My Country My Life

Leader of Opposition L K Advani has spent more than 60 years in politics. He has been a witness and a participant in great historical events of modern independent India. He recounts his career in his memoirs, My Country My Life, which was published recently. What is the politics behind writing this book and will it help him in his prime ministerial ambitions? Bhupendra Chaubey, CNN-IBN's National Bureau Chief, chatted on this topic with IBNLive readers on Thursday, March 27. Here is the full transcript of the chat.
Kapil: Don’t you think that in the next election Advani should not raise the issues of Ayodhya or Hinduism, as in Gujarat Narendra Modi has proved that good governance can win polls?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Ayodhya is not an issue anymore for the BJP. It’s more of lip service that’s being done. It’s image and track record and a good coalition that matters
Amarnath Tewary: How difficult it will be for Advani to get out of his hardliner image? And, can his entire political career be judged through few thousand words written after a well thought of idea and plan?
Bhupendra Chaubey: The book is an attempt made by Advani to put a few things straight about himself. He wants to correct that impression about himself that he is just a hardliner.
Sundarji: Advani has a penchant for putting foot in the mouth inadvertently many a times, but can the tiger change his spots now?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Tiger has indeed changed his spots. Advani is the kind of politician who will never say ‘no comment’ to any question.
KR: Isn’t it possible that his attempt of an image makeover through this book may actually backfire. Instead of getting wider acceptance he may end up loosing most of his vote-bank.
Bhupendra Chaubey: The hardliner debate is now getting old. I don’t think people look at Advani just through the glasses of Babri Masjid. I don’t think it will do any damage to him, though I also don’t think that it will bring tremendous gains.
Rosa Basanti: The BJP has still not figured out why India didn't shine for them. How would this book help Advani attain his prime ministerial ambitions?
Bhupendra Chaubey: India shining was a tactical blunder made by the party. They admit it too in as many words. This is a book meant to clear some perceptions about Advani in the minds of people. Read it to see whether you manage to change your perception about him. Advani will become the Prime Minister if he can put together a good coalition. The days of identity politics are over. Just like the days of individual driven politics.
KR: Who among the second generation of BJP leaders is the most ideal PM candidate after Advani?
Bhupendra Chaubey: First let Advani get elected as the PM. We can then think of his successor. Someday though I would like to do a web chat on whether Narendra Modi is a deserving successor to Advani.
Sunil Mallya: LK Advani has always been projected by the media as a pro-Hindutva leader and as the chief architect of Babri demolition. But now it seems times have changed. Do you think the book and comments during his visit to Pakistan has played a role in this? Or is it something else?
Bhupendra Chaubey: India has changed, and hence Advani has changed too. He had an image in the 90s of being a hardliner, in 2008 all that is changed.
Adhitya: Sir, do you view Advani's rise to the helm of the BJP a symbol of a further shift to the "Right" vis-a-vis AB Vajpayee?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Not at all. Advani of 2008 is not the rabble-rouser of 1992. He is a much more mellowed, milder version. The BJP's policies will be the same one as Vajpayee. So what if there is no poetry involved.
Harikesh: Do you feel that the release of book after the Union Budget will give some limelight to BJP? Some times it seems that UPA, in between Congress as the ruler and the Left as Opposition, is eating away all the attraction.

