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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
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00056
📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00056
➖➖➖
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita #nationalism #nation
➖➖➖
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
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
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.
01:43We are a nation because we have a common shared characteristic and therefore we are separate
01:49from 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.
08:20Vedanta talks of that which dissolves the differences between us.
08:32That which dissolves the 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.
08:45The 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.
09:42Let us 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 us 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 us 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.
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
13:59individual.
14:00Now, 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
14:26any 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.
14:44Otherwise, 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.
15:59Are 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.
20:19Who 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, but when it comes
22:35to being Indian nationals, well, that's a very elite thing, that's a thing that requires
22:47a lot of qualification.
22:50Being a citizen is another matter, desh and rashtra are not the same.