Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer: India is my soul culture

Immersive Travel column on Travel+Escape

Last month, I started writing a bi-monthly “column” for the new Travel+Escape website — which complements the new Canadian TV channel — about immersive travel. What is immersive travel? It’s travel that takes you deep into a culture and changes you. Immersive travel can be voluntourism, solo travel or long-term travel. It can be embarking on a spiritual path or a going to a health & wellness retreat. Or it can be simply an attitude. It’s about being open to a new culture, learning from it, and letting it change your ideas, beliefs and assumptions about life and the world. If you go on a trip, and see things differently when you get back home — then, you have probably experienced immersive travel. Here’s a synopsis of my first three columns. (more…)

Social media is a spiritual discipline

Learning how to “do” social media effectively is a lot like learning a spiritual discipline. There are paradoxes involved, and you have to abandon the traditional western approach of applying ego-based will-power to get results. Here are five spiritual ideas and how social media exemplifies them. (more…)

I want to transport you!

Changes to Breathedreamgo bring it to completion, and the start of a new era

In Hindu mythology, there is a concept of vehicle — an animal that transports a god or goddess. Ganesh has a rat, Durga has a tiger and the goddess of the arts, Sarasvati, has a swan. To me, as a blogger, Breathedreamgo is my vehicle: it is the means by which I am transporting my work and my passions. And it is also the means by which I hope to transport my readers — to travel adventures; personal transformation and a world of beauty, where the spiritual traditions, history and living mythologies of India come alive. (more…)

Me, Liz and the subcontinent

I traveled in India and studied yoga, but there the Eat, Pray, Love similarities end

Because I travel in India and write about it, many people ask me if I was influenced by the book Eat, Pray, Love, and they try and compare me to author Elizabeth Gilbert. Here are the five key differences between my story and Gilbert’s.

1. I did not have a hefty book advance to subsidize my trip. My trip to India was not research for a book, and I had to subsidize it myself out of my meager resources. I sold 1/3 of my possessions, gave up my apartment, moved into a small room and scrimped and saved for a year. After I returned, and realized how much I’d changed, I went through a lot of financial instability. The whole experience was a “real spiritual quest,” in the sense that I threw myself into it without any attachment to outcome. A big part of my journey was about throwing myself off the cliff to find out IF a net would appear. Read on for the other four. (more…)

Scene from the Mahabharat: Krishna and Arjun at the battle of Kurukshetra

You don’t have to remove yourself from life to “be spiritual”

Yoga philosopher tells an ancient story to illustrate a universal truth

Yoga philosopher, Kirtan leader, Sanskrit teacher, Sitar artist and the writer / blogger behind Akshara Yoga blog: Ram Vakkalanka is accomplished in many things. He is also my friend, I am proud to say. Ram and I have bonded over our deep love and respect for the wisdom traditions and culture of India. We have many shared ideas and notions about yoga and spiritual philosophy, and feel that the essence of these teachings is largely lost, overlooked or misunderstood in the west (and sometimes even in India).

Some time back, I wrote a blog, What yoga is, after attending a workshop with internationally known yoga teacher Mark Whitwell at the Yoga Festival of Toronto. I was delighted to discover that Mark Whitwell really “gets” yoga; and I feel the same way about Ram. Over dosas at a Toronto South Indian restaurant, we discussed the essence of spirituality and Ram told me the story of Kaushika, which I loved. He said, “In the great epic Mahabharata, there is the story an aspiring yogi called Kaushika who meditates for many years but fails to attains self-awakening.” I feel the story expresses a truth about spirituality that many people don’t seem to understand. Here it is. (more…)

Sylvia Fraser in India, 2000

An interview with Sylvia Fraser

Author of the transformative travel classic, The Rope in the Water

In 2005, as I was getting ready to go to India for the first time, on my six-month “trip of a lifetime,” my friend Chrissy gave me a copy of The Rope in the Water. As I read about Toronto author Sylvia Fraser’s pilgrimage to India, I was struck by the many similarities between us; and completely flabbergasted to discover that we share the same birthday (March 8 – International Woman’s Day).

I loved the book and decided I had to meet Sylvia Fraser; that somehow my destiny demanded it. Well, it took me five years to finally connect with her and I am happy to report that we are now friends. I interviewed Sylvia in February 2011 about her many transformative travel experiences and her reality-defying “rope in the water” story (see below and find out how a non-existent rope saved her life when she was being carried out to sea by a riptide, off the coast of Kerala in South India). Here are the highlights of our interview.

