Let's understand Nationalism || Acharya Prashant, with IRMA (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 13.04.23, IRMA (Online), Greater Noida  Let's understand Nationalism and Indian Nationalism   Context: What is nationalism? Is nationalism good or bad? What was the rise of nationalism? What is nationalism in India easy? What is the origin of Indian nationalism? What is called nationalism? Nationalism and Vedanta Nationalism can be a force for good  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Does the person you are with encourage you to read?

00:07You have to ask, what does he bring for me? Roses or books?

00:12If someone has a stake in making you better, that person will push you towards books.

00:18Books are what we all need.

00:30Acharya ji, Namaskar once again.

00:39So, we the students of Irma are organizing an event Parichintan.

00:47And the idea is basic that we want to make the school going students aware of our freedom fighters.

00:55Because we feel that they are going away from them.

00:58And we also see that less and less students are getting known to the freedom fighters, to the nation builders.

01:07So we want to know, especially from your perspective, how can we make our school children more inclined towards the nation building approaches?

01:17How can we make them more nationalistic if required?

01:22Because we need leaders, we need real heroes, not real heroes. How can we do this?

01:34See, first of all, the very meaning of nation and nationalism needs to be clarified.

01:47We assume as if nationalism is a virtue in itself, as if it's an honorable goal in itself,

02:10unconditionally, unexceptionally.

02:18That's not true.

02:21A lot of thinkers, philosophers have repeatedly told us that like any other ideology, nationalism can be very divisive

02:49and can therefore be very violent.

02:56Think of so many wars that have been fought in the name of nationalism.

03:04Think of the Second World War.

03:06Closer Home, Rabindranath Tagore, was one very powerful opponent of nationalism

03:23because he had seen the horrors that blind ideology brings along with it.

03:32So, a nation is a group of people brought together, sharing something in common.

03:54Now what is it that they share in common?

03:59What is it that binds them together? That has to be investigated first of all.

04:04If the basis of the nation is race or ethnicity or language,

04:27colour, creed, then you would see very clearly that there is a big problem

04:41because then nationalism is founded on the basis of man versus man, me versus you.

04:58We have the same skin colour so we are one nation or we share the same language so we are one nation.

05:07And therefore somebody has to be the other.

05:14Somebody has to be treated as the outsider or the enemy or the pariah.

05:23Do you see this?

05:26If I say that we can be together as a nation only because we share a certain common language

05:35or a certain common religion, do you see the dangers that come with it?

05:41Or we are one nation because we are Aryans.

05:50That's how much of Germany wanted it in the 30s and 40s.

05:59So that's the reason why nationalism like any other ideology becomes problematic.

06:14However there is a very distinct kind of nationalism that can be very virtuous.

06:24But only that kind of nationalism, a nationalism that is not divisive,

06:32a nationalism that is not founded on what separates the two of us,

06:40instead founded on what unites the two of us.

06:46Think of the various kind of nationalities you know of.

06:54Are they not all founded on divisions?

06:59A group of people they get together and they say we are a nation.

07:07We are a nation because we have a common shared characteristic.

07:11And therefore we are separate from somebody else.

07:14Think of why India had to be politically divided.

07:18What was Jinnah's argument?

07:21What was the two nation theory?

07:24He said Hindus and Muslims they are not just two different religions.

07:29They are two different nations because everything about them is distinct, exclusive.

07:41So when you have a nationalism that is founded on differences,

07:54then nationalism becomes toxic, violent and leads to horrible consequences.

08:00So we are saying let there be a nationalism that is not founded on

08:06the differences between man and man.

08:11Instead it is founded on what is common between you and me, man and man.

08:19Now what is it that we share?

08:24Now that takes us into philosophy rather metaphysics.

08:31What is common between the two of us?

08:33If you look at one person and then at another, you would only perceive differences, right?

08:40Even if you say that they share a common language, the dialect or the accent would be different.

08:50Even if you say that they share a common religion,

08:55yet they might be investing themselves in different stories or different verses or different gods.

09:09So by definition one person is always very distinct from the other and the differences are countless.

09:21Man is different from woman, is he not?

09:24The young person is different from the old person.

