Tag : Perception

M R Lalu* My journey to the Himalayas a few years ago as a young traveler and a yoga practitioner had been so resounding and significant at a personal level. As a yoga practitioner, my stay in one of the hermitages on the banks of the Ganges is still an enriching experience and what is vividly imprinted in my memory is the interactions that I was capable of with the foreign students among whom I met an old lady of 74 years from California. My conversations with most of the forty of them from 20 countries have given me insights on what India is and a chance that I cherished to look at India through a western prism with clarity. I wondered at the level of commitment and love that those people had about the idea of India, especially the old lady from America who preferred to smear a pinch of soil on her forehead every morning calling India the holiest land and her second home. The entire duration of my stay with those India lovers made me really delve into the depth of what, as a country, India reflected to the foreign minds. The respect India at present is gaining is due to both the spiritual and political patronage that it was capable of for years. Spiritual it is, because we, as a country could deliver spiritual solace to a large number of global seekers with our inclusive ideals. Politically we are equally influential across the globe as a peace-loving nation that advocates for universal peaceful coexistence and brotherhood. Indeed, the aspects of influence that India is known for today, give it a special stature of recognition among countries of diverse interests and geopolitical aspirations. My experience was personal and many, for that matter, must have experienced the same with little or more lucidity and serenity in the slopes o ...