India is not really an idea. Ideas are things of ego, desire, and imagination. All nations have governing principles, but India is governed by freedom from all principles. It is a spirit found in Vedanta, the spirit that says, โI want to know.โ India has known loveโa love beyond territory, ethnicity, and materiality. The true Indian would be a fighter and a lover, fighting what is untrue because he loves the truth.
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Questioner: We are on the cusp of the 76th Republic Day of India tomorrow. So on this occasion, I wanted to ask you about the idea of India. So right now when we look at news and anyone who is reasonably aware would know that we are living in a world of identity politics and societal changes. And everyone you talk to, they have their own idea of India based on what side of the political spectrum they are on and so on.
So I wanted to ask you in this day and age how do we preserve and evolve the idea of India and what it is according to you?
Acharya Prashant: You see, India is not really an idea. First thing, ideas are things of the ego. Ideas are things of desire and imagination. Behind every idea is an ideator and the ideator is looking to get something for himself via the idea. That's not what India is.
Nation. We talk of the Indian nation. What is a nation? First thing: basics fundamentals. What is a nation? A nation is a set of people. It could be a very large set of people. It could be a billion people. It could be five billion people. The number doesn't matter. It's a set of people who are together on some ground, who are united on some basis. Some basis.
