Questioner: Even if the world community decided to dismantle all their weaponry, how can we make sure there won’t be another Hitler who will spread violence, death and destruction?
Sadhguru: See, Adolf Hitler by himself was a powerless man. People empowered him. Unfortunately, for ages (not now), most leaders in the world moved people through hatred. If you want to move a group of people to do something and you tell them, “Those people are the problem. If we take care of them, everything will be okay,” people are willing to go and die for it because then they have an enemy to fight. The more people are revved up with hatred, the quicker they act. If you create an enemy, you can have whole nations fighting and dying. But to make people rise into action without creating an enemy takes intelligence, awareness and tremendous energy. When there is an enemy, they get all fired up because of the instinct of self-preservation.
This is such a simple trick that humanity has fallen for again and again. Even today it is happening. When you create an enemy, even if it is an invisible enemy, people will go into such fear and self-protection that otherwise sensible, so-called peace-loving people will kill without any hesitation. So, Hitler is a great lesson. We should always remember him and what we can do to ourselves. If we forget him, we may repeat the same mistake all over again. People who stood by him were well-educated— doctors, scientists, engineers. But human intelligence can be easily hijacked, simply by stirring a certain emotion, by creating a certain enemy, just with a certain idea or philosophy. So never forget Hitler because the same thing may happen again, any moment. I see millions of potential Hitlers all around. It is just that fortunately, they are not as potent as him. Powerless they are, but by intention there are lots of Hitlers everywhere.
Adolf Hitler had a great dream—he wanted to create a super world. And what a disaster. Probably no individual human being has caused that much pain and suffering in such an organized way, ever before. And I hope nobody else will do it ever after. The man believed 100 per cent that he was doing the best thing that can be done to the world. So, your good intentions are not going to save the world—how you are will make the difference. And how you are will change only if you can breathe, walk, sit and do everything joyfully. If you cannot be like this, whatever you do will be poison. Only when you feel pleasant within, you feel pleasant about everything around you and move around with a certain sense and value for life around you. Otherwise, it does not matter how much morality you carry in you, how many scriptures you remember, you will find ways to do the cruellest possible things.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader.
www.ishafoundation.org