Towards end, as at beginning, Barack Obama pulls out Hanuman

A statuette of Lord Hanuman is among the few items that US President Barack Obama carries in his pocket and seeks inspiration from whenever he feels tired or discouraged.

The President disclosed this in an interview on YouTube which the White House scheduled as a way to reach younger audiences as it promotes Mr Obama’s final State of the Union address on Tuesday.

[There have been earlier references to Mr Obama’s Lord Hanuman connection. In January 2015, minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had tweeted that Mr Obama had taken out a statuette of Lord Hanuman from his pocket to show to Ms Pratibha Advani, according to a news website. And in 2008 Hindus in the US presented Mr Obama a larger statue of Lord Hanuman when they heard that the then Democratic presidential candidate carried a statuette of the god in his pocket, it was reported.]

On Friday, when asked to show an item of personal significance during the interview with YouTube creator Nilsen, 54-year-old Obama pulled from his pockets a series of small totems, each of which he said reminded him “of all the different people I’ve met along the way”. They included rosary beads given to him by Pope Francis, who he met at the White House this fall; a tiny Buddha statue given to him by a monk; a silver poker chip that was once the lucky charm of a bald, moustachioed biker in Iowa; a figurine of the Hindu god Hanuman; and a Coptic cross from Ethiopia, where he visited in July, CNN reported.

“I carry these around all the time. I’m not that superstitious, so it’s not like I think I necessarily have to have them on me at all times,” Mr Obama said. But he said they do provide some reminders of the long path of his presidency. “If I feel tired, or I feel discouraged sometimes, I can kind of reach into my pocket and say ‘Yeah, that’s something I can overcome, because somebody gave me the privilege to work on these issues that are going to effect them’,” he said.

Mr Obama, whose father was a Kenyan and mother a white woman from Kansas, spent the initial days of his life in Indonesia where Hinduism is a popular religion.