11 December 2001, 12:04am IST
Swami Satya Vedant.
Terrorism is not new, though it has come in a new incarnation. historically the huns, timur lane, nadir shah, mahmood gaznavi, hitler, stalin and mao are all part of a chain of terrorists down to osama bin laden and his gang, the al-qaida. many may perceive the british as terrorists citing the gory incident of jallianwala bagh. the major difference is, now the phenomenon of terrorism is no longer limited to a particular area or a geographical territory. it has become globalised. everybody in the world now feels threatened and terrorised. it seems, psychologically, people have carried the feeling of terror within — osama and company have only magnified it on a global scale. terrorism is the result of entrapment of soul in ideology. any ideology, whether religious, political, or social, when it becomes a closed system, turns harmful. a new idea is an open invitation to reflect, to search and to experiment. however, when an ideology is woven around it fanaticism and rigidity begin to strangle society. while an idea represents a free expression of thought, ideology is imposed to serve vested interests. in the imposition of an ideology the individual is not the concern, the system, the pattern and the conditioned view is the central force. ideology when forced brings violence and violence is used to justify the correctness of an ideology. terrorism is an ideological violence essentially rooted in unconscious human behaviour. it shows its heinous form when governed by hypnotic conditioning. osho points out, ‘‘terrorism is not in the bombs in your hand, terrorism is in your unconscious’’. religion in most cases has proven marx right for functioning as an ‘‘opium’’ and has consequently rained terror on men, women and children. ironically, more often than not religion has taken god for a ride and has sold ideology around it with force, often brutal. existing nuclear and biological weapons have placed humanity at grave risk. how does one keep human life free from terrorism? the first need obviously is to get out of the trap of dogmatic, closed and blind following of religion. but along with that we will have to be vigilant and pro-active, speak out against the regimented conditioning imposed by the custodians of ‘‘religion’’. we will need to bring more celebration in our life — more joy, more laughter. a happy person can never become a terrorist. we will have to move from ‘gun culture’ to ‘fun culture’. life is not a problem to be solved by violent means, it is indeed a gift to be shared by living joyously. osho has said, ‘‘wisdom is a very relaxed state of being. wisdom is not knowledge, not information; wisdom is your inner being awake, alert, watchful, witnessing, full of light. be full of light — it is your birthright’’. what we need in essence is a commitment to making this world for our future generation a better place to live and enjoy. first, we need to make a conscious commitment to be free of all conditioning, patterns of belief and behaviour, trappings of de-humanising ideologies. further, we need to help our children remain free from all that breeds hatred, violence, prejudice, aggression. we need to help them develop the quality of what osho calls ‘‘religiousness’’ rather than having them follow religion blindly. he said, ‘‘don’t waste time. time is really precious, far more precious than money, far more precious than anything in the world, because it is through time that you can contact eternity’’. what we need is a vision that would raise our consciousness higher so that we may take care of our lower instincts of hate and violence, greed and power. the sages remind us: bhumaiva sukham, naalpe sukhamasti or true happiness is in growing, expanding our consciousness, there is no happiness in being narrow and fragmented. under prevailing conditions, the greatest challenge before us is to heal our mind and body. we are a wounded civilisation. we need to go back to the basics: awareness, understanding and meditation. it is time mankind matures into being truly human. the maxim, ‘‘survival of the fittest’’ is no longer valid and is not capable of meeting the evolving pluralistic, democratic aspirations of mankind today. we have no choice but to grow into realising what jonas salk says, ‘‘survival of the wisest’’. we have to dig into our unconscious, in removing debris of the past because something very precious is buried under. we can find it. it is our birthright.
(the author is chancellor, osho multiversity, osho international foundation, pune)
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