|| TRAVEL TO BE A BETTER TRAVELLER OF LIFE ||

|| TRAVEL TO BE A BETTER TRAVELLER

 OF LIFE || 

The sun rises in the east in the morning and sets in the west in the evening and rises again the next morning. It resembles our time. We may have good days and bad days but there is the possibility of good days again. The moon in Shukla Paksha rises and shines totally to spread light in the darkness slowly over 15 days and then in Krishna Paksha, disappears completely and starts rising again. It’s said that days are passing but there is still a possibility of spreading light again. They say our stars change according to our birthday but like the stars, if we keep doing our karma with faith, we will also shine like them always. If you go to see the sun, the moon and the stars keep traveling with the earth but only show the positive path to shine like them. Let’s learn to be better travelers of our travel in our own life. We have the most beautiful clock ever made in the universe to follow. Start traveling before you run out of time, day and month.

In my book Spreading Positivity, I have inserted a picture of Krishna which shows that he is moving, going ahead. As I am a strong believer in Krishna, I feel he is always there and walking with us. His Leela since his childhood to being a guide to Arjuna is still traveling in our heart and mind. Krishna’s act of understanding life still travels in the form of Bhagwad Gita and the philosophy of looking at life positively and the solutions of every problem have been narrated through Sanskrit shlokas. They are traveling through people over the years to show us the right directions in life. If we can follow a little of this then it will make our life much better. I’m doing so, what about you all? Traveling through the books not only improves your soul but also improves the inner qualities of an individual. If in our daily routine, we spend few minutes traveling through the books of Indian culture with the strength of spirituality then our thought process will go only in the positive and right direction. Start reading, you may have a new secret gate waiting for you to change.

 

I remember an old lady had a hearing problem so she came to my clinic. She had four sons who were all staying in the USA. She’d go to meet them very often and she very confidently traveled alone. I was explaining to her about all the technology in hearing aids and their cost. She promptly said, ‘It doesn’t matter how much money, give me the best hearing. I have to travel alone, talk to people on the way, I should not face difficulties. I enjoy traveling so do your best.’ At that time I realized that traveling is not related to age, you can travel for learning at any age. As a small child, you travel with your parents to get better exposure of the world, at a younger age, you travel to spend, to make friends and enjoy with them and in old age, you travel to search for spirituality, travel to pilgrimage or travel to relax. I think to be a better traveler of life, traveling should be for learning, understanding spirituality, learning to have faith, and at the same time for relaxation and enjoyment in doing everything at all ages.

Recently I traveled to Delhi and then decided to go to Vrindavan to do darshan and then do parikrama. I was supposed to meet one of our family friends in Vrindavan. I was well in time to reach and I called our friend to say that I’m reaching soon. Just 3 min before reaching, my car met with an accident. One bike came fast and to stop that, a car took a big break and there was a scooter ahead that collided with the bike, and two people got injured. The bike person ran away and we tried to help those two persons and took them in our car. With our friend’s help, we took them to the hospital and they started asking for money and made us feel as if it was our mistake. Anyway, I did help them thinking that I got to help those people in need, and with local help and our family friends, we could overcome all the challenges. Such things do happen accidentally in your life but it is in your nature how you learn to handle it. Because of this incident, I could not enjoy my pilgrimage fully but it taught me many new things in life; how to handle difficult situations keeping everyone's heart in mind. I learned everyone reacts in life according to their circumstances.

 

My parents always used to tell us that education in life is important but with that, learning new things through traveling is also equally important. With education, you need to have exposure to the outside world also. Every year, though it was difficult, our parents used to do proper financial planning and planning of holidays and used to take us for holidays. Be it pilgrimages or cold places or adventure places or scenic places. There was no specification of traveling criteria that every time it will be a new place to see. I still remember every new place used to connect us to new families of different interests and luckily to this date, they all are connected to us in some way. Some may belong to the same religion or maybe education or a form of friendship. Once we were in Kashmir, one of the most beautiful places on earth. We met another family who was also fond of traveling like us. We got so connected with them that we still have lovely memories of that trip in our hearts and minds.

 

There is one incident very distinct in my memory. I traveled in 2000 to Denmark for a conference and there I met one lady who was the marketing head of the company that had invited us. She was married and had a small, lovely family. She was discussing marriage lives in Denmark that one out of four marriages are broken. She said, “I’m lucky  that my marriage life is going great.” Then she asked me about marriage lives in India. I said, “Our culture is different. I don’t know how many marriages are broken but according to Indian culture, marriage carries responsibility, and feelings and understanding play a vital role.” She agreed with me. I met her again in 2008 and I was so happy to meet her and hear her about her life. She said that I tried my best but I couldn’t save my marriage and took a divorce. I was shocked to hear that. Today, after following western culture, I will also be hesitant to answer that those feelings, understanding, and responsibility still exist in our Indian culture. Think about it. Travel to create memories of understanding life around us.

 

While traveling you do come across good and bad experiences. It’s not necessary you are good at it. You should take traveling as taking every new breath to survive then you will enjoy the most. Some travel with time but can’t enjoy those small incidents of waiting for each other or finding new places to explore. Some travel to share pictures but forget to enjoy moments with nature. Some travel for months but forget to share their feelings with loved ones. Some travel with their focus on the destination but forget to cherish little things coming their way.

I think traveling with keeping in mind spirituality, physical health, physiology of mind, emotions in heart, and behavior with individuals and nature around us will give us better learning to be the best travelers of human life.