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Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati reflects on patriotism as US marks 250th anniversary
“Distance did not make me love America less,” Bhagawati remarked.
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Bhavana P - Mon, 13, Jul 2026
- 18:35 EDT
- 30
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati / X/ SadhviBhagawati
India-based American spiritual leader and motivational speaker Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati has shared a perspective on patriotism and national identity to mark the United States' 250th anniversary.
Writing from her home of nearly 30 years along the Ganges River, Saraswati argued that her long absence from the U.S. has not diminished her love for her homeland, but has instead granted her "a particular kind of clarity" to view both its progress and its deep current challenges objectively.
In a Substack post, she praised America's founding premise that ordinary people could govern themselves without a monarchy as its truest gift to the world. However, she directly addressed the nation's historical contradictions, noting that many who wrote that "all people are created equal" simultaneously owned other human beings.
Also read: Indian Americans host America250 celebration in Houston
"Loving the light does not require us to pretend there is no shadow," Saraswati wrote, defending constructive criticism as a deeply patriotic act. Comparing a nation to a growing child, she noted that true love requires holding a country accountable to its highest ideals.
“I have heard so many people say it isn’t patriotic to criticize. But when we love someone and quietly ignore all the ways they are falling short of who they are capable of being -- that is not love. That is fear. That is obedience.”
She highlighted figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks as ordinary citizens who worked to bridge the gap between American promise and reality.
“They were ordinary people who decided that the gap between America’s promise and America’s reality was theirs to close. That is the real American genius -- not the technology, but the courage of ordinary people to hold her accountable to her own foundation.”
Saraswati expressed deep concern over modern divisions based on race, religion, and politics, warning that healthy disagreement has "curdled" into bitter enmity.
“But this is not what the country was built on. It was built on a messy, argumentative, gloriously imperfect group of people figuring out how to make something new -- and figuring it out together,” she added.
Reminding readers that, aside from Indigenous peoples, all Americans are descendants of immigrants, she urged a return to shared humanity over polarizing political and social labels.
Concluding her address, Saraswati offered a prayer for the young nation to choose kindness and unity over the "cheap comfort of division" as it continues to evolve.
“Two hundred and fifty years is young for a country. She is still becoming what she promised to be. And I believe, with my whole heart, that she can -- if we remember that we were always, always on the same side,” she concluded.
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