Opinion PM Modi: A Karmyogi and a Statesman

While I am not comparing PM Modi with the great soul and yogi, Narendra Dutta, who took the monastic name of Swami Vivekananda, I would like to point out the tremendous encouragement he has given to the popularisation of yoga.
This is probably the first time that a prime minister has taken upon himself the responsibility to broadcast the virtues of the ancient science of yoga to the world at large.

I have known him for 25 years, even before he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. I was probably the last visitor he welcomed at his official residence in Gandhi Nagar before he was declared the prime ministerial candidate. We did not discuss political matters but talked about Sri Guru Babaji, my root Guru, and the Manav Ekta Mission’s “Walk of Hope” from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, a padayatra I was then preparing to undertake in a few months. He also talked about how great it would be if yoga could be made more interesting and popular to help the young from falling into bad habits like drugs.

Earlier, I had met him at the International Conference of Religious Persons in the United Nations, New York. He was sharing a table with me at the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria which had been turned into a conference hall. He had come as an observer on behalf of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and told me that he was a General secretary of the BJP.

He evinced interest in my books. I gifted him a signed copy of my book Jewel in the Lotus — many years later someone who had worked for him in Gujarat said he still had the book in his personal collection. We began talking and I discovered his interest in meditation, yoga and Hindu philosophy and how in his youth, he had wandered in the Himalayas and also his close association with a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Mission, who is now no more. I was surprised in a way because it’s hard to meet a politician interested deeply in yogic meditation and spiritual matters. We exchanged notes.

I have had the privilege of meeting him four times since he has become the Prime Minister and believe me, our discussions are still about spiritual matters — the Gita, Yoga Sutras and of course, Sri Guru Babaji.

It’s well known that it’s due to PM Modi’s initiative that the world today marks International Yoga Day. On his recommendation, the United Nations declared June 21 as International Yoga Day.

I see PM Modi as a great supporter in all matters concerning Indian spiritual teachings and Yoga. It was also on his directive that Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary was marked by teaching yoga to prisoners in jails across India. Thousands of prisoners have learned yoga from the Bharat Yoga Vidya Kendra teachers.

PM Modi is a practitioner of yoga asanas and pranayama. It’s no wonder, therefore, that at 72, he possesses tremendous energy and works round the clock. He is a great karma yogi, against whom no charge of corruption can be levelled.

I hope his call to “put our minds together,” so that “we may we learn’’ — where the PM draws from the Rig Veda – is taken seriously so that solutions to the problems that the country faces can be tackled in a spirit of togetherness.

As an ancient text says, “may the whole world be happy” (“Sarve Bhavantu Sukinah’’). May PM Modi work with other like-minded leaders and bring this about.

I wish him good health and a long life to fulfill his spiritual yearnings.

Happy Birthday

The writer is a spiritual guru and thinker