The rebel: the very essence of religion
1 June 1987 am in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER,
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A REBEL AND A REVOLUTIONARY?
Maneesha, there is not only a quantitative difference between a rebel and a revolutionary, there is
also a qualitative difference. The revolutionary is part of the political world. His approach is through
politics. His understanding is that changing the social structure is enough to change the man.
The rebel is a spiritual phenomenon. His approach is absolutely individual. His vision is that if we
want to change the society, we have to change the individual. Society in itself does not exist; it is
only a word, like ‘crowd’, but if you go to find it, you will not find it anywhere. Wherever you will
encounter someone, you will encounter an individual. Society is only a collective name, just a name,
not a reality – with no substance. The individual has a soul, has a possibility of evolution, of change,
of transformation. Hence the difference is tremendous
The rebel is the very essence of religion. He brings into the world a change of consciousness – and
if the consciousness changes, then the structure of the society is bound to follow it. But vice versa
is not right – and it has been proved by all the revolutions, because they have all failed.
No revolution has yet succeeded in changing man; but it seems man is not aware of the fact. He
still goes on thinking in terms of revolution, of changing society, of changing the government, of
changing the bureaucracy, of changing laws, political systems. Feudalism, capitalism, communism,socialism, fascism – they are all in their own way revolutionary. They all have failed, and failed utterly,
because man has remained the same.
A Gautam Buddha, a Zarathustra, a Jesus – these people are rebels. Their trust is in the
individual. They have not succeeded either, but their failure is totally different than the failure of
the revolutionary. Revolutionaries have tried their methodology in many countries, in many ways,
and have failed. But a Gautam Buddha has not succeeded because he has not been tried. A Jesus
has not succeeded because Jews crucified him and Christians buried him. He has not been tried –
he has not been given a chance. The rebel is still an unexperimented dimension.
My sannyasins have to be rebels not revolutionaries. The revolutionary belongs to a very mundane
sphere. The rebel and his rebelliousness are sacred. The revolutionary cannot stand alone, he
needs a crowd, a political party, a government. He needs power, and power corrupts – and absolute
power corrupts absolutely.
Download Pdf Here