Baba Meets the President of India

On 3rd of April 2007, Sri Sri Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari, meets the Hon’ble President of India, H.E.Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi at 5-30 pm.


Baba is taken through the long corridors of the Rashtrapati Bhavan with hundreds of presidential guards standing on either side, honoring the protocol of a distinguished guest of honor.

At the corner of a large room in the Presidential Palace, Baba sees a small table, behind which is a man looking at a computer monitor, lost in his own world.  As Baba approaches, the man comes out of the trance and stands, does Namaskar, which Baba reciprocates with a smile.  Both take their seats, face to face. The President reviews the letter that Baba had written to him seeking his time for an informal meeting. He mumbles reading the last few words “breathe health, breathe healing, breathe peace”. He looks up at Baba again with an innocent smile, his hair almost covering his sparkling eyes.

President:  There is so much stress all over the world. What do you think is the reason? Is it all about money, business…?

Baba: I need to express my profound sense of gratitude for creating this beautiful evening for both of us. I adore you in my heart as one of the most illustrious sons of Mother India in the post independence era. In you I see the blend of the East and West, Science and Spirituality. I am humbled to feel your presence, your warmth and love. Thank you so much for this time together.

Where ever I go, I talk about the Pause. I share a very simple realization of my life which I learned from Mother Nature, that there is a Pause in everything that is. Let us watch our breath for a while. [They breathe silently together for a moment.]  After each inhalation and exhalation there is a pause at both ends. If we listen to the rhythm of our heartbeats, we will find the pause between the beats. If we meditate on our own thoughts for a while, we will see that there is a gap between the thoughts. This gap, this space, this pause, what ever we call it, is the nature of Nature. It is all over the Universe.

Like all other manifested species of life man is not only part of nature but is nature. But while every other species flows with rhythm of Nature, man seems to be in a big hurry to move, to achieve, to do everything in a rush.  We forget to honor this simple law of nature, to Pause. Obsessed with doings, controlling, possessing, owning, the mind goes in a mode that is beyond one’s own control.

Stress breeds in the ground of unconsciousness. Men and women who reached to highest state of meditative mind have shown us the infinite powers of body-mind and spirit and the possibility of life with tremendous dynamism in the midst of an inner passivity.  We could all one be the greatest achievers, yet not stressed.

Technologically and academically, we are advancing but our skills of life management, our ability to balance between work and life is diminishing. We are loosing track of our purpose of life and our responsibility as humans to preserve Mother Earth and Her infinite gifts.

President, with a radiant smile of appreciation:  You are right. What do you think about the joint-family system in India and its relevance to the mounting stress?

Baba: Growing up in a larger family is such a blessing. We had that privilege in our childhood. The children of today are deprived of that. The biggest advantage of a joint family is that, there are always members in the family who are very supportive and loving. The elders always find time for their grandchildren, in one word there is time for each other. The values of the ancestors are kept alive. If any one is deeply stressed due to some reason, he or she can always find one or the other family member to whom he or she could confide, seek council, share, and find release and relief. Above everything, men women and children learn to live with problems and challenges, difficulties and distress, to face it all as a family. Happiness and unhappiness both are shared.

In the micro family system that we see to day, the values have changed, the objectives of life have changed with time.  At home there is so little time for each other. The children are worst hit in this system. Now they are continuously being goaded by the parents, to be the best. Children today no longer have the opportunity to listen to the folk tales of our heritage from their grandparents. They have computer games and no play. It is painful to hear about the stress related diseases increasing in leaps and bounds among school children. Very often they are victims of psychological problems of not being enough loved, which could be dangerous in later life. They lack the ideal model to follow.

President: What do you think?  Should we have our joint family system back in to our lives?

Baba: Yes, and No. Yes, because that is our heritage: to live together, to grow in togetherness and to learn the art of sharing with a larger family both our pain and happiness.

No, because, the time will not allow it to happen at this moment. Time demands that the collective psyche of the people of modern times go through the experience of the merits and demerits of the micro family. They dream of having power and control within the portals of their small family.  They have it now in abundance. They need to go through it all and realize that true strength is not in the power to control but in the power to share and to be patient. The soul flowers through sharing and patience.

I am sure, we in India, as a collective consciousness, need these experiences.  Through them, we will mature and grow out of our selfish desires for possessiveness, power and money, out of our materialistic intoxication, into a higher world within each on of us.  In that higher world, the One controls all and we live in harmony and peace with each other, sharing our common responsibilities, creating a world free of strife and stress, confusions and conflicts, vice and violence. That is the world that you always dream about and talk to the people of India about all the time, particularly to the children of India who adore you today as their Ideal of life.

The President seems to be very pleased with these words which flowed spontaneously from Baba. Baba had brought a collection of the books he has authored to give to the President.  He took ‘Your Mind, Your Best Friend’ out and smilingly gifted it to the President, saying, “It is my honor to gift you this book, which customarily has my name as the author, but I know it is authored by the Divine and it is His Divine gift. I will be honored if you read it when ever you have little time”. The President stands up and with humility and a smile, accepts the book. He sits back down on his seat and in a few seconds is absorbed in the contents of the book. He skips through the pages and then stops at one place, brings the book closer to his eyes, and then reads out “instead of controlling the mind, try to befriend your own mind”.

The President looks up to Baba and asks: Is this the message that you want to give through this book, is this the essence of the book?

(This is the depth and insightfulness of a great scholar and scientist who, within a few seconds, grasps the very essence.)

Baba responds: Precisely yes.

President:  I want to submit to you with all humility that ever since my childhood days, I was never comfortable with the idea of ‘controlling mind’. I have heard time and again, seen titles of the books as to how one can control the mind all over the world, but never felt happy with this concept. Who wants to be controlled? None. Then why should mind be happy to be controlled? The mind rebels when put under the pressure of control. I have a feeling that most of the stress and miseries of life come from our unconscious desire to control things to our way.

Baba:  The key is ‘befriending’. Instead of efforts to control, if we try to befriend our uncontrolled conditions of mind, a time comes when we can see the positive aura of the mind manifesting. Meditation is the art of befriending one’s own mind.

President: This book is very interesting. Do not give me the other books; I want to have this one. I will read this whole book and then write to you.

You know, books are very important. Good books can change lives. The world needs good persons like you, and good books like this.

Baba: Thank you so much, Sir.  It would be my greatest privilege to receive your words and feelings on this book.
I am a little embarrassed to ask something that is coming in my mind, can we have a photograph?

President: Oh! Yes.
He presses a bell, a man opens the doors and peeps through and he says, “Call the photographer”.

In a few seconds, a tall man with a camera walks in and takes the first shot with President and Baba. The President gets up from his chair, takes the book in his hands and says, ‘Now you will give the book to me and he will take the pictures’. He holds the book in his hands and the photographer takes 3 to 4 shots.

It is time to part.

In farewel, Baba says: I am grateful to you for your time, for your presence, for all that you gave me within this short span of time. I pray to God that He grants you good health, long life and more and more inspiration for humanity to shine forth from your radiant Spirit.

The President is all smiles, humility and joy.