Hindus

"Arnab: So you don't need to apologise for the '84 riots. If someone seeks an apology from you, will you give it? Your Prime Minister has apologised for the riots. Expressed deep regret. Will you do the same?"

"Rahul: All I'm saying is there is a difference between the 1984 riots and the Gujarat riots. The difference is that the government of the day in 1984 was not aiding and abetting the riots. That is all I'm saying."

"Rahul: Look. All I'm saying, all I'm saying is that there is a difference between the 1984 riots and the Gujarat riots. The simple difference is that in 1984 the government was not involved in the massacre of people. In Gujarat it was. The question is why do these kind of things take place. Why is it that the Gujarat riots took place? The Gujarat riots took place frankly because of the way our system is structured, because of the fact that people do not have a voice in the system. And what I want to do. And I have said it and I will say it again. What I want to do is question the fundamentals over here. What I want to do is ask a couple of questions. I want to ask why candidates that are chosen in every single party are chosen by a tiny number of people. I want to ask why women have to be scared to go out on the street. I want to ask these questions. These are fundamental questions."

"Rahul : I am saying that there was difference between the 1984 riots and the riots in Gujarat. The difference was that the Government in 1984 was trying to stop the riots, trying to stop the killing whereas the Government in Gujarat was allowing the riots to happen."

"Rahul : The difference between the 84 riots and the riots in Gujarat was that in 1984 the Government was trying to stop the riots. I remember, I was a child then, I remember the Government was doing everything it could to stop the riots. In Gujarat the opposite was the case. The Government in Gujarat was actually abetting and pushing the riots further. So there is a huge difference between the two things, saying that innocent people dying is absolutely wrong"

"Rahul : The fact of the matter is that innocent people died in 1984 and innocent people dying is a horrible thing and should not happen. The difference between Gujarat and 1984 was that the Government of Gujarat was involved in the riots"

"I would not have been here if I was not from a political family."

"Politics is everywhere. It’s in your shirt, it’s in your pants. It’s everywhere."

"Every situation that Indian person finds himself in is extremely complex. We have to deal with the red lights. As young leaders here have to deal with senior leaders, suddenly someone disrupts your entire life. Everything happens, sort of, according to your karma; it’s all random."

"If you go back a hundred, two hundred years, you would find that India is energy; it is a force. If you go back a thousand years, two thousand years, you would find that force came from our rivers: Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati. We worshiped these rivers and the reason we worshiped these rivers was because that is where our energy came from, and everything we had was built on these rivers. Now, we have gone way beyond that. We have built structures that are allowing this energy to rise, to explode."

"We have to provide the roads on which our dreams are paved. And these roads can’t have potholes, they can’t break down in six months. They have to be big roads because they are going to carry strong people, they are going to carry strong forces."

"See, there is a tendency to look at India as a country."

"China is referred to as the ‘dragon’ and India as an ‘elephant’. But we are not an elephant, we are a ‘beehive’."

"If India is computer, Congress is its default program."

"Ambedkar was the first person to attain escape velocity and run away to US."

"Poverty is a state of mind."

"In India, we have a concept of caste. It has a concept of escape velocity. If one belongs to a backward caste and wants to attain success then one needs an escape velocity to attain that success. Dalits in this country need the escape velocity of Jupiter to attain success."

"There are people doing yoga in New York, dancing around, that’s the power of India. You go to a nightclub somewhere in Spain and there’s Amitabh Bachchan on the screen there, dancing around. That’s the power of India. That’s the power of Indian people."

"India is the Saudi Arabia of human resources for the 21st century. The power that we used to get from oil in 20th century, we will get it from people like you in 21st century."

"What is happening to human resources in Punjab. 7 out of 10 youth have the problem of drugs."

"(After terrorist attacks in Mumbai) Terrorism is impossible to be stopped at all time. We will stop 99% of the attacks; 1% of the attacks will get through. You feel US has stopped all terrorist attacks? US is currently involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, where there are attacks every single day. On them. Not in US, but on them. The war has moved."

"It is one bathroom lesson I haven’t forgotten. That is the arrogance you have to deal with. When I take life this way, I stop thinking that the other guy is a joker. I realise I am the joker."

