Welcome to the Purely Prabhupada channel. This video series is called “Reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” My name is Kamra devi dasi, and I am a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
This is number twenty-five of the series. It is called “The Real Glory of India.”
The real glory of India is her wealth of spiritual knowledge. There is nothing that can compare to the depth of transcendental wisdom that has its origins there. India was not meant to be a country of beggars, but rather, an active fountainhead of the distribution of the teachings that could liberate the suffering souls of this world from the perpetual cycle of repeated birth and death. India has a culture based on the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. Everyone in India has heard of Krishna.
In the past, the material wealth of India was known to visitors from many countries. This wealth, the precious metals, the fine cloth, the spices, the fragrances, the gems, the artisan crafts, the architecture, was mistaken as the real wealth and was then wrongly coveted. These great opulences actually came as a result of the devotion of the people to God. The people of India used it nicely in their devotional culture, but the outside materialistic forces became greedy for it. The real history of who was involved to divide India into India and Pakistan may never be known, most references say it was the British and that is what our Srila Prabhupada told us, but it was a political move in any case on the part of envious and greedy persons and governments to divide and conquer and claim this wealth and control the citizens. People were paid to incite riots between the Hindus and Muslims who had previously gotten along quite well together in a similar way to what is prevalent in the world of politics today.
The spiritual teachings were also seen as a threat by those persons who wanted to perpetuate materialism, and ways were developed to try to destroy them. When the British were in power and were the educators in the school system, the Indian children were being taught to ridicule and reject their own heritage. Darwin is said to have been paid to debunk the Vedic wisdom and create the theory of mankind’s evolution from the apes, which apparently he himself did not believe. The real story of the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution may no longer be available, but we know that what he devised is not supported by the Vedic wisdom, and can be defeated even by simple logic. In any case, it was meant to challenge the irrefutable Vedic knowledge and weaken the spiritual resolve of the Indian people themselves.
India was also known historically for righteous and religious kings and other royalty. These monarchs were not simply figureheads. They ruled with integrity and courage and treated the citizens as if they were their own children. They took guidance from the priestly class and ruled from a place of spiritual and moral uprightness. The citizens loved and respected them for their fairness and the care and protection they gave.
But today we see that India has become a place of widespread poverty and corruption. India had the greatest devotional culture, but it was rejected due to materialistic influence, and this barrenness of body and spirit is the result. To have had Krishna and the Vedic culture of devotion, cleanliness, chastity, and wisdom as the very center and meaning of existence and to then reject the Lord and all the beautiful aspects of culture that accompany Him has led to great misfortune. The real glory of India is practically no longer understood even by those who have taken birth and been raised there. What is practiced devotionally has become mostly ritual with no understanding of the meaning behind it, and there is a great movement to try to imitate the western countries in a way that appears sadly humorous and will never award the real pleasure for which the soul hankers.
There has been very negative publicity given to India in recent months. Some of it is based in fact, some of it contrived, but all of it is overplayed. There has been attention drawn to perceptions of dirty personal habits, to what has been presented as unfair economic opportunities like the H-1B visas when the Indian recipients may not have been the ones at fault but who are the ones being targeted as taking jobs from Americans, and the dishonest business dealings that we regularly witness. My concern is that people are being coerced and manipulated by mainstream and social media to condemn and reject the people of India, and thus reject the real wealth of India, the real glory, the spiritual wisdom of India that can make us truly happy if we accept it. Is it a purposeful attack from the demonic media and those who control it to prevent the acceptance of the most powerful and profound spiritual teachings available, that, if embraced, will prove to be the greatest enemy to their goal of controlling the population by propounding and encouraging a lifestyle based on hedonism? To prevent the people from studying and applying that which counters their efforts to convince innocent souls to reject anything good, Godly, and moral? If their evil agenda persists, could it even become dangerous or counterproductive to wear the very dress in public that represents the real glory of India? There is spiritual warfare going on. The side of darkness is doing everything it can to prevent people from seeing the light of transcendence.
The real wealth, the real glory of India is still available in the literatures given to us by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, so many literatures that have as their only purpose to direct the soul who is suffering in this material world back to his real home in the eternal spiritual realm in association with the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. These divine writings are a shining lamp in an ocean of mundane darkness and incessant suffering. They have been passed down transparently, through the ages, via a chain of pure teachers who have no agenda other than the spiritual benefit of all humankind. These books invite us, they guide us, into the transcendent realm of eternality, knowledge, and bliss. The realm of interacting and exchanging with the Lord Himself. The realm of sublime emotions where there is no mundane envy or malefic subversive intrigue. The realm where the Lord enjoys with us and we enjoy with Him, and the taste of those loving exchanges is ever increasing.
We have many of these literatures available at PurelyPrabhupada.com. Please take advantage of them and become happy. Indulge yourself in the real wealth, the real glory, that has its roots in Vedic India.
