The ashrams of India

A wiser kind of tourist shall one day arise who will seek out, not the crumbling ruins of useless temples, nor the marbled palaces of dissipated kings long dead, but the living sages who reveal a wisdom untaught by our universities.

Paul Brunton (from A Search In Secret India)

India has always been a spiritual haven ever since human civilisation came into existence. The holy landscape echoes of mythology and in the silence of nature and the bustle of the bazaars, spiritual practitioners walk the earth. Everybody seeks India out – to conquer her, to study her, to invest in her, to experience her and to be a part of her. The ancient Vishnu Purana mythically declared that the gods vie with each other to be born in human form in India in order to attain salvation. Alexander hesitated to march his army through this play field of the gods. Chinese travellers stayed back to study the secret of human existence. The Englishman tried to unravel for himself whether India was a mystery or a muddle. For Max Muller, India was the teacher of teachers.

Times have changed but the essence of India has not changed. The spiritual essence of this mother of all cultures, the repository of all wisdom is not stored in libraries, National Archives, digital storage devises of technological parks or even so much in temples. No not there! This essence pervades the air in sanctuaries of spiritual awakening in the country – in the ashrams.

The word ‘Ashram’ in Sanskrit means shelter. The principle objective of ashrams is to provide shelter. It is a beacon for tired travellers, a raft for drowning sailors in the stormy waters; the guiding star for those lost in the crossroads of life.

Every human being feels the need for a succour and comfort for the spirit. There are times when money and position cannot heal internal sores, when wealth cannot fill the emptiness of the heart, when relations and friends cannot remove the alienation of the soul. It is at such times that man looks for impetus to turn inward. He searches for means to look at his own troubled soul....

Please read the complete events in the print version of SPIRITUAL IMPRESSIONS
( Vol. 1  Issue 4 Sep - Oct  2001)

...It is our good fortune that these spiritual centres, spread as they are throughout the country, are the nodes that spiritually charge the nation. Their aura today spreads across the mountains and seas to human habitations all over the world. Touched by their vibrations, life changes take place and we take the first step forward to become better human beings.

Paul Izuka