“What should we do if someone attacks our country ?”
This was the question asked to one of the many homegrown Gurus who has become very popular in recent times. The Gurus response was – To defend yourself.
Wonder what would Osho answer ? I have tried to compile an answer that I think Osho would have given.
Osho’s Answer
Your Country ? First drop the idea of country being yours.
What is a country – I have drawn a boundry and whatever is inside that boundry is my country. And I must defend it. And I must be proud of it. That’s partriotism.
Tomorrow the politicians draw another line cutting your country into two, then you change sides and immediately become loyal to the side you are living on. And more surprisingly you become enemies with the other side. Because they are on the other side of the line. They could have been your countrymen at a time, but now they are enemies.
What kind of a crazy world is this you have created.
And you ask me…. what should I do when someone attacks my country.
It’s easy for me to say defend yourself. And you will agree, probably that’s the answer you are expecting too. It will nicely fit into the moral code the society has imposed on you – Patriotism is good, be proud of your country and all that you have been fed.
Change the way you look at things. Don’t restrict your patriotism to your country alone, extend it. What if there is no country. What if there is no division, what if there are no boundaries.
We have created too many boundries and we have been living for too long in these boundaries. The more boundries you make, the more security you need to defend those and obviously there will be more blood shed. because people on the other side are as patriot as you are. They want to take over your side…. and you want to take over theirs….
And this is not the only boundary you have created -There are Proud Indians, and there are Proud Aussies. And both of them say we live in the greatest country… how can this be. It creates a conflict.
Or why do you go as far as Australia. There are proud Delhiite who don’t think very big of Biharis. And then Biharis have their divisions too…….divisions everywhere.
These divisions have created a sense of artificial security and superiority. And you can only be superior if there is someone inferior, this causes all the conflicts.
Your patriotism is just a fancy name for hatred. If you want anything dirty to get done, you give it a noble name and people don’t feel guilty. That’s what your society has done to you.
This is high time we drop all the boundaries. That’s the only solution.
right akash.
That’s really true. Thank you….I am glad to see that there are other people as well who think in this way….all these years I felt guilty of thinking in this way.!
There is a need that one country should say that we are now NO MORE a country…we are just a open place for every one. But the biggest problem is that we all are already in a huge economical mess that it will create a further administrative chaos if there are no countries.
Remember human being used to live peacefully in the beginning (say around 5000 years ago). Then we grew large in numbers, we made our own groups, which led to a society and so on until we created our own nation. And, now we are talking about going back to that nation less concept.
Its difficult…very difficult. Probably we can create a whole one nation for entire Earth and call it the Nation Earth. All existing countries should become its regional territories. These territories should elect their leaders and send them to a central body…perhaps we have this system what we call United Nations however its not that effective.
UN should lead the entire Earth, UN should maintain the forces (just in case if we encounter some aliens or for that matter rebellion groups demanding separate nation etc), UN should develops all space programs and other higher education. For all this UN should posses highest political and economical power.
Again, this is difficult. We are seeing how USA dominates the UN decisions etc. We can only hope that one day the people of this Earth will become more tolerant and understanding and perhaps will think about making a one single nation for planet Earth.
Thanks
Amitabh Telang