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TO ME FROM THEM.' Have you ever thought.... Just think of a few great names of the so-called philosophers: Immanuel Kant, Hegel, Descartes; in India: Shankara, Ramanuja, Nimbarka. None of them has been condemned by the masses. They crucified a poor carpenter's son, Jesus. They poisoned Socrates, but they did not poison Plato, Aristotle....
It is strange that the names you will find in the history of philosophy are not the people who have been crucified, are not the people who have been stoned to death. They are the people who have been respected -- and they are still respected, after centuries. And the strange thing is, they have not contributed anything to you. The only people who have contributed anything to you, you have crucified.
It seems that for your friends you always keep ready your cross, and for your enemies you are always ready with your reverence. Howsoever great may be the philosophy of Immanuel Kant or Shankara or Bradley or Bosanquet, it is simply verbal diarrhea. These people are sick. They use big words -- and people are very impressed with big words which they don't understand.
There is only one thing they want to be certain about: that the philosophers are not saying anything against their superstitions -- they are not speaking against God, they are not speaking against heaven or hell, they are not speaking against their holy scriptures, but on the contrary, they are praising them. Then they don't care whether this great philosophy has been able to change their own consciousness. And if it has not been able to change their own consciousness, how is it going to change humanity?
But perhaps nobody wants to change. Change needs effort, and man is bone-lazy. Change means going into the unknown, and man is a coward. He will remain in the known even if the known is nothing but misery -- at least it is known. He will never cross the boundary of the known because, who knows? -- one may get lost in the unknown. One may not be able to get back home to the same misery, to the same wife, to the same husband, to the same anxieties and problems.
YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OBSTINATE AND CUNNING, LIKE THE ASS, AS THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE.
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