Nation - An Extension of Man

But the most important thing is that we must first expand to the limits of our Nation. Why is that important? Why not family? Family has a natural identity. There is no effort required to feel one with the family. But, for community more effort is required. For Nation, still more effort is required and for Nations -in the present situation – they are the highest evolved possible level of identification. You can identify with Nation. You cannot so easily identify with the whole humanity. You are not emotionally trained to that. It is not emotionally possible also. Because Nation, as I told in the beginning has an identity by itself, born out of a seed – a divine seed. Nation is a divine manifestation. This is what Swamiji has said. This is what Maha Yogi Aurobindo has said. That is why we call this as Bharat Mata.

You don't call Loka Mata. Loka Mata is another thing. You don't call the whole world as a Mata. You call Bharat Mata. This concept of Bharat Mata as a divine force manifesting is not just this land stretching from Himalayas to Kanyakumari. This earth, this sand, these mountains, these trees – that is not Bharat Mata. Bharat Mata is a living deity, living Goddess. And you will find all the rivers in Bharat – they are sacred. There is no river which is not sacred. You take the water of the river, it is supposed to be holy. Typically it is a 'Gangecha, Yamunechaiva, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri". These are the seven sacred rivers. But all the rivers are sacred. Seven are specially mentioned. That is all. Similarly mountains are there Devatatma Himalaya. And every mountain is sacred. So whole Bharat is looked upon as divine.

If you read Vivekananda, if you read Aurobindo and if you read all our great Sages and saints, you will find invariably, that every one of them looked upon this Bharat as a Holy land, Punya Bhumi, not Bhoga Bhumi. Europe is a Bhoga Bhumi. America is a Bhoga Bhumi. Why do people go from here to America? To enjoy material prosperity. It is a Bhoga Bhumi. Nobody goes there to attain Moksha. Does anybody go to America to get Moksha? Americans come here to get Moksha. So this is the Moksha Bhumi. This is the Punya Bhumi. All other Bhumis are Bhoga Bhumis. This is Karma Bhumi, Punya Bhumi, Moksha Bhumi. This is divine. This is written in our Bhagavata also. In all our Puranas it is written. And all holy men, great men were born here. All the avatara have taken place in this country. So, this is the concept of Bharat as our divine mother, Punya Bhumi and our identification with this whole motherland, Bharat.

This is in a way – the fullest expression of our life. When do you become a full man? I think any Hindu or any true Indian becomes fully grown up when be totally identifies himself with the whole country. No question of Punjabi, Marathi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Malayalee, Tamil. They are all the children of Bharat Mata, speaking different languages. Even in a house people can speak different languages as they like. More the languages, he merrier. I know three languages. Very good. You know five languages, Better. Another person ten languages. All the more good. Languages are not that important after realization of this Bharat as One. So our identification should be with Bharat.

Nation - an Extension of Man

There is a book written by Sister Nivedita. The name of the book is "The Master as I saw Him". If you have not read, you must read it. Sister Nivedita spends long years with him, eating, sitting, travelling with him. All her experience with Swami Vivekananda is given in that. She says "there was nothing that happened in any corner of India, which did not immediately find an echo in Swamij's heart". If some Indian was insulted somewhere, Swamiji felt it so much. And if some Indian suffered, he suffered. He bore that pain in his heart. That is why he said in his speech in Lahore-"Common bases of Hinduism"-" Then and then alone you are a Hindu when the distress of anyone bearing that name comes to your heart and makes you feel as if your own son were in distress."  Your own flesh, your own blood is suffering? That sort of a feeling do you have? Then only you are a Hindu. We say we are Hindus. But when Hindus are insulted somewhere, do you feel so much as if you are insulted? Do you feel one with them, one with hundred crores of people? Swamiji had that feeling though he was a sannyasi and had realized Aham Brahmasmi!

He suffered the bondage of the country. "My Motherland is under slavery". He felt that. He wanted to shake off that pain. He was even a revolutionary. It is said he advised people how to make bombs to fight the British. R.C. Majumdar has written in the 'History of Freedom Struggle' that Swamiji was a revolutionary. Revolutionaries came to him. He was a Sannyasin, Aham Brahmasmi, but part of Aham Brahmasmi was that no country should remain a slave. No country should enslave others. And therefore freedom is our birthright. We have to fight for it and for fighting for freedom, Swamiji did not say Ahimsa is the only way. Ahimsa is alright if it serves the purpose. If it does not serve the purpose, you can take to other means also. Bhagawan Krishna did not tell Arjuna to follow Ahimsa, when Draupadi was insulted. My point is everyone of us must grow emotionally, intellectually and spiritually to become one with the whole Nation. It is easy to become one with the family, because we are born in the family. We lie in the lap of the mother. We drink the milk of our mother. We are brought together. It is easy to feel one with the family. But to feel one with community, our mind must become larger. To become one with the Nation it must be cultivated. We should feel identified with the whole Nation. Actually, the purpose of all education, purpose of all culture is to make you identify yourself with wider and wider existences. Education is meant for that. Culture is meant for that. That is why Swamiji said, "So long as millions live in ignorance and hunger, I hold every man a traitor, who, having been educated at their expense, does not pay the least heed to them". Many people are uneducated. They have no job. They are suffering. They have no house to live in. We are all educated. How did we get education? We got education because the society made the resources available to us. How did we pay the fees? How did we dress like this? Are all Indians able to dressing like we are? Millions are not able to have proper dress. Millions do not have house. So we must all feel identified with the suffering millions, the starving millions, the homeless millions. We must feel one with them. And we must try to remove their suffering. Then only we will become really children of this country, this Nation. Then only we will become sisters and brothers to each other. Swamiji said, "Him I call a Mahatman, whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratman". The question is are we Mahatmas or are we Duratmas? Do we feel for others? We must feel for others. We should expand from our little 'I' to the family I, to the community I, to the National I. To the humanity also you can expand.

