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<strong>Fran&ccedil;ois Gautier</strong></p>
<p>
15th August is a magic date also for me: first it is Sri Aurobindo&rsquo;s birthday, my guru and the one who has guided me all my life.</p>
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Secondly, I started from Paris and drove to Delhi with a caravan of five cars, crossing eleven countries when I had just completed by 18th year.</p>
<p>
I spent my first night in the sri Aurobindo ashram, Delhi, where I will be actually today the 15th August 2021.</p>
<p>
There, I had a powerful inner experience: That there was an ancient, secret knowledge embedded in the very soil of this country, that would help me to discover &ndash; who am I? why life? Why death? &amp; so many secrets of the Divine Consciousness</p>
<p>
That I would spend all the rest of my life in India</p>
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That I would also spend it defending this Knowledge and this marvellous country, which adopted me from the first day</p>
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And this is what I did, first by writing articles in newspapers like the Hindustan Times, Blitz, The Indian Express (Ferengi&rsquo;s Column), Rediff.com etc.</p>
<p>
I then became an international journalist for major French newspapers such as Le Journal de Gen&egrave;ve or Le Figaro, always trying to defend India&rsquo;s point of view. I have interviewed 8 Prime Ministers of India.</p>
<p>
Then I came to books. My first editor was Sitaram Goel, a gentleman and a pioneer in defending Hindus &ndash; when it was not fashionable. He asked me to write a compilation of my articles. Since then I have written 30 books, both in English and French, mostly trying o correct the wrong depicting of Indian History, but also attempting to enlighten the French speaking people about pranayama, yoga or Ayurveda.</p>
<p>
But I felt that articles and books were not enough, as both have a limited life, in spite of the Internet. Thus I decided to build a museum, to depict Indian History as it happened &ndash; not as it has been written. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar gave our trust FACT, 5 acres of land near the Pune airport and this is where, my wife Namrita and I started building this Museum, thanks to the Natchiketa Award of Excellence in Journalism given to me in 2005 by PM Vajpayee, with a cheque of 50.000 Rs. First with a shrine, dedicated to Mother India, She who has guided me all along, in spite of all my faults. Then erecting building after building, designing exhibition after exhibition &ndash; first depicting tyrants as they were, such Aurangzeb or Tippu Sultan (according their own records); then glorifying heroes and heroines of India: Shivaji Mahjaraj of course &ndash; thanks to him, Indians from Mumbai to Kanyakumari, have a better preserved culture, more safety for their women, softer social environment; but also Maharana Pratap, the only Rajput who fought the Moghols (and actually defeated Akbar&rsquo;s army in Hadilghati), to Ahilyabai Holkar, Tarabai or Rani Kittur Chennama, glorious queens who incarnated the Shakti&rsquo;s eternal power of India. We also have exhibitions on the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, or the four ashramas of life.</p>
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So on this 15th August 2021, I render homage and bow down to Mother India.</p>
<p>
Namaste</p>
<p>
<strong>Read More: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/culture-news/an-entirely-new-history-of-india-72265.html">An Entirely New History of India</a></strong></p>
<p>
<strong>Read More: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/culture-news/in-defence-of-the-vedas-a-powerful-force-to-decolonise-the-mind-100380.html">In defence of the Vedas&mdash;a powerful force to decolonise the mind, Francois Gautier</a></strong></p>
<p>
<em>(The article was first published in Francois Gautier&rsquo;s official blog and has been republished with permission. Views expressed are personal)</em></p>
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