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Ambika Soni is minister in charge of information and broadcasting

What does spirituality mean to you?
Spirituality is about my faith in the divine, in that super power which is the Creator of the universe, which governs every human action; but without a religious connotation.
Spirituality is about seeking, about a quest to raise myself and my level as a human being. In that, one is governed by that power, which I constantly feel, though I have not given it a name. It is like a friend, always present by my side. Whenever I face a tricky situation, and that is not rare, I just talk to it. If something is bugging me and I go down the lift to my car, I will tell it: “come on, what is going on?”
To be friends and continue to have that guidance and dialogue is my spiritual path. It is actually the purest dialogue and the purest relationship I have. And I have had it for so many years.

Since childhood?
Maybe I learnt it then indeed. I got all my values from my parents, especially from my father who was a scholar of the Gita. He was an ICS officer and ended up his career as Governor of Goa. He had his ups and downs. He was there during Partition. Yet when he retired, he would do his own work, pay his bills, he lived his religion in all humility. He was not religious in the sense of attending temples or doing rituals at home. He only had a photograph of Krishna and would stand in front of it for a couple of minutes every morning. In the evening, he would walk for an hour and a quarter, because it took him precisely that time to recite the 18 chapters of the Gita.

He always had some anecdote from the scriptures to answer any of my queries. So I grew up in an atmosphere where there were rational explanations to most of the experiences we go through life, and which may seem illogical or painful at first sight. It gave me the mental courage to feel that whatever comes, comes from God, good or bad. And if He is your friend in good moments, He is your friend in difficult times as well.
On the overall, I grew up in a liberal thinking environment. And I never allowed any religion to bind or define me. Long ago, when we had to declare our religion on certain forms, I would never fill that column. I always felt, how could any religion be big enough? How can we be confined to one name? All religions have a common tread larger than any one of them. I was born in a Hindu family, there are strains of Sikh religion in our family, and I attended a Christian school. I am also very attracted to Buddhism. But I do not feel like being bound by any particular religion.

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