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By Suzanne E. Harrill and Others
Color is an important part of Indian ceremonies and festivals. My trip to northern India coincided with Happy Holi, or their spring festival, which lasts from 3-16 days. It signifies releasing negativity and to be renewed for the new year; their calendar year starts at a different time each year, sometime around the middle of March. Happy Holi is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other and lighting bonfires the evening before it starts. Our tour bus traveled from Delhi to Agra the same weekend the celebrating began. People full of color on their faces and clothes laughed and waved to us as our tour bus passed through their towns and cities. Their joy had an uplifting effect on each of us. At one of the rest stops, some of the tourists on our bus got into the spirit and allowed local people to put colored powder on their hair, faces, arms and cloths. I watched.
Some experiences stand out in my mind as I returned home. The city streets were absolutely amazing to experience. One night in Varanasi, we drove in SUV’s to a music concert and an ashram. The streets were packed full of people, cows, cars, oxcarts, motor scooters, and bicycles all moving to their destinations, looking similar to a flowing, winding river. If someone wants to turn, they simply turn assuming everyone will move out of the way to let them through, which they do. Each driver honks their horns almost continuously to warn others to avoid a collusion or to say, “Move over I’m passing you.”
The Taj Mahal in Agra was the high point of the trip for me. It is so much more beautiful in person than in pictures. Walking through the gates at sunrise, I was unprepared for the strong emotions that arose within me when I viewed the magnificence and beauty of the structure with the reflecting pools and surrounding gardens. We returned that same night for a private viewing with the full moon. It was awesome.
That same evening our group gathered outside on the grounds of our hotel for a special ceremony of our own with the full moon shining brightly on us. Our leader asked us to write on paper what we would like to let go of and release in our life. She then burned the papers to signify the letting go of the habits, traits, and attitudes within. Next, she played John Denver’s song on her ipod, Full Moon Over India, while we held hands. It was a significant emotional event for me and I will always remember that powerful evening.
It is said that visiting India changes a person. Coming from a culture of over- abundance, I was aware immediately that India is short on material goods. I see it as a good thing that there were no baby strollers, for example. Parents carried their infants and small children, so there was an abundance of security being passed on to the children. It was refreshing as we passed small shops that doubled as family homes, to see the people happy and friendly as they cooked a meal or washed laundry on their doorsteps. As we walked through the narrow streets of Varanasi on the way to see the Ganges River, we noticed the children especially. They were usually dressed beautifully and liked to smile and say hi to us.
Both our guides were Hindu and full of information about customs, beliefs of different religions, and the old cast system, which in theory no longer exists in their democratic country. I learned more about Hinduism and have a better feel for the religion of the majority of people. Two things caught my attention from their discussions. One is that mantras or sacred prayers are important in Hinduism. The foremost mantra in Hinduism, inspiring wisdom, is the Gayatri mantra: "May the Almighty God illuminate our intellect to lead us along the righteous path." The second was a discussion on 10 qualities Hindu’s want to acquire on the path to enlightenment. These qualities are: patience, forgiveness, humbleness, purity of heart, control over the senses, courage, knowledge, truthfulness, and control over anger. These qualities are demonstrated by most people that I observed, and helpful in living peacefully in such close quarters to one another. This list of qualities might improve our own lives as well.
I asked some of my new friends on the trip if they would like to write about their experiences. Here are several responses.
Charlotte Shelton
Two weeks ago I returned from a trip to India and Nepal. Words are simply inadequate to capture what I saw, felt and learned while traveling. Even my 625 photos fail to capture the experience. That said, below are a few isolated fragments of the experience. First, it was intense. As anyone who has traveled to India knows, the mere density of population creates a strong impression. Then there are the cows! These sacred animals are seemingly everywhere…including in the middle of the streets, even meandering through shops. Their dung is also everywhere! Between the cow dung and the beggars, walking the streets takes focus. It is a good exercise in paying attention. When I close my eyes now, the first image that comes to mind is smiling faces. The poverty level is high, yet so is happiness -- which reminded me that authentic prosperity has nothing to do with income. When I close my eyes and reflect, I also see images of aging infrastructure. There are crumbling roads/buildings and a maze of sagging electrical lines almost every place you look. Then there are the vehicles. Cars, buses, rickshaws, tuk tuks and bicycles share the streets with people and cows…and goats and pigs. Horns are blasting, babies are crying, beggars are beseeching and yet there is an energy field of peaceful contentment. ′
I can still see myself sitting under the bodhi tree in the spot where the Buddha experienced Enlightenment; walking the grounds where he preached his first sermon; walking through mosques, wrapped from head to foot in strange garb (for a Westerner); and smelling curry everywhere we went. Incredible India it is! If you haven’t been there, I recommend putting such a trip on your wish list. ′
Cathy Hughes
Reflections of My India Trip
Every morning when I wake up, I think of all the blessings I have and are receiving even right now. I feel inadequate that I'm not giving more.
