India
So back to India. Have you been here?
If not, why come?
The fact that you are reading these lines suggests you are interested in searching beyond the normal boundaries of 'life'. That you are curious to go further.
So, the opening line here is going to be the Sanskrit saying: Gaté, Gaté, Parasamgaté, Bodhi Svaha, which translates into English as 'go further, go further, go as far as you can, oh dedicated one'.
The answers are always beyond that, that your mind can understand. A good starting point, but why India?
The answer; India has something that no other place on earth has, an energy centre. Let me be clear, that does not exclude anywhere or everywhere else. Life, being, is energy, it is just that India is something different. It is an energy centre let's say.
Sitting here in a place called Tiruvannamalai, which is in the depths of Southern India and the place that is hosted by a mountain called Arunachala.
Millions (literally) of pilgrims come here every year just to experience the opening forces of this tiny mountain. The mountain of Shiva. It forms the centre point of energy on our planet and if you think that sounds a bit far-fetched, don't believe these words, come and experience it for yourself. It is as simple as that and a journey you will never regret for sure. |
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Put another way, you cannot describe the taste of an apple to someone who has never tasted one, so the only way is to give them the apple experience is to give them one and tell them to take a bite.
Tiruvannamalai
Words fail us time and time again. Language, any language is limited, even Sanskrit (native India spiritual language) has its limits. The same can be said for knowing your true self. Words fail where the experience is bright, shining and totally known, once seen. Tiruvannamalai is the place of self discovery. The place to find yourself, as though you''ve lost it, but that's another subject. For now, let's keep it simple.
Of course, paradise has a bitter edge too. India is chaos, yet she manages to get along, to keep going. How is a miracle in itself, you'll see.
We westerners bask in a culture of tolerance and within reasonable limits, acceptance. The west has moved forward in leaps and bounds, the rest of the world trails behind in varying attempts to modernise, but the process is slow, dogged by religious restrictions or at least using that as a good excuse. 'Control'.
Women here get a raw deal outside of the two major cities, if you are gay, no chance anywhere and the class warfare continues on like a religious dungeon of hell.
You are caste and that is it. No escape really.
I teach here each year in a sort of pseudo safety, but in reality that safety is also as thin as ice. As said, it's a pilgrimage centre for Westerners and Indians alike, but never forget this is India, not Europe or America.
Being here often, back and forth, gives you a feeling of being at home, but clearly that is not the case. I had a stark reminder the other day to remind me that indeed I am a foreigner here and a vulnerable one.
I had a road accident the other day, absolutely not my fault, but I knocked down a woman who crossed the road without looking.
Unavoidably I crashed into her, falling from my bike, all happening in slow motion, an accident waiting to happen let's say.
She laid still in the road having been knocked down by me at around 25 kms per hour, playing dead.
Within a moment, a crowd of locals appeared from nowhere, which is typically India, never a moment alone. Knowing instinctively that if I stayed, the locals would take their own idea of justice, swarming like angry hornets or leaving knowing I was leaving a shocked/ injured person lying on the street, but nothing 'I' could do.
The experience drilled home the fact that life here is not justified, not balanced in a way that we appreciate, but is what it is.
Had I stayed, it would have cost me my life, leaving was the only sensible way for me to survive, fault or no fault.
Not proud, but alive enough to write these words.
Indeed Bitter-Sweet.
Unconditional
So, in the West we bask in the culture of 'fairness', even though sometimes life appears unfair. Being here is a time for reflection. Different worlds, the same world.
Our lives are dominated by opinions. What you think, you like, what you dislike and so on. But what is this all about? We are a result of nothing more than conditioning.
Ask any question to a local here and you'll get a very different answer from the same question put to a westerner.
Who is right? No one, just spices in a stew, all different, contributing to the one taste. Wars are fought because of idealisms, none have any grounding, ours or theirs.
Be aware of that. 'Unconditional'.
Life in India is about 'now', what can I get now? Tomorrow might never come attitude.
We westerners live on the future ideas starting with our education, ending in our desires for more and more, whilst here in India, folks live on the now because no future is secure. Who knows?
The sweetness here is the possibility to see more about 'who you are', and then further to see more about 'who you are not'.
Arunauchala, her energy is the 'can opener' to this possibility.
Other bitter sweet happenings are the fact that the people are opportunists.
If they think for a moment they can profit, they will, be it bitter, be it sweet.
They are just hungry for anything, be it a car crash, or an opportunity for love which might lead to a passport to go somewhere else but here, along with bad soap operas and the endless succession of Hindu Celebrations, some 20 a year or more...
Funny world.
Brown bodies wanting to be white, white bodies wanting to be brown.
So what?
Leave any fear behind, come, taste the difference.
It will make you grow, grow in a way you never imagined and once you've tasted, you'll taste again, it's infectious.
India gets into your blood and you'll find yourself returning time and time again.
It's that sort of place...
Bitter-Sweet and Sweat, that is the India I love, and the India I hate.
All rolled into one...
Some thoughts shared.
I wish you a wonderful Christmas. Think of us here baking in 33 degrees Celsius, the drone of Hindu festivals as far away from snow as the sun.
Even the moon looks upside down on us!
And for 2009?
Just consider one word for the year 'unconditional'.
If you live that way, you'll taste your true nature, the enlightened life. |
