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The rat also, he makes subway.
San Diego, July 1, 1972 — [...] So life’s aim is self-realization—Vishnu—not the skyscrapers. These are piling stones and woods. This is not very intelligent work. The woods and pile, stones and earth is there already—big, big mountain, hills. You do the business of a porter, carry it out, and high, I mean to say, heap, heap it in one place, it becomes a skyscraper building. And if you simply are proud of these heaps of stones and woods and iron, that is not civilization. That is not civilization.
Civilization is that the living entity who is using these resources, what, to know what is the actual business. This piling of stones and wood is done also by the birds. They also pick up, according to their strength, some twigs, and they make a nest. That intelligence is there.
The rat also, he makes subway. (laughter) You see, So this is not very intelligent work, to imitate the rats, the birds, the cats, the dogs. That is not civilization. Civilization means self- realization, “What I am? Why I am forced to die? I do not like to die.”
To know this, that is civilization. When all these inquiries will come into one’s mind… “Well, I do not wish to die. Why death is there, forced? I am forced to die. I do not wish to be diseased.
Why disease comes to me upon me?” When this “why” question will come, “Why?” that is humanity. And if he remains dull, “All right, let me die,” then he’s cat and dog. That’s all. If there is no “Why?” then he’s cat and dog.