Bhupendra Chaubey: Any party that is in power will always be a lot more in limelight and hence get more attraction. But the book will I am sure will create a little more impact for the BJP.
Govind: Why does not he think of a successor?
Bhupendra Chaubey: He does, and I get a sneaky suspicion that he has already made up his mind. He just doesn’t want to reveal it since he feels it might create an all out war.
Aditya Shivkumar: World over we find people entering politics at an early stage. Why is it in India that we are stuck with the dogma of old is gold?
Bhupendra Chaubey: In India there is always that feeling that the vetran knows more. When you go to a restaurant to eat, you will always find that the grand dad will occupy the central seat on the table. The problem is that we have not had a group of really young leaders. However if you look at the states, youngsters are doing well. Mayawati and Nitish Kumar may not be an Obama or the Sarkozy, but they do belong to that group that has come up on its own. At the end of the day you are looking at a situation where one party has ruled this country for all but 10 years of our independence.
Tarun Sharma: Advani’s career is full of conflict. How can he wipe out the Ram Janambhoomi issue? Advani has a dual personality—he doesn't stick to his words. His statements on Jinnah and Ayodhya, an issue over which innocents died but politicians got away.
Bhupendra Chaubey: That’s been the tragedy of Advani. To me he is like a Dilip Kumar, the ultimate tragedy hero. You have to give it to him that he has done what very few people could manage to do. Present the alternate argument.
Ashish: Why does L.K Advani goes in for so many interviews in a year, Sonia Gandhi and other top level leaders do not give more then two interviews in a year. I think he should avoid media if he cannot play it properly.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Why should he not give these interviews? A seasoned politician must give as many interviews as possible since the people must know what you stand for. There is no point of living in a cocoon and being scared.
Srikanth: do you think Advani has the charisma of Vajpayee to hold the NDA together?
Bhupendra Chaubey: He has already shown his power by making himself acceptable to all and sundry within the NDA.
Manish Srivastava: Is Mr Advani in full political mode after launching his book? Can he build the Ram Mandir if he becomes the Prime Minister?
Bhupendra Chaubey: I don’t think anyone will ever build a temple in Ayodhya. It’s not possible. Whether the courts or the politicians, no one will ever have a clear view on that.
Tenny123: Who will win in Advani versus Rahul Gandhi contest? After much Gandhi family bashing, we must admit that Rahul has been able to connect to larger masses and all sections of people. Everywhere I go, I have noticed that people from all sections are looking up to him.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Looking up to him because he is like a movie star. Not necessarily to his vision. Does Rahul Gandhi have a vision for the nation? Why doesn’t he come out with that?
Shambhoo: Do you think his book will make Adwani as acceptable to the middle class?

Bhupendra Chaubey: It is not the book, but it’s Advani’s perception on the minds of people. The delicious dilemma is that over the last two years he has actually invited the wrath of hardliners within the Sangh Parivar. Now he has the hardliners as well as the moderates with him.
Peekay: After a certain age, one becomes less productive at work and needs more rest. Why does this apply to our politicians?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Advani is one of the fittest 80-year-old politicians you will ever meet. I agree with one half of your statement that the youth must be encouraged, but I don’t think age has anything to do with productivity. Half of our cabinet is over the age of 60. The country is being managed.
Jay: Do you think the timing of release of the book is well thought of?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Advani wrote the book while still being an active politician. This was his proverbial final die, his trump card. There is nothing wrong with the timing.
Shivarama Krishnan: If becoming Prime Minister was Advani's ambition were all his previous deeds, whether good or bad, targeted towards achieving that ambition?
Bhupendra Chaubey: In politics you must always aspire for the top job, nothing wrong with that. He has spent his whole life creating new ideas. I think the book is also his attempt to create another idea.
Prashantha GK: Why is the medias are against Advani?
Bhupendra Chaubey: I must admit that the media has really given a tough time to Advani. But the beauty of the man is that he is open to criticism. You can’t criticise the Congress president though.
Arvind Singh Dotiyal: Is Advani's book a genuine piece of autobiography or mere a way to be in limelight?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Genuine autobiography with one eye on better brand building. He doesn’t need publicity—he needs to send the right kind of message.
David Mende: Don’t you think that no matter how hard Advani tries to pretend through a book or any other means, everyone knows that he is a Hindu hardliner? Will an average Hindu accept his concept of Hindu nationalism?
Bhupendra Chaubey: I recently read a report which suggested that young people are more prone to being religious. So you never know. I also don’t think that Advani is just a simple hardliner leader. He has broken quite a few myths about himself. That’s for sure.
Vishwanath: What do you think, will LK Advani become the PM ever?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Difficult but not impossible. Depends on whether they can get their coalition arithmetic right.
Adhitya: Do you subscribe do Advani’s brand of leadership and management?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Advani has been one of the foremost leaders when it comes to political management. No doubt about that. He along with Vajpayee has built the BJP. But unlike Vajpayee who revelled in charm, Advani is almost professorial in his approach.
KR: Does this book in anyway help Advani gaining wider acceptance across various sectors of the society or do his hardliner image too hard and old to be broken?
Bhupendra Chaubey: I think the hardliner or the hawkish image has ceased to be a factor in our polity. People are now not voting on the basis of religion or identity. Anyways the days of single-party rule are over and it’s a coalition that has to rule. By that logic, he has already proved his acceptance amongst various parties and hence different sections of society.
John Kottoor: Do you think Advani, with his ideology and image of being a Hindutva leader, gain political momentum? He might not go well in the vast majority of the Indian states.

