Everywhere in the world, the problem was always this—if anybody spoke anything other than the existing organised religion of that time, the first thing that the people said was, “kill”. Whether it was a Socrates, a Mansoor or a Jesus —these are the famous people—a million other people who never became known to the world have been killed for this same reason. So in those parts of the world, realised beings were wise enough to just shut up and do their own business rather than talking in a big way and getting killed. I would say thousands or even millions of them did get killed. More than two million women were burnt on the stake in Europe simply because they exhibited some quality which was considered a threat to the organised religion.
For example, Jesus did not do anything very revolutionary. He did not talk about demolishing the temple, replacing the gods or about a new religion. He only talked about taking the business out of the temple. For that, they did such horrible things to him.
Five hundred years before Jesus, Gautama the Buddha made fun of all the Hindu gods. He said, “You people worship snakes, trees and cows. You don’t know what god is.” So people stepped back and said, “Ok, we also know there is only one god but we just enjoy the variety.” Gautama pushed on and said, “There is no god.” The Hindus stepped back, opened their Upanishads and said, “See, even our Upanishads say there is no god but there is atman and there is a universal soul, paramatman.” Then Gautama said, “There is no atman or paramatman. You are an ‘anathma’.” That means he is saying you are a non-soul.
In this manner, the man contradicted and made fun of everything that they were saying but nobody ever thought of throwing a stone at him, poisoning him or crucifying him. Such things never arose. People called him for debates, they sat and debated for months. When they failed in the debate, they became his monks. Because the pursuit is truth, people sat down and argued whether what they knew was true or what the other person knew was true. If his truth was more powerful than yours, you become a part of him. If your truth was more powerful than theirs, they would become a part of you. It is a very different kind of search. People were searching to know. They were not just believing and trying to prove that their belief was right.
So in this culture, we established a system where whatever anybody on the spiritual path spoke, you could argue and debate with him but the question of killing him did not arise. We established that system. Because of this, spiritual processes evolved in so many different innumerable ways. Every aspect of life was made into a path and a million different paths evolved. This culture developed that seeking. Everybody is a seeker. At least at one time, the whole culture was spiritual. The only objective for anybody who was born in this land and this culture was mukti. Your family, your business, your whatever else was only secondary. Now slowly “M” has become “MTV”, not mukti anymore, but until a couple of generations ago, the primary goal for every man was ultimate wellbeing. Immediate wellbeing was not considered as a very big thing.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader.
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