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stand.
This is indeed a terrific blow to one's ego and may land one in a most embarrassing and difficult situation. Therefore, for thousands of years, fathers, the older generation and the society have been at pains to inculcate in the youngsters the habit of saying 'yes' to their commands. They may term it euphemistically as discipline, as obedience or by any other name. But the intention is the same: namely to eliminate revolt against their authority and to protect the younger minds from pollution by rebellious thoughts.
The third belief of the hippies is that if there is a mind, it is bound to be rebellious. If, however, we do not want a mind, then it is a different matter altogether. If we want the soul, it will be nothing other than rebellious; in case we do not want it at all, then the question is different.
A conformist has no soul -- he is like a stone by the roadside. A stone lying on the roadside does not itself become a statue; it is transformed into a beautiful sculpture only after being worked upon by a chisel and a hammer. When someone says 'no' and stands in revolt, his inner personality bears, as it were, the strokes of chisels and hammers, and a beautiful form begins to take shape. But when a stone just says 'yes,' then there is no need to use the hammer or the chisel, and it remains a mere stone by the roadside. But those in authority -- may they be fathers, teachers, parents, elder brothers or politicians -- are happy only in the company of yes-men.
The hippie refuses to play the role of a yes-man. He believes in doing whatever he feels is right. It undoubtedly creates difficulties, but in a way the hippie can be called a sannyasin. Truly speaking, the sannyasin must have been a sort of a hippie at some time. He had also refused to tow the common line. He was a non-citizen and a run-away from society just like Mahavir who stood naked. The day Mahavir would have stood naked in Bihar discarding clothes, I do not think the orthodox people would have accepted this strange person without any protest.
Things came to pass in such a way that we have now two sects of his followers, one which asserts that he did wear clothes,
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