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?
