Responding to Crime and Criminals
By Sadhguru
Responding to Crime and CriminalsThough it may give him some pleasure or joy or power or something at that moment, still, in many ways, it is a tragedy for him as well.
So it is not that one is a victim and the other an assailant. Both are victims. Many things like this are happening in society; it is not just an individual act; it is a complex process of many things that are happening. So should you allow it (crime) to happen? No, you do whatever you can to see that these things don’t happen. But, it does not matter what kind of a human being you become, even if you become a super human being, you will never have absolute control over the external world. Whether it is your institution or your family or the world, you will never have total control over the external situation.
But you can have total control over the internal situation. This is always possible. Now, the external has gone out of control; for some reason, people are killing, people are raping, people are doing all kinds of ugly things in the world. Does it mean that you should allow the internal to also go out of control? If your external situations are going out of control, is it not very important that at least you keep your interiority in control?
Now that man has gone insane; he is into that kind of ugly act. If you are also going insane with anger and hatred for that man, what is the difference? He raped, so you want to kill. What is the difference? That does not mean you should not do something about the situation. What you have to do, you do. But when you do it with anger and hatred, it is of no value—whatever you do.
Unfortunately, for most people, fear, anger, hatred, are the most intense situations in their lives. Their love is never so intense, their peace is never so intense, their joy is never so intense, but their negativities are intense. So, they experience power in negative situations. As you experience power in anger, the rapist experiences his lust as power. It is the most powerful situation that he experiences in his life, where he physically imposes himself on somebody else. That is why he is going for it. And that is exactly the justification you are giving to be angry. It is not different. It is just that one is socially approved and another is not approved. That is all. Otherwise, both these actions are coming from the same basis.
Now you think that you can change the world with anger, or you have the capacity to move yourself only with anger. Why? Why can’t you move with love? Why can’t you move with compassion? Why can’t you move out of your intelligence as to what is needed around you? Okay, not even out of love; at least out of your intelligence you do what is needed for society around you. The most beautiful things will happen when your actions spring from your intelligence and not from your anger.
How you respond depends on what kind of situation you are in, who you are, what your capabilities are, and what means you have. You cannot respond in the same way in every situation. If you have the power and the means to do something effectively, you can respond in one way. If you do not have the power and the means to respond at that moment, maybe your response is to keep quiet at that moment and see what can be done later. But this is not done with vengeance or in revenge.
You don’t want this to happen, either to the victim or to the assailant. Both are in some way being degraded in their life. One is doing it to himself, another is being subjected to that by somebody. You don’t want this to happen to either of them, not just one. Only then you can say that you are functioning from your love. Otherwise, you are functioning only from your identity, which will not create a healthy world. It is only because people always act from their identity of belonging to a certain group, or religion, or race, or country, or sex, all this misery has happened.
If you get into wild reactions out of your emotions, you will not bring any justice or well-being to the world. You will just counter one evil with another evil. That is not a solution. Only when you act without identifications, when you just function out of your intelligence, can there be a solution to this.
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