Humility

There is a song by Rabindranath Tagore, that I had not paid much attention to until recently. The song goes:

Amar matha noto kare dao he tomar charan dhular tale

This translates as:

O Lord, make my head bow under the dust of your feet.

The song is about losing one's ahankara, the egotism that makes us think 'we did this', 'we did that'.

I cannot even begin to say how many ways this is relevant to us, to me personally, and to us humans. And I don't mean this in any spiritual sense, but in the sense that we humans need to learn humility in all our undertakings. When we think we know best, that we can judge others, that we can tell people how to lead their lives, that we know how to get to salvation, that we know how the world began, whenever we think we know it all, we need to learn the lesson of humility, and remind ourselves of how small and insignificant we are in time and space.

What do you stand for?

I am interested to know how an Indian person would answer the question:

• What do you stand for?
  

What does India stand for?

Democracy, I suppose. However badly, this is still a big achievement, considering how the vast majority of other developing nations are doing.

Strong religious background.

Cultural history, specially in music and dance.

Unique cultural and village life.

Ahimsa - nonviolence. India may be the only country in the world where multiple religions have preached non-violence, and where a whole political struggle was based on the principles of non-violence.