Nation - An extension of Man

So, as individuals, we have to expand, we have to expand till we become one with the Nation. At one go, at one jump we cannot do that. We cannot jump like Hanuman. We are not that capable. So what is the alternative method? An individual grows and expands into family. The family expands into a community. The community expands into a Nation. And it does not stop there. Then it expands to humanity. It goes on like spiral.

                

Bharatiya Vichar                                                           Paschatya Vichar

Here are  two concepts of the Bharatiya Vichar and the Paschatya Vichar. Apparently you will find different circles. The difference, if you closely watch, in this Bharatiya Vichar, from the central point goes on expanding without a break anywhere. Growing continuously, uninterruptedly expanding till it goes on and on. The central point is the individual. There is the individual. But no individual is independent. Do you think any one of you is independent? You belong to a family. Your father, your mother, your wife, your children, your husband, it is there. So you are a part of that family. And no family is independent, No family is an island. Family is a part of the wider community. And that community also is the part of the wider Nation. And that Nation also is a part of the vast humanity. That humanity is also part of the creation. The creation is a part of the infinite reality which you call Satchhidananda, Parabrahma, the Ultimate Reality.

So you are related to that ultimate reality through a chain of growing, developing circles. So in this Bharatiya Vichar-what you find is-there is no break between an individual and a family. Individual grows into a family. You know when a child is born in a family the mother gives two or three chocolates and says, "now don't eat it all yourself. Give to your sister also. Give it to your brother. Give it to your father". So there is no break. What is given to the child must go to her sister, her brother, her father also. So, this way, without a break, the individual grows into the family. When something happens to the family, every member is either happy or sad. There is a common sharing. Everybody caring for each other. The individual becomes one with the family. The 'I' grows and becomes one with the four or five people. This growth of the I-is the family life. That is why Swamiji says, "Expansion is life, Contraction is death". If the child does not expand to the whole family that child is virtually dead, So this Samskara is taught to the child by all the members of the family. So like that family comes. Then the community comes. The Nation comes. So, we identify Nation.

When we say Bharat, then, my Bharat and I become one. Something happens in Punjab. Something very bad happens there. We feel sad. Very sorry that it should have happened. How did it happen? Something very good happens. We are joyous about it. You cannot feel sorry or joyful unless you have an identification with the event. Unless you have got some identity with that, you cannot feel that. So this identity with the whole Nation is developed in the individual. The individual expands into the Nation.

Nation An extension of Man

Swamiji used to say that every Nation has got a mission in life. Like every individual has got a mission in life. Otherwise we would not have been born. We are born with a mission. The success of our life depends upon our identifying that mission and fulfilling it through our life. Then life becomes fruitful, successful.  The same is the case with the Nation also. So, each Nation has its own mission and all these missions are complementary and supplementary. When every Nation fulfills its mission and cooperates with all other Nations, then the world will be a happy, joyful, perfect, divine world. Just like when every individual fulfills his mission and cooperates with each other, the social life, the family life also has mission. When that is fulfilled the family life will become successful. I should say the family life will become divine. The social life will become divine. The National life will become divine. The human life will become divine. That is the purpose of God. So this is the relation between individual and the Nation.

It is not a mere collection of individuals. But individuals with their own mission and a Nation with its mission, both must grow fully. Both must totally cooperate and identify with each other. The individual and the nation must integrate and become fully conscious of the mission. The mission of the Nation is not different from the mission of the individual.

Swamiji used to call ours as Hindu Nation. This is a Hindu Nation. In this Hindu Nation, the mission of the nation and the mission of every Hindu are complementary. They cannot be contradictory. The totality of the mission of every Hindu will be the National mission. This sort of an integration is necessary. It is just like saying the mission of the eye, the mission of the nose, the mission of the ear-though they are different- they are one with the mission of the whole body. The body cannot have a different mission. There is an integration. The National individuality also will be fulfilled when the personal individuality of every individual becomes one with the totality of the national mission. There is a total integration between the individual and the Nation. As a matter of fact, it is all these individuals extending and expanding themselves that will lead to the fulfillment of the National mission.