09:28The rich says he is different from the poor, right?

09:36The ones living in the East say we are different from the Westerners.

09:43Pakistan got made on the basis of religion but then had to be divided on the basis of language.

09:53So differences never end.

09:56You find one commonality and behind that commonality there would be ten differences lurking.

10:03The moment you found your nationalism on something that is not absolutely universal,

10:13you are just inviting discord, strife, hatred, limitations and none of that is any good obviously.

10:30Are you getting it?

10:34So the Germans say we are one people, the French say we are another people.

10:41The Brits say we belong to Europe but we still are a distinct class, we don't even want to be a part of the Euro.

10:54Why do we do that? Because the ego thrives only in differences.

11:01The ego loves to have boundaries.

11:05Ego is another name for boundaries.

11:12The bounded self is called the ego.

11:18So most of the nationalism that you see actually arises from the ego and is therefore not auspicious at all.

11:27You need a nationalism that arises from something beyond the ego.

11:38And therefore I say let there be a nationalism based on the unifying principle.

11:51That unifying principle as far as I have seen is enunciated most clearly in Vedanta.

11:58I do not say it is not mentioned or pointed at anywhere else.

12:09But Vedanta spells it out quite neatly.

12:12That unifying principle is called the borderless self, Atma.

12:24That clarity which is not tainted by personality.

12:34When you say you know something, when you say you believe in something,

12:39when you say you understand something, that is never pure or absolute because that is colored by, marred by, spoiled by your particular personality.

12:52So the Hindu has one belief, the Muslim has another belief, the Christian has another one.

12:58So the Hindu has one belief, the Muslim has another belief, the Christian has another one.

13:05You believe in one thing when you are 15, by the time you are 35 your beliefs change.

13:12So our thoughts, our ideologies, opinions are not absolute.

13:18There is a long shadow of our personal self over them.

13:22And therefore all ideologies we said are not really worthy of being given a very high position.

13:38They cannot be seated as the absolute.

13:41Vedanta talks of that which dissolves the differences between us, that which dissolves the ego itself because the ego is what separates the two of us, right?

14:03When I say I, I mean that I am distinct from you.

14:07The ego is the divisive principle.

14:12I implies separation. The moment I say I, I mean me versus the world. I am there and the world is separate or distinct.

14:24So I say I, you too say I and the moment we utter I, we mean that the two of us are not the same.

14:33I-ness is separation. Therefore I-ness is suffering.

14:46Hence can we have a nation that is founded with the objective to dissolve I-ness?

14:58No, remain patient. Let's not declare this as too absurd or impractical or utopian.

15:14Can we have a nation founded with the very objective to create conditions in which the ego is dissolved or sublimated or purified?

15:30Only that kind of nationalism is proper.

15:35Let's create a nation that does not exist to quarrel with the others, that does not exist to stand separate from the others.

15:48Let's create a nation that does not take its identity from resistance to the others.

16:05Where does Pakistan for example take its identity from?

16:10It says I am different from India and that's my identity.

16:13And that's the reason they have to be compulsively hostile against India. Do you see that?

16:22The same thing applies to all the nations of the world.

16:27The same thing applies even to India as it currently exists.

16:33There have to be borders, there has to be discord, acrimony, strife, the threat of war and the threat of war pleases the population so much, does it not?

16:49In fact nationalism would lose its charm and romance if there were no wars. Wars consolidate the feeling of nationalism, do they not?

17:09When an enemy attacks you, you feel so much more of a national identity, right?

17:29Now none of that is good, obviously not good.

17:33So the basis of nationalism has to be an inward approach that takes care of the ego.

17:47The constitution must say that the state exists to uplift its citizens internally.

17:56Obviously internal upliftment would require conducive external conditions.

18:04To that extent the physical world has to be taken care of.

18:10You cannot say you want to address somebody's ego problem without taking care of his or her environment.

18:19You will have to take care of education, health, media.

18:25You will have to protect the genuine interests of the various groups of citizens as they exist, no?

18:35And then you will say ultimately everything has to boil down to the pure self.

18:46Yes, there is the legislature, there is the executive, there is the judiciary, all these would function.

