BJP chief L K Advani today declared that it was his association with the RSS from the age of 14 that was central in developing his character, in making him the man he was. He was speaking on the importance of samskara, while releasing a book on the subject at his residence this evening.
Advani’s reference to his long association with the RSS is nothing new but assumed significance in light of the strain that marked his relations with this ideological alma mater following his visit to Pakistan. The RSS openly criticised his remarks on Jinnah and sought a retraction. When Advani refused to oblige, the RSS let it be known that it wanted him to step down as BJP chief.
A truce of sorts was reached on July 17 when Advani went to meet RSS leaders at the Sangh headquarters in Delhi, following which the BJP’s scheduled national executive meeting was postponed from the third week of July to mid-September. Since then, there has been no overt ‘‘provocation’’ from either side, with both Advani and his detractors maintaining a careful silence.
Today’s comment on the RSS, too, was tangential and made in the context of the book being released. Authored by Madhya Pradesh-based RSS activist Anil Madhav Dave, the book entitled Srijan Se Visarjan Tak elaborates on the ‘‘16 samskaras’’ (or rites of passage) from birth to death.
Advani said Sanskrit words such as ‘‘dharma’’ and ‘‘samskara’’ were untranslatable. ‘‘Dharma’’ was not religion and ‘‘samskara’’ was not just rites. Although the Oxford Hindi-English dictionary described ‘samskara’ as ‘‘any of the various essential sanctifying or purificatory rites’’, the word had a far greater resonance in Indian culture.
Advani then quoted Swami Vivekananda who wrote: ‘‘Each work we do, each thought we think produces an impression, called ‘samskara’ in Sanskrit, upon the mind and the sum total of these impressions becomes the tremendous force called ‘character’.’’
The BJP chief went on to say that
had he not joined the RSS at the age of 14 and had he not associated with
‘‘great men’’ such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Jayaprakash Narayan, he
would not have imbibed the ‘samskara’ he did nor become the man he was.