Father Arvind on Cheteshwar Pujara: ‘His mother taught him, truth was god’

Cheteshwar’s personality was greatly influenced his mother. My wife was very spiritual. His name too has spiritual meaning. In Gujarati, Eshwar means God. So Cheteshwar means Aatma ka Adhipathi (Overlord of the soul).
Growing up, my son used to love playing video games. My wife would say you should focus on your daily puja instead. We would get into fights. I remember this one time she told him to do puja for five minutes at least before he played video games.
I intervened, saying this wasn’t right. This was blackmailing, I told her. She explained to me: “I am not blackmailing him. He will be facing a lot of struggles in life. There will be tough times. Believe me, puja is a kind of meditation and will help him cope with life. This is the ‘Path of Truth’. It is not easy to walk on the path. What his mother taught him as a kid, no university in the world can teach that: How to control your mind. I understood it all too well later. She knew it then itself.
When Chintu was piling up the runs in his teens – my reckoning he made 5,000 runs in age-group cricket – he wasn’t getting rewards. There were questions in our minds. Was Saurashtra the best team for him or should he move to another state? It was then that my wife said, “No. He will play for Saurashtra. She had said ‘write it down, our kid will play for India.’
But deep inside, I thought this was just a mother talking. But as she would say, truth is God. The path might be tough, but one can’t stray or take the easy route. Her words would come back in a couple of years to me and I almost strayed, but God has been kind.
But whatever he’s learnt about ‘the truth’ is from his mother. I was a BA (Philosophy) student and was interested in metaphysics. We studied Indian and Western philosophy, and debated a lot with the professor. Vedanta literally means Ved ka anth: the end of knowledge. I was not aware that my wife was so deep spiritually.

My wife used to keep repeating a verse from Bhagavad Gita. It said: A man who is full of faith, who is devoted and has subdued the senses, obtains knowledge. I can proudly say that Cheteshwar hasn’t ever strayed away from the path of truth. No short-cuts, nothing but sincerity and earnestness. God has been kind to us. Truth triumphs.
As told to Sandeep Dwivedi