My best friend and I live in different cities. All our plans centre around the holidays. That is the only time we have some hope of seeing each other.
Sad truth of the matter is that we may not see each other for another year and a half. That is why all out current plans center around the summer we graduate.
Materialistic bitches that we both are, it's always about the malls in the cities we want to visit than the city itself. After a year of thinking over every fancy holiday resorts and shopping destination, and pestering our parents to let us go alone, our plans decided to take the alternate route.
We decided may be we don't want to go to a fancy place and splurge or sit in a spa, while indulging in some 'rejuvenation'. May be what we really need is a spiritual journey.
About a year back, a friend of mine packed her bags and left for Hrishikesh. She lived in a beautiful ashram among highly evolved spiritual gurus and ordinary people like her, who wished to reach the pinnacle of spirituality someday. And every evening she'd walk up the Himalayas to a solitary cottage that stood among the trees of the dense forest. In that cottage lived a guru who had taken to living alone in the forest, in order to make spirituality the sole focus of her life. Everyday they'd meditate together, while the guru would relay parts of my friends life before her. Through the various exercises she'd find herself healing and letting go off the emotional baggage she has been carrying around with herself for a long time. When she came back she felt like a new person.
I have never been overtly religious. My grandparents go to places like Hrishikesh every now and then. But I never accompany them because I assume the only thing they do is bathe in the holy waters, sing bhajans and pray all the day. But ever since I heard about my friend's experience, I can't wait to go there myself. It sounds something out a Paulo Coelho novel, doesn't it?
So Summer after graduation, Hrishikesh it is! But it doesn't end here. We want to go crazy and explore every spiritual destination in the country. The Himalayas, Kerala, Whitefield, The Osho Ashram, Art of Living, you name it. No proper plans, no time contraints, no count on the money we spend. God knows if we'll ever be that carefree, so I want to make the most of it.
I know most people of my age would want to go to Goa instead, get drunk in some bar while having shirtless phirangs hit on them. Technically speaking, that's what you'd expect 20-years-olds to do. But I guess I am just a little weird that way, and I'm so glad I am so glad I know someone else who possesses the same weirdness that I do. :)
3 comments:
go for the fresh water ride in hrishikesh..awesum..free
Haha...Miss Lavender, nice post and yes for sure it looks like the novel "The monk who sold his Ferrari" but miracles do happen and there is for sure a thing called knowing your inner self and self cleansing from within.
Definitely age of 20 is an age of high spirits to enjoy and explore the glittery side of the world, but not all are of same kind. Perhaps, you two are not the only ones. There are thousands of like you who think and walk the similar pathway. I am one of them who enjoyed both sides of the coin at some or the other time but I found peace on the side which kept my mind busy with so called mature stuff for a teen ager. I probably was one among my friends and am still one who looks like 5-8 years elder in terms of maturity and thinking than what I should be at 28 and I had been like this since my teenage.
Nice to meet you :) We may have a lot in common
Well, well, well. First of all, it indeed is a great idea to visit all those places you mentioned, never mind your reasons. As far as spirituality is concerned, Lord Krishna says in the Gita that spirituality is attained not by running away from or denying the material world, but by accepting everything that life has to offer without getting attached to it in any way. So these great spiritualist gurus need not really seek the solitude of the Himalayas to find solace; the true well of solace and spirituality is within oneself.
So even while getting drunk in a Goa bar, getting hit upon by a shirtless phirang, you can be spiritual.
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