Where to look to find enlightenment
A new book looks at India’s role in sating spiritual searches
For decades India has mostly run a current-account deficit, unable to export as much as the country imports to meet its needs. But in the accounting books of the heavens, India is a net exporter, on par with the Levant as a font of great religions. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism sprang from its sacred geography. God has repeatedly lured spiritual seekers to the subcontinent—from Xuanzang (a seventh-century Chinese monk who journeyed to India in search of Buddhist texts) to Timothy Leary (an American champion of LSD). Leary memorably described Varanasi, Hinduism’s most sacred place, as the “the site of a non-stop hippie festival for the last 5,000 years”.
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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Yogi where”
From the October 21st 2023 edition
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