Acharya Prashant explains that India's lack of pursuit of excellence in science and technology stems from a misunderstanding of its spiritual heritage. While India was fortunate to have sages who discovered a truth beyond thought, the masses mistakenly emulated the results of these sages without undergoing the necessary process. The sages reached the limits of the mind through intense inquiry and then went beyond it, but the common people simply dropped the mind altogether, leading to a culture of belief, superstition, and stagnation rather than true liberation.