
the child. The sooner you do it, the better, because as the child
matures it becomes more and more difficult to corrupt him.
The child has to be corrupted in the very early stages when he is
helpless, vulnerable, when he has no doubt in his mind, when he simply believes in the parents, in
the teachers, in the neighbours. He
cannot conceive that these people
are going to destroy him. And these
people are also not aware that they
are destroying their own children.
It is a society of blind people,
sleepwalkers.
They keep walking without
knowing why, where.
They go on stumbling, hurting
themselves and others without even
recognising that this whole
pilgrimage is absolutely absurd.
Life is here and now, it is not a
pilgrimage. It is not a goal
somewhere far away that you have
to reach. But this is part of the
corruption, perhaps the most
important part.
Every child is being taught that
he is not what he should be.
This is the beginning of the
tragedy.
Let me repeat: every child is
being taught that he is not what he
should be. You have started
creating a split between "is" and
"should": "is" is condemned and
"should" is praised. "Is" is the truth
and "should," your imagined idea.
You have made the child sick,
schizophrenic. Now he will never
be at ease, he will never know what
it is to be relaxed. You have made
him tense for his whole life, for the
simple reason that he can never be
anything other than he is. He
cannot go against nature, nobody can. Nature is your life, your
existence, there is nothing beyond
nature. There is no way to cross the
boundaries of nature, so you are
going to remain what you are. But
that is condemned.
You cannot become what is
being told to you to become.
You are a being.
And all the cultures and all the
societies are trying to make you
into a becoming.
Between these two words is the
whole world of corruption.
When I say you are a being, I
mean you need not become
anything.You have simply to blossom,
unfold.
Whatever is within you, let it
become manifested.
In the child it is a potentiality; if
he grows naturally it will become a
reality. But no child is allowed to
grow naturally. Every child is being
forced to become something which
he can never become, which is
beyond him. It is not his fault. He
tries hard; and the harder he tries,
the greater is the failure.
You see all around the world
people with long faces, sad. What is
their misery? What has gone wrong
with the whole world?
There is an ancient parable. A
man was continually praying to
God: "I must be the most miserable,
the most condemned person in the
whole world. Couldn't you give me
somebody else's misery? I don't ask
you much. I am not asking you to
make me blissful, blessed; I am not
worthy of that. But my whole life's
prayer, worship... at least you can
do one thing: change my misery
with somebody else's, with
anybody's because I know there is
nobody who is in a worse situation
than I."
And that's how almost
everybody feels, because yourself
you know from within. Your
suffering, your pain, your hurts,
your wounds you know from
within. You know how many tears
you are carrying within your eyes.You know that the face that you
show to the world is not your
original face. You know that the
smile on your lips is as painted as
lipstick. Perhaps lipstick is more
real -- at least it has some material
substance in it. Your smile is not
even that real. It is just an exercise
of your lips, there is nothing
behind it.
But you have been told to look
happy, to look smart, to look
intelligent; to look like somebody
special, not just any ABC. You have
been made a hypocrite, and you
have understood perfectly well that
it pays to be a hypocrite. And it is
meaningless and pointless to open
your wounds before others because
nobody is going to help you.
On the contrary, you will
become a laughing stock, you will
look like an idiot. It is better to keep
all that is ugly hidden
deep in the basement
of your
unconsciousness, and
show on the surface, at
least, that which you
are supposed to be but
cannot be; so you have
to be an actor.
All the societies are
turning their people
into actors. They have
changed the world into
a vast stage of a
meaningless drama.
Most of these people
keep rehearsing. They don't even
get a chance in this bogus drama to
become a president, a prime
minister, but they go on carrying on
the rehearsal.
This man asked God, "You have
to do something; now I cannot bear
any more." That night he had a
dream. He heard a divine voice,
saying, "Everybody should collect
all his sufferings, miseries, pains,
wounds and whatever he wants to
get rid of. Put them in a bag and
come to the temple."
The man thought his prayer had
been heard. He collected
everything. He had to carry a huge
bag. The size of the bag was bigger
than himself; it was too difficult to
carry. But this he had been carrying
his whole life within himself. Now
he could see how much it was. He
had never had the guts to look
within, at how much junk had
collected in the basement. For the
first time seeing all this, he could
not believe that he had been
carrying all this load. Now he could
see why he was sad, why he was
dragging, not dancing. How can life
become a song with all this inside
you? It can only be a hypocrisy.
He rushed, dragging his big bag.
But what he saw... because the
divine voice was not only for
himself. All the people from all
directions were bringing.... And
then he became puzzled because he
had always thought these people
were happy. He saw a man he
knew; he was always smiling,
joking -- but this man's bag was
bigger than his own! He could not
believe his eyes when he saw all the
people dragging bigger bags than
his. Looking at other people's bags
he felt somewhat
proud that his bag was
not that big.
And then in the
temple the divine voice
said, "Hang all your
bags around the
temple and listen to
me carefully" -- so they
hung up all their bags.
But this man was
afraid. He wanted --
but had not the nerve -
- to say to God, "Please
let me keep my own
because at least I am acquainted, I know what is inside
the bag. In the first place,
everybody else's bag is bigger than
mine. In the second place, I don't
know what they are carrying. I was
befooled because they were smiling,
happy, singing and dancing, and I
thought life was a celebration for
them, that only I was suffering. But
I know now: everybody is a
hypocrite.
"This man is the president, and I
thought at least he must be happy
at the highest rung of the ladder.
Now what more can one expect? I
am miserable because I am not even
on the first rung of the ladder. I
cannot hope to become a president,
not at least in a few lifetimes. But
this man's bag is as big as his
ladder" -- of course, it was a
presidential bag. "I don't want to be
the president if this bag comes with
it."
He saw the richest man, he saw
the great artist, world famous, he
saw the Nobel prize-winner, and he
said, "My God! I was unnecessarily
suffering. If I had known these
people's insides I would have
enjoyed myself. I wasted my life
without any reason."
Now, his only fear was that he
might have to choose somebody
else's bag. Then the voice said, "You
all close your eyes, and with closed
eyes -- the lights should be turned
off -- you can choose anybody's bag
you want." And what he saw was
that before the light was turned off
everybody rushed towards his own
bag. There was not a single
exception; everybody rushed to his
own bag. That was even more
amazing: just as he rushed towards
his own bag, everybody....
HASAN=MAHMUD=LIMON