The view from the mountaintop may be amazing, but it’s the climb that...
___[your thought here]___.
For decades, the cliché has been that travelers go to India for soul-searching. It’s been said, it’s been observed, that many Westerners from countries whose spiritual aspects are muted by materialism flock to the vast land with hopes of discovering a deeper meaning of life. If the process is “finding oneself”, the travelers are seekers. The initial assault on the senses, continuation of surprises, and beautiful flow of the unexpected must be experienced to understand how a trip to the subcontinent can turn one inside out. Spend some time soaking it in and then, there it is: your soul. In the midst of positive transformation, spinning around brilliantly before you . Why India?
So long as the traveler has a heart, a trip to India will tear it wide open. Be ready for surgery of the soul. Sadness, pity, awe, and shock may be the first emotions to flood one’s being. Upon their arrival, tourist seekers from the West are immediately confronted by India’s poverty. The widespread in-your-face occurrence of slums, beggars, crippled, diseased, and homeless pierce the heart like daggers. In some areas, the pollution is suffocating and the streets are lined with trash. On the scene, one cannot help but think about materialistic attachments, the meaning of “luxury”, and the means of an individual’s mere survival. After some time, the place and its people will fill that heart with compassion, appreciation, and love.
Then there’s the God aspect. The country overflows with rituals of religious devotion. In the West, the politically correct manner of practicing worship is to do so behind closed doors. Such is not the case in the land of Hindus. Prayers, parades, pujas, and other acts of worship openly occur on the streets, at the ghats and in the flowing waters of the holy rivers, and around the various temples found in every nook and cranny. The sound of chanting layered with drums and bells permeates the air intermittently, adding joy to the backdrop of beeping traffic, mooing cows, and revving machinery, as one passes through any city. Images of gods, goddesses, and gurus are found everywhere one turns: in taxis, homes, restaurants, hotels, and bus stations. A shopkeeper starts his day by lighting incense and saying a prayer before the flower- adorned shrine set up behind the counter, unconcealed. In every corner, in every way, the polluted atmosphere is blessed over and over again through the devotion of India’s billions of inhabitants.
The air of India’s spirituality has spread like wildfire. The Beatles’ George Harrison brought the maha mantra (Hare Krishna, Hare Ram) mainstream. Devotees of Lord Krishna donning saffron robes and shaved heads are seen the world over. Their International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temples have been global for decades. Along with its wide-openness of religious practice, India mothers the ancient roots of yoga and various types of meditation. It was yoga that drew me here from the beginning and, for a large percentage of travelers, these “new age” practices are the main attractions.
With so many ancient ruins, holy sites, temples, gurus, ashrams, and meditation courses, it’s easy for one to get lost in this enormous show of the sacred. Seeking out the ultimate spiritual experience, travelers go this way and that, from ashram to temple to guru. The search itself brings immediate yet temporary satisfaction. As long as one is seeking, there is denial of the divine that lies within us at all times, in all places. Only when the effort is dropped and the seeking has ceased, one is able to see the beauty, truth, and supreme energy in each moment, in each living being.
“So long as the traveler has a heart, a trip to India will tear it wide open”. Within that open heart, divinity reveals itself without having to be found. Layers upon layers of veils, which prevent us from seeing things as they are, gradually fall away. At the end of the day, the spiritual awakenings end up occurring, perhaps not at the temples and holy sites, but on the long and winding roads that lead to their doors.
