India is everything human. It is all of our history: it is the past, it is the future. If it has been thought, experienced, or imagined, it has all happen before in India and you can be sure it’s happening right now. It is among the most difficult places of travel, and the most rewarding.
Some say India stands for “I’ll Never Do It Again”; many more are drawn back time and again because India is the best show on earth, the best bazaar of human experiences that can be visited in a lifetime.
It has been said that there are 330 million gods in India, and there are at least that many varieties of experience available, religious or otherwise.
India will dissolve your ideas about what it is to be a human being, what it is to be compassionate, what it is to be spiritual or conscious. Its people give new meaning to perseverance, courage, with myth and history so intertwined and layered that one knows immediately it cannot be known nor understood, only experienced.
There is only one caste, that of human beings. No “caste” was ordained for them, nor colour such as white. All arise from the union of lingo and a yoni, and thus all souls are one and the same. One who has the eye of wisdom sees God in all of them.
– Pauskara-paramesvara
Even today, the people of India still hear the call of the hermitage deep inside them. Every year thousands upon thousands of them renounce the world to look for something greater. Spiritual values have been overtaken by Western materialism, but even the most insensitive and cynical businessman feels the pull of the forest. The greatest title a man can hope to bear, today as much as in ancient times, is not “maharajah”, but “maharishi.”
The Taj Mahal is a symbol of eternal love. The people of India find eternal love in their family, friends, children, and lovers. They understand that there is nothing more eternal than our connection with the divine, which can be seen and felt in everybody.
Beneath the curtain of each atom lies concealed the life increasing beauty of the face of the Beloved.
– Mahmud Shabistari
The air in Rishikesh has a certain silence to it, if you take time and listen closely. There is a feeling of fullness in this silence. A place conducive for contemplation and meditation.
The children of Varanasi have such vibrant spirits. Often coming from a impoverished lifestyle, teaches you how to enjoy the simple things. A morning bath in the Ganges washes away all their problems.
The Babas of India have the ability to see the universal in the specific. They see life from different angles, different lines of perspective. A slight turn of the head, the blink of an eye, subtle glimpses of magic others might pass by. You can see the divine in their eyes. You can feel the purest silence in their presence.