What flummoxed several political scientists and observers routinely was RSS’ insistence on abstinence and a strict adherence to ancient principles, similar to that of a religious commune. But despite a punishing regimen and a life of a near-renunciate, one of the reasons for large number of youth joining the RSS was because of a feeling of self-aggrandizement—first, that they were the chosen ones in the service of the Motherland, and second, that they were indispensable for the elders within the system.
