The Privilege of Verbal War

"I am not saying you must abuse each other. 

I am saying at least if you speak, write, debate – you won’t explode a bomb!"

~ Sadhguru

"We try to establish systems in the world where we use violence verbally and never pull anybody’s hair. This is what we call a “democratic process” – where it is a constant war of words. Don’t be offended by the words because if you take away the privilege of verbal war, it will translate into physical war. That is why it is very important that you train everyone to be capable of tongue-lashing. People should learn to effectively tongue-lash each other because when they do not have the capability to articulate their anger, dissatisfaction and frustration, they will use their hands. Until you bring humanity to such a space where everybody is Sadashiva, nothing inside, tongue-lashing is an art. It is not the best solution but it is an interim solution.

If the tools of violence that we have today are used without this tongue-lashing capability in the parliaments and in the debates in the United Nations – Oh! You would destroy the world many times over! That is not happening because modern societies have learnt to tongue-lash; we can say nasty things about each other in a civilized way. These days, if you do not even have the courage to say it in front of the other person, you can blog. Sitting in your home, you can say the nastiest things possible. It does not matter if it is true, whether somebody is going to read it or not, whether it makes sense or it does not make sense. Simply say something.

I am not saying you must abuse each other. I am saying at least if you speak, write, debate – you won’t explode a bomb! You explode a bomb because you do not know how to make your point. The bombs that are exploding, at least now in India, are attempts at making a statement. “Boom! Sixteen people dead, 100 people injured – a statement has been made. After all, we killed only 16 – we could have set up a truck bomb instead of a car bomb or a bicycle bomb and killed 2,000.” This argument is there. We should at least educate them to be able to make a strong enough verbal statement so that they do not have to make a bicycle bomb. Whatever their statement is, let them blurt it out. You don’t have to kill 16 people.

Every society has to constantly strive to keep violence down to whatever extent possible. Keeping it at the minimum is the best we can do until a day comes, a possibility comes, where we can enlighten the whole world. I am not a pessimist, but I am not stupid enough to think it is going to happen in my lifetime. I am just thinking even if a few hundred people blossom – fantastic, because they will multiply it further. Our prospects are good, very good actually. Right now, Samyama is on, we are definitely manufacturing people who will be devoid of violence."

~ Sadhguru

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Posted in: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sadhguru Spot, Spirituality