REFLECT

Four thousand years ago, someone with a sensitive nose and a fertile imagination turned burning wood resin to release fragrant fumes, into a ritual that has literally transcended time and space. The waft of incense or oil can quite literally take you back centuries, to a place and time that you have never actually witnessed but is part of your cognitive learning. And of course, a scent can help you retrace your own timeline in a nanosecond. Such is the mystical power of perfume on the human mind.

The world is abounding with issues and complexities that challenge our status quo, become obstacles in the path to our happiness, even existence. These hurdles can either be interpreted either as stress inducers by us, or opportunities to grow. Allowing us to emerge from the sea of chaos as stronger beings having converted problems into progress. One problem solved is one step forward. And if all of humanity on this planet were to take that one step forward, we evolve as a race. The evolution of one species as we know, impacts all the others, and eventually the planet. It’s as simple as that.

The wisdom of the ancients documented in India’s Advaita Vedanta suggests that behind the diversity of all existence, there exists a single reality. And that reality is the presence of the divine within you, me and all creation, bound together by consciousness. It is an all-encompassing (Sat), all-knowing (Chit), and innately content (Ananda) reality that exists at our very core, and surfaces when we turn inwards. When the mind is purified by meditation, reality dawns, luminous and transcendent, and it becomes apparent that beneath the individuality that we guard so dearly, lies a universality that flows through us all, keeping us connected to the source.

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” Nikola Tesla, inventor and scientist.

India may have had a head start on this. Its people have been chanting Om for millennia, as a way to harmonize the forces of nature and nurture. The word Om is defined in ancient Indian scriptures as being the primordial sound of creation. It is the original vibration of the universe, from which manifested every other vibration.  Like any other sound, the Om chant produces vibrations that travel through the air, are picked up by the ear and interpreted by the brain. The number of vibrations per second is known as frequency.

'I' who thought myself to be a wave was the ocean, Who thought myself to be an ornament was nothing but the gold itself, Who thought myself to be a pot was never anything apart from the clay!

India has always been a haven for those to come looking for themselves, the seekers on the journey within. Ancient Vedanta philosophy is a deep exploration of life and self. It attempts to answer the quintessential question that challenges humanity. “Who am I?”

Love is without a doubt the most powerful emotion that a human can feel. We spend lifetimes in the quest for ‘true love’ – love that endures the ups and downs of life. Our search for ‘the one’ takes us across the seas and sometimes across the globe.  We look everywhere, trawling even on electronic screens sifting through bios of strangers, hoping to get lucky. Only to discover that the euphoria we feel is short-lived, as love begins to fade.

All said and done, you and I and every other creature that walks this planet is nothing but a unique combination of the same four primary elements. Earth, fire, air and water. Our bodies are a mix of earth and water, our breath is air, and the heat generated by our body and its processes is part of our fire legacy. Everything we do is a function of the wisdom of these elements within us -thinking, feeling, loving, experiencing, learning, questioning and exploring. The permutation and combinations in every one of us can vary, but the elements remain the same.

Through the ages, India has been the land of profound journeys, sandalwood and saffron. A spiritual quest for those looking beyond fame and fortune, for a higher purpose. Those looking to move past their sense of disconnection, loss, pain or confusion. And those open to exploring new definitions of happiness. A land where answers to complex questions can be found in the simplicity of its life. India has always welcomed the seekers and offered them a chance to experience something bigger than themselves, something that grounds them and reboots them.

Some people climb their Mount Everest indoors, in their jobs, in their relationships or even in their health. Others head outdoors and pit themselves against nature at its most unforgiving. In raging rapids, spine-chillingly steep summits, uncharted ocean beds and even gravity-defying free falls from dizzying heights. India’s 105 km long Chader Trek on the frozen Zanskar river at -25 degrees in the Himalayan ranges of Ladakh has attracted nature tourists from all over the world, for decades. Rafting on the violently turbulent rapids in River Tons in Uttarakhand, mountain biking down the sheer canyons from Pang to Rhumste in Ladakh and many other adrenaline-popping journeys like these are the legacy left behind by naturalists like Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay and George Mallory, who showed the world how human willpower could tower above the highest peak in the world.

The strong aroma of coffee being brewed can transport you in a nanosecond from the Italian coffee bar you’re standing in, to your grandmother’s courtyard in Tanjore. The traditional hypothesis about the sense of smell in humans being poor compared to animals is challenged on an ongoing basis by scientists who study the mysterious workings of the brain.