Was there much religiosity in your childhood?
We attended my mother’s puja every day. And I would sit with her Guru also. But I rejected over time all the forms of superstition it involved. I would go to temples at times and felt pulled by them but definitely not by ritual processes. I would go to Vivakananda’s temple, almost Protestant in its bare simplicity with no idols, no priest, no flowers, no bell, no chanting, only a huge prayer room and a replica of Ramakrishna. And then I would go to the other side of the river to Ramakrishna’s temple, most traditional with its rituals and idols --- yet with no priests.

You mentioned the existence of a force, is it also a protective and guiding one?
Anything that my rational mind cannot explain does not appeal to me. So the idea of an external protective or guiding force does not talk to me. It is enough for me to think of an inner force, and the interconnectedness that advaita Vedanta describes. Despite being this extremely minute piece of energy in the universe, there is no reason not to use it to leave a mark.

How then are you leaving that mark?
The consistency in my life has been the karma yogic dimension which some people call workaholism. But I never did it for money. I still make very little of it. And that part is actually not that logical. I do assume that humans make rational judgments based on their circumstances and if so many people seek wealth and higher standards of living, you could argue that it is the most rational and logical choice to do so. But despite thinking of myself as a very logical being, I have not been pursuing that route. I have always been disconnected from material things. And even though some people think that everybody is purchasable, that it is only a matter of price, I have proven not to put material rewards as my primary goal. Instead, what always mattered to me has been policy change, liberalisation, calibrated globalisation. I have had a very deep commitment to pluralistic democracy and a long passion for economic change, as much as for social change. My wife says I am the most committed pro-market, pro private enterprise socialist. Somewhere, inequality, large differences don’t make me feel good. I wonder why they are so. And obviously it’s about opportunity and the need for our society to present the right opportunities to the poor. Wanting a nation with equal opportunity over time is what drives me. Therefore, another passion of mine is enterprise. The poor are actually the most enterprising. They have to do the biggest adjustments, raising resources to survive in the most novel ways.

... contd.