Osho,
In one of your talks you said that violence is a disease, and to recognize it in all its aspects is the first condition toward becoming nonviolent. Please shed some light on its biochemical and psychic structure, so that we can understand violence in greater depth.

“Violence is a disease of human beings, but it is not so for animals. For animals, it is their nature. There is no possibility of nonviolence at the animal level. Hence they have no idea of violence.

Violence is a disease which man has inherited from animals, and it is obstructing the evolution of his consciousness.

It can be said that he who does not want to wipe out his past is denying his evolution.

“If I continue to be what I was yesterday, it means my today is wasted. If I want to make progress, there is no other way but to go beyond my yesterday.

The past must be transcended. Man’s past is his animal heritage, and his future leads him to godliness.

“Whoever does not transcend their animal heritage cannot enter the temple of godliness.

And whoever desires to attain this future – to attain godliness – has to die every day to the past.

“This disease of violence is like a child who refuses to throw away his old clothes, even when he grows up. Changing clothes along with the growth of the body is absolutely essential. A child’s clothes are fine for a child, but they would be ill-suited and painful for a young man; they would be like a prison.

The animal heritage is man’s past; we have all passed through that stage.

“This fact is confirmed by science as well as religion. Some years ago, Darwin declared that man is descended from animals. But thousands of years before Darwin, here in India, Mahavira, Buddha, and Krishna declared to the world that man’s soul evolved from the animals. The last link in man’s past was an animal.

Manhood is a state of transition, a bridge over which the animal passes to be transformed into godhood.

“As we go deeper and deeper within, we experience the past as heavy because it is a known thing. It is not so easy to be free of it, to get rid of it.

We start feeling that we are our past.

“Millions of years ago, when humans were cavemen living in caves in the mountains, when there was no fire and no way to light lamps, a fear of darkness entered man’s mind. The fear from those times pursues him even today. Now there is no fear of the darkness outside – there are no caves surrounded by darkness – but in spite of this, the fear of darkness remains even today. This fear, which entered the mind of man millions of years ago, pursues him still; it is still part of him.

“I have used fear as an illustration.

In exactly the same way, violence is an imprint carried by man from his past as an animal.

“Animals cannot survive without violence and we cannot live with violence. Man is not born violent, but we see that for many thousands of years man has done nothing but fight. He does not live, he just fights. It would not be an exaggeration to say that man lives simply to fight.

Thousands of wars have been fought in the last three thousand years.

“Those many thousands of wars were on a grand scale – but we quarrel and fight with one another twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes we fight with enemies, sometimes with friends, sometimes for wealth, sometimes for fame. We fight for status, and then our fight takes on a political dimension. We fight for wealth, and our greed becomes exploitation.

Sometimes we fight for no reason; the habit of fighting just makes us fight.

When a man goes hunting, he fights without a cause; he fights and calls it a sport. Man has sought and developed sports to satisfy his fighting instinct. If he cannot enter actual warfare, he can fight to win in a game of chess. Deep down, there is a strong desire to defeat others, so even in a game of chess the interest to fight with others is there.

Life is full of violence on all sides; it is a disease of mankind.

It may be inevitable for animals but not for man. It should be borne in mind that with each new step in evolution, new responsibilities and new burdens are also assumed. Every step in evolution is a step toward greater responsibility. Nonviolence has become a responsibility since the day we left our animal heritage and evolved into mankind, because the flower of manhood can never blossom in the midst of violence.

Manhood can only fully blossom in an atmosphere of love.

That is why I say nonviolence is wholesomeness, violence is a disease. A more dangerous disease than violence perhaps does not exist.

To be violent means to have a mind which is always restless unless it is quarreling, a mind which cannot be content without hurting someone or making someone miserable. Naturally, a mind which is eager to hurt others, or whose only intention is to make others miserable can never be happy. Deep inside, such a mind will be miserable.

It is a profound law that we can only give to others that which we have within ourselves; we cannot give anything else.

“A sane person is one who has achieved harmony, synchronicity, and rhythm within himself. The music produced by the footsteps of Mahavira or Buddha is not even found on the faces of master musicians sitting with a harp in their hands. That kind of music cannot come from any harp. It is the symphony of the soul within, which spreads and flows out in all directions.

“The symphony in Buddha’s walk, the rhythm in his movements and the sparkle in his eyes are not to be found in any composed song, nor in the tunes produced on instruments.

That rhythm is created from the depth of the soul when all inner conflicts have been dispersed.

“Nonviolence is a music from within. When a person’s vital energy within is bathed in this music, life becomes completely harmonious. When life is filled with disharmony, it becomes full of disease.

“This English word disease is very meaningful, it is made up of dis-ease – when ease within is lost, when all balance within is disturbed, all rhythm is destroyed. All the lines of the poem are scattered all over the place. That condition is really a disease, like that created by breaking the strings of a sitar. The body cannot be kept in a healthy condition for long when the mind within becomes diseased. The body always follows the vital energy as a shadow.

Hence I say violence is a disease. Nonviolence is freedom from disease. Nonviolence is a perfect state of health.

END

 

Excerpted from: Osho, The Art of living, Talk #6 – Transcending the Animal Heritage

You can read this complete talk and see all the available formats here.