The Foundation of the Indian nation || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 13.04.23, IRMA (Online), Greater Noida  Let's understand Nationalism and Indian Nationalism   Context: What is nationalism? Is nationalism good or bad? What was the rise of nationalism? What is nationalism in India easy? What is the origin of Indian nationalism? What is called nationalism? Nationalism and Vedanta Nationalism can be a force for good  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00If I say that we can be together as a nation only because we share a certain common language

00:12or a certain common religion, do you see the dangers that come with it?

00:19Or we are one nation because we are Aryans?

00:29That's how much of Germany wanted it in the 30s and 40s.

00:40So that's the reason why nationalism, like any other ideology, becomes problematic.

00:52However, there is a very distinct kind of nationalism that can be very virtuous.

01:02But only that kind of nationalism, a nationalism that is not divisive, a nationalism that is

01:11not founded on what separates the two of us, instead founded on what unites the two of

01:22us.

01:25Think of the various kind of nationalities you know of, are they not all founded on divisions?

01:38A group of people, they get together and they say we are a nation, we are a nation because

01:44we have a common shared characteristic and therefore we are separate from somebody else.

01:50Think of why India had to be politically divided.

01:55What was Jinnah's argument?

01:58What was the two nation theory?

01:59He said Hindus and Muslims, they are not just two different religions.

02:06They are two different nations because everything about them is distinct, exclusive.

02:23So when you have a nationalism that is founded on differences, then nationalism becomes toxic,

02:31violent and leads to horrible consequences.

02:38So we are saying let there be a nationalism that is not founded on the differences between

02:46man and man, instead it is founded on what is common between you and me, man and man.

02:57Now what is it that we share?

03:02Now that takes us into philosophy, rather metaphysics.

03:07What is common between the two of us?

03:09If you look at one person and then at another, you would only perceive differences, right?

03:16Even if you say that they share a common language, the dialect or the accent would be different.

03:27Even if you say that they share a common religion, yet they might be investing themselves

03:35in different stories or different verses or different gods.

03:45So by definition, one person is always very distinct from the other and the differences

03:54are countless.

03:57Man is different from woman, is he not?

04:00The young person is different from the old person.

04:04The rich says he is different from the poor, right?

04:12The ones living in the East say we are different from the Westerners.

04:20Pakistan got made on the basis of religion, but then had to be divided on the basis of

04:26language.

04:30So differences never end.

04:32You find one commonality and behind that commonality, there would be 10 differences lurking.

04:40The moment you found your nationalism on something that is not absolutely universal, you are

04:50just inviting discord, strife, hatred, limitations and none of that is any good, obviously.

05:06Are you getting it?

05:11So the Germans say we are one people, the French say we are another people.

05:19The Brits say, oh, we belong to Europe, but we still are a distinct class.

05:23We don't even want to be a part of the Euro.

05:31Why do we do that?

05:33Because the ego thrives only in differences.

05:38The ego loves to have boundaries.

05:42Ego is another name for boundaries.

05:49The bounded self is called the ego, right?

05:55So most of the nationalism that you see actually arises from the ego and is therefore not auspicious

06:03at all.

06:08You need a nationalism that arises from something beyond the ego.

06:17And therefore I say let there be a nationalism based on the unifying principle.

06:28That unifying principle, as far as I have seen, is enunciated most clearly in Vedanta.

06:34I do not say it is not mentioned or pointed at anywhere else.

06:45But Vedanta spells it out quite neatly.

06:52That unifying principle is called the borderless self, Atma.

07:03That clarity which is not tainted by personality, when you say you know something, when you

07:17say you believe in something, when you say you understand something, that is never pure

07:24or absolute because that is colored by, marred by, spoiled by your particular personality.

07:34So the Hindu has one belief, the Muslim has another belief, the Christian has another

07:39one, right?

07:42You believe in one thing when you are 15, by the time you are 35 your beliefs change.

07:49Beliefs over thoughts or ideologies, opinions are not absolute.

07:55There is a long shadow of our personal self over them.

08:02And therefore all ideologies we said are not really worthy of being given a very high position.

08:16They cannot be seated as the absolute.

08:21Vedanta talks of that which dissolves the differences between us, that which dissolves

08:34the ego itself because the ego is what separates the two of us, right?

08:40When I say I, I mean that I am distinct from you.

08:44The ego is the divisive principle.

08:49I implies separation.

08:52The moment I say I, I mean me versus the world.

08:56I am there and the world is separate or distinct.

09:02So I say I, you too say I, and the moment we utter I, we mean that the two of us are

09:09not the same.

09:12I-ness is separation.

09:16Therefore I-ness is suffering.

09:23Hence can we have a nation that is founded with the objective to dissolve I-ness?

09:37Now, remain patient, let's not declare this as too absurd or impractical or utopian.

09:53Can we have a nation founded with the very objective to create conditions in which the

10:02ego is dissolved or sublimated or purified?

10:07Only that kind of nationalism is proper.

10:12Let's create a nation that does not exist to quarrel with the others, that does not

10:20exist to stand separate from the others.

10:28Let's create a nation that does not take its identity from resistance to the others.

10:40Where does Pakistan, for example, take its identity from?

10:45It says I am different from India and that's my identity.

10:49And that's the reason they have to be compulsively hostile against India.

10:54Do you see that?

10:59The same thing applies to all the nations of the world.

11:04The same thing applies even to India as it currently exists.

11:13There have to be borders, there has to be discord, acrimony, strife, the threat of war.

11:21And the threat of war pleases the population so much, does it not?

