| |
will not change the fact: the earth will still go round the sun. You can kill me, you can burn my book, but nothing will change the course of the earth. It will still continue going around the sun."
Now Galileo is subversive. He is not listening to the authorities; he is not even listening to the HOLY BIBLE. He is only ready to listen to something rational, scientific, something which can be proved by evidence.
Yes, I am subversive. And only the subversive people are responsible for all the progress of the world. Whatever you have -- all civilization, all scientific growth, all technology -- is the contribution of subversive people. It is not the contribution of the superstitious.
So I am happy to declare that I am subversive, absolutely subversive.
To belong to that category is a great honor. Jesus Christ belongs to it, Socrates belongs to it, Galileo belongs to it, Gautam Buddha belongs to it. These are the real human beings. Others are only part of the crowd, cogs in the wheel.
The society decides what is right, and they never question. The society decides what is wrong, and they never question. What is the difference between animals and man?
Each human being has to be subversive if he wants to be a human being. That's the definition given by Aristotle: man is a thinking animal. Thinking is equivalent to subversiveness.
It is true that many countries of the world have decided that even a four week tourist visa cannot be granted to me. I have really enjoyed it, because never before in all of history have so many countries been afraid of a man that they cannot allow him to have a four week tourist visa.
Socrates lived a long life; then they poisoned him. Jesus preached for three years continuously, and then they crucified him. I was only in Greece for two weeks when they arrested me. And they threatened that they would burn the house, dynamite the house, if I didn't leave the house immediately. These are the same people who had poisoned Socrates two thousand years before.
And what can I do in two weeks' time? I had not even left the house! I had not gone out. But the archbishop was sending telegram
|
|
|