Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide vs. Being Conscious

This is the problem. The individual's need is to be happy, to be blissful -- to delight in this small life that has been given. That is the individual need, but that is not the societal need. Society doesn't bother whether you are happy or unhappy: the society wants you to be more productive, the society wants you to be great warriors so that you can protect the society, the society wants you to be great scientists because science is power. The society has its own needs, and the individual has totally different needs.

In a more perfect society there will be no society, only individuals. In a more perfect state there will be no state, no government, only individuals. At the most, a minimal government can be allowed. For example, a postal service has to be looked after by a central agency, or the railway has to be looked after by a central agency. That is all. A government should run railways and look after the post office, and things like that. And a government should be a negative force. In saying "negative force", it is meant that a government should see that no individual interferes with any other individual and any other individual's freedom and life, that's all.

Government should not impose any positive rules on people. This much is enough: that everybody is allowed to live his own life, to do his own thing, and nobody interferes. If somebody interferes, then the government comes in, otherwise not.

But that seems to be just a utopia. The word "utopia" is very beautiful. It means "that which never happens". Utopia means a nowhere-land which doesn't exist, and doesn't seem to exist; the very thing seems to be impossible.

So, to desire for any kind of utopia it not the thing. All that can be done, and all that is practical, is to become alert so you get out of the mess. And you, please, don't be worried about others, because nobody can bring them out of their mess if they don't want to. If they are enjoying, let them enjoy. If they are feeling happy in their misery let them be miserable, that is their freedom. Don't try to impose anything on anybody -- that is transgression, a trespassing - that is a subtle form of violence. Allow everybody his own being and his own freedom; then there will be no need for cathartic therapies. But right now everybody is interfering in everybody else's life; nobody wants to leave you alone.

And such subtle techniques have been used, unless you are very, very alert you will not be able to know what type of techniques have been used to make you a slave. Religions say that wherever you are, God is looking at you. That means nowhere is there any possibility to be alone and to be yourself. This God seems to be a peeping Tom. Wherever you are -- even in your bathroom -- he is there looking at you. Even there, you cannot hum a song, even there you cannot make faces in the mirror, even there you cannot have a little dance of your own, no. God is looking. And "God", to many, means a very serious old man -- white hair, white beard -- and always a long face and serious, and he is looking.

I have heard about a nun who used to take her bath without removing her clothes. So somebody asked, "What are you doing? In the bath you can remove your clothes." But she said, "God is looking everywhere, so how can I be naked? That will be insulting."

But if God is looking everywhere, he must be looking under the clothes. So what is the point? You can be naked anywhere. That means God is looking everywhere: you cannot escape. Just forget about him.

These are subtle techniques. The society has created conscience in you, so whatsoever you do, the conscience goes on functioning in the service of the society. And the society has taught you, "This is your inner voice." This is not your inner voice. If you have been born in a Mohammedan family then you can have four wives, and your conscience will never interfere -- up to four. With the fifth there will be danger. With the fifth wife your conscience will start stirring, and it will say, "This is not good." But if you are a Hindu or a Christian then only one wife is allowed. With the second wife, trouble would arise. Your conscience will start saying. "This is bad, this is not good, this is immoral. What are you doing? You should love only one woman -- and forever and forever."

What is a Conscience?

A Mohammedan has a different conscience from a Christian. And a Hindu has a different conscience either of the others. In my childhood, in my house, tomatoes were not allowed, because I was born in a Jain family, and the tomato looks like meat -- just looks like! There is nothing in it. Hmm?... tomato is so innocent and harmless, but in my childhood I never ate tomatoes because in my family it was not allowed. And when for the first time while visiting a friend's house, I was offered a tomato, I vomited. The whole conscience: I couldn't believe that people are eating tomatoes. Tomato is such a dangerous thing -- looks like meat. How can you eat it?

First of all, a conscience is not yours. It is a programming by the society in which you live. Conscience is nothing but a trickery of the society. It gives some ideas to your inner mind, and from there they start functioning. They are like Delgado's electrodes. Very subtle... wherever you go, the society follows you, hidden behind you, within you. If you do anything against what society has planted, the conscience pricks.

This is not the real inner voice -- because the real inner voice cannot be different for a Hindu and a Mohammedan and a Jain and a Christian - no! The real inner voice will be the same because the real inner voice is not produced by the society. The real inner voice comes from your innermost core of being, but to discover that, one has to pass through all the phases of meditation. Unless all thoughts dissolve, you cannot hear your own voice. Society has filled your mind so much that whatsoever you hear will be society trying to manipulate you from within. From without it manipulates through the policeman and the judge. From within it manipulates through God, conscience, morality, hell, heaven. and a thousand and one things.

Hence, there is a need of catharsis. You are not natural, and only through catharsis will you be able to unburden yourself from the society, will you be free from society. Free from society, you become available to nature; available to nature, you become available to existence. And, to me, existence is God.

Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 5; Chapter #10; Question 5 (In Part.)
Chapter title: No answers, no questions
10 July 1975 am in Buddha Hall