Know the Real India

See, man always requires something to separate him from others. In this separation is the protection of his ego. If I were just the same as you, how will you say that I am ‘I’ and you are ‘you’? So, it is very important that in some way you declare that “I am different from you” and man has created a thousand ways in which he can separate himself from others. What are these thousand ways? He will give himself labels according to economic classification, religion, caste, educational qualifications, gender, and age. It is very important for us to give ourselves labels.

What is a label? A label is a superficial answer to the question ‘Who am I?’ So, somebody asks you that “who are you?” You can very quickly say that “I am a 20-year-old male pursuing an engineering course”. It makes it convenient for you and you can provide an answer.

You can divide yourself on the basis of tribe, you can divide yourself on the basis of all kinds of beliefs, and you can keep putting yourself into groups and groups. What is the purpose of doing all this? So that you can have an identity, a collective identity. “Now I am somebody.” It is such that this identity is fed so deep into our minds since childhood that we never really question it. Ask yourself, “What really is the usefulness of having countries?” Ask yourself, “Why this planet must be really divided into nations? Is mankind in any way benefiting from it?”

I want to ask you something. Surely the Ganga is a beautiful river, is it not?

Surely the Himalayas are beautiful mountains, are they not?

Yes, of course India is beautiful. But which India are we referring to? That India which is a product of political process or that India which gave the world its first light of wisdom? I am greatly fond of India, but not ‘India the political unit’ because political units come and go, maps keep on changing.

I am fond of that India in which the openness of mind was first learned; that India where the Upanishads were born and the land of Mahavira and Buddha. That is my India. And that India does not exist on a map.

As far as that India goes, Christ is an Indian, Einstein is an Indian. Everybody who is intelligent is an Indian, and obviously that India does not have 1.3 billion people. That India is a very privileged and rare place where everybody cannot enter. It is not geography; it is not a piece of land. The country you refer to is just a piece of land and that is why it can be denoted on a map; just as a plot that can be shown on a piece of paper. Mostly what people mean by a country is just a plot of land. But what is it that is so fascinating about a plot? Nothing.

It is something else.

Know the real India. And that real India has no President and Prime Minister. That real India needs no armies, that real India is indestructible, that real India does not need a Republic Day parade, that real India is universal.

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