Acharya Prashant addresses the question of why, despite the belief that righteousness (Dharma) always prevails, India has faced defeats from invaders throughout history. He challenges the very premise that Indians were righteous, stating that a fact is greater than any theory or belief. The fact is that there have been repeated defeats on the battlefield, and the principle is that Dharma always wins. To reconcile these, he questions the belief that Indians were religious. He argues that if they were truly religious, they would not have faced so many defeats in every field. He points out that it is a matter of ego to want to believe that we were very religious people. If we were religious, why would we be so backward in every field? He asserts that we were not religious people; we have just labeled our ways as Dharma. The ego says that the way I walk is called Dharma. He elaborates that we have not been religious people, and we are not religious even today. In the name of religion, what we see is not Dharma. A handful of people in India were religious, and they were the pride of India. He explains that India has done a special thing by bringing forth the highest religious consciousness, giving us the Upanishads and the Gita, but we have distorted them. The common man either has no concern for Vedanta or misinterprets the verses. He questions how we can consider ourselves religious when we discriminate based on gender and caste, which is not just discrimination but exploitation. He says that the ultimate goal of Dharma is liberation (Mukti), and a country that remained unfree for so long could not have been religious. He concludes that the first step towards becoming religious is to accept that we are not religious. When you accept that there is no Dharma in your life, Dharma begins to enter. He further explains that all those who fought against the invaders were inspired by Vedanta. He gives the example of Subhas Chandra Bose, whose birth anniversary it was recently. He advises reading his biography, 'An Indian Pilgrim,' to see that Bose himself stated that the influence of Swami Vivekananda and Advaita Vedanta on his life made him a strong revolutionary. He mentions that Bose used to carry the Gita on his head. This is how he was able to take on the British. When the Gita is not in your life, anyone can come and intimidate, threaten, and bring you down. He also addresses the questioner's point about saints, explaining that a true saint is often misunderstood because people, being puppets of selfishness, will find some selfish motive even in a saint's sacrifice. He says that it is very difficult to convince people, and one has to provide very heavy and irrefutable proof. Most people, he says, are thieves, so it's hard to blame someone for assuming everyone is a thief, as opening the door has often led to being robbed.