At such times of challenges, where do you find the energy, where is your anchor?
First of all, I have always had tremendous faith in myself. I am willing to suffer and I will not compromise as far as the basics are concerned. I had running battles with Ministers and all sorts of officials.
During the Janta government for instance, my house was raided, my phones were bugged, I had so many inquiries against me, I was to be abruptly transferred and I faced all this, knowing I had done nothing wrong. Two things sustained me: the firm belief that this cannot last for long. Ultimately I will be vindicated, ultimately good triumphs. And I have to say, it did --- I was vindicated. Secondly, I took recourse to reading the Gita: “do your duty regardless of the consequences” --- that has been my guiding principle throughout life, as a karam yogi.
Some people had falsely deposed against me. But I did not harbour hate against them and when I was later on in a position to take revenge, I did not do so. I could have crushed them. But I thought it was simply human frailty, they had deposed against me to save themselves.

In that context, do you feel there is such a thing as destiny?
I believe in destiny in the sense that there is some power above protecting me. I first got a sense of that in 1958, with a simple incident that could have been fatal. I was then posted in Punjab. I had acquired a gun and was playing with it thinking it was not loaded, I pushed the trigger on my temple and suddenly a bullet fell down from the magazine. People would have wondered why I had committed suicide…
Later on, I went next to a waterfall and fell into the water, five feet away from it, I hit a boulder, which got me stuck and saved me, until people managed to come and rescue me. Again I was saved…

... contd.