Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani, who underwent a crisis of a lifetime after he called Mohammed Ali Jinnah a secular leader in Pakistan, said though he had read out the same speech of Jinnah (August 11, 1947) in New Delhi in February 2005 while releasing a book relating to Pakistan not a single newspaper noticed the comment or thought it fit to make headlines.
Advani's comments came after he released a book on the Bhagavad Gita on Wednesday in New Delhi.
"I was to release the book on the Bhagavad Gita by General Kochal on June 9, but because of the developments that were unfolding following my visit to Pakistan the function had to be rescheduled. The Bhagavad Gita is one of those rare books that is not touched by the tide of time," Advani said.
"It never loses its relevance or its lustre. Rather, in each new age, people dip into it for answers to the challenges and concerns of their time and they are never disappointed. The holy book has great relevance for me. Particularly for the period that I am going through now. The Gita tells you that escapism is detrimental to any great achievement," Advani said.
He recalled his trip to Pakistan and said that he was taken to a place where Yudhishtir had to reply to the questions of Yaksha before drinking water. His four brothers were so thirsty that they could not wait to reply to the questions and had been rendered senseless by Yaksha.
"It was a privilege to be there," Advani said.
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi he said that the Gita is a universal mother. "'She turns nobody away. Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks. A true votary of the Gita does not know what disappointment is,' Gandhiji wrote," Advani said.
He recalled how Shaheed Bhagat Singh used to keep the Gita with him even when he was in jail.
Incidentally, Advani released the book on the Bhagavad Gita on the same day when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad demanded that the Gita should be declared the national book.
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