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Vinod Rai is comptroller and auditor-general of India

What does spirituality mean to you?
It is peace, inner peace. It is not something I show to the outside world. It is about coming to terms with myself.

How do you go about achieving it?
There are constant turbulences in one’s daily life, whether at the professional, personal, or physical level. Our old dog just died for instance and of course it upsets me very much. So in some way or another, my mind and heart are constantly being disturbed, whereas I yearn for equilibrium, for equanimity.

Playing lots of games, doing yoga and the meditations it involves brings me peace, especially as I visualize sitting on a stream, listening to the sound of the water running by. I love nature, I love trekking in the mountains, I am an outdoors person.
Also, I go once a week to the temple, where I ask for peace and somehow centre myself. I am not very religious, but I believe in God, in the Almighty, I feel there is a destiny and that somebody is guiding that destiny.

What do you mean by destiny?
I do not believe all is written in stone. You carve your own destiny with your deeds. But certain things are given without your involvement, like the circumstances of your birth. The fact that I was born in a well-off family was part of my destiny. I could have squandered that wealth, or used it to get myself an education at Harvard for instance. I chose the latter. That was my choice and doing.
Also, at times in life I have definitely felt things happened not by virtue of being the most deserving but by being at the right place, at the right time, which is also about destiny.

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