Patriotism

On Love of Country

When love of country and love from country are simultaneous, the message of oneness, the message of satisfaction, the message of human perfection and God-manifestation can dawn.

WHO IS A PATRIOT?

A patriot is he who loves his country dearly.

A patriot is he who loves his country
more than he loves his own life.

A patriot is he who intuitively feels
and infallibly knows that there is nothing
and there can be nothing as significant as his own country.

A patriot is he who honours and treasures
his soul's earth-bound and Heaven-descending vision.

A patriot is he who fulfils devotedly and untiringly
the supreme promise to God, the Absolute Supreme,
which he made while he was in the realm of the soul,
before entering into the earth-arena.

A patriot is he who has discovered the true truth
that Heaven is in no way superior to earth.
Earth and Heaven are equal.
At times a patriot even goes to the length of saying
that earth is superior to Heaven.

WHAT IS TRUE PATRIOTISM?

True patriotism is one's genuine love of one's country.

True patriotism is loving what one already has.

To be precise, true patriotism is real love for
 what God has already given us out of His infinite Bounty.

True patriotism realises the undeniable fact
that an individual patriot and his country
are but pure instruments of the Absolute Supreme.

True patriotism is self-giving for a higher and nobler cause.

Patriotism is self-enlargement, self-expansion and,
at the same time, self-giving to the source.
This self-enlargement takes place in the divine way;
it is not enlargement of ego.

Patriotism is self-giving and self-expansion
based on your conscious oneness with all consciousness,
your inseparable oneness with all.

Patriotism can achieve for a country the message of oneness,
the message of satisfaction, the message of human perfection and God-manifestation.

To love a country we need a great power.
This great power is our pure and constant concern for our country.
To serve a country devotedly and untiringly we need a greater power.
This greater power is our intuitive and self-offering psychic light.
To claim all nations as our very own, one and inseparable, we need the greatest power.
This power is all-illumining, all-immortalising, all-fulfilling God-power,
which is always crying and trying, trying and crying, to come to the fore from the inmost recesses of our heart.

We have to offer to our country what we have: love, sacrifice and the feeling of oneness. The moment we have offered to our country our unalloyed love and pure sacrifice and have established our inseparable oneness with the soul of our country, to our wide surprise we see that our country has already immortalised us.

Our country has played her role long before we thought of offering something to our country. What we offer to our country is, at best, an iota of love, whereas our country has already inundated us with boundless love. This is the love our country has already achieved and received from the Absolute Supreme.

A country loves freedom because it feels that in a life of freedom it can achieve more light, more joy, more satisfaction. A freedom-loving country will not try to get freedom by hook or by crook, but by its soul strength and inner cry, so that it can offer its capacity and achievement to the community of the world.

The patriotism of a freedom-loving country is for the country's sake, for the country's benefit, not for the aggrandisement of someone's ego in a clever or unconscious way. In a freedom-loving country patriotism is a conscious prayer, a conscious concentrative force to spread freedom so that the country can achieve and distribute love-light to each of its countrymen and to the world at large.

By being aware of what our country has done for us or given us, or what it will give us, we develop and cultivate the capacity to love our country.

Inner patriotism loves and outer patriotism serves. They must come simultaneously. If one has only outer patriotic service and there is no depth to it, if there is no inner feeling in it and it only involves shouting slogans and reciting a few patriotic poems or songs, then there is no living breath inside. So here we need the inner patriotic feelings, inner patriotic love. The inner patriotic love is the seed and the outer patriotic service is the fruit. If there is no seed, how can there be fruit?

When a people of a country cultivate patriotism, that is to say, when they love their country devotedly and soufully, then they definitely receive something special from God in the form of inspiration or aspiration. And this enables them to march much faster along the path of evolution than otherwise. When God selects a particular country for an individual soul, there is always a special significance to His choice, and when that individual consciously tries to please God by loving his own country, naturally God will shower boundless inspiration on his devoted head and aspiring heart.

At its best, patriotism considerably elevates the consciousness of the world and accelerates its progress. Each country not only aspires but to some extent also embodies aspiration. If a country offers its patriotism to a higher reality or to an inner reality, then its patriotic aspiration definitely goes to God.  Even if its aspiration is very limited, if the country gives it to the Almighty Father, then He will definitely bless the country with infinitely more than He has received from it.

Patriotism is love of one's country, the country that has given one shelter, the country that claims one as her very own son or daughter. Patriotism is a golden opportunity for an individual to work together with his dearest motherland. When mother and son work together, they see their need of each other. The son needs the mother's sacrifice, sympathy, love and concern; the mother needs the son's heroism, dynamism and will-power. When all these divine qualities meet together, the country becomes a perfect instrument of God. Some countries are regarded as the fatherland. In these cases, the father's wisdom, height, light, peace, and bliss can meet with the dynamic qualities and boundless will-power of the son. At that time perfection dawns in the particular country. Both the country and the child become perfect instruments, supreme instruments for God-manifestation on earth.