The youth of our country listening to you would be definitely inspired by knowing how you were able to maintain a balance between the two. Please tell us more about this.
A great part of my childhood was spent in the company of the wise and the elders of my family. Now the latter part of my life is being spent with children ( laughter ).
When I was young, I never used to have much interest in sports like cricket, etc. I used to force myself to take interest in games but used to find it quite meaningless most of the times. But I used to really like sitting with wise elders and asking them questions. I was surrounded by wise elders most of the time. My teacher, Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi Ji, was a very close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He had spent many years with Gandhi Ji. He was the one who taught the Bhagavad Gita to Mahatma Gandhi. He even spent time with Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) in the Yerwada Jail when Kasturba Ji (wife of Mahatma Gandhi) was breathing her last.
My teacher used to narrate many stories to me from the Vedas, Puranas and the Upanishads. In those days there was no television and the radio used to be on air for a very short time during the day. There was nothing else other than that for entertainment. There used to be musical gatherings for classical music on festivals such as Ram Navami , and during Navratri . I used to take a lot of interest in music and entertainment.