Everyone should visit India at least three times in each lifetime.

A first vist is recommended when you are in your early twenties: an initiation - to take in the sights, the sounds and smells of India, to balance the exotic and the banal, to backpack intentionally on a shoe-string budget, even when you can afford more!

The second time when you are a 'householder': travel with your partner, stay in the luxury hotels, shop, romance at the Taj Mahal and swear eternal love to your beloved.

And a third time is necessary in search of Wisdom: when you think you have done it all, but feel you haven't got anywhere! India is the place to ask the big questions, seemingly without any answers for the world. "Who am I?" We have been debating these for some 5,000 years and, yes, we do have some of the answers.

 

Dear friend,

Our journeys 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' led by Shantum Seth have been highly acclaimed for over 20 years. We offer mindful and transformative journeys in all 'Eleven Directions'.

These journeys, which have cultural, spiritual and educational elements, are led by highly qualified leaders and guides and are tailor-made for institutions, groups and individuals.

We feel that the most authentic element of transformative travel is the change within (the eleventh direction), the way the traveler views his or her world after coming into contact with different ways of living and thinking. On these journeys you will touch a culture and civilization that is both ancient and contemporary. We take you on an inner and an outer journey through a fascinating and mysterious India/South Asia.

There will be interactions and talks with people from all walks of life, whether spiritual gurus, academics, museum curators, teachers, mothers, social activists, members of the corporate world, lawyers, local artisans or landless farmers.

You could be taken for country walks, travel through beautiful mustard and marigold fields, visit villages that have changed little in the last 2500 years, taste the different cuisines of India, visit schools and homes in villages and cities, stop at mango groves for picnics, take a boat ride along the Ganges or the backwaters of Kerala, experience the spectacular art forms of India in sculpture, dance, painting and music, visit monuments, temples, local shrines and caves, and even shop in the local markets.

You can absorb the structures and subtleties of the fast-changing urban landscape, with it buzzing markets, diverse cultures and regional flavors, and even witness elephants or camels sauntering down the busy streets.

We go at a slower pace than tourists usually do, which allows us to be mindful, have discussions and create time for ourselves. It would not be an exaggeration to say that all the people who have come so far have found the journeys most worthwhile-even transformative.

We invite you to join us on one of our journeys.

Bina Aranha
Vice President

 
 
A proportion of the proceeds of the above journeys goes to the non-profit, volunteer based organisation Ahimsa Trust. Ahimsa Trust is working for peace through mindfulness in education, sustainable livelihoods and cultural harmony. For more information please click on to www.ahimsatrust.org