India has been calling me, when I meditate I feel it in my heart that I need to go there, absorb myself in the rich culture and breathe in the faith. It somehow already feels like a second home.
Of course I am drawn by the yoga, India is renowned for preserving and practising this ancient art although it's actually rooted in cultures worldwide, but in the wider sense I am drawn by the incredible faith that is central to Indian life. India is the birth place of four of the world’s major religious traditions; Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism but more amazing than that is that they were born in a place where poverty and hardship is rife. It’s beautiful that people of all walks of faith live harmoniously together and the freedom of religion is considered a fundamental right.
Devotional practices are at the very centre of Indian life, it is in India’s blood and in the waters - the Ganges. This is very different to England and the general approach to life in the West which is defined by consumerism, individualism, logic and monetary driven success and where it is a only a minority of people that truly believe and undertake acts of worship.
Devotional practices are at the very centre of Indian life, it is in India’s blood and in the waters - the Ganges. This is very different to England and the general approach to life in the West which is defined by consumerism, individualism, logic and monetary driven success and where it is a only a minority of people that truly believe and undertake acts of worship.
I’ve recently been absolutely transfixed reading Shantaram; the extraordinary true story of Gregory David Robert who was an armed robber and heroin addict that escaped from an Australian prison and came to exile in India and fell into life in a Bombay slum. It’s an intense and gripping tale, showing the violent and treacherous underworld of the Bombay mafia, Indian jail and war in Afghanistan. Even in this insight to the dark sides of India what shines through is the uncompromising believe in God, compassionate love, endless hope and the philosophy that we are all connected and on a path moving towards the Divine.
“The truth is that we are all, every one of us, every atom, every galaxy, and every particle in the universe, moving toward God”
“That's how we keep this crazy place together - with the heart.... India is the heart. It's the heart that keeps us together. There's no place with people, like my people, Lin. There's no heart like the INDIAN HEART”
“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
If you haven’t read Shataram yet I wholeheartedly recommend it.
