I spoke a lot here about what I felt of the spirit of India; I never got to mention its spirituality.
This is a place that breathes spirituality, although, as everywhere, you can find genuine as well as pseudo/ simply social-ritualistic or even commercialized practices and faiths.
'Guru' is a word that has fallen in disuse in the West as we tend to associate it with this fake trend in the matters of the spirit, but in India it is a very strong concept and a denomination attributed to all the living or past masters.
Indeed, the guru-pampara tradition is still a reality in India as it was in the West since the Greek. This is the master-disciple approach to education, where the knowledge is passed directly between two individuals, rather than without customization from one distant speaker to a mass of individuals.
This applies to any art form, as it applies to the Brahman Priests who are believed to have attained enlightenment, to be closer to God / the Truth as they became knowledgeable of the intricacies of texts as the Upanishads, the Baghvad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabaratha..., that tell the story of Hindu Philosophy. These are people who are holders of a greater power than most of us commons, and their simple presence or blessing in a given moment, place or function is believed to be auspicious to the people involved.
Actually all classical art forms, especially performing arts but even plastic arts, are inevitably connected in a deep inescapable way with Indian philosophy, so for example when watching a classical dance recital, you won't miss the depiction of a legendary Hindu scene, as you won't be able to escape a transe state if you totally give in to the sound produced by voices, instruments and bodies that the performers learned to command in a sublime way after years and years of disciplined training in Hindustani or Carnatic music that has always a meditative side to it.
And why are there more enlightened people in India? After all, didn't Budha get enlightened in Bodh Gaya? Aren't there so many others? Once someone explained me why: the only and simple reason is, first, that India is a millennary civilization where the spiritual path is assumed as an essencial part of every individual's life since the Vedas; and than that, unlike in the West, people who chose the yogic path have always and are still today seen with high regard and invited to explore it in any way found conducive - unlike in the West, where anyone going within or showing signs of connection to any dimension other than the materialistic pragmatic side of life was seen as herectic, prossecuted as witch, excomungated and burned in fires.
Well India, irrespective of its profound challeges when it comes to the stage of development of many human rights , is as you hear people say: a spiritual place, a place where anyone who wants to explore the potential of the human spirit will definitely find their ways (be it truely autentic ways or new-age pseudo-yoga programmes: there's something for every taste).
I had the privilege to meet some very special people who opened my windows of oportunity to practices, philosophies and currents as promising and inspiring as Hinduism, Budhism, Reiki, Aura/ Bioplasmic energies, Astrology, Palm reading, Cristals, Self-hipnosis / Subconscious Programming, Creative Visualization / Attraction Law, Guasha, Movement Meditation, Chakras, Power Yoga, NOW, among other much harder to to put into words forms of accessing or manipulating our Higher Power and the Ultimate Energy.
But for sure what touched me and transformed me the most was the SCIENCE OF YOGA.
I haven't found until today a more developed science for general well-being. Everything that I have seen since or had run accross before seems to have its roots in this apparently ever-existing way of living.
Yoga sees human evolution in well-being from three angles:
- The BODY - for which they created the Asanas, the "exercise"-alike (only apparent) practice that is genereally associated with the word Yoga in the West; and also Ayurvedic Medicine for help and facilitation of treatment in malfunction.
- The MIND - for whose peacening they developed an important set of breathing-techniques, that make you re-learn such a vital but usual overlooked process of life and finally feel more balanced on a daily basis.
- And the SPIRIT - for which access they found a very powerful tool called Meditation.
But even in Yoga, there are many currents, but they are usually associated or combine sorts like: Hata Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Vipasana, Prana Yama, among others.
I relate very much to the holistic approach of Yogic Science to life, leaving no dimesion of people's existence out. And I afirm with no hesitation that a regular properly learnt and coached practice definitely takes you higher, frees you from mundane strains and helps you live happier, healthier and more aligned.
Just be sure not to follow fake gurus or associations who do business with religion (test your identification with your guts), and please don't take just any temple rituals as profound manifestations.
Don't take me wrong, there are many true believers among Indian people of course, people who live the philosophy and practice the principles. But unfortunately many many others play the spiritual role just as they are expected to (the same engine keeps them stuck to a more general out-of-date ancestral meaningless apathic pattern of living, where they relate only superficially to one's life, to others and to God). Many religious individuals perform their daily rituals mostly by obligation and habit, without really living the concepts or investing the moments with genuine connection with their God; or even having a faith bigger than fear of idols, society or difference.
... Not to speak of the religious intolerance that mines the country from within although they have lived for centuries in an apparently harmonious conviviality, in a diversity melting-pot with the frame of democracy... but which goes against what is (not always preached but) for sure profoundly imbebed in the true essence of any religion practiced with fervour in that country where 80% are Hindus, 12% Muslims, and around 2-4% Budhists, Christians and Jains, plus smaller shares of any cult you may think of.
And this is out of a mass of 1 billion Indians... imagine how representative and influencial it would be to any creed comunities in the world if these faith-practicioners would give a cohesive example of peaceful co-existence, true dialogue and a mutual understanding that in the end... we're all talking about the same, we're all aiming the same, which luckily is infinite and accessible to all.
GOD IS TOO BIG TO FIT INTO ONE RELIGION.
(writing already from Portugal)