"I don’t ask questions in Parliament because I like to think things through. Just look around at the questions that are asked in Parliament, and you’ll know why I don’t ask questions. I mean look at them. Is that the kind of stuff you want me to ask?"

"There is fear of failure here. People keep saying what if this goes wrong, what if that doesn’t work. Every time I want to do something, there is this fear that it may go wrong. It comes up each time."

"People keep saying I am shy. Oh, he’s so shy. The media says it all the time. I am not at all shy. I am not reluctant. I am an extrovert. I am like that all the time. You can ask my friends. I am the one who talks the most."

"My personality is made. I am done. There is nothing more to be made of me. I am what I am."

"I have little interest in cricket. People are crazy about cricket and we feel happy when our country wins. The names of Hanif Mohammad, Imran Khan, Shoaib Akhtar all come to my mind once I think about cricket. These are legends of Pakistani cricket. 2"

"It is the virtue of God, the Parmatma, the creator to do justice and we as judges merely act as his agents. I always seek guidance from the creator so that we do not make a wrong judgment. We act without favour or fear, ill will or affection. For me it makes no difference."

"Don't puzzle the mind with too many inquiries. One finds it difficult to put one single thing into practising, but dares invite distraction by filling the mind with too many things."

"As clouds are blown away by the wind, the thirst for material pleasures will be driven away by the utterance of the Lord's name."

"The mind is everything. It is in the mind alone that one feels pure and impure. A man, first of all, must make his own mind guilty and then alone can he see another man's guilt."

"What else does one obtain by realization of God? Does one grow two horns? No, the mind becomes pure, and through a pure mind one attains knowledge and awakening."

"Everything depends on the mind. Nothing can be achieved without purity of mind. It is said, "The aspirant may have received the grace of the guru, the Lord and the Vaishnavas; but he comes to grief without the grace of 'one' ". That 'one' is the mind. The mind of the aspirant should be gracious to him."

"The goal of life is to realize God and to be always immersed in thought in Him."

"First offer to God whatever you eat. One must not eat unoffered food. As your food is, so will be your blood. From pure food you get pure blood, pure mind, and strength. Pure mind begets ecstatic love (prema-bhakti)."

"You can practise pranayama a little, but not much, otherwise the brain will get heated. If the mind becomes calm of itself, what is then the necessity of practising pranayama? The practise of pranayama and asana often brings occult powers, and occult powers lead one astray."

"An unmarried person is half free whether he prays to God or not. He will advance towards Him with rapid strides when he feel a little drawn towards Him."

"Many take the name of God after receiving blows in life. But he who can offer his mind like a flower at the feet of the Lord right up from childhood is indeed blessed."

"Ordinary human love results in misery. Love for God brings blessedness."

"You should work, no doubt. Work saves the mind from going astray. But prayer and meditation also are necessary. You must sit for meditation at least once in the morning and once in the evening. That will be like the helm of a boat. When one sits in meditation in the evening, there is self-examination in respect of the work done in the course of the day."

"One cannot escape from the effects of one's past karma. But if a person lives a prayerful life, he gets off with only the prick of a thorn in the leg where he was to suffer from a deep cut."

"Practise meditation, and by and by your mind will be so calm and fixed that you will find it hard to keep away from meditation."

"The mantra purifies the body. Man becomes pure by repeating the name of God. So repeat His name always."

"The conjunction of the day and the night is the most auspicious time for calling on God. The mind remains pure at this time."

"If you do not pray to God, what is that to Him? It is only your misfortune."

"Whether you jump into water or are pushed into it, your cloth will get drenched. Is it not so? Meditate every day, as your mind is yet immature. Constant meditation will make the mind one-pointed."

"The difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play."

"Do you notice this human body? Today it is and tomorrow it is not. And the world is full of misery and pain. Why should one be eager to have another birth? The body is never free from its attendant troubles."

"In one word, one should desire of God desirelessness. For desire alone is at the root of all suffering. It is the cause of repeated births and deaths. It is the obstacle in the way of liberation."

"It is best therefore to surrender all desires at the feet of God. He will do whatever is best for us. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These cannot be classed as desires."