Bhupendra Chaubey: Look at it this way. Suppose the Congress pitches Rahul Gandhi as its PM nominee. Whom will you then support? A 40-something young boy with no experience and just a surname to boot or will you support an 80-something granddad with tons of experience, but looking at it as his final shot at capturing power? Vajpayee and Advani are two very different leaders with very different approaches. Vajpayee, the quintessential poet, and Advani the typical back room boy. The roles are being reversed now.
Mani: When Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked and taken to Amirtsar, Advani was the Home Minister? What does he say about this?
Bhupendra Chaubey: There is a full chapter in the book about this episode. He deals with it with a straight bat. He says that his hands were tied as others in the cabinet felt that the safety of passengers could not have been compromised with.
Viswanath: I believe that Advani is trying to clarify his stand on various issues. I strongly think the book published will create visibility for his broader image. Do you observe any significant changes in Advani's character over the years?
Bhupendra Chaubey: India as a nation has changed—Advani realises that. In the nineties he became a political yaatri as that was his idea of challenging the Mandal brand of politics. In 2008, mandal kamandal cannot win you votes. So Advani is now trying to project himself as a more inclusive kind of a leader. It’s ironic that for the same Jinnah issue that was used to browbeat him, he is now being commended as someone who came up with a new idea. In the book he makes that point. On Gujarat riots, he backs Narendra Modi to the hilt. In fact many years back, he had got very annoyed with me when I asked him a question related to why was he backing Modi. From then on, I think Advani has become a more patient man
Manish: Is Advani’s image change his own work or the imagination of editorial desks?
Bhupendra Chaubey: As much as people, and may I say Advani himself, blame the media for creating this so called image trap let me point out that Advani revels in this role. In a country as vast as ours, you do need a politician to come up with something new. His rath yatra in that sense did go a long way in converting India into a bipolar polity. So if this was an image building exercise, well he was pretty successful at that
Kapil:: What Advani has written of his into this book that will inspire people to elect Advani as the next PM?
Bhupendra Chaubey: Frankly I don’t think that the book is inspiring. But having said that, I do feel that it’s a book which gives you an idea of India. It puts together the various threads, different notions, all of which combine together to create India. But it doesn’t put Advani across as someone who is an awe-inspiring figure.
Srikanth: Do you feel that Advani will succeed with the new image makeover? What future do you foresee for him?
Bhupendra Chaubey: The main reason why Advani wrote this book is that he looks at himself as a very misunderstood and misrepresented politician. If you go through the entire book, you will see that he is actually trying his best to put his best foot forward. He wants to be seen as someone who is an ideas man, a visionary, not just a person who is a hardliner or a fundamentalist. There are many though who feel that if he had chosen to be more forthcoming in his book, maybe he could have been more beneficial.

Taslima Nasreen

"The history of Islam says that the Arabs used to live in caves, they used to bury girl children and Mohammed put an end to all the misery. However, misery I think has increased.”