18:54There is the media, there are the laws and the sub-laws, there are the various houses of the parliament,

19:04there is a federal structure, all that is there.

19:08But the purpose of all that has to be the inner freedom of the individual.

19:15That's the proper nation in which everything functions with the purpose of liberating the individual.

19:25Now is that not a worthy goal?

19:30Should not the nation be founded on that basis?

19:35So that's the kind of nationalism you have to bring to the new generation.

19:42Are you getting it?

19:46If you bring the militant kind of nationalism to the new generation, you are not doing them any good.

19:52When you talk of freedom fighters, you must talk of those who strove for political freedom.

20:02Equally you have to talk of those who strove for inner freedom.

20:06Otherwise it becomes just a case of one people fighting the other people out of hatred, resistance and otherness.

20:21And that leads to a lot of falseness, artificiality, then you have to ignore the facts, you have to rewrite history,

20:31you have to weave narratives, you have to somehow manage to cast imagination as facts.

20:46And all that is quite childish and funny, right?

20:51Except for the fact that it can lead to terrible consequences.

20:55So bring the reality of life to the young.

21:08The reality of life as we live it, as we see it, is the reality of the ego.

21:15If they can see how the inner thing operates, they will also see its futility.

21:22Are you getting it?

21:27You don't need to then teach nationalism as something separate from life.

21:35If they can see how life is founded on division and strife and suffering, then they will want to end it, right?

21:50And when men get together in their common mission of ending suffering, a noble nation is born.

22:01Don't you want that kind of nation?

22:05People are getting together so that they can together eliminate the suffering of mankind.

22:12And since they are getting together, they constitute a nation.

22:14Will that not be a very, very noble and desirable nation?

22:21Please tell me. Yes?

22:25Or would you want people to get together to pelt stones on some other group?

22:31Is that the kind of nationalism that you want?

22:33It could be stones when it comes to small groups and it becomes missiles when it comes to large and powerful groups, right?

22:3920 people on one side pelt stones on 20 people on the other side.

22:45And when these 20 people become a nation, a nation of 20 crore people, then they pelt missiles on the other 20 crore people, right?

22:54And they also then get together and form groups and coalitions.

23:00So, Russia is scared of the NATO and different kinds of groupings are happening, all with the purpose of defending the self and defeating the other.

23:20And the more that happens, the more we come closer to catastrophe as a people.

23:33Are you getting it?

23:36We do not want to repeat history.

23:40In history, nations have never been founded on the right basis.

23:44And therefore, those who could understand life, like we said Tagore, had to reject nationalism.

23:55They said nationalism is the worst kind of toxicity.

23:59Let's not reject nationalism per se.

24:06Let's just say, let there be an all-embracing nationalism.

24:11Let there be a unifying nationalism.

24:14Let there be an enlightened nationalism.

24:20Let there be a nationalism that is not founded with the object to inflict suffering on the other.

24:29You can inflict suffering on the other only if you do not see that you and the other are the one.

24:36The moment you start seeing the underlying oneness, it becomes impossible to inflict suffering on the other.

24:43Can we, as Indians, come together on this noble basis?

24:53And that would be the real Bharat.

24:57India cannot be about geographical frontiers, a location on the world map.

25:12India is just too big to be contained on a world map.

25:20India is just too transcendental to be marked as a piece of earth.

25:40Who is an Indian?

25:44An Indian is someone who understands the very basis of life.

25:57The one who sees that you are born to be liberated.

26:05Only such a fellow deserves to be called an Indian.

26:10Because India, not the political country India, I am talking of the real India.

26:17I am talking of the very concept of Bharat.

26:22The real India is founded on understanding, realization, both.

26:32We want to understand.

26:35India is the place where the urge to understand hit the human for the first time.

26:48India is the cradle of religion itself.

26:53And true religiosity is about understanding life and therefore getting liberated from its bondages.

27:00That's who an Indian is.

27:07Who wants to understand what this thing called the self is?

27:10What is meant by relationships?

27:12Who am I? Who is the other one?

27:14What is this thing called life?

27:16Why am I alive?

27:18What is death?

