According to Osho, the very question is misplaced: as long as nations exist, attack and defense ensure endless turmoil. Neither taking up the sword nor refusing it has ended suffering. He refuses the physical sword and urges a subtler one - erasing mental and political borders, dissolving nationalism, and affirming the earth as one. Only by ending the lines that divide us will wars cease; otherwise, peace-talk merely fuels preparation for war.
Instead of asking how to fight for a country, stop making countries in your mind so there is no enemy to fight.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you know that right now the world is abuzz with talk of war. What can each of us do to avert this danger?
In one sense this is good, because we will have to decide. Only in moments of such danger do people decide; otherwise they don’t. When life itself is at stake, then decisions are made. Now life is at stake. Before this century ends, the world will have to decide: if you want war, let nations continue; if you do not, bid nations farewell. Once nations are gone, India need not keep an army—against whom would it keep one? Pakistan need not keep an army—against whom? And right now armies are devouring everything. Seventy percent of the world’s wealth is eaten up by armies. This world could become a paradise. Just imagine if that seventy percent were invested in productive work, and these idle people who do nothing all day but drill—foolishness! Left turn! Right turn! What is the point of left turn and right turn? Why on earth are you…
A friend has asked a question. He says that science has won its struggle against religion, because whatever science says is clear, and whatever religion says is not clear. And he adds that religion has still not been able to tell us who created the world, how creation happened, and why it happened.
There is a little sense in his question. Religion actually says that the world is beginningless; no one created it. The talk of a creator is only to explain things to children. On this point science also agrees. Science, too, says that existence is without a beginning. The quarrel was with Christianity. And the reason for the quarrel was that Christianity had fixed a specific date for the creation of the world. One Christian priest even worked out the date and day exactly: four thousand and four years before Jesus, on such-and-such day, at such-and-such o’clock in the morning, the world was created! The conflict of science began with Christianity. There is no conflict between science and religion. There certainly was conflict between science and Christianity because many of Christianity’s notions were childish. And science said, “This is simply wrong—that the earth or the world was made four thousand years…
Question: First question: Osho, in the context of the arms build-up by neighboring countries and the rising tensions it has caused, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has criticized Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s recent warning, given in a speech about national security. He says the government should use his Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the TM-Sidhi program to free the country from such fear and uncertainty. Calling his method the essence of Vedic knowledge, he says that through its practice people become free of their stresses, their consciousness is elevated, and they become effective in establishing harmony in society. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, if his meditation is adopted there will be no need for an army or weapons; at very little cost India’s security can be ensured, its problems solved, and sattva will arise in the country’s consciousness. Osho, how much truth is there in this claim made by Shri Mahesh Yogi?
Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?
Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…
Question: OSHO, IS THE WORLD GOING TO SURVIVE THE THIRD WORLD WAR? "Anyway you cannot win against China, you cannot win against Russia or America. When you cannot win why not take some other course? Declare, 'We are defenseless, we dissolve our defense forces, we send our soldiers to the fields, to the factories. We are no longer in the game of war; we drop out of it."' She said, "But then anybody can attack." I said, "Anybody can attack now -- what difference does it make? In fact, then to attack India will become difficult because there will be a worldwide condemnation. A country who declares itself defenseless, drops its arms and goes to the fields and the factories, welcomes everybody who wants to come, to invest, to bring industries, to do anything....