The Indian people's faces shine with an inner light that shows me that they have mastered the art of acceptance. So many of them have nothing, but like so much of India, they are ablaze with an inner happiness that makes Westerners take note. Their eyes twinkle with their light. They are eager to wave at us as our buses travel through their congested highways. They are happy. Maybe they are tired, but I did not detect anything like that in them. They seemed to be enthusiastic about the routines that they have created.
Everywhere, as our buses travelled, we saw people working, buying, riding bicycles, carrying supplies. So many people doing so many things. But, everywhere, they are doing it with purpose and happiness.
India is like that. India is the beating heart. India isn't perfect. India has population and poverty, but India is moving on with enthusiasm. India has stamina and honors all people. The world could learn a few lessons from India. India is a good teacher of values, both inner and outer. India recognizes that the human condition is a balancing act of inner soul and outer soul. Many great leaders, born in different parts of the world, came to India to perfect their compassion and love for humanity. Buddha, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama are a few examples. India is a working laboratory for developing "great souls."
Shelia Langham
After most adventure trips, the magic begins to melt, the colors begin to fade, and excitement begins to calm, but not so with India. Spirituality permeates the country, the smell of incense saturates all things, and the love in the liquid eyes of the people never pale. What an amazing world of contentment - India.
The Ganges River that ran along the banks of the city of Varanasi resonated with my soul. Every time we visited the "Mother Ganges" my feelings became more intense. The rituals of the cremations opened my heart to a new level of understanding about our passing to the next level after this life.
Thank you India.
You truly opened my heart.
I long to return.
Linda Patterson
Bodhi
My skin at once is warmed and cooled
By the sun and the gentle breeze
As I sit in wonder, incredibly under
The boughs of the Bodhi tree!
Where once a prince became a sage,
His back to a sheltering tree,
Now once-tender shoots from those ancient roots
Are spreading over me.
There were no pilgrims chanting
On that day so long ago;
No wreaths of flowers, no temple tower
With marble floors below;
No monks tracing their master's steps
In robes of scarlet and saffron;
No incense burning, no prayer wheels turning,
No gilded gate to a Diamond Throne.
There was only Siddhartha Gautama
Sitting beneath the tree;
Though he may have heard the sound of birds
Like the ones hear singing for me;
And maybe his skin was warmed and cooled
By the sun and the gentle breeze
As he contemplated and meditated
'Neath the boughs of the Bodhi tree.
Candace Renaud
To say that visiting India and Nepal was a deeply spiritual experience is easy. Describing how that spirituality manifested itself is more difficult. India particularly has a huge population. Both countries are extremely poor and the poverty is obvious. Both have unbelievable traffic problems, unlike anything I have seen in this country. Nevertheless, in many ways, these very “problems” are a manifestation of that spirituality.
The people of both countries, unlike so many of the Americans that I know, seemed to be at peace with their lives, the traffic, and the lack of material wealth. The lessons for me included the fact that seemingly chaotic traffic gridlock did not have to result in road rage and that poverty and suffering don’t necessarily go hand in hand. The lack of material wealth is a fact; suffering is a state of mind. Their response is a result of the Hindu and Buddhist religious beliefs of both cultures.
However, as someone who comes from a Judeo/Christian background in the wealthiest country in the world, I found myself feeling deeply torn and confused upon my return to Houston. It was a shock to realize that most of the world lives like the people of India and Nepal, not like us. But I felt torn about whether it is our place to interfere in that “poverty”. Many of us are struggling for inner peace and know that it isn’t provided by material wealth, but we feel compelled to do something to help these “poor” people become wealthier.
As Christ said, “The poor will always be with us.” Who is worse off, the spiritually poor or the materially poor, and what is the difference? Like so much of my spiritual quest, I was left with as many questions as I was with answers. Namaste.
As you can see India opened each of our eyes about life in a culture very different from our own. India has an ancient culture with rich history and religious traditions. There is a blend of old and new ways of life co-existing. The people model patience, tolerance, and acceptance, as one and a third billion people live together peacefully. I am grateful for the opportunity to have visited India. It expanded my vision by experiencing their culture and way of life.
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