11:29In fact, nationalism would lose its charm and romance if there were no wars.

11:41Wars consolidate the feeling of nationalism, do they not?

11:48When an enemy attacks you, you feel so much more of a national identity, right?

12:03Now, none of that is good, obviously not good.

12:10So the basis of nationalism has to be an inward approach that takes care of the ego.

12:23The constitution must say that the state exists to uplift its citizens internally.

12:32Obviously, internal upliftment would require conducive external conditions.

12:41To that extent, the physical world has to be taken care of.

12:47You cannot say you want to address somebody's ego problem without taking care of his or

12:54her environment.

12:55You will have to take care of education, health, media.

13:02You will have to protect the genuine interests of the various groups of citizens as they exist, no?

13:13And then you will say, ultimately everything has to boil down to the pure self.

13:21Yes, there is the legislature, there is the executive, there is the judiciary.

13:28All these would function.

13:29There is the media, there are the laws and the sub-laws, there are the various houses

13:38of the parliament, there is a federal structure, all that is there.

13:44But the purpose of all that has to be the inner freedom of the individual.

13:53That's the proper nation in which everything functions with the purpose of liberating the individual.

14:01Now is that not a worthy goal?

14:06Should not the nation be founded on that basis?

14:12So that's the kind of nationalism you have to bring to the new generation.

14:18Are you getting it?

14:22If you bring the militant kind of nationalism to the new generation, you are not doing them any good.

14:31When you talk of freedom fighters, you must talk of those who strove for political freedom.

14:38Equally you have to talk of those who strove for inner freedom.

14:46Otherwise it becomes just a case of one people fighting the other people out of hatred, resistance

14:55and otherness.

14:59And that leads to a lot of falseness, artificiality.

15:04Then you have to ignore the facts, you have to rewrite history, you have to weave narratives,

15:12you have to somehow manage to cast imagination as facts.

15:23And all that is quite childish and funny, right?

15:27Except for the fact that it can lead to terrible consequences.

15:37So bring the reality of life to the young.

15:45The reality of life as we live it, as we see it, is the reality of the ego.

15:51If they can see how the inner thing operates, they will also see its futility.

16:01Are you getting it?

16:04You don't need to then teach nationalism as something separate from life.

16:12If they can see how life is founded on division and strife and suffering, then they'll want

16:25to end it, right?

16:27And when men get together in their common mission of ending suffering, a noble nation

16:34is born.

16:37Don't you want that kind of nation?

16:41People are getting together so that they can together eliminate the suffering of mankind.

16:48And since they are getting together, they constitute a nation.

16:51Will that not be a very, very noble and desirable nation?

16:57Please tell me.

16:59Yes?

17:01Or would you want people to get together to pelt stones on some other group?

17:07Is that the kind of nationalism that you want?

17:09It could be stones when it comes to small groups and it becomes missiles when it comes

17:13to large and powerful groups, right?

17:1620 people on one side pelt stones on 20 people on the other side.

17:21And when these 20 people become a nation, a nation of 20 crore people, then they pelt

17:26missiles on the other 20 crore people, right?

17:30And they also then get together and form groups and coalitions.

17:40So Russia is scared of the NATO and different kinds of groupings are happening, all with

17:51the purpose of defending the self and defeating the other.

17:57And the more that happens, the more we come closer to catastrophe as a people.

18:07Are you getting it?

18:13We do not want to repeat history.

18:17In history, nations have never been founded on the right basis.

18:22And therefore, those who could understand life, like we said Tagore, had to reject nationalism.

18:30They said nationalism is the worst kind of toxicity.

18:39Let's not reject nationalism per se.

18:42Let's just say, let there be an all-embracing nationalism.

18:47Let there be a unifying nationalism.

18:49Let there be an enlightened nationalism.

18:56Let there be a nationalism that is not founded with the object to inflict suffering on the

19:01other.

19:05You can inflict suffering on the other only if you do not see that you and the other are

19:09the one.

19:12The moment you start seeing the underlying oneness, it becomes impossible to inflict

19:17suffering on the other.

19:20Can we, as Indians, come together on this noble basis?

19:29And that would be the real Bharat.

19:37India cannot be about geographical frontiers, a location on the world map.

19:49India is just too big to be contained on a world map.

20:00India is just too transcendental to be marked as a piece of earth.

20:15Who is an Indian?

20:21An Indian is someone who understands the very basis of life.

20:35The one who sees that you are born to be liberated.

20:42Only such a fellow deserves to be called an Indian.

20:47Because India, not the political country India, I am talking of the real India.

20:52I am talking of the very concept of Bharat.

20:59The real India is founded on understanding, realization, both.

21:08We want to understand.

21:12India is the place where the urge to understand hit the human for the first time.

21:25India is the cradle of religion itself and true religiosity is about understanding life

21:33and therefore getting liberated from its bondages.

21:41That's who an Indian is, who wants to understand what this thing called the self is, what is

21:46meant by relationships, who am I, who is the other one, what is this thing called life,

21:51why am I alive, what is death.

21:55Only someone who is conscious enough, keen enough, and courageous enough to go into these

22:05questions deserves to be called an Indian.

22:08And that's the kind of nationalism we need, a nationalism founded on understanding.

22:17From where I am looking, you know, 140 crore people do not deserve to be called as Bharatiya.

22:28They may continue to hold the Indian passport, that's a separate matter.

22:34But when it comes to being Indian nationals, well, that's a very elite thing.

22:45That's a thing that requires a lot of qualification.

22:50Being a citizen is another matter, desh and rashtra are not the same.

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