[Taslima Nasreen in Dwikhandita]

The Christian example

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

Swami Vivekananda

"This universe has not been created by any extra-cosmic God, nor is it the work of any outside genius. It is self-creating, self-dissolving, self-manifesting. One Infinite Existence, the Brahman. 'Tattvamasi Shvetaketo - That thou art, O Shvetaketu!' - Swami Vivekananda.

"We have seen then that this Brahman, this Reality is unknown and unknowable, not in the sense of the agnostic, but because to know Him would be a blasphemy, because you are He already. We have also seen that this Brahman is not this table and yet is this table. Take off the name and form and whatever is reality is He. He is the reality in everything." Swami Vivekananda.

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1 comments:
multisubj yb said...
I greatly appreciate your work experience and the practical side of your life. I am worried that you might not have read the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. You may be surprised to know that he liked cool Centres like Ooty, Almora, Kashmir and preferred to big hotels. I made a painstaking study and was shocked to know that he called India jellty fish! I wrote 70 blogs on the subject with evidence from his Complete Works, particularly his letters. He calls a table/chair/pot brahmam. But he could not see brahmam in turtles, shad fish which he relished. He did not hesitate to permit goat sacrifices in his Belur Math ignoring that goats are also brahmams. In Vivekananda Vedanta Centre South California, even now there seems to be a custom of serving goat curry as prasaad. http://www.vivekanandayb.blogspot.com/
August 25, 2007 8:13 AM

1 comments:
Venu said...
I see you have created an enormous output of writing through your blogs. Your critique of Vivekananda is objective, though I feel that ofttimes you go by his words and not the spirit of what he represented. It ought to be remembered that many of his sayings are taken from his corresponence and it would be worth remembering that he would have been keeping in mind his correspondent when he sought to comment on this or that. While he certainly had no reason to speak the untruth and would not have done so, he could not have always spoken on pure advaitic lines if he was to make sense to the correspondent. He had often to present matters from a layman's point of view. As a teacher, he would have sought to take his audience towards the higher knowledge by starting with common parlance. Anyway, going by your writings (of which I have not made any deep study yet) and the sharpness of your observations, you are no less a person than a Vivekananda. You are also speaking the truth and you prove that often it can seem that truth contradicts itself to arrive at greater truths. Our expressions of truth are ever dynamic and many faceted and expressive. They are dead words only if we miss the spirit for the letter.

Amanda Ripley in Time magazine

"The most effective way is to fight their [Islamic terrorists'] motives, not just methods. With bomb making techniques available on the Internet, it is the online radical propaganda that is spreading the cancer all around. Mere control of madrasas without eliminating the mindset of someone having the exclusive access to God and therefore entitled to impose his will on others, would take the world nowhere in this fight against radical doctrines that justify terror as a weapon against all civilisations not in line with their thinking."

Tony Parsons

"Awakening is the realisation that there is no one."
[Tony Parsons]

Indra Devi

"I do not belong to any religion. Everything is between God and myself."

[Indra Devi - The "First Lady of Yoga,"]

