What Is Desh Prem Divas?

Acharya Prashant: Before we say love for the country, we should know what is this thing called country. If we don’t know what is country then whom do we love? If we don’t know what country is then what do we call love as?

This is just a machine (pointing towards the heart) , it has heartbeats in it. The brain sends electrical impulses and heartbeats. If you add anything to it, even a speck of dust particles, it will cause a heart attack. Forget keeping the complete India in it.

(Everyone laughs)

What this country is?

Isn’t it surprising and highly shocking that we claim that we are highly patriotic but we don’t know what we are patriotic about?

And that is the reason our patriotism has a certain rottenness about it. Our patriotism is limited to posting something on Facebook about that Indian Army soldier or clapping for a six when an Indian cricketer comes to bat. But we would evade taxes, only 3% of people pay taxes, and India is so very patriotic. These very people who steal money, who spoil public property when it comes to patriotism, will say, “Long live India,” because we do not understand the country. Hence, our patriotism is so very rotten, so very hypocritical. Have we ever tried to understand that the country is full of patriots and these patriots cause so much damage to everybody around?

Have you looked at Indian Railways? Have you looked at the railway platforms? Have you looked at mothers having their babies piss on the tracks? And they are all great patriots. So, she is having her baby piss on the track, and you go to her and you say, you know India is a great country and she will say, “Yes! India is a great country”. On the other hand, there is the baby irrigating the tracks; one day there will be great trees and orchards coming up.

(Everyone laughs)

Do we understand anything? Or are we living a very blind life? Do we understand anything? It’s not only about the country. Do we understand anything or we are just living on borrowed beliefs? What kind of life is this? Why must this be our fate?

What kind of life is this?

Questioner: It is the life of the common man.

(Everybody laughs)

Acharya Prashant: Why must the common man be so stupid? Why must that be your fate to live completely in ignorance? You don’t want to be common in several other things. When it comes to choosing an engineering college you say, “I want the best.” When it comes to life and all the goodies that you can have you say,” I want to be the best”, then you don’t say, “I just want to be a common man.” You want to be a common man, the common Indian man earns just 3500 per month.

Alright!

Be the common man. No! You don’t want to be common in that regard. But when it comes to looking at your mind, you find a defense, you will say,” I want to be the common man, I am happy to be a common man.” In everything else you want to be uncommon. You say, “My marks should be good.” Or do you want common marks?

“My girlfriend should be the most beautiful”, or do you want a common girlfriend? But in all this, look at this cunningness of the mind that says, “Common man.”

The common man has no more than 6 or 7 years of education, what are you doing here? The common man is not to be found in the classrooms, he is found in the farm. 65% of India’s population is agrarian, what are you doing in the classrooms? The common man is found on the farm. Be there!

Are you sure you want to become a common man, a commoner, or do you want to shine brilliantly?

Yes! What do you want to do?

Questioner: (Unanimously) Shine!

Acharya Prashant: If you want to really shine, then stop being that common man.

India cannot be a piece of land.

Questioner: Sir, we are Indian.

Acharya Prashant: But, what is India?

Questioner: Sir, we all are Indians. To some extent, we can say, “It is a region where we live, but we do not belong to only this region. It is all of us, our minds, and thoughts that create India

Acharya Prashant: So it’s not really land but something in the mind. Is it a particular quality of mind?

See the mind can be two things.

First: All the conditioning that has come to mind.

Second: What did you discover about the mind in the previous question?

Questioner: Understanding.

Acharya Prashant: Yes! Understanding. So what would you want India to be?

That belief, that conditioning has something to do with understanding and intelligence.

I tell you what my India is. I don’t know about your common India.

My India is not a piece of land because lands come and go.

A few years back Karachi and Lahore were in India. Today you say, “Bomb them, kill them.” Tomorrow another state of your country may not remain part of your country, there is extremism and separatism everywhere, and then you will say, “Kill them, bomb them”.

I was reading a news article yesterday. There is a Japanese cartoon serial which is dubbed in Hindi and it has become very popular in Bangladesh. The government has decided to ban it, just because it is in Hindi and that same Bangladesh was Sonar Bangla till yesterday. Boundaries keep getting redrawn. It is not about boundaries drawn on land, it is something else.

My India is the intelligence that first shone upon this earth. My India is the first intelligent word that came from the mouth of man. My India is the place that gave the world ‘the Witness’, the very understanding of the Self.

Anybody who has intelligence, who can look at himself, is an Indian. Anybody who lives a stupid common life, even if he holds an Indian passport, is not an Indian. The way I look at it, Einstein is an Indian, Martin Luther King is an Indian, Jesus is an Indian, and the vast majority of all of us living on this land, are not Indians because India is not a piece of land.

India is brilliance and intelligence and Truth. And if India is not that, then India is worthless.

There is very little you know. You go to somebody living in a distant land you ask him how you know India and if he happens to be an intelligent being, he will not say, “I know India for its food items for its food items, dances, for the Taj Mahal or anything else”.

If he is really intelligent he will say, “India is a place that gave the world its most important religions”. India is a place that first gave the world the first brightness of intelligence, that it is possible to understand; India is that.

If you live in understanding, only then do you deserve to be called an Indian. No drunken idiot going on with this common life deserves to be called an Indian. NO! It’s not so cheap to be an Indian.

My India doesn’t have 1.3 billion, it has a handful, just a handful. Want to be real Indians or want to be one of those 1.3 billion?

Questioner: (Unanimously) Real Indian.

Acharya Prashant: If you want to be real Indians, then please stop thinking that India is about India’s cricket team India is about raging a war against Pakistan, or that India is about the Agni missile. Sorry, India is not about any of these.

Look at it broadly. Try to understand. This is the way we are living our entire life. These are the pillars of our life: patriotism, family, education, career. These are the few words around which our life exists. Am I right? These are the very pillars over which our goal structure, our mental structure rests. Today you are studying and then you will have a career, and a family, and then kids, and money, and these 6-8 words sum up your entire life. Love and children and security, that is all this life is all about. Life is nothing but that which fills up the mind. That’s what our life is. Correct? Do we understand it?

(Silence)

Patriotism is such an important part of our everyday life. Is it or is it not? And we don’t understand what patriotism is.

Unfortunately, we do not understand anything.

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