Excerpts from an article where  Sadhguru answers the question "The Right to Protest

and Question: How Much is Too Much?"

Sadhguru:   Democracy is a powerful way of disrupting status quo, challenging power
equations, and shaking up cliques and cartels, pockets of monopoly and exclusivity.
The gift of modern democracy is that it effects the change of power through the ballot
box. It is a great achievement that we have found a means of transferring power without
bloodshed, to disrupt power non-violently.

Retaining Freedom of Speech

However, once we choose to respect the ballot box, it means that we have tacitly
agreed to subordinate our personal will to the will of the collective. Does this mean that
we have lost our right to protest? Far from it. It is vital to retain our individual freedom of
speech and expression, our capacity to discern and dissent, to dialogue and debate. A
democracy is only functional when these individual freedoms are proudly enshrined and
robustly protected.
Before we become vociferous champions of the cause of individual freedom, it is
imperative that we first become individuals. A system that has found ways to manipulate
groups to vote en masse – whether on the basis of caste, religion, gender, or even
ideology – is not a true democracy. It is feudalism in democratic garb.
Not a Culture of Commandments
A thriving democracy, like an authentic spiritual process, is based on the notion of
individual freedom. But only when individuals look beyond the lure of populist political
and religious propaganda can true democracy and true spirituality be born. In both
cases, the individual must emerge from peer pressure and cronyism, narrow group
interests and power lobbies.

A true spiritual process is never authoritarian. It is always fluid, open-ended and open to
debate. This has always been the view of spirituality in this subcontinent. This is a
culture of quest, not commandment. Here, what we consider to be “sacred” can be
debated. It does not have to be obeyed. Even when beings believed to be divine
appeared in this land – from Shiva to Krishna – we did not simply obey them. We
questioned them, debated with them. Likewise, the Indian constitution is not a set of
commandments. If it were, it would be the political equivalent of religious
authoritarianism.

Constructive or Destructive Freedom?

Once you emerge as an individual, it is important to realize that your freedom has an
impact on others. To live in a democracy means we have agreed to allow everyone the
right to the same freedoms. You may choose to protest a policy, or denounce a film, but
if you shut down a city or state to express your rage, you are muzzling other people’s
liberties as well. This is personal whim masquerading as freedom, irresponsibility
masquerading as individual initiative.
The question we must ask ourselves as a nation is this: are we exercising our individual
freedom constructively or destructively? Is our freedom truly empowering or is it
sabotaging other citizens’ right to wellbeing? Before we speak of individual freedom, we
have to honestly ask a more fundamental question: have we truly become responsible
individuals yet?

To read the full article check this link:

https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/wisdom/article/right-protest-question?
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