The Beautiful Beast
India is steeped in antiquity. Traditions existing today arose from ways of life even before recorded history and yet it swallows cultures and influences from people who have occupied it over the centuries and makes them its own. Just as it is today, engulfing current day modernization. You could easily spot an ancient, scantily clad sadhu (ascetic who has renounced the world) sitting outside a modern looking cyber café. These are the juxtapositions that India perfects.

India is patient and timeless and you see it in every Indian's eyes. India 's evolution is thousands and thousands of years. It makes the United States ' 200 years seem such a little blip in the Universe.

India is breathtaking and beautiful, colorful and festive, fascinating and mind blowing. It bears witness to a fortitude and faith that pervades all parts of life. It is magical and welcoming and truly a wonder.

It is the spirit of India and its people that leaves an imprint on your being, that touches some inner reaches of the soul - that could very well change the way you look at life. Such is the purpose of this spiritual journey. It is said that visiting these holy sites will wash away the karma of all your past lives. Uplift and overcome, expand your mind, get some perspective on your own life. If all that you return with is a sense of gratitude, you will be the better for it.

And yet, India is not a fairy tale place. It is also a place of great challenge, especially for someone from the west. It makes all other countries seem static and sterile. Until you experience it, there is nothing that you can compare it to. The reality of India can be very shocking and I wish to prepare you in some small way by sharing the other side of the vision - and by it I mean no offense. It is just the nature of this beautiful beast.

You will see people living in conditions that are appalling; you will see physical ailments that are absolutely dreadful; you will see dirt and filth and things quite disgusting; you will see chaos and disorganization; you will get stuck in a quagmire of bureaucracy and rubber stamping; you will be stared and gawked at as if you were the entertainment of the day (and you probably are); you will smell things that you do not want to be smelling; you will fear for your life on the roads; you will see pathetic starving dogs and pathetic starving people; you will be stalked by pawing beggars; and your transport will most certainly be delayed by something or the other - there will be frustration. One cannot completely avoid the organic rawness that is India . One way or the other you will have to deal with it. You must keep your mind open and be ready to expect the unexpected.

“A spiritual pilgrimage to India is not, primarily about information. It’s about initiation. And a Westerner who decides to go to the source of the great spiritual traditions enters a surreal world that’s as bewildering today as it was in the time of Alexander. It’s a land where wandering sadhus light ritual fires in the mountains near nuclear power plans, where corporate meetings are scheduled based on Vedic Astrology, where satellite dishes beam MTV into remote mountain villages and temple loudspeakers blare 4000 year old chants over grid locked city streets.

“India will bend your mind, assault your body, flood your senses, and shred your nerves from your first whiff of burning cow dung mixed with diesel fumes. If you’re lucky, your old identity will break down like one of the decrepit, smog belching auto rickshaws that clog the streets and you’ll have to walk on without it, past cows eating empty juice cartons from street side garbage dumps and ash daubed mystics chanting mantras in the gutters. It is this breakdown and the attendant possibilities for transformation…that’s the real blessing India has to offer.”**

**Excerpted from Yoga Journal May/June 1998

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