क्या पलायनवादी सचमुच प्रेम कर सकता है और अहिंसक हो सकता है?

क्या मैं यह समझूँ, ओशो, कि पलायनवादी प्रेम नहीं कर सकता और अहिंसक नहीं हो सकता?

हां, पलायनवादी न तो प्रेम कर सकता है, न अहिंसक हो सकता है। लेकिन पलायनवादी प्रेम करता हुआ दिखाई पड़ सकता है, और वह अहिंसा का चोला भी ओढ़ सकता है—और अक्सर वह ठीक यही करेगा। पलायनवादी प्रेम नहीं कर सकता, क्योंकि अभी उसका जन्म ही नहीं हुआ; अभी वह है ही नहीं। प्रेम कौन करेगा? जैसा मैंने कहा है, यह उस पर निर्भर नहीं करता जिसे प्रेम किया जाता है; यह उस पर निर्भर करता है जो प्रेम करता है। केवल वही प्रेम कर सकता है जिसके भीतर व्यक्तित्व का उदय हुआ हो, जिसका व्यक्ति जन्मा हो। और व्यक्ति संघर्ष और चुनौती से जन्मता है, रोज-रोज लड़ते हुए—ठीक जैसे कोई मूर्तिकार पत्थर को छैनी से तराशता है। यदि पत्थर कटने और चोट खाने से इनकार कर दे, तो कोई मूर्ति प्रकट नहीं होती; वह एक खुरदरी चट्टान ही रह जाता है। जीवन के संघर्ष भीतर की मूर्ति को निखारते हैं। यदि हम उनसे इनकार कर दें, तो हम पत्थर ही रह जाते हैं। यदि व्यक्तित्व, आत्मा, अस्तित्व अभी भीतर जागे ही नहीं, तो वहां कौन है…

I USED TO THINK A GREAT DEAL ABOUT NON-VIOLENCE, but everything I ever heard about it seemed so superficial. It touched my intellect but not my heart. And slowly I understood why. The non-violence everyone talked about was negative. The negative can never go deeper than the intellect; to touch life something positive is needed, If by non-violence one means nothing more than the renunciation of violence then it can never have any relation to real renunciation, something positive as well as something negative. It is the negative character of the term "non-violence" that has made it so deceptive. The word is negative, but the experience to which it refers is a positive one. Non-violence is an experience of pure love, of a love that is not attached to anything at all.

Osho, continuing in the same thread, a small question: In a state of violence and in a state of nonviolence, how does the condition of the life-energy, the life force, differ?

Water rushing down from the mountains runs toward the low; it looks for ruts, ravines, lakes—it descends, it hurries downward. Then the same water, heated, becomes vapor. It starts racing toward the sky. The very same water begins to seek heights, rides upon the bosoms of clouds, sets out on the sun’s journey. The water is the same, the energy is the same, but a transformation has taken place, a revolution has happened. A violent mind seeks pits and ravines; it flows downward. A nonviolent mind becomes vaporous; it starts seeking mountain peaks, the journey to the sky begins, the upward flight begins; it sets out on the sun’s path, oriented toward liberation and the divine. The violent mind always seeks the other; the other is the abyss. The nonviolent mind seeks itself. To seek oneself is the height. For whenever we seek the other, we have already started moving…

Beloved Osho, sometimes after moments of clarity and lightness, it seems old intimates like violent feelings, jealousy, feeling furious, etcetera, come back even stronger than before, as if they were just waiting around the corner to have their chance again. Can you say something?

Devam Kranti, I can say something, but those feelings of violence and jealousy and furiousness will still be waiting by the corner. Just by my saying something, they are not going to disappear -- because without knowing, you are nourishing them; without knowing, your desire to get free of them is very superficial. You are not doing exactly what I have been emphasizing continually; you are doing just the opposite. You are fighting with the darkness, and you are not bringing the light in. You can go on fighting with the darkness as long as you want -- you are not going to be victorious. That does not mean that you are weaker than darkness, it simply means that what you are doing is irrelevant to darkness. Darkness is only an absence. You cannot do anything directly to it -- just bring light in. And it is not that when…

Bahaudin el-shah, great teacher of the naqshbandi dervishes, one day met a confrere in the great square of bokhara.

THE NEWCOMER WAS A WANDERING KALENDAR OF THE MALAMATI, THE "BLAMEWORTHY". BAHAUDIN WAS SURROUNDED BY DISCIPLES. "FROM WHERE DO YOU COME?" HE ASKED THE TRAVELER, IN THE USUAL SUFI PHRASE. "I HAVE NO IDEA," SAID THE OTHER, GRINNING FOOLISHLY. SOME OF BAHAUDIN'S DISCIPLES MURMURED THEIR DISAPPROVAL OF THIS DISRESPECT. " WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" PERSISTED BAHAUDIN. "I DO NOT KNOW," SHOUTED THE DERVISH. WHAT IS GOOD?" BY NOW A LARGE CROWD HAD GATHERED. "I DO NOT KNOW." " WHAT IS EVIL?" "I HAVE NO IDEA." " WHAT IS RIGHT?" "WHATEVER IS GOOD FOR ME." "WHAT IS WRONG?" "WHATEVER IS BAD FOR ME." THE CROWD, IRRITATED BEYOND ITS PATIENCE BY THIS DERVISH, DROVE HIM AWAY. HE WENT OFF, STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY IN A DIRECTION WHICH LED NOWHERE, AS FAR AS ANYONE KNEW. "FOOLS" SAID BAHAUDIN NAQSHBAND. "THIS MAN IS ACTING THE PART OF HUMANITY. WHILE YOU WERE DESPISING HIM,' HE WAS DELIBERATELY…