I have seen Jaina monks who have followed all kinds of rules prescribed in the scriptures, and their most important value is nonviolence. But they are not nonviolent people; they are aggressive. Of course, their aggression takes a different form – it has to. It cannot be expressed in an ordinary way because they have prevented the ordinary way. They are very argumentative, their whole aggression becomes argumentation. Now argumentation is a way of fighting – not with the body but with the mind. A really nonviolent person will not be so much interested in argumentation.

And Jaina scriptures are full of arguments, hair-splitting. In fact, nobody else has done as much hair-splitting as Jainas have done. It was bound to happen because their whole violence has turned into a mental phenomenon; it is a perversion. They cannot kill even an ant, but they can kill a great argument – and they enjoy killing.

In India, Jainas, all the Jainas, have become business people. Why did it happen? It happened through the idea of nonviolence. One cannot conceive the relationship, but if you look deep into it…the Jaina rules say you should not cut a tree, you should not uproot a tree, because trees have life. True, but then you cannot cultivate, you cannot be a farmer. So that dimension was closed for the Jainas: they cannot be farmers, cultivators, gardeners. Even cutting a leaf is violent.

Of course they cannot be warriors, they cannot go to the battlefield. All their tirthankaras, the twenty-four Masters, were born in the race of the warriors; they were all kshatriyas, samurais. But all their followers have become business people for the simple reason they cannot be soldiers, they cannot be farmers, and to be a brahmin one has to be born a brahmin. You cannot become one and even if you want to become one, the brahmins won’t allow it to happen, so that door is closed. And of course, who wants to be a sudra – the untouchable? Who wants to fall so low?

So the only possible outlet was to be a businessman. So all the Jainas became business people, and their whole violence became concentrated on exploitation; hence they are the richest people in India. Their violence turned in a subtle way, it took a very subtle form: suck the blood of the people, exploit, oppress. Money became their goal, through money they became powerful. They cannot be powerful directly because they cannot fight for power, but in a vicarious way, by having more money, they can purchase all. They can purchase brahmins, they can purchase sudras, they can purchase the warriors – they can purchase everybody! Their consciousness is not changed, they are as violent as anybody else. Of course, their violence has taken a very strange turn.

Have you observed the fact that hunters, who are violent people, are very good people, very friendly people – for the simple reason that their violence is thrown out in hunting.

Psychologists have observed that woodcutters are very nonviolent people, very peaceful, because their whole violence is thrown out of their systems by cutting wood. Their profession is such – chopping wood, cutting wood – that their whole desire to cut and chop disappears. They have done enough chopping, enough cutting; they are no more interested in it at all. They are very loving, good people.