In my recent trip to India, I received the gift of meeting a man who hung out with Gandhi on my last day in New Delhi. I recorded several video interviews, and finally finished translating one of them, which can be watched below. I picked this one in particular due to its relevance to our present times. It reminded me of Scott Fitzgerald's quote, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." In the interview, I saw Nrityendranath Sarkar remarkably at ease talking about two totally opposed ideas, without a trace of favor for one over the other, and yet without indifference either. In fact, I would even use the term "reverence" toward each of the opposing ideas. 
 
There is another reason for picking this interview. There has been no prior historical document of an interaction between Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda. Sarkar uncle talks lucidly with details on how the paths of the two crossed, and how Gandhi had been supported by Vivekananda. 

Here is some context to help people appreciate the interview. In it, Sarkar uncle refers to three stalwarts and their interaction with Gandhi. Chittaranjan Das was a leading figure in the early Indian freedom movement, popularly called Deshbandhu (friend of the country). Like Gandhi, he was a firm believer in nonviolence and chose the constitutional path of protest. Like Gandhi, he was also a lawyer. He was a president of the Indian National Congress. The two were great friends, but also had differences on strategy. Swami Vivekananda was a monk who brought Vedanta and Yoga to the west in the first World Parliament of Religions in 1893. Rabindranath Tagore was a polymath - poet, philosopher, rationalist, artist, etc., India's first Nobel Laureate in 1913 (in Literature). They all had very different paths, and Sarkar Uncle shares beautiful stories of how their paths intersected with Gandhi. 

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