President disclosed this on a YouTube interview which the White House scheduled as a way to reach younger audiences as it promotes Obama's final State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Asked to show off an item of personal significance during the interview with YouTube creator Nilsen yesterday, 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."
"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," Obama said.
But he said they do provide some reminders of the long path of his presidency.
Obama, whose father was a Kenyan and mother a white woman from Kansas, spent initial days of his life in Indonesia where Hinduism is a popular religion.