27:19Only someone who is conscious enough, keen enough, and courageous enough to go into these questions deserves to be called an Indian.

27:32And that's the kind of nationalism we need.

27:35A nationalism founded on understanding.

27:37From where I am looking, you know, 140 crore people do not deserve to be called as Bharatiya.

27:50They may continue to hold the Indian passport, that's a separate matter.

27:55But when it comes to being Indian nationals, well, that's a very elite thing.

28:08That's a thing that requires a lot of qualification.

28:13Being a citizen is another matter.

28:16Desh and Rashtra are not the same.

28:22So when you say that you want to invoke nationalism in young people,

28:29you must know what is it that you want to educate them in.

28:38Kindly do not indoctrinate them in some sectarian or divisive ideology.

28:47That's not nationalism.

28:48Real nationalism takes you within.

28:55And only that kind of nationalism is deserving enough to survive.

29:01Otherwise the world has seen the perils of blind and violent nationalism for good.

29:12Are you getting it?

29:16Acharya ji, I have a follow up question on this.

29:21Am I audible?

29:23Yes, yes you are.

29:25Acharya ji, in one of your sessions, one of the seekers asked,

29:29we are the proponent of Vasudev Tutankhamen.

29:32And on that you mentioned that first to talk about such a big idea,

29:37we need to know, first at home we have to take him clear off.

29:40Now when we are talking about such ideas that need to be spread all across the globe.

29:47But we see that students or in general the educated class are not interested on reading

29:55or not paying the amount of energy towards it.

30:00We are seeing that they are moving towards the ideologies that are not ours.

30:04So how do we deal with this?

30:06We want to spread this idea but the other side is not that much interested.

30:12But if that side is not that much given awareness to that side,

30:18how should we tackle it?

30:21I don't think it's very difficult to bring this simple thing out to the other person.

30:28Provided if first of all, you as the spreader understand it.

30:34Why am I saying that?

30:40Because internally we are all one in terms of our disquiet, misery, suffering.

30:47Does not matter who the other person is.

30:51He suffers just as you do.

30:55And all human activity is some kind of an effort,

31:00conscious or unconscious, to get rid of one's suffering.

31:04Why will the other not listen if you can show him a way out of his suffering?

31:10He is trying to somehow gain peace and fulfillment in his own way.

31:17Can you display to him a plausible way to attain peace?

31:26Can you diagnose him correctly?

31:34But that will not be possible if you approach the other with a fixed set of thoughts of your own.

31:46To be able to look at the other, you have to be impartial.

31:53You cannot say the other is the other and is therefore despicable.

31:59He does not listen, he does not pay attention, he is violent, he is fallen.

32:06If you approach the other with such thoughts, then it will be very difficult to see the other's reality.

32:14And if you will not be able to see his reality, how will you be able to help him?

32:19And if you fail in providing help,

32:23why will he agree that your path is suitable for him as well?

32:30We all are in need of help, are we not?

32:36And because we do not see where to get help from,

32:43we keep trying crazily in our own distorted ways.

32:50We do not understand why we are not restful.

32:57We do not understand what is wrong with life.

33:00Why do we get angry? Why do we get anxious?

33:03And this is the story of entire mankind, right?

33:07We do not understand that and therefore we try out all kinds of shallow and rather counterproductive solutions.

33:24That's what everybody is doing.

33:27So if you can display to a human being

33:33who he is and why he suffers,

33:37he is bound to listen to you.

33:41Irrespective of where he comes from, what his religion is,

33:46what his age or gender is, what his economic status is,

33:51his ultimate objective is fulfillment, joy, peace, is it not?

34:00So if you can bring him closer to his objective, he will listen to you.

34:09If the youngsters of today are not listening to your advice,

34:16it is probably because we do not understand the youngsters.

34:21We do not see where they are coming from and what they are trying and where they want to reach.

34:30Their ways appear to us different from ours.

34:35So we treat them as the other, sometimes we want to treat them even as aliens.

34:45But they are human beings, right?

34:48And they want the same thing as each of us does.

34:57Is there anybody in the world who does not feel thirsty?

35:04Could be an African, could be an American, a Christian, a Buddhist, a man, a woman.