TRANSITION
Indra Devi's Legacy
The "First Lady of Yoga," daughter of Russian nobility, teacher of the stars and national treasure of Argentina, passes away at age 102
By Adriana Aboy, Argentina
Indra Devi was one of the greatest spiritual propagators in the West. The simplicity of her methods and the charisma she used to transmit yoga were keys for reaching thousands of people. Her life spanned the entire Twentieth Century, and her influence was felt from India to Europe, from Hollywood to South America. Mataji, as she was known, passed away April 25, 2002, in Argentina, her home for the past 17 years, at the age of 102.
In February, 2002, Mataji suffered a stroke which paralyzed her right side. Her health worsened progressively until her heart stopped beating the twenty-fifth day of April. Since she taught that the soul needed three days to detach itself from the body, her devotees performed vigil for exactly that period of time. Prominent celebrities from the country came to pay their respects. "She was like a national treasure," the New York Times quoted one Argentina writer in its story on her passing. "It wasn't just yoga, she was known by the population at large." In accordance with Hindu tradition, her body was cremated and her ashes scattered in Río de la Plata, the immense "Silver River" that flows through Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Indra Devi was born in the Russia of the Czars, on May 12, 1899. She was the daughter of Alejandra Labunskaia, a member of the Russian nobility, and Vasili Peterson, of Swedish origin. Her parents baptized her Eugene Peterson according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. She lived through the bloody Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which brought the communists into power. She and her mother were able to leave the country in 1920. A trained actress and dancer, she became part of a theatrical troupe and toured all over Europe.
In 1927, attracted by India's culture and spirituality, specifically the teachings of J. Krishnamurthi, she decided to relocate on the subcontinent. Under the stage name Indra Devi, she became a rising star in Indian films, marrying the Czechoslovakian diplomat, Jan Strakaty, who was posted to India. In time, due to a cardiac illness, she started practicing yoga under the tutelage of Sri Krishnamacharya at the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore in South India. Some of the great exponents of yoga today were fellow students, including B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabi Jois. After experiencing a complete recovery, she was urged by her guru to teach yoga the first Western lady to do so in India. She befriended many, including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru. After some years, she accompanied her husband to China and there opened Shanghai's first yoga school—during the Japanese occupation—in the house of Madame Chiang Kaishek, wife of the nationalist leader.
After the end of World War II, Indra came back to India, where she wrote her first book. In 1947, her husband died and she moved to California and became the guide and teacher of several big Hollywood stars. In 1953 she married a renowned doctor and humanitarian from Los Angeles, Sigfrid Knauer, became an American citizen and changed her name legally to Indra Devi. Always wearing her trademark sari, she again set out to teach.
Indra Devi realized it wouldn't be easy to promote yoga in America. Fortuitously, she received the support of Elizabeth Arden, the well-known cosmetology expert who by then already had her famous and fabulously successful line of beauty products and spas. Elizabeth, one of America's wealthiest women, familiar with the virtues of yoga, soon became a follower and advocate of Indra Devi's yoga methods, incorporating them in her upscale health spa programs. This helped Americans learn about Indra Devi's work and open themselves to the ancient Hindu science. Shortly thereafter, noted and troubled actress Jennifer Jones arrived at Mataji's studio in Los Angeles. Recommended by her psychotherapist, she was in search of tranquility and peace. Indra Devi, also once an actress, felt an immediate empathy and through asanas and meditation was able to help her young disciple attain better equilibrium. That success quickly elevated Indra to the teacher of great stars of the day, such as Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson (one of her best friends), Ramón Novarro, Linda Christian and Robert Ryan.
During a visit to Moscow in 1960, Devi held a conference for Kremlin functionaries which led to the granting of legal status for the teaching of yoga in Russia. She traveled tirelessly around the world giving multiple conferences, aided by her fluency in five languages English, Spanish, Russian, French and German.
As with most yoga teachers, she did not directly promote Hinduism. She once said, "I do not belong to any religion. Everything is between God and myself." In 1966 she became a devotee of Satya Sai Baba and began calling her teachings "Sai Yoga."
Argentina would be the next chapter in her life. When Doctor Knauer, her second husband, passed away in 1984, Mataji was living in Sri Lanka. Despite being eighty years old, she felt she should continue her same intense teaching. Argentina became her choice, for when she first visited in 1982, in her own words, she "fell in love with the country and its people." According to a New York Times report, "Her popularity snowballed after a single television appearance." She settled in Buenos Aires.
