Patriotism and government

When we talk about patriotism, we talk about our feelings for our mother country, our motherland and fatherland. Here we have to feel that we are referring to our connection with the mother — the mother earth and mother country — not with the individuals who govern the country. Inside each individual, as well as inside the collectivity, there is a soul. We have to love the soul, not the body. In some cases the government is very nice. In some cases those who have formed the government are very undivine. But we are not dealing with individuals who may be corrupted or who may be corrupting the nation. If the body is deliberately taking the side of ignorance, if the body is bad, we shall not appreciate the body. But we have to know that the soul is always divine; no soul is undivine.

If a country is being governed by people who are undivine, we shall not admire them, we shall not appreciate them, we shall not even pity them. We shall only pray to the Supreme to illumine them or pray to God to dethrone them so that good people can take their place and bring beauty, light, peace and bliss to the country. If somebody bad is destroying our country, either we have to pray to God to illumine him so that he does not destroy it or we have to pray to God that someone else who wants to receive and distribute light will replace that person. We have every right to do this because we love our country. Our love for our country will not permit a few individuals to torment it or to ruin the possibility of its developing its potential and capacities and making a real contribution to mankind.

Again, we have to know that each individual can be divine in the morning and undivine in the evening or divine for half an hour and undivine for half an hour. If the individual has some bad qualities, inside him there are some good qualities as well, and we shall associate his good qualities as well as his bad qualities with him. There are some politicians who have exploited their country. We have to go deep within to see if they have done something good as well. Even if they have done one good thing, one nice thing, this has to be appreciated. True, one government leader may have done something very, very bad, but we can't discard him if he has also done something really great. If that individual has done wrong, he has to be illumined.

He is just like us. This moment perhaps doubt assails us and the next moment good thoughts, a wish for self-sacrifice, concern for humanity, enter into us. Even if the government leader is not perfect, we should associate with him in hope that we can identify ourselves with his divine qualities. We shall not associate with his bad qualities. We have to separate the person from his actions. We want to love his good actions and not identify with his bad actions. Someone may be in ignorance, but we have to know that the good, responsible things that he has done have come from his divine life. If he has done something divine, we have to appreciate it and identify with it. Each moment we need a sense of discrimination. If something is bad, we shall not identify ourselves with it. But we shall not discard it either; we shall try to illumine bad qualities into good qualities.

Politics is not bad. Nothing is totally bad in itself. But who is running politics? Government is not bad, but who is the head of the government? Now, we can't separate spirituality from politics. It is true that the corrupt politics we see all over the world is a far cry from spirituality. But our philosophy says that we have to accept the world. If everything is bad and we stay away from it, then we are not changing the face of the world. On the other hand, we have to know how much capacity we have. I have realised God; that is why I am standing in front of you to give you illumination with my capacity. If I had not realised God and if I came to teach you people about God-realisation, naturally I would be fooling you and one day I would be caught.

If a spiritual Master feels that a particular seeker is gifted and blessed with political capacity and if he sees that the disciple's own country is being ruined by undivine people, then if it is God's Will, the Master has to ask the disciple to run for election. The seeker will be advised by his Master to enter into politics and the Master will guide him. There have been one or two spiritual Masters who have guided their disciples like this. The seekers were practising spirituality in the purest sense of the term, but their teachers discovered that these particular disciples had political capacities, so they advised them what to do in order to make a new government.

First we have to know how much spiritual power is at our command. Then we have to see whether the rest of the people — this party and that party — are going to listen to us or not. We may know the truth, but we have to know whether the capacity of our truth is strong or not. We know what we are talking about and we do have enough light. But we have to see if people are ready to receive our light. If there are people who know our light is absolutely pure and is going to illumine and if they are ready to accept it, then we are in a position to act. If some people are ruining the country, it is then our bounden duty to dethrone them because we have the capacity and people are willing to accept our capacity. If people really want the divine light and they themselves feel that the country is being run by undivine people, at that time spirituality absolutely has to interfere. It has to interfere in every phase of life. There is no place where spirituality will not enter.

Right now we have the capacity and there are some friends or seekers with whom we can share our capacity. Yet even they don't want to accept our light. So how are we going to share our capacity with the world? We may feel that people around us are suffering, as we are suffering, and we may feel that they would like to have better government. But if we ask them, they will say, "No, we are quite happy." Similarly, when spiritual Masters come to humanity and ask humanity, "Are you happy?" People answer, "Oh, we're perfectly happy." They are wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, absolutely fast asleep, but they say they are happy. So God tells them: "Stay as you are. This is the time for you to remain asleep." You are seeing that your friends and relatives are all suffering and you have some capacity. You say, "Please take help from me. Let us walk together and do the needful." But they say, "No, we are perfectly happy. We don't need your help. Let us remain as we are."

So this is how things are. Otherwise, all countries, the entire world, would accept spiritual life. Our spiritual philosophy says that if a group of people wants to accept light from one whose entire being is surcharged with peace, light and bliss, naturally those who are in darkness either will have to surrender to the light or the light will compel the darkness to surrender. But the light will not destroy the darkness; it will only illumine it. But we need the right people, and this means those who have receptivity.

If some individual stands with all his political capacity, all his spiritual capacity, and if he sees that not even ten persons around him will accept his light, then he must wait until God fixes an hour, His Choice Hour. At that hour, if this individual starts helping others and they accept his light, if they are many in number and if they surpass the undivine forces, then naturally it is going to be his kingdom. So we need only the right hour and the right people to receive and possess the light. At this time, how can there be any undivine people governing a country?

We say politics is bad and makes mistakes. We say we are bad — that our body is bad, our vital is bad, our mind is bad. Now, is there any way we can get rid of the mind, vital or body? No, we are stuck! Since we are stuck, the best thing to do is to illumine the doubting mind, the aggressive vital and the impure body. We have to try to purify and illumine our existence. Similarly, we have to regard people who are around us and who are running the government as our limbs, imperfect limbs. We have to illumine them, but only when we have the capacity and when they are ready to accept our capacity.