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.