As soon as she arrived in her new homeland, she was showered with invitations to conduct conferences throughout the country. She hardly grasped the phenomenon that was generated around her. Lecture halls had no room for all the people wanting to hear her words. She soon established a studio that was crowded with visitors, not only to attend classes, but also to see her, seeking comfort, looking for happiness, tenderness and hope.
In 1987, Francesca Baldi, who helped Mataji during her first days in Buenos Aires, could no longer continue as her aide. Indra Devi, who did not enjoy taking care of the organizational phase of her work, found a competent assistant in David Lifar, the husband of a dear disciple, Iana Lifar. With him by her side, she established the Fundacion Indra Devi (www.fundacion-indra-devi.org/), dedicated to promoting her teachings in the art of living healthy and in full. During the 15 years she lived in Buenos Aires, she continued to travel around the world spreading the wise principles of love, enlightenment and peace.
Indra Devi had the singular gift of reaching people's hearts. Many skeptics of Indra and her message completely changed their view shortly after meeting and listening to her. She respected those who shared her ideas and those who did not. By not imposing, the warmth of her presence and her sense of humor disarmed and convinced even the harshest of critics.
Esther Riskin of Buenos Aires said, "I don't know what would have happened to us without Mataji's yoga teaching. The various exercises really saved the life of my husband, who suffered from a serious depression and was on the verge of suicide. No one can imagine how lucky I feel after meeting Mataji and discovering yoga through her words."
A devotee from San Pedro said her presence in the city was so intense that he defined time as "before the coming of Mataji and after, at which point it was charged with enlightenment and love." She had the power to soften hardened hearts, as for one student who could never emotionally accept her daughter because she was born out of wedlock. After meditating with Mataji while listening to a tape of her teachings she opened her heart to the little girl.
Atencio Carlos Antonio Comodoro Rivadavia of Chubut said, "Her legacy, which transcended all kinds of frontiers, will always be present through the Indra Devi Foundation. In six major centers they run yoga courses for adults, children, youth, pregnant women, elderly, executives. They teach anti-stress techniques and they certify teachers. The Foundation helps the community by offering free classes, visiting prisons, and donating clothing and food to disadvantaged families. Thus the legacy of Indra Devi continues into the third century after her birth.
In Her Own Sweet Words
Gems from Mataji's gentle yogic teachings
We women must listen to our inner voice. It is easier for women to do this as they are not afraid to say what they feel. We must keep both our femininity and our strength. Men have to descend from their pedestal and learn how to be more broadminded and spiritual.
"A human being's full freedom is to find himself (i.e., be loyal to himself), with independence of judgment, thinking and being flexible and malleable in order to reach harmonization and mental peace. Freedom is living without chains. Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness.
"Women must not shout back when their husbands come home and shout at them for any reason. They must laugh and say, 'How nice the way you shout.' Laughter drives shouting away. Tell your husbands any bad news when everything is calm, not just as they come through the door.
"Yoga is an art and science of living. Yoga means union, in all its significances and dimensions. Through a certain amount of physical and mental disciplines we can learn how to stay healthy, alert, receptive and to improve our perception of the external world in order to feel internally harmonized, with a better life condition and spiritual balance.
"Movements in yoga are harmonious, slow, soft, plastic, relaxed, always conscious, and require a permanent and active mental participation. The whole work rests on the dialectic tension-relaxation. It's important to stimulate, turn elastic, tonify, to make oneself conscious of limbs, superficial and deep muscles, joints, and spine, achieving a gradual and progressive limb decontraction, loosening and relaxation.
"Nonviolence is one of the keys of yoga, and we should begin it by ourselves. Learning to recognize and respect our own peculiar rhythm and working on that base is essential.
"Try this visualization: Look at the sky and at the stars. Choose one, the one you like the most. You want that star to guide you, it's so pretty! Looking at that star, you would like it to get down. Then you think on really getting this star down as much as possible, going more and more down and down, until you feel it on your chest, disappearing in your heart, and your entire being fills with joy because this is the day in which a star got into your heart and stayed to live there. Now you realize you need to change many things in your daily life for it to stay there; otherwise, it will slowly go away, leaving a huge empty space. Suddenly you feel so happy, knowing you've got a light in your heart which can get bigger and bigger, shining through our eyes, deeds, words and thoughts. We realize we'll never be alone anymore. We've got our own daylight to get bad thoughts away, and we talk with that light—our star in our heart. We take away what's unimportant. If it's the divine will, we ask it to guide us to what we have divine and eternal in this life and in the next one. And let the light in the heart carry us."