Thousands of Christian monks, thousands of Buddhist monks, thousands of Jaina monks, thousands of Hindu monks – their total number is in the millions all around the world – have become dropouts, but in a socially acceptable way – religiously, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of Gautam Buddha. Because of these millions of monks, sadhus and saints, millions of parents have suffered in their old age, have become beggars; millions of children have become orphans, have become beggars, have become criminals; millions of women have become prostitutes. And the whole responsibility goes to the religions because they honored the escapists.
Just to keep the society under control, they had to give a little outlet so the suffocation does not become too much. And they had to make this escapism prestigious, so nobody condemns it but on the contrary these cowards are being worshipped as great saints, sages. All that they had was a certain rebelliousness in their minds, but they were without guts. And just rebelliousness in the mind is of no use, unless you can act accordingly, unless you can risk, unless you can take the danger.
The married man or unmarried man, the problem is the same: Are you ready to go against the whole past? Are you ready to go against the whole world? Do you have the courage to stand alone? Will you not start feeling dizzy, seeing that the whole world is against you? Will you not start thinking that “Perhaps they are right because they are so many and I am alone? Most probably I am not right.” And the moment you start feeling this you will start losing courage. You will start moving towards the prison again.
The greatest courageous life in the world needs to have the guts to stand alone without ever bothering about the majority of the world and what their opinion is. But this is possible only when your rebellious idea is not borrowed, is not only a thought in the mind but a realization, a deep insight of your own into things.
If your authority is somewhere else, you cannot have that much courage. If your authority is within you, if you feel that what you are fighting for is your experienced truth – and that it is not to destroy the world, but to create a better world, a better humanity, better people, better individuals, better opportunities for growth for all – then you are the majority of one, and the whole world is the minority of five billion people. Then it does not matter how many people are against you. If the truth is yours, then nothing matters; no wavering ever comes to you, not even in your dreams.
And when I am saying this to you, I am saying this out of my own experience. Not for a single moment have I been visited by the thought that “Perhaps I am alone, the whole world is against me; and the whole past, millions and millions of people – if they were alive, they would also be against me.”
My being alone has never created a single doubt in me, because I am not fighting for anybody else’s truth; I am fighting for my own experienced truth. I feel it in every beat of my heart, that even if the whole universe is against me, then too I will remain unwavering, undisturbed – for the simple reason that truth is with me. They may be a vast crowd, but truth is not with them, and truth is real power. Truth is the seed of final victory, however long it may take. But truth is going to win.