Sri Lanka Talks 1980

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Life is Relationship and Action

We are going to talk over together, as two friends, the problem of our daily living. To go into that very carefully, hesitantly, and wisely, one must look around at what is actually going on in the world-not only in this island, but also in Europe, America, China, Russia and India. There is great chaos, disorder, in the world. Society is corrupt, immoral; there is great deal of injustice; there is poverty. All the nations are preparing for war, ready to kill each other in the name of religion, in the name of economics, in the name of their own national survival; they are willing to kill each other for their own security. There is religious division in this country: you have the Hinayana and the Mahayana. In India there are innumerable gods and divisions, and in this country: you have the Hinayana and the Mahayana. In India there are innumerable gods and divisions, and in Christianity also there are a great many divisions-the Catholics and Protestants and the various other sects. There are national, religious, economic divisions all over the world. There is inflation, overpopulation, poverty. Nationalism with its technology is going to destroy man. These are national, religious, economic divisions all over the over the world. There is inflation, overpopulation, poverty. Nationalism with its technology is going to destroy man. These are facts; these are not the speaker's opinions or ideas.

So, outwardly, what is the condition of man-not man in abstraction, not as an abstract idea, but you and I and another-what is our condition? I think it is important to understand the relationship between man and society. Society as it exists now is corrupt; there is a great deal of injustice; we are not properly governed. This society is created by man-by you, by us, by the many great-grand-fathers and so on. This society is man-made and so it can be altered completely, radically. Alteration in society has always been a dream of man. There have been philosophers who have talked about it a great deal, written volumes of what society should be, from the ancient times to modern times. There have been revolutions in the West; the French, and the Communist revolution in Russia. The world longed, strove, worked for revolution to bring about an environmental change. The communists are doing it, the socialists and other leftists are doing it, and this physical revolution has not produced any great change. These again are facts. They have now a hierarchy, a new set of rich people, a new set of powerful, tyrannical people. The pattern of society has somewhat changed, but essentially it has been as it has always been through millennia.

In observing all these, we are going to investigate, explore why we live the way we are living, why human beings have deteriorated. We are not talking about theories, beliefs, dogmas. Together we are going to look at the society in which we live, and what to do about it. So the speaker is talking about it, is talking about you; he is not talking about something else. He is talking about a human being, which is you, why such a human being who has lived through millennia after millennia, who has evolved through a great deal of experience, has a great deal of knowledge-both technological and psychological knowledge-has been reduced to this present condition of chaos, misery, confusion. I hope that is very clear. We are talking not about any theory or doing any kind of propaganda, but we are talking over together about you-you being the rest of mankind. Mankind suffers; a human being in the world, wherever he lives, suffers, goes through a great deal of anxiety, great uncertainty, constant striving, not only within himself but also outwardly. He has great fears, depression, uncertainty, like you. So we are humanity; you are humanity. Kindly listen to it.