Osho says a harmonious society is not a dream, it can be achieved if we learn the art of changing a few human beings
Utopia is possible. A harmonious human society is possible, should be possible, because it will be the best opportunity for everyone to grow, the best opportunity for everyone to be himself. The richest possibilities will be available to everyone. It seems that the way it is, society is absolutely stupid. The utopians are not dreamers, but your so-called realists who condemn utopians are stupid. But both are agreed on one point — that something has to be done in the society.
This divided consciousness has been creating the yearning and the question — how to become a harmonious whole as far as the individual is concernedIJ And the same is true about the whole society — how can we make the society a harmonious whole — where there is no war, no conflict, no classes; no divisions of color, caste, religion, nationIJ
Because of people like Thomas Moore, who wrote the book Utopia, the name became synonymous with all idealistic goals — but they have not grasped the real problem. That’s why it seems their idea of a utopia is never going to happen. If you think of society as becoming an ideal society, a paradise, it seems to be impossible: There are so many conflicts, and there seems to be no way to harmonise them.
Man has developed from the animals. Even if Charles Darwin is not right... his theory of evolution — that man has developed out of the apes — does look a little childish, because for thousands of years these apes have been there, but none of them have developed into human beings. So it is strange that only a few apes developed into human beings, and the remaining ones still are apes; and there seems to be no sign that they are going to change into human beings.
Secondly, he could not find a link between man and the ape, because whenever things develop there are always steps, not jumps. The ape cannot simply jump and become a human being. There must be a process of evolution; there must be a few in-between stages, and those stages are missing. Charles Darwin worked his whole life to find the missing link, but he could not find anything.
In the collective unconscious there are certainly remnants that suggest that they have been sometime in some animal body. And different people come from different animal bodies. That may be why there is such a difference in individuals. Sometimes you can see a similarity — somebody behaves like a dog, somebody behaves like a fox, somebody behaves like a lion. And there is great support in folklore, in ancient parables like Aesop’s Fables, or Panchtantra in India — which is the most ancient — in which all the stories are about animals, but are very significant for human beings and represent certain human types. Charles Darwin may have failed because he was only looking for a link between bodies, physical bodies; and there may not be any link between physical bodies. But Eastern mysticism may be right that man has evolved spiritually from animalhood.
The problem started only when a few people who were more cunning, more clever, more powerful, had managed some property. Now they wanted their property, after their death, to go to their own children. It is a natural desire that if a person works his whole life and gathers property, land, or creates a kingdom, it should go to his children. In a subtle way — through the children, because they are his blood — he will be still ruling, he will be still possessing. It is a way to find some substitute for immortality, because the continuity will be there: “I will not be there, but my child will be there — who will represent me, who will be my blood and my bones and my marrow.” His child will be there, and there will be a continuity. So in a subtle sense, he will have immortality. He cannot live forever, so this is a substitute way. logic is one thing... and unless we try to understand man more psychologically and less logically, we are always going to commit mistakes.
You can change only the individual, howsoever small he appears. And once you know the science of how to change the individual, it is applicable to all the individuals everywhere. And my feeling is that one day we are going to attain a society which will be harmonious, which will be far better than all the ideas that utopians have been producing for thousands of years. The reality will be far more beautiful.
courtesy Oshoworld