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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1 | Previous Next | |
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is lost; or go beyond consciousness -- then your individuality is lost.
That's why a crowd has so much appeal for people. Have you seen people in a crowd, how happy they look? Mohammedans going to destroy a temple, or Hindus going to kill Mohammedans -- just see how happy, bubbling, radiant with energy. Dull people... you have seen them before, walking on the streets -- dull, dead. Now suddenly they have become very alive -- shouting, cheering each other, rushing towards, as if something beautiful is going to happen.
Why do people feel so happy in a crowd? Why does happiness in a crowd become so infectious? Because in a crowd they fall down, they become unconscious. They lose their individuality, they merge their individuality. By dropping their consciousness they drop their individuality. Then they are happy, then there is no worry, then there is no responsibility.
Have you observed the fact that individuals have not committed great sins in the world? All great sins have been committed by crowds, never by individuals. An army can commit millions of sins. Ask single individuals of that army and they will start feeling responsible. Ask them, 'Can you do the same thing alone?' They will say, 'No. How can I do the same thing alone? It was the crowd, I became lost in it. I forgot myself. The crowd mood, the mob, was too much. I was lost. The crowd was doing something, I simply became a part of it. I have not done it.' Ask single Mohammedans, 'Can you burn a temple or murder Hindus?' Ask Hindus, 'Can you murder Mohammedans -- individually?'
This is a miracle, but we don't observe it. No individual Mohammedan is bad, no individual Hindu is bad..individuals are beautiful people, as people are always beautiful. In a crowd suddenly they change their faces... a metamorphosis happens. They are no more individuals, they are no more conscious beings; they are lost. Then the crowd has its own way; nobody can control it.
Then, of course, Arica is right -- THE RULE IS THIS: THE GROUP ONLY GETS AS HIGH AS ITS LOWEST MEMBER. That's why I say don't become a member of a group. Otherwise you will be as low as the lowest member. Become individuals.
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