Meeting the PM: A Heartwarming Interaction

In December 2025, we requested a meeting with the Honourable Prime Minister, mainly to invite him to the grand culmination of the 75-year celebrations of the Chinmaya Movement at Bharat Mandapam in October 2026. In January 2026, the PMO reached out asking about the urgency of the appointment since our main programme was scheduled only in October 2026. They mentioned that they would try to arrange for a meeting sometime in March. Interestingly, March was also when I had planned my Antarctica Yatra. While I was on the White Continent, I would occasionally wonder if the PMO might revert with a date while I was still away. On my last day in Antarctica, I received a message from the PMO, asking if it would be convenient for me to meet the Prime Minister on 19th March 2026.Swami Swaroopananda was also very happy that the appointment had come through before he flew abroad. After nearly 29 hours of travel, I reached New Delhi via London at 2 am on the 19th and the meeting was scheduled for 11:30 am the same morning.Meeting the Prime Minister was truly a beautiful experience. During our 20-minute conversation, he radiated the same warmth I had experienced years ago when I first met him as the Chief Minister of Gujarat—and today he is a global leader.He was particularly delighted to hear that I had travelled all the way from the South Pole region, flying nearly 29 hours to reach New Delhi in time for this meeting. His affection and genuine interest were evident as we spoke about our initiatives. (Just look at the picture—his eyes and smile say it all.)I shared about the Chinmaya Amrit Yatra, wherein a group of Chinmaya Yuva Kendra youngsters are travelling across Bharat for 300 days by road, covering nearly 35,000 kilometres, spreading the message of the Gita. His face lit up when he heard that one of the cars in the Yatra consisted of an all-girls team. He said he would meet them in October.With great pride, Modiji mentioned that he presents the Bhagavad Gita to many foreign dignitaries that he meets. He also suggested that perhaps a library and research centre could be created, where all commentaries on the Gita could be preserved in one place, along with hostel facilities for scholars. I suggested that Kurukshetra would be a befitting place for such a centre..Serendipitously, the thought of such a centre comes from a Rajarishi of this era—and that too during the 75th year of Chinmaya Mission, an organisation deeply committed to spreading the message of the Gita. Hopefully, this vision and sankalp will soon become a reality.He graciously hinted at attending our grand celebration in October. He then made a very endearing, almost child-like request—if we could find a photograph of him meeting Gurudev in Baroda in 1993. An extensive search for that precious photograph is now underway. He was extremely receptive to our suggestions for two possible topics for his Mann Ki Baat talks:Rivaan Dev, a child prodigy racer and a fourth-generation devotee of Chinmaya Mission.The Hindu temple in Punta Arenas, the last piece of land before the seventh continent. During this meeting, the Gita Musical Album in Hindi with music rendered by the maestro, Ilaiyaraaja, was released. The Prime Minister’s immediate question was whether this album too had AI-generated images, as the earlier Gita album in Tamil. In all the million things on his mind, he remembered that we had created images using AI for the Tamil version of the Gita, which he had found impressive.He then shared his experience from a village, where he saw some people listening to bhajans, dancing, jumping and entering a state of devotional ecstasy. To his mind, this was bhakti yoga, and it was important to encourage ‘bhajan clubbing’. Imagine his delight when we shared that we have already started Gita Clubbing and the first three chapters are ready. He requested that we send them to him.The meeting was filled with warmth and light moments. Swami Swaroopananda mentioned that he had been waiting to meet the Prime Minister. Smiling and pointing towards me, the Prime Minister responded, “But we have been meeting each other often.” I felt happy and touched that he remembered our earlier interactions. Returning from Antarctica on Ugadi and meeting the Prime Minister on the very same day truly felt like the perfect ending to the Yatra. It made the day feel deeply special, and the Yatra felt poornam.

Meeting the PM: A Heartwarming Interaction

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