At the age of 36, Prashant Rajore, an IIT graduate, took up the Art of Living full time. Now known as Swami Pragyapad, he has been an AOL member for 13 years and is one of the senior teachers of the foundation.
Swami Pragyapad is now spearheading a campaign among citizens to go out and 'Vote for a Change'. He tells rediff.com's Nithya Ramani why he decided to embark on this campaign.
Why did you decide to launch this campaign?
The thought came up after the 26/11 terror attacks. I felt it was important for people to practice their franchise. It is important that they realise that voting is important and one can bring about a change by voting.
AOL teaches that one should be also concerned about the society and making free of corruption and terrorism.
Both spirituality and politics deal with human beings. A politics devoid of spirituality is infested with corruption and creates an unethical atmosphere for people. Politics without ethics and human values would result in chaos, crime and corruption.
The goal of politics is to bring good governance and increase emotional and physical comfort of people. The aim of spirituality is to boost morality and human values. Both politics and spirituality need to go hand in hand.
Keeping this in mind, I spoke to people about this campaign during my courses and like minded people -- who had similar interests about the society -- joined together and started this movement. It grew bigger with word of mouth and now even non-AOL members are instrumental in this movement.
During the terror attacks, people were angry and frustrated and decided against voting. They thought casting a null vote would bring about a change, while nothing called a null vote exists.
What they do not understand is that every vote counts and every citizen must go out and vote if they need a change. When spirituality and politics don't co-exist, then you have corrupt politicians and pseudo-religious leaders. I truly believe that a government that is so concerned about their own security will never be concerned about the national security.
Everyone wants change but nobody knows how. Since nobody has a direction they start turning their backs. This takes them further away from the change they want. By this campaign, we are only trying to tell people that it is very important for everyone to vote. If they want a change then they should bring about the change.
What is the kind of response you have received for this campaign?
I don't know. I made an effort to bring about a change and if people change now, they will make a difference too, or a day will come when they will have to change. It is physically and humanly not possible for one to change the entire system. I haven't gone out on field to run the campaign.
But papers say that bogus voting has reduced. Many people have gone out and voted. The percentage of voting has increased.
Did you come across any indifferent behaviour from people, criticism or lack of interest?
A movement should be started and it will take decades to get results but that should not stop us from making an effort now. Ultimately we might not reap the seeds that we sow now but the forthcoming generations will experience the difference.
If people don't want to cast their votes, it is their choice but they should also be ready to face situations tomorrow and take responsibility for not voting.
What are the other campaigns that you have conducted to bring about a change?
We go to villages and conduct courses for villagers about human values, health and hygiene, water conservation and how love can change the world. The most important village I keep talking about is Kapsi because that was the first village we went to and campaigned. We conducted workshops there and about 90 percent of people have given up alcohol there.
