Questioner: Sir, when you were growing up, is there any special memory, or any time you realized and had this aspiration to become, or go on the spiritual path? Is there something interesting related to your life, from your childhood, that you want us to know?
Acharya Prashant: First of all, I was a studious child. So, very ordinary and common sources, such as the textbooks, the school textbooks, they held a lot of meaning for me. I would try to go deep into what the books wanted to tell me. So, obviously, there was science, there was math, there were languages, but then there were also social studies, history, and civics. Those introductions were quite significant to me. And then, you see, I was born in 1978. So, at the age of 5 or 6, I got to read about ‘Operation Blue Star’. It was all over the papers. And I was at Rudrapur, Tarai at that time. So, the ripples from Delhi and Punjab would reach that place as well. My father was an avid reader. He still is. So, he would read about Bhindranwale. And I was curious, I would ask him. Then, there was the ‘Blue Star’ thing, and Mrs Gandhi's subsequent assassination. I was just six, and I still have a vivid memory of the entire nation mourning the loss. We saw the funeral on TV. And, on the impressionable mind of a six-year-old, all those things had quite an impact.
And, when I say, of the TV, just before that thing happened, I also saw Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go to space. Then Rajiv Gandhi came over. Then, there was the Shah Bano Case. And then it resulted in the entire Ayodhya Movement. Before 92, there was 90, and I was in Lucknow at that time. Video cassettes of the police firing that happened upon the Kar Sevaks in Ayodhya, were being circulated. One of the cassettes—it was a newsreel—reached my home as well. And the atmosphere was all quite charged up. We looked at it, and I had several questions. Lucknow, as you know, is very close to Faizabad and Ayodhya. And then, in 92, there would be conches blaring through the night, and processions, and shutdowns. Then, between 90 and 92, there was the Mandal Commission Report that was implemented by V.P. Singh's government. And again, being in Lucknow, I saw and experienced firsthand the entire aftermath. So, the first self-immolation had taken place in Lucknow, and I was what, 12 or 13 at that time. So, all that made quite a mark.