35:15We all need water, right? That's what, we all need water.

35:21Irrespective of what the color of our skin is and what the color of our ideology is,

35:27we all need water.

35:31And that is the reason why I am trying to bring Vedanta to the masses.

35:36Water is possible.

35:39And a nation that does not divide is possible.

35:47A nation that is good for all is possible.

35:53And remember, you cannot have goodness in isolation.

36:02You cannot have the welfare of one people

36:05at the cost of the other people.

36:12It is the law of existence. When we will rise, we will rise together.

36:17If you find people rising by subjugating somebody else,

36:23then you are not seeing clearly.

36:27If you really have to do well for yourself,

36:31that cannot happen at the cost of others.

36:36It's not a zero-sum game.

36:40You cannot colonize a country as the colonizers of the last few centuries did

36:51and hope that the result will be great for you.

36:58Don't we know that the Second World War was fought

37:02because the great colonial powers were competing among themselves?

37:09Don't we know that?

37:12In fact, it was an urge to have more and more colonies

37:18that brought these European powers face to face.

37:24Britain had the early mover advantage and had colonized much of Asia

37:35and France too had colonies.

37:39And Germany just didn't like that.

37:44So when you look at the bigger picture, you realize

37:48that if you exploit someone,

37:51it's not just the so-called other that suffers.

37:57The exploiter will soon discover that he too is the exploited one.

38:06We believe in duality. We lead dualistic lives.

38:12We behave as if by hurting the other, we can benefit and prosper.

38:17That does not happen. We need a non-dualistic nationalism.

38:23Non-dualistic, Advaitic.

38:27Therefore, the greatest philosophy that looks inwards is Advaita Vedanta.

38:42Namaste Acharyaji and good evening to all of you.

38:46My name is Praveen Sharma.

38:49I am currently in the final year of the PGDRM program.

38:53My question is that if you look at the current scenario,

38:58how the AI tools like chat, GPT will help students

39:05who are in UG or PG or even in B school.

39:10So they are taking help from the AI tools and making their work easier.

39:16So is it becoming a barrier or hindering our creativity basically?

39:27And the question is, is it someone who is trying to intensely

39:32making the AI tools to limit the creativity of the people?

39:40Is it some entrepreneurs who are doing this intentionally?

39:46And if yes, then how can we prevent from this?

39:49And how can we maintain our creativity in our daily routine life?

39:52Nobody is hatching a conspiracy to turn you uncreative.

40:04It's a piece of technology and it depends on you how you want to use it.

40:15It's a very far-fetched thought.

40:17Somebody or a group of people or a consortium of companies,

40:23they got together to turn the entire population of the world uncreative.

40:29And to rob you of your creativity, they gave you AI and its products like chat, GPT.

40:39None of that.

40:40None of that.

40:45AI is anyway not creative.

40:49Then how can it rob you of your creativity?

40:54AI at best,

41:02it stops your thinking.

41:06No, that simply means that your thinking was already mechanical in the first place.

41:19Therefore, another machine could supplant it.

41:26A machine can be better than another machine.

41:32A machine cannot be better than consciousness itself.

41:38So if you feel that AI is making your task easier,

41:46it simply means that the task that you were doing was anyway not creative.

41:56AI cannot create something original.

42:02Originality is an exclusive virtue of consciousness.

42:13Some are asking you, if you ask chat, GPT something,

42:21can it choose not to answer?

42:24So that's what.

42:29But consciousness can choose to remain silent.

42:33And consciousness can know that silence is probably the best response in certain situations.

42:39AI will never know that.

42:46But AI also is created by us only, some group of people.

42:51So I'm asking that, is there any intention from them?

43:22So that we stop using our legs and very soon we all will become lame.

43:30So there is no conspiracy.

43:33And even if there is a conspiracy, let's hypothetically accept that.

43:41Why do you have to fall to that conspiracy?

43:44I mean, you have to write a song, let's say for your girlfriend.

43:47Why do you want to depend on chat GPT for that?

43:52And that software can write you a song.

43:57But you'd be a very poor lover if you depend on machines to write you a song for your girlfriend.

44:19No part of this recording may be reproduced

44:21without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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