Note: This essay is the Ninth part in the series of articles based on Guruji's Bunch of Thoughts. Here is the link to eighth part- https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/guruji-golwalkars-discourse-on-the-vision-of-our-work

The concept of motherland, an ancient concept was derided and ridiculed by the British who did everything during their reign to subvert it. In this speech Guruji talks about this sacred land which has been visualized as the living manifestation of the divine mother of the universe, the Jaganmata, the Adishakti, the Mahadurga which has been worshipped by all our seers and sages as Dharmabhoomi, Karmabhoomi and Punyabhoomi, a veritable Devabhoomi and Mokshabhoomi. This is our sacred land, Bharat; a land whose glories are sung by the gods-

गायन्ति देवाः किल गीतिकानि धन्यास्तु ते भारतभूमिभागे।

स्वर्गापवर्गास्पदहेतुभूत भवन्ति भूयः पुरुषाः सुरत्वात्।

(The men born in the land of Bharat, the gateway to heaven and salvation, and more blessed than the gods themselves – so sing the gods.)

In fact, the very name ‘Bharat’ denotes that this is our mother. In our cultural tradition, the respectful way of calling a woman is by her child’s name. To call a lady as the wife of Mr. So-and-so is the western way. We say she is Ramu’s mother. So also is the case with the name ‘Bharat’ for our motherland. Bharat was a noble, virtuous and victorious king and a shining model of Hindu manhood. Bharat was well known and this land was called as his mother, Bharat, the mother of all Hindus.

But there are persons who say the Hindus did not know what motherland was, that they were all divided into various warring clans, that patriotism, i.e., devotion to one single motherland, was unknown to them and if at all they were to a certain extent devoted, it was only to certain fragments of the land and not to the country as a whole from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari, as we obtain it at present. How did these queer notions creep into our national mind?

It was the wily foreigner, the Britisher, who, to achieve his ulterior imperialistic motives, set afloat all such mischievous notions among our people so that the sense of patriotism and duty towards the integrated personality of our motherland was corroded. The misfortune is that the so-called educated of this land were taken in by this ruse. But the fact is, long before the west had learnt to eat roast meat instead of raw, we were one nation, with one motherland.

उत्तरं यत समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणं।

वर्षं तद भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।

(The land to the north of the oceans and the south of the Himalayas is called Bharatavarsha, and Bharatis are her children.)

The Great Himalayas

The entire Himalayas with all their branches and sub-branches extending to the north, south, east and west, with the territories included in these great branches, have been ours- not merely the southern lap of the mountains. It is sheer practical common sense-apart from religious or other sentiments-that no powerful and wise nation would make the top of the mountains its boundary. That would be suicidal. Our ancestors had instituted some of our places of pilgrimage on the northern side of the Himalayas making those regions our boundary. Tibet, i.e., Trivishtapnow called ‘a Chinese province’ by our leaders! – was the land of gods and Kailash, the abode of Parmeshwara, the supreme lord. Mansarovar was another holy centre of pilgrimage looked upon as the source of our sacred rivers like Ganga, Sindhu and Brahmaputra.

The Grand Picture

The epics and our puranas also present us with the same expansive image of our motherland. Afghanistan was our ancient Upaganasthan. Shalya of the Mahabharata came from there. The modern Kabul and Kandahar were Gandhar from where Kauravas’ mother Gandhari came. Even Iran was originally Aryan. Its previous king Reza Shah Pehlavi was guided more by Aryan values banned by Islam. Zend Avesta, the holy scriptures of Parsis, is mostly Atharva Ved. Coming to the east, Burma is our ancient Brahmadesha. The Mahabharat refers to Iraavat, the modern Irrrawady valley, as being involved in that great war. It also refers to Assam as Pragjyotisha since the sun first rises there.  In the south, Lanka has had the closest links and was never considered as anything different from the mainland.

It was this picture of our motherland with the Himalayas dipping its arms in the two seas, at Aryan (Iran) in the west and at Sringapur (Singapore) in the east, with Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as a lotus petal offered at her secret feet by the Southern Ocean, was kept radiant in people’s mind for so many thousands of years.

The Chosen Land

The entire land to us is tapobhoomi. Swami Vivekananda has said, “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punyabhoomi, to be the land to which every soul that is vending its way god ward must come to attain its last home, it is Bharat.”

This is verily the chosen land of god realization. Such is living tradition of men of God, who have continuously held aloft the name of our land as the land of God realization, as Dharmabhoomi, as Mokshabhoomi. And this devotion is felt for the whole of the land and not for any fraction of it. The worshipper of Shiva goes from Kashi to Rameshwaram. And the devotee of Vishnu in his various forms and incarnations travels the whole length and breadth of this country. The various religious rites invariably included a description of the spot in relation to the entire expanse of Bharatavarsha- "जम्बूद्वीपे भरत खंडे भारतवर्षे आर्यावर्ते कुरुक्षेत्रे..."

 There is no parallel in the rest of the world literature to these expressions for their supreme self-confidence and self-realization.  Again, nowhere else can you find the parallel of a Shri Krishna who speaks in the first person ‘I’ as God himself in his immortal soul-stirring call to mankind- the Bhagwat-Gita. 

Verily, our motherland has been a mother, a father and a teacher-mata, pitah and guru-all rolled into one.  

Image Credits: Ennapadam Panchajanya