00:00All throughout in history, India has been a nation because of its Vedantic foundation.
00:18I understand it will be quite risky for most people to acknowledge this.
00:25But that's what lies at the base of the Indian nation.
00:34Values that come from Vedanta.
00:40And now you know why youngsters have only a shallow relationship with the nation today.
00:48Because they are not familiar with the underlying values, the underlying Vedanta.
01:07For practical purposes, they will remain Indians.
01:10An Indian passport is there, an Indian jersey is there.
01:19And somebody will ask them, what does it mean to be Indian?
01:26And they will come up with some icons of Indian culture, like dosa, masala dosa.
01:43I challenge you.
01:46How do you represent India to someone of another nationality?
01:55Tell me.
01:58When you go abroad, how do you express what you mean by India?
02:10Beyond the area on the map, what does India mean to you?
02:16How do you communicate it to, let's say, that Dutch national?
02:22How do you communicate it?
02:26It is quite horrifying.
02:28But you have very little beyond the masala dosa.
02:37Or maybe you have a few other things.
02:40Like Bollywood, the Bhangra, the cow, the cow sitting in the middle of the highway that is.
02:53The monkey riding the elephant.
02:58Peeing by the roadside.
03:03Peeing by the roadside.
03:08You can have Mahatma Gandhi.
03:20Or you would probably talk of the colours of Huli.
03:25Or you would probably talk of the Diwali lights.
03:31These are all good, nice, vibrant images of the Indian landscape.
03:38How can you fall in love with these?
03:43Tell me.
03:44The question was about love, right?
03:50I mean, it's not so easy loving a masala dosa.
03:54Or is it?
03:59That's the entire thing.
04:01We do not know what India stands for.
04:07So to us, India stands for a victory in a cricket match over Pakistan.
04:14Now it's Australia.
04:16And?
04:17I mean.
04:18The Kumbh Mela.
04:19No?
04:20Naga Sadoos.
04:21Yoga.
04:22What is India beyond all this to you?
04:23Tell me.
04:24And if India is in India.
04:25What is India beyond all this to you?
04:29Tell me.
04:30And if India is very little beyond all this, how will you fall in love with India?
04:51How?
04:54You can have some parochial pride.
04:59But that parochial pride is in no way love.
05:02Or is it?
05:09To love you need something, I said sublime, something sacred, something worth worshipping.
05:17And it's a sad thing that that which is worth worshipping does exist in India but is often not deliberately introduced to us.
05:33The present generation has been deliberately starved of the essence of India.
05:44No wonder they have no real feeling towards the nation.
05:50They are Indians only by name.
05:53Only by passport.
06:00And they don't want to remain Indians even in name.
06:09Is that not so?
06:14Yes.
06:15Yes.
06:16Ghouls.
06:17Paris.
06:18Go to YouTube or any of these social media and you will find all Indians.
06:31I don't know what you call these as.
06:35You can't call these as pen names.
06:37Indians having usernames.
06:38Indians having usernames like?
06:40I mean the fellow's name is Martin Hawke.
06:54Martin Hawke?
06:55We think of these things as trivia, right?
07:06The fellow's name was Marthand.
07:08Marthand means the son.
07:09Marthand Kumar became?
07:10Martin Hawke.
07:11Martin Hawke.
07:12We think of this as some kind of a passing fad.
07:14It's not passing fad.
07:15It points towards something deeper.
07:16The fellow is ashamed of his identity.
07:17He wants to wear a totally different persona.
07:18This is bound to happen because he does not know his identity.
07:20The identity of India.
07:21The identity of India.
07:22The root of India.
07:23The root of India.
07:24The root of India.
07:25It's not passing fad.
07:26It points towards something deeper.
07:27The fellow is ashamed of his identity.
07:30He wants to wear a totally different persona.
07:37This is bound to happen because he does not know his identity.
07:48The identity of India.
07:51The root of the Indian nation is essentially spiritual.
07:56You devoid Indians of spirituality and they will remain Indians only in name.
08:08India is a very very special nation.
08:11Very special nation.
08:15And that's why I say that nationalism when applied to the Indian context is something very
08:22essential.
08:23Provided it is nationalism on the right grounds.
08:26The right true nationalism.
08:34Because other nations are founded on very exclusive grounds.
08:42Sometimes even on violent and narrow minded grounds.
08:47No?
08:49The Indian nation is founded on a very expansive ground.
08:56Very expansive.
08:58Very uplifting.
09:00Very enriching.
09:01And therefore nationalism must flourish in India.
09:09But not the nationalism of the shallow kind.
09:21Not the kind of nationalism that led to the world wars.
09:28True nationalism.
09:33And what does true nationalism mean in India's case?
09:38Nationalism founded on truly Indian values.
09:44And what do we mean by Indian values?
09:46I am being very specific here.
09:48Indian values.
09:49I mean the values enshrined in Vedanta.
10:02As long as the youth remain in touch with the essence of the nation, the nation will stay safe.
10:21When the youth start losing touch with Vedanta, the nation starts losing its inner security.
10:37Externally you can try to keep the political entity safe using the army and technology and what not.
10:44But inwardly the nation will decay.
10:51Let that not happen.
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