Being anti-national at the mental plane

Some time back, I met a Swami who was Hindu. Having lived abroad for a few years, he used to share knowledge about spirituality. I too got an opportunity to be in his company for a few days during Mahakumbh. I found that whenever he used to talk to his devotees, he would say, “Your India, your country” and how everything was so nice abroad meaning he would tell how our country was inferior to the western nations. After listening to all this about ten times, my pride and love for my nation could not tolerate this denigration. I politely asked him, “Have you taken foreign citizenship?” He asked, “Why are you asking so?” I replied, “You are repeatedly saying ‘your country, your India’, hence I felt that you are perhaps no longer an Indian citizen.” He said, “No, I am still a Bharatiya.”
One who becomes a foreigner at heart, what use is their physically being Bharatiya ! A spiritualist, who does not understand the importance of a sacred land like India and cannot awaken a sense of patriotism and pride in their followers about his own country, raises a question mark over his being a spiritualist. It is true that today, our Bharat is grappling with several challenges, but berating your country is not the solution, for this everyone will have to do something to improve the situation, this is important. And despite being a Bharatiya and having lived in Bharat for a few years, saying ‘Your Bharat ‘, is a sort of crime, it is a sign of Manasik Rashtradroh (being anti-national at the mental plane) against your motherland. Having taken birth on the Motherland, having nourished your body with the food grown on its soil, whose waters have quenched our thirst, how can we make it alien. Spirituality never teaches us such Samskars (impressions).-Tanuja Thakur