Stop! And it is Here!_

The Second Question:

No, it is never possible because the group has got no soul, the group has got no Self. Only the individual can be the recipient, the receiver, because only the individual has the heart. Group is not a person.

You are here, I am talking, but I am not talking to the group because with the group there can be no communication. I am talking to each individual here. You have gathered in a group, but you are not hearing me as a group; you are hearing me as individuals. Really, the group doesn't exist. Only individuals exist. "Group" is just a word. It has no reality, no substance. It is just the name of a collectivity.

You cannot love a group, you cannot love a nation, you cannot love humanity. But there are persons who claim that they love humanity. They deceive themselves because there is no one like humanity anywhere, only human beings are there. Go and search; you will never find humanity somewhere.

Really, these are the persons who claim that they love humanity; these are the persons who cannot love persons. They are incapable of being in love with persons. Then big names - humanity, nation, universe. They may even love God, but they cannot love a person, because to love a person is arduous, difficult. It is a struggle. You have to change yourself. To love humanity, there is no problem - there is no humanity; you are alone. Truth, beauty, love or anything that is significant always belongs to the individual. Only individuals can be recipients.

Ten thousand monks were there when Buddha poured his being into Mahakashyap, but the group was incapable. No group can be capable, because consciousness is individual, awareness is individual. Mahakashyap rose to the peak where he could receive Buddha. Other individuals can also become that peak, but no group.

Religion basically remains individualistic, and it cannot be otherwise. That is one of the basic fights between communism and religion. Communism thinks in terms of groups, societies, collectivities, and religion thinks in terms of the individual person, Self. Communism thinks that the society can be changed as a whole, and religion thinks only individuals can be changed. Society cannot be changed as a whole because society has no soul, it cannot be transformed. In fact, there is no society, only individuals.

Communism says there are no individuals, only society. Communism and religion, they are absolutely antagonistic, and this is the antagonism - if communism becomes prevalent, then individual freedom disappears. Then only the society exists. Individual is not allowed really to be there. He can exist only as a part, as a cog in the wheel. He cannot be allowed to be a Self.

I have heard one anecdote.

One man reported into a [Soviet] Moscow police station that his parrot is missing. So he was directed to the clerk concerned. The clerk wrote, and the clerk asked, "Does the parrot speak also? He talks?" The man became afraid, a little troubled, uncomfortable. The man said, "Yes, he talks. But whatsoever political opinion he expresses, those political opinions are strictly his own!"

A parrot! This individual was afraid because parrot means those political opinions must belong to his master. A parrot simply imitates.

No individuality is allowed. You cannot have your opinions. Opinions are the concern of the state, the group mind. And group mind is the lowest thing possible. Individuals can reach to the peaks; no group has ever become Buddha-like or Jesus-like. Only individual peaks.

Buddha is giving his whole life's experience to Mahakashyap because there is no other way. It cannot be given to any group. It cannot be; it is just impossible. Communication, communion can only be between two individuals. It is a personal, deeply personal faith. Group is impersonal. And remember that group can do many things - madness is possible with the group, but Buddhahood is not possible. A group can be mad, but a group cannot be enlightened.

Lower the phenomenon, the group can participate in it more. So all great sins are committed by the group not by individuals. An individual can murder few people, but an individual cannot become "Fascism", he cannot murder millions. Fascism can murder millions, and with good conscience!

After the Second World War all the war criminals confessed that they are not responsible: they were just ordered from above, and they followed the orders. They were just part of the group. Even Hitler and Mussolini were very much sensitive in their private lives. Hitler used to listen to music; loved music. Even sometimes he used to paint; loved painting. Seems impossible, Hitler loving painting and music, so sensitive, and killing millions of Jews without any inconvenience, without any discomfort in his conscience, not even a prick. He was "not responsible". Then he was just the leader of a group.

When you are moving in a crowd, you can commit anything because you feel "The crowd is doing it. I am just part of it." Alone, you would think thrice whether to do it or not. In the crowd responsibility is lost, your individual thinking is lost, your discrimination is lost, your awareness is lost. You have become just a part of a crowd. Crowds can go mad. Every country knows, every period knows crowds can go mad, and then they can do anything. But it has never been heard that crowds can become enlightened.

       

 

The higher states of consciousness can be achieved only by individuals. More responsibility has to be felt - more individual responsibility, more conscience. The more you feel you are responsible, the more you feel you have to be aware, the more you become individual.

Buddha communicates with Mahakashyap his silent experience, his silent sambodhi, his silent enlightenment, because Mahakashyap also has become a peak, a height, and two heights can meet now. And this will always be so. So if you want to reach higher peaks, don't think in terms of groups, think in terms of your own individuality. A group can be helpful in the beginning, but the more you grow, less and less group can be helpful.

A point comes when group cannot be of any help, you are left alone. And when you are totally alone and you start growing in your aloneness, for the first time you are crystallized. You become a soul, a self.