The MOST Important Thing That Makes You Indian || Acharya Prashant (2021)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  Full Video Link:    • The Foundation of the Indian nation |...   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi Greater Noida 20.1.2021  Context: What lies at the foundation of the Indian nation? How to develop a love for India among Youth? Is nationalism good for India? How is India different from other nations?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00So what does the Indian nation stand for?

00:13You cannot love someone or something you know very little of.

00:20The nation at its root represents a community of people united through certain values.

00:32For someone to really love the nation it is important that firstly he knows what those

00:40values are, those values must be worth loving and even more fundamentally certain values

00:49must exist, right, and those values cannot be just theoretical ideals on paper.

00:57So what does the Indian nation stand for?

01:02See, a nation does not become admirable or respectable or lovable just by the dint of

01:12being a nation.

01:14You may very well have theoretically a nation that's founded on hatred towards a group of

01:23people or something, right, and there do exist so many nations that have come into existence

01:31this very way.

01:34They exist because of a certain dislike towards something and we have had nations in history

01:40that existed just to obliterate other nations and we have had nations where the connecting

01:49thread is as fragile as, you know, a shared language, shared ethnicity, shared food habits.

02:00So a nation is not necessarily lovable on its own.

02:05If you say you are an Indian, I say I am an Indian, what connects and unites the two

02:09of us?

02:11Most people do not want to go into this.

02:13Most people are far more eager to talk of diversity than to talk of the underlying oneness

02:23because talking of diversity is easy, no?

02:28Each one of us is different, but isn't it commonsensical to ask that if each one of

02:35us is different, then what is it that enables each one of us to be called an Indian?

02:45When you say you love India, you are asked what exactly do you love?

02:51You have no answer to give.

02:53For most people, India is just a bit of land, a boundary on the global map, a political

03:01entity.

03:02No, these aren't exactly things you can fall in love with.

03:06If you are to fall in love with something, then the thing has to have a sacredness in

03:12it, no?

03:14If you are to really love India, then India has to be more than a political entity.

03:20Then you have to know the values that constitute India.

03:23For that, first of all, there have to be values and there have to be people who worship those

03:30values.

03:31India has been a nation because of its Vedantic foundation.

03:37I understand it will be quite risky for most people to acknowledge this, but that's what

03:45lies at the base of the Indian nation.

03:52Values that come from Vedanta.

03:58And now you know why youngsters have only a shallow relationship with the nation today.

04:07Because they are not familiar with the underlying values, the underlying Vedanta.

04:14It is quite horrifying, but you have very little beyond the masala dosa.

04:19Or maybe you have a few other things, come on, like Bollywood, the Bhangra, the cow,

04:28the cow sitting in the middle of the highway, that is.

04:31The monkey riding the elephant, peeing by the roadside, you would say Mahatma Gandhi.

04:37Or you'd probably talk of the colors of Holi or you'd probably talk of the Diwali lights.

04:44These are all good, nice, vibrant images of the Indian landscape.

04:49Can you fall in love with these?

04:52That's the entire thing.

04:53We do not know what India stands for.

04:58To love you need something, I said sublime, something sacred, something worth worshipping.

05:05And it's a sad thing that that which is worth worshipping does exist in India, but is often

05:14not deliberately introduced to us.

05:19The present generation has been deliberately starved of the essence of India.

05:28No wonder they have no real feeling towards the nation.

05:32They are Indians only by name, only by passport.

05:35And they don't want to remain Indians even in name.

05:39We think of this as some kind of a passing fad.

05:44It's not passing fad.

05:45It points towards something deeper.

05:48The fellow is ashamed of his identity.

05:51He wants to wear a totally different persona, which is bound to happen because he does not

05:58know his identity.

06:02The identity of India, the root of the Indian nation is essentially spiritual.

06:08You devoid Indians of spirituality and they will remain Indians only in name.

06:16The Indian nation is founded on a very expansive ground, very expansive, very uplifting, very

06:25enriching.

06:26And therefore, nationalism must flourish in India.

06:31But not the nationalism of the shallow kind.

06:36Not the kind of nationalism that led to the world wars.

06:41Nationalism founded on truly Indian values.

06:45What do we mean by Indian values?

06:47I'm being very specific here.

06:49By Indian values, I mean the values enshrined in Vedanta.

06:56As long as the youth remain in touch with the essence of the nation, the nation will

07:06stay safe.

07:07When the youth start losing touch with Vedanta, the nation starts losing its inner security.

07:17Externally, you can try to keep the political entity safe using the army and technology

07:22and what not.

07:23But inwardly, the nation will decay.

07:27Let that not happen.

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