Spiritual Seekers

After Gilbert’s account of Bali in her memoir,the island has seen a revolution of sorts,and it’s become a sought after destination for people looking to redevelop their spirituality. There are Eat Pray Love tours and Trip Advisor is full of reviews for yoga and meditation lessons and packages where you can learn to “go inside yourself” like Gilbert did. Unfortunately,Gilbert’s large section devoted to learning to pray in India hasn’t really paid off for tourism here the way it has for Bali ; there are very few hits for the ashram in the South where she allegedly experienced enlightenment. It would require a more imaginative and quicker-witted bureaucrat than what we have to capitalise on the India section of this book: the potential is huge,considering the book has sold more than 7 million copies.

Having said that,I’m surprised there are not more enquiries for the Indian ashrams because everywhere I look these days I find friends and family enveloped by spiritual fervour and on a determined quest to find inner tranquillity. It’s even rampant among those who’ve not had significant life changing episodes like illness,divorce or death. Recently,I was a little startled when a close friend invited me to Vaishno Devi,a destination for devout Hindus. After politely declining,I asked her why she was going. This is a successful and happy girl who’s not used to physical hardships and is more inclined to take a resort holiday than go on an arduous journey. I gently reminded her of the four-hour climb under a blazing sun before you reach the shrine. She was unperturbed,saying she’s decided to take one religious trip a year. Last year was Shirdi,and next year will be the Golden Temple . I instantly agreed to the Amritsar trip,since I’ve always wanted to go to the Wagah border. Besides Amritsar has developed into a hot new destination for world class spas,I told her.

A single friend of mine has recently enrolled in an Art of Living course. Another has turned vegetarian and quit the gym to start yoga. Yet another is a huge practitioner of chanting,where members of a Buddhist group meet twice a month to chant and try to surmount their problems together,as a group. She’s been trying to convince me to give it a go but I can’t imagine anything more mortifying than sharing my issues with a bunch of random strangers.

However,all these techniques must clearly work or so many people wouldn’t be followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev. The sheer magnitude of people involved suggests they’re doing something right. Or possibly what’s changed is our own opinions. Even though as a nation we have a legacy of seeking the truth,it’s only recently that meditating and chanting have gone so mainstream. Even a decade ago,if you told people you were part of this chanting network or group therapy it would have been a little freaky. Now if you’re not doing anything for your inner self,you might just be in a minority. The path to peace is convoluted indeed.