I came in contact with the RSS in 1939 through Arya Kumar Sabha, a youth branch of Arya Samaj, in Gwalior-then a princely state which was not part of any province. I came from a strong ‘sanatani’ family. But I used to be at the weekly ‘satsang’ of Arya Kumar Sabha.
Once Shri Bhoodev Shastri who was a senior worker of Arya kumar Sabha, and a great thinker and an expert organiser, asked us: “What do you do in the evenings?” “Nothing”, we said, because the Arya Kumar Sabha used to meet in the morning on every Sunday. Then he recommended us to go to the shakha. Thus I started going to the Shakha in Gwalior.
It was my first association with the RSS. At that time the shakha in Gwalior had just begun. It had only Maharashtrian boys, and naturally all the swayamsevaks used to speak only Marathi.
I started going to the shakha regularly. I liked the games played in the shakha as well as the weekly ‘bauddhiks’ (intellectual discourses). A pracharak, Shri Narayanrao Tarte had come from Nagpur to start the shakha.
He was indeed a superb human being; a very simple man, a thinker and an expert organiser. What I am today is the making of Shri Tarte. Next to him I was inspired by Deendayal Upadhyaya and Bhaurao Deoras.
Gwalior was then not within the field of Bhauraoji. But once he had come to Gwalior with Shri Balasaheb Apte who was the then Bauddhik Pramukh. Apteji was very soft-spoken.
We were soon drawn towards him. I had talked with him for only a few minutes. But the.