Don't let bullshit get past your bullshit filters. Question everything.

Right-wing politicians are constantly trying to make you feel it is your duty to be "proud" of being Indian. They keep trying to make you part of an unthinking herd. And that is only the tip of the bullshit-iceberg. 90% of the bullshit iceberg is below the intellectual water-level, where you can't see it.

It is our highest duty -- our calling -- to resist being herded. It is crucial to be mindful of hidden messages -- efforts by politicians or religious gurus to curtail our freedom of speech, thought and action.

If you feel under pressure to blindly hero-worship Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, or Narendra Modi, or Prophet Mohammed, or Guru Granth Sahib, or our army jawans, or any other icon, beware! If you feel under social pressure to unthinkingly "accept the values that these great people/ great books represent", beware!

If someone wants you to believe that there was a golden era -- a Rama-Rajya or a pre-British or pre-Mughal time when India was a Sone-Ki-Chidiya, beware! If someone wants you to believe that ancient Jain gurus or modern gurus like Sri Sri Ravishankar and Jaggi Vasdev know what YOUR life is about, beware! Remember, the present moment is all you have, and your capacity to think for yourself is all you have. Don't let anybody take that away from you with false promises or false wisdom.

A lot of people out there are trying to manipulate your thoughts through your unexamined belief-systems -- the dearly-held assumptions in your mind that you feel uncomfortable to examine.

When you read a newspaper or hear a news story on television, look for the hidden assumptions. These are the parts that the journalists don't want you to question. And these are precisely the parts that you must question, in your own enlightened self-interest.

We are being continually manipulated in the name of religion, nationalism, leadership and ideology. We are swimming in a sea full of undercurrents of deliberate propaganda disguised as information. We are bombarded with mind-numbing nuggets of nonsense meant to clog and overwhelm the bullshit-filters of our minds.

Don't let bullshit get past your bullshit filters. Stay alert. Question everything. This is not optional; it's a necessary life-skill.