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Maneka Gandhi is a politician, animal rights activist and environmentalist

What does spirituality mean to you?
It is what allows me to find satisfaction from within, rather than needing reaffirmation from without. It brings the realisation that I own nothing yet everything is mine—the air, the earth, trees, animals, you. For me, the essence of spirituality is the ability to recognise the oneness of all life. I know why I have been put on earth and I know I am protected by all the gods that reside in each stone and ant. So I feel no fear at all.

What do you mean by “the gods”?
All the live energies that exist in every animate and inanimate creation. Do you think I would have come through such a life of turbulence with all my values intact if I were not protected by them?

So is there such a thing as a guiding or protective force in your life?
I have felt blessed and protected all my life, with my mother intensely protected by the gods, with a guru constantly accompanying me, with leaves, grass, air and animals caressing me — all this protects me.
Besides, I have been given the greatest gift of all —the inability to recognise any form of danger until I am past it. I look back at my life and see lots of really frightening bits. I wonder how I came through them, without even recognising them, or consciously navigating them. I simply bathed in them like one does in the ocean and when the waves reached the shore, I came out.

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