The Myth of India
Hanoi, Vietnam, January 11, 2010
Salaroche


For many western spiritual seekers, a trip to India is a very important step in their spiritual journey. Such trip may not be something as mandatory as may be the Hajj, the once-in-a-life-time pilgrimage to Mecca that most Muslims long to undertake, but some westerners still believe that no possible illumination can come to them if they don’t go to India.

Going to India is like a ritual, and rituals can be very meaningful, no doubt about that. Just like certain important aspects of any methodology, rituals can be essential for obtaining the desired results. The pitfall with some rituals resides in thinking that the method is an end in itself. Rituals are supposed to be either a means to an ultimate end, or just a symbolic commemoration of an important event or scripture. The essential aspect of rituals doesn’t reside in the act of performing it, but in the faith that the participants invest in its symbolism.

Many western seekers believe that the sheer act of going to India will bring spiritual benefits to them, so they do all the necessary planning to go there with the idea of their own spiritual advancement in mind. In so doing, they put their faith in their trip to India, and just the act of investing their faith in that trip may bring some “spiritual” benefits to them.

However, with regards to questions of spiritual nature, it would be rather difficult to find these days someone in India or anywhere else in the world who may tell us something we haven’t already heard or read about before. Since the days when the Beatles brought Maharshi’s teachings to the public, and before that as well, we have all been exposed to all kinds of information regarding Yoga and, by extension, regarding Hinduism.

For that reason, the need to hear something new about Yoga shouldn’t be the main incentive for us to go to India. Everything we need to know about the four branches of Yoga is available right now to everyone in the form of books and writings and even DVDs, not to mention on the Internet. Just try Googling any keyword on the subject of Yoga and you’ll see what I mean.

One aspect of going to India that may seem irreplaceable to some western seekers is the idea of spending some time in an environment conducive for spiritual advancement. Such environment, of course, wouldn’t be the streets of Mumbai or Deli, but the peaceful environment of an ashram. But not even that aspect would be irreplaceable in our days, for there are Yoga centers and associations that may provide such peaceful environments for seekers of all kinds in the different countries of the world.

The Vedanta Society, for example, has chapters in a few states of the United States. Other similar associations may have centers in other parts of the world as well. There are also Yoga teachers or “Gurus” who travel around the world imparting instructions about their particular versions of Yoga. Gathering information about Yoga practices, therefore, shouldn’t be the main reason why anyone should want to go to India.

So, why go there at all?

If you’re interested in sightseeing in India, then, by all means, go; but if you’re really on a spiritual quest, there’s really no need to go there. If you have already understood what the goal of transcendental meditation is, then you already know that what you’re looking for is nowhere outside of you.

If your goal is the Realization of the Self or, to put it differently, if your goal is to “find God,” then you should know that God doesn’t live in India exclusively. The Self or God doesn’t live anywhere in particular. The Self is everywhere you may go. There’s no need to look for the Self anywhere outside of you, for it is always within you.

Going to India, therefore, can be beneficial for seekers on a spiritual path because of the ritualistic value that such trip may have. It can also be valuable if the seeker finds a good Ashram where to spend some time practicing their particular Yoga method. But going to India shouldn’t be considered as a spiritual achievement in itself.

Unless you’re one of the few who happened to be in India when they attained the Realization of the Self, going there will probably have only a ritualistic or symbolic meaning for you. Such trip would definitely show your devotion to your spiritual quest and that in itself may have a tremendous value in your spiritual journey, but there’s really nothing transcendental that you may find in India that you may not find somewhere else.

God doesn’t live in India exclusively, so you don’t need to go there to find it. God lives in any Ashram in India as much as it lives in the streets of New York, Paris or Bangkok. In fact, the nearest door to God isn’t in any of those places, it is right here within you. You never find God in India, even if you’re in India when you find it. You always find God within you, regardless of where your mind and your body may be when you find it.

Any of the four main branches of Yoga can get you to God, some of them faster than the others, but they all eventually get you there. You don’t need to be in any particular place or country to Realize the Self. You could even be walking down the trails of a university campus in Palo Alto, California, when you suddenly attain that state of Supreme Consciousness which is the direct knowledge of your Eternal Self.

God is everywhere, therefore the idea that going to India is the surest way to Realize the Self is just a myth.

Salaroche