Peace

Can women do more for peace in the world than men?

She certainly can do more for peace in the world, because all the wars are fought by men but suffered by women. Somebody's son dies, somebody's husband dies, somebody's father dies, somebody's brother dies... Men fight the war, but the woman is the real sufferer. You will be surprised to know that whenever an army invades a country, they kill men and they rape women. That is very strange. Even then, there is a difference. They kill the man... But they are full of sexuality, repressed sexuality; all soldiers are repressed sexually. Soldiers and monks, these two are the most sexually repressed people in the world. The woman is the victim: she is raped. And for thousands of years it has been going on. The woman can do much if she is allowed to have an equal part in all the decisions that are made about life, war or anything.…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS PEACE FOR THE REBELLIOUS MAN? Raso, peace is, for the rebellious man, his very light. It is his very aroma, his fragrance, the harmony of his heart, his at-oneness with existence. All conflicts of the mind are just memories of the past. The mind is no longer divided, split or schizophrenic. The mind has become an organic unity. The ordinary man who has not tasted rebellion or religion -- which to me are equivalent -- is a house divided against himself. He is continuously fighting within and without. He is fighting for money, for power, for prestige, for respectability. His outside life is nothing but power politics. It is a continuous, ongoing warfare that ceases only when he stops breathing. The inner scene is not much different either, because the outer and the inner cannot be much different.

One more question has been asked on this: there is restlessness in life; how can peace be attained?

In response to the question that was asked—“We are restless; how can we be peaceful?”—this is what I want to say: Reflect, look at the way you view life. And it is in your hands: if it becomes clear that my way of looking at life is wrong, that with my own hands I keep sowing the seeds of restlessness, and that with my own hands, where there are both flowers and thorns, I see only the thorns and not the flowers—then what can anyone else do? If this thought arises, changing life is in your hands. Because no human being wants to be unhappy. Who wants to be unhappy? No one wants to be unhappy. If it becomes clearly understood that my suffering lies in my vision, then being free of that vision is not difficult. The moment the awareness dawns that my way of seeing is wrong, change…

Peace of mind can be gained by withdrawal from the world, by stilling the vortices of the mind. But how much inner peace is appropriate in a world that contains attica, vietnam, johannesburg, biafra, pakistan and sub-sahara africa?

Withdrawal is escapist. Withdrawal can give you a kind of death, but not peace. Peace is very alive. Peace is more alive than war -- because war is in the service of death, peace is in the service of life. Peace is very alive, vibrant, young, dancing.... Withdrawal? -- that is the oldest way escapists have chosen. It is cheap. It gives a kind of peace -- remember, I say 'a kind of peace' -- the same kind as you see in a graveyard. You can go to a Catholic monastery -- there is a kind of peace, the same that exists in the graveyard. You can go to the Jaina monks and you will see a kind of peace -- the same that exists in a graveyard. These people are dead! They have renounced life. The day you renounce life you renounce responsibility, you renounce all kinds of commitments.…