Mariellen Ward: What is travel to you, and why do you prefer being a seeker and going on pilgrimage?

Sylvia Fraser: Travel is something I love to do, it’s a need, not a luxury. If I’m not happy, planning a trip is absolutely the best. (more…)

India is a teacher; travelers are students

People often ask me why I am so interested in India, why I like traveling there so much. There are lots of reasons, of course — from the warmth of the people, to the taste of the food; from the adventure of travel to the colourful festivals; from the flowing, feminine clothes to the sunny skies. The single most compelling reason, however, is probably the attitude towards god and spirituality — and how that attitude affects almost everything about the culture and atmosphere of India.

And what does that difference mean for me (and other spiritual seekers from the west)? It means that when I am in India, not only do I feel more alive than anywhere else (for the reasons listed above), but I learn a lot. I learn a lot about myself, about the world, and about spiritual truths. Here are the top five things I’ve learned in India. (more…)

Teacher and program manager Adriana Gonzalez with pupil

Adopt a Soul program helps children grow in an atmosphere of peace and love

In the morning, golden sunlight pours through the broad-leafed trees lighting up simple, white buildings, masses of vivid red tropical blooms, profusions of delicate butterflies, wide expanses of scrubby meadow and flaxen wheat fields. In the distance, the rolling hills of Chilla National Park fade into a misty hue. Birds fill the trees cackling, calling, singing and chirping. At any time, you can hear four or five distinct songs. The feeling is peace, harmony with nature and sweet sacredness. Here, you can hear yourself think, feel your heart’s stirrings and sense the movements of your soul. Here, the divine force lives almost unimpeded by man’s systems and notions.

chanting Gayatri Mantra in the ashram temple

I have written many times about my spiritual home, Aurovalley Ashram in north India. You can read my original post on Travelblog.org here, Peace on earth – this is the one that compelled at least three people that I know of to come to Aurovalley. Two of them are here now, Andrea (Ireland) and Charlotte (The Netherlands). Or, you can read the post I wrote last year, when I was here, Aurovalley Ashram: A haven of peace and conscious living.

But Aurovalley is not just a beautiful retreat, a haven of peace for spiritual seekers and a fountain of yoga knowledge for sincere students. It is also a community, and a part of the local community, Rishidwar, which includes several villages such as Raiwala. Aurovalley founder Swami Brahmdev (Swamiji) takes his responsibility to his community to heart, and he has established many worthwhile projects over the 25+ years he has been here.

Notably, for the past 15 years, Aurovalley Ashram has run a school for local children on the ashram grounds. These are children who might not otherwise have the opportunity for education. The education system in India is spotty, and if you can’t afford to send your children to a private school, you are sometimes out of luck.

To make a donation, and Adopt a Soul, click this link to get to the Aurovalley Blog and click the DONATE button in the header.

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Image courtesy of Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues

Song of creation: first words recorded

The gramophone (aka record player) was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the United States in the 19th century. For the first recording, and to demonstrate the new machine, Edison asked Professor Max Muller, an eminent scholar of Sanskrit in England, to speak in front of an audience.

After recording Muller’s voice on a disk in the morning, Edison played it back to the audience on the gramophone in the afternoon. The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller coming from the instrument.  After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Edison, Muller came to the stage and addressed the audience and said, “You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in the afternoon. Do you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard in the afternoon?”

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Muller had spoken. Muller explained it was Sanskrit and the words he recorded was the first sloka of the Rig Veda: agni meele purohitam. The Rig Veda is comprised of hymns, or songs, of creation. (more…)

Moi at Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, at sunrise 2006

Capturing the magic and mystery of travel in India

My first trip to India was a six-month odyssey in 2005-06 that took me from volunteering in Dharamsala in the north to watching the sunrise from Kanyakumari at the southern tip of the subcontinent. It was a life-changing trip, and I have been writing about India and the transformative power of travel ever since. Since then, I’ve been back to India three times (2007, 2009 and 2010), and shortly I will be leaving for my fifth trip. I will of course be blogging as I travel. My itinerary is below, but first a few words about my philosophy and mission.

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