Who is a bad man and who is a good man? What is the definition? The bad man is one
who is inconsiderate of others. The bad man is one who uses others and has no respect for
others. The bad man is one who thinks he is the center of the world and everybody is just
to be used. Everything exists for him. The bad man is one who thinks that other persons
are just means for his gratification.
Keep this definition in mind because you ordinarily think the bad man is the criminal.
The bad man may not be the criminal: all bad men are not criminals. All criminals are
bad, but all bad men are not criminals. A few of them are judges, a few of them are very
respectable people, a few of them are politicians, presidents and prime ministers, a few of
them are even parading as saints.
So when we will be talking about this sutra, remember the definition of a bad man --
Buddha says a bad man is one who has no consideration for others. He simply thinks
about himself only -- he thinks he is the center of existence and he feels the whole
existence is made for him. He feels authorized to sacrifice everybody for his own self. He
may not be bad ordinarily, but if this is the attitude, then he is a bad man.
Who is a good man? Just the opposite of the bad man: one who is considerate of others,
who gives as much respect to others as he gives to himself, and who does not pretend in
any way that he is the center of the world, and who has come to feel that everybody is the
center of the world. The world is one, but millions of centers exist. He is very respectful.
He never uses the other as a means. The other is an end in itself. His reverence is
tremendous.
Watch, watch your own life. Are you using your wife just for your sexuality? You may
not go to a prostitute. Ordinarily you think that a person who goes to a prostitute is bad --
that is a very gross definition. If you are using your wife just as a sexual object, you are
as bad as anybody else. The only difference between you and the person who goes to a
prostitute is that you have a permanent prostitute, that your marriage is a permanent
arrangement and the other man makes arrangements day by day. You have a car in your
garage and he uses a taxi.
If you don't respect your wife, then your wife is a prostitute -- if you don't respect her as a
person in her own right. What does it mean? It means if she is not feeling, if she is not in
the mood to make love, you will not enforce her; you will not say, 'I am your husband
and I have the right, legal right...' No, you will respect. You will respect her intention.
Good if you both agree. If the other is not agreeing, you will not coerce in any way. You
will not quote scriptures that a wife has to sacrifice to the husband, you will not say that a
wife has to believe in the husband as if he is a god. All this is nonsense, all this is a maleoriented
trip.
If a wife is using her husband only as an economical thing, financial security, then it is
prostitution. Why do you condemn a prostitute? Because she sells her body for money?
But if a wife just thinks to make love to the husband because he has money and with him
there is security and the future is not uncertain, and she goes on staying with him with no
love, with no love in her heart, and she sleeps with this man, then she is prostituting
herself. Then in her idea the husband is nothing but his money, his bank balance.
When Buddha says who a good man is, he defines the good man as one who respects the
other as much as he respects himself. Jesus says, 'Love the other as you love yourself --
that is the definition of a good man. His respect is tremendous, his reverence is
tremendous.
Even if a child is born in your house, you don't enforce your ideology on him. You may
be a Mohammedan, you may be a Hindu. A child is born in your home; you don't enforce
the child to become a Hindu or a Mohammedan. Because if you enforce the child, you are
not respectful towards the child. You are just using an opportunity because the child is
helpless, and the child has to depend on you. He has to follow you. If you take him to the
temple or to the church he has to come, because it is necessary for his survival to say yes
to you, whatsoever you say. If you are using this opportunity, then you are exploiting a
helpless child. Maybe it is your child, but you are exploiting him.
If the world consists of good people, children will be totally free, not enforced into any
religion. There will not be Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans in the world: there
will be only good people, growing people, and they will choose wherever they feel their
heart fits. Maybe it is a temple, or it is a church or a mosque or a gurudwara. They will
choose their religion, that is their freedom. They will choose their life, that is their
freedom.
You don't enforce. You love your child, but you don't give your knowledge to him. You
love your child but you don't poison his being with your ambitions. You love the child
but you don't possess him. You help the child not to grow according to you, but to grow
according to his being, to be himself. Then you are a good person.
IT IS BETTER TO FEED ONE GOOD MAN THAN TO FEED ONE HUNDRED BAD
MEN... because if you feed bad men you feed badness; if you feed good men you feed
goodness. Help the world to become better. Don't leave the world just the same as you
have found it -- make it a little better, make it a little more beautiful. Let there be a few
more songs, a few more celebrations, let there be a few less wars, a few less politicians,
let there be more love, less hatred. That is the meaning when Buddha says FEED ONE
GOOD MAN -- that is better, far better, than feeding one hundred bad men
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