With world currencies constantly in flux as of late, there is still an incredible opportunity to purchase souvenirs and beautiful goods from the Indian Continent. The exchange rate for most travelers from Canada, the Americas and Europe is very favorable especially if you look at local markets instead of big flagship businesses. Rupees go a long way to purchase goods that you can cherish for years, or enjoy more immediately like so much smoke being blown from a pooja fire. You will also go home with the unique style and flavor of a country that imbibes color and craftsmanship like some of us drink coffee, and displays it in the hari-kari way of the open market, trinket stall or table display outside a temple or other tourists destinations. [Read more...]
India’s Most Remote Shrine: A Trip to Amarnath Cave
Some of the most bizarre idols of worship on the planet, the strangest temples, and the most unusual shrines seem just out of our reach. Among them are the likes of Karni Mata Rat temple at Deshnoke, India, where over 20,000 rats are housed in a place where devotees linger to see them crawl over coconut shells and various food remains. Another is the snake temple in Penang, Malaysia, where incense burns as vipers coil on the floor. Yet another is Chao Mae Tuptim Shrine in Thailand where huge phallic symbols abound and women travel from far and wide to become pregnant, and of course, the Amarnath Caves in India and bordering China, a remote shrine stands where a stalagmite inside a deep cave is worshipped by several thousand Hindu devotees every year. [Read more...]
Getting an Indian-Style Oil Massage, An Ayurvedic Version of Heaven
I’ve been lucky enough to experience quite a few different types of massage in my life – from lava rock massages in Hawaii to Swedish massages in swanky hotels, but none is as healing and luxurious as an Ayurvedic oil-massage in India. The oil massage is based on concepts of our overall health and its connections to nature that few have observed in the western world, but that give us a lightness of being and a connection to the earth as you wouldn’t guess from simply rubbing some oils into the muscles and bones of the body. [Read more...]
Visiting Pandavlen Caves, (Trirashmi Caves or Buddha Caves)
If you have ever yearned to understand the peace which the Buddha himself found, sitting beneath the Bodhi tree over 2500 years ago, then the caves at Pandavleni, at the top of a rocky hill, are perhaps one of the closest remaining inspirations to such tranquility of mind. Used as a place to teach the Buddha’s dharma, and built around 100 B.C., as dated with carbon dating technology, they are as old as the Karla Caves, both being built during the Satavahana dynasty. These caves have the energy of peace carved into their very structure. [Read more...]
Trimbakeshwar Temple – One of the 12 Holy Temples of Shiva
In an ancient Sanskrit sloka, 12 different Shiva temples are referenced as holy places that compose the Jyotirlinga, or Temples of Lord Shankar. For those unfamiliar with Jyotirlinga, it is a sacred space that the essence of the Infinite can be worshipped, since most of us have a limited concept of the divine. These temples are spread across the country, from the sea to the river, in village towns and high in the mountains. When one visits each of these Jyotirlingas, it is thought that they are blessed with infinite blessings, a calm heart and peace beyond their current knowing. I was lucky enough to visit one of them on a recent trip, Trimbakeshwar Temple, located in Nasik. [Read more...]
Ramkund, Nashik: Pooja, Pollution & Responsible Tourism
A tank of heavenly water built by Chitrarao Khatarkar about 12 meters by 27 meters wide, and built over 300 years ago, is the site for many spiritual seekers desirous of cleansing their karma with a dip in heavenly waters. There are numerous sites in India, (called ghats) where pilgrims can bathe piously or send their ashes into holy waters so that they can cleanse their subtle bodies’ remains. A very important place for this tradition is Panchavati in Ramkund, India. [Read more...]
Neem – Protecting the Not-So-Secret Healing Herb of India
Neem, or Indian Lilac is one of the world’s most prized trees. Also called Azadirachta indica, it is grown primarily in India, but also in Pakistan, and recently has been exported in very high quantities to the US and Europe. Indians have used this miracle plant for centuries. It is an evergreen tree that naturally grows throughout the central dry climate, which offers its bark, leaves, flowers, seeds and fruit for the curing of numerous ailments. [Read more...]
The History of Vegetarianism in India
Ancient human history, as recorded by archeological findings, points to the very earliest vegetarianism. Prior to the industrial revolution, very little, if any meat was consumed by cultures around the world. Some argue that even our digestive systems are those of plant eaters, not meat eaters, since we have several feet of colon, a long and complex, often sacculated tube, which excess food must be excreted from, whereas meat eaters have short colons and can excrete rotting flesh quickly before it has the chance to pollute the other organs of the body. No matter your preference for meat or vegetable, there is a history which points to the consumption of primarily plant-derived food, which begins in ancient India. [Read more...]
The Colorful Chaos of the Kumbh Mela
If you have not been to a festival named ‘overflowing pitcher of nectar bestowing immortality,’ or the famous Kumbh Mela, where millions of spiritual pilgrims travel to bathe in four sacred places each twelve-year cycle, then you haven’t really seen India. Kumbh means pot or pitcher in Sanskrit and mela means to meet or gather. The Kumbh Mela translates very literally to mean the gathering of spiritual bathers. You could call the Kumbh Mela a fair of sorts, but it is of such grandiose proportions, it cannot be understood fully unless attended in person. Like the experience of meditation, it can only be known through a hand’s on familiarity, but hopefully the following explanation will at least whet your appetite for this colorful and bustling carnival of sights, smells, and sounds. [Read more...]
The Sadhu – The Holy Men and Women of India
In the early 1970’s a man laid on a bed of nails, with nothing more to cover him than a dhoti, a bright white loincloth, wrapped around his nether regions. With his bronzed, bare skin pressed against over three hundred metal nail heads, he made those of us watching, wince. [Read more...]
