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Sudha Murthy, Author, Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation.

What does spirituality mean to you?

To live by my own conscience. I can yell you any kind of lie or truth but inside I know what the truth is. I constantly check myself to see if I do the right thing. That is spirituality to me. At times people may feel I am rude as I always say what I think when I think it, but at least my conscience is clear, and I can have a good sleep at night.

Do you believe you are guided and protected by a superior force?

In the day to day life, I do not ask for guidance or protection, for special benefits, asking God to help me getting this or that. But at times of crisis I pray. I tell God I do not know what to do, I am at a crossroads and I do not know where to go --- so please guide me. And I guess I have indeed found the guidance at each of those crossroads and He has shown me the path.

Do you believe you have a special mission or purpose in this life?

When I was young, I used to believe there is no such thing as a predetermined destiny. Destiny is in your hands and it is all up to you, you gain or lose according to what you do or don’t. But as I am getting older and as I have seen much of life and human beings, I have understood how much in life actually does not depend on us. You can have for instance all the wealth in the world, but when illness strikes, it won’t really help. So the only thing you can do is try your best. As far as I am concerned, I feel a certain kind of wealth was given to me ---not materially speakingl--- for a particular reason, and I have to both honor and fulfill that reason. Among others, it has to do with books. I always knew I would write. My parents encouraged me to read. My mother used to buy me books for my birthday. My grand-mother would tell me so many stories, maybe ten thousand verbal stories from her village. And I used to write very good essays in school. So writing was always part of me. When it comes to children, if you just tell them to speak the truth and so on, they will not understand. But if you wrap it into a story, they will. So in my stories, the cheater always gets defeated, bad behavior always gets punished. And hopefully the message gets through…

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