What should be the right foundation of a Nation? || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: The Foundation of the Indian nation || Acharya Prashant Link: https://youtu.be/NhuzJZ0oMPY?si=ohv5w6KsIxF_8o3J  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  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #nationalism #nation

Transcript

00:00Can we have a nation founded with the very objective to create conditions in which the

00:17ego is dissolved or sublimated or purified?

00:22Only that kind of nationalism is proper.

00:27Let's create a nation that does not exist to quarrel with the others, that does not

00:35exist to stand separate from the others.

00:43Let's create a nation that does not take its identity from resistance to the others.

00:57Where does Pakistan, for example, take its identity from?

01:00It says I am different from India and that's my identity.

01:04And that's the reason they have to be compulsively hostile against India.

01:09Do you see that?

01:13The same thing applies to all the nations of the world.

01:19The same thing applies even to India as it currently exists.

01:28There have to be borders, there has to be discord, acrimony, strife, the threat of war

01:36and the threat of war pleases the population so much, does it not?

01:44In fact, nationalism would lose its charm and romance if there were no wars.

01:55Wars consolidate the feeling of nationalism, do they not?

02:02When an enemy attacks you, you feel so much more of a national identity.

02:17Now, none of that is good, obviously not good.

02:25So the basis of nationalism has to be an inward approach that takes care of the ego.

02:38The constitution must say that the state exists to uplift its citizens internally.

02:48Actually internal upliftment would require conducive external conditions.

02:56To that extent, the physical world has to be taken care of.

03:02You cannot say you want to address somebody's ego problem without taking care of his or

03:09her environment.

03:10You will have to take care of education, health, media, you will have to protect the genuine

03:19interests of the various groups of citizens as they exist, no?

03:28And then you will say ultimately everything has to boil down to the pure self.

03:37Yes, there is the legislature, there is the executive, there is the judiciary, all these

03:44would function.

03:45There is the media, there are the laws and the sub-laws, there are the various houses

03:53of the parliament, there is a federal structure, all that is there.

03:58But the purpose of all that has to be the inner freedom of the individual.

04:08That is the proper nation in which everything functions with the purpose of liberating the

04:14individual.

04:15Now, is that not a worthy goal?

04:21Should not the nation be founded on that basis?

04:27So that's the kind of nationalism you have to bring to the new generation.

04:33Are you getting it?

04:37If you bring the militant kind of nationalism to the new generation, you are not doing them

04:41any good.

04:46When you talk of freedom fighters, you must talk of those who strove for political freedom.

04:53Equally you have to talk of those who strove for inner freedom.

05:01Otherwise it becomes just a case of one people fighting the other people out of hatred, resistance

05:10and otherness.

05:14And that leads to a lot of falseness, artificiality, then you have to ignore the facts, you have

05:21to rewrite history, you have to weave narratives, you have to somehow manage to cast imagination

05:36as facts and all that is quite childish and funny, except for the fact that it can lead

05:44to terrible consequences.

05:52So bring the reality of life to the young.

06:00The reality of life as we live it, as we see it, is the reality of the ego.

06:06If they can see how the inner thing operates, they will also see its futility.

06:14Are you getting it?

06:18You don't need to then teach nationalism as something separate from life.

06:27If they can see how life is founded on division and strife and suffering, then they will want

06:39to end it.

06:42And when men get together in their common mission of ending suffering, a noble nation

06:49is born.

06:51Don't you want that kind of nation?

06:56People are getting together so that they can together eliminate the suffering of mankind.

07:03And since they are getting together, they constitute a nation.

07:06Will that not be a very, very noble and desirable nation?

07:11Please tell me.

07:14Yes?

07:16Or would you want people to get together to pelt stones on some other group?

07:22Is that the kind of nationalism that you want?

07:23It could be stones when it comes to small groups and it becomes missiles when it comes

07:28to large and powerful groups.

07:3020 people on one side pelt stones on 20 people on the other side.

07:35And when these 20 people become a nation, a nation of 20 crore people, then they pelt

07:41missiles on the other 20 crore people.

07:45And they also then get together and form groups and coalitions.

07:55So Russia is scared of the NATO.

08:01And different kinds of groupings are happening all with the purpose of defending the self

08:08and defeating the other.

08:12And the more that happens, the more we come closer to catastrophe as a people.

08:25Are you getting it?

08:28We do not want to repeat history.

08:32In history, nations have never been founded on the right basis.

08:37And therefore, those who could understand life, like we said Tagore, had to reject nationalism.

08:45They said nationalism is the worst kind of toxicity.

08:54Let's not reject nationalism per se.

08:57Let's just say, let there be an all-embracing nationalism.

09:02Let there be a unifying nationalism.

09:04Let there be an enlightened nationalism.

09:11Let there be a nationalism that is not founded with the object to inflict suffering on the other.

09:20You can inflict suffering on the other only if you do not see that you and the other are the one.

09:27The moment you start seeing the underlying oneness, it becomes impossible to inflict

09:32suffering on the other.

09:35Can we as Indians come together on this noble basis?

09:44And that would be the real Bharat.

09:52India cannot be about geographical frontiers, a location on the world map.

10:04India is just too big to be contained on a world map.

10:15India is just too transcendental to be marked as a piece of earth.

10:34Who is an Indian?

10:36An Indian is someone who understands the very basis of life.

10:50The one who sees that you are born to be liberated.

10:57Only such a fellow deserves to be called an Indian.

11:02Because India, not the political country India, I am talking of the real India.

11:07I am talking of the very concept of Bharat.

11:14The real India is founded on understanding, realization, both.

11:23We want to understand.

11:27India is the place where the urge to understand hit the human for the first time.

11:40India is the cradle of religion itself and true religiosity is about understanding life

11:48and therefore getting liberated from its bondages.

11:56That's who an Indian is, who wants to understand what this thing called the self is, what is

12:01meant by relationships, who am I, who is the other one, what is this thing called life,

12:05why am I alive, what is death.

12:09Only someone who is conscious enough, keen enough, and courageous enough to go into these

12:20questions deserves to be called an Indian.

12:23And that's the kind of nationalism we need, a nationalism founded on understanding.

12:32From where I am looking, you know, 140 crore people do not deserve to be called as Bharatiya.

12:43They may continue to hold the Indian passport, that's a separate matter, but when it comes

12:50to being Indian nationals, well, that's a very elite thing.

13:00That's a thing that requires a lot of qualification.

13:05Being a citizen is another matter.

13:08Desh and Rashtra are not the same.

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