Indian history is not just a record of rulers but a testament to the divine presence of great spiritual figures who illuminated the path of dharma and devotion. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati explains how Bharatvarsh, preserved through divine grace, remains a beacon of timeless wisdom.
According to Prakashanand Saraswati:
The history of Bharatvarsh (which is now called India) is the description of the timeless glory of the Divine dignitaries who not only Graced the soils of India with their presence and Divine intelligence but showed and revealed the true path of peace, happiness, and the Divine enlightenment for the souls of the world that still is the guideline for the true lovers of God who desire to taste the sweetness of His Divine love in an intimate style.
Literally, the entire earth planet is called Bharatvarsh in our scriptures but the area of the continent that lies south of the Himalayas is specially called Bharatvarsh. It is also called Aryavart. The inhabitants of Aryavart are called the Aryans as referred to in the Rigved. Thus, the words Bhartiya or Aryans were both used for the inhabitants of Bharatvarsh or Aryavart; however, the words Bhartiya and Bharatvarsh were more popular. When Muslims invaded Bharatvarsh from the West, which was the land of the Sindhu river, they started calling the inhabitants of Bharatvarsh ‘the Hindus’ which was a localized version of the word Sindhu.
Accordingly, the country of the Hindus was called Hindustan by them which means the place (स्थानsthan) of the Hindus (हिन्दू Hindu). For speaking convenience, the colloquial form of the word ‘sthan’ became ‘stan’ and in this way the word Hindustan (Hindu + stan) came into being.
When English people came, for their convenience, they altered the names of quite a few places and also some of the rivers. They called ‘Indus” for the Sindhu river, and, accordingly termed “India’ for Hindustan or Bharatvarsh. Thus the words Hindu and India became popular.
The unbroken continuity of Indian civilization and its history.
The history of a country is not only the history of its ruling people, but it also includes the history of its eminent spiritual personalities and their philosophies, without which the history of that country is incomplete. As regards the history of India, it is an entirely different situation because India (Bharatvarsh) is such a place on the earth planet which is the least affected by natural calamities and disasters like the ice age and the prolonged spine-chilling, icy cold storms and blizzards that happen in America and the European countries at the beginning and the recessing period of those ice ages. Thus, the history of the uninterrupted survival of the civilization of India (although it may be localized in a small area of the country) goes back to an unbelievable period of time which could easily be said to be the very beginning of human civilization on the earth planet, whereas the history of the other countries of the world is the history of only 6,000 to 8,000 years.
Even today there are no physical means that could hold or represent the information of Indian history in its original form without any flaw, fault, change or damage for such a long period of time. It is beyond human power. At the same time, it is also very important that, for the knowledge and encouragement of the existing generation, the glories of the past must be known to them. To solve this problem the Divine power helps. The kind, merciful, and Gracious God, Who is omnipresent in the world and Who has evolved this universe for the good of mankind, from time to time, sends His eternal Saints on the earth planet who maintain this knowledge with their Divine power and reproduce it on the earth planet in the form of the then existing methods of maintaining the records. That’s how the unbroken continuity of the original records of history is made possible to be available in every generation of human civilization. These revelations also contain the knowledge of God, God’s realization, and its related philosophy and literature.
In Summary: The uninterrupted continuity of India’s civilization is due to its geographically advantageous location. The maintenance of its spiritual history is assisted by Divine intervention when Gracious God inspires Saints to appear who reproduce and maintain sacred scriptures. As Swami Prakashanand Saraswati teaches, Bharatvarsh is not just a land but a source of unique spiritual knowledge guiding sincere seekers toward enlightenment.