3 Marvelous Teachings from India

How a simple walk became one of the most magical path to reconnect towards Self, Surrender and Faith 👇🏻✨

My first trip to India is a wrap! I am so grateful to be back home in Paris after a 6-month journey between Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and India.

I always wanted to go to India for many reasons: the culture, people, spirituality… A part of me was also afraid to face the darkness of this country but after traveling around the world I felt it was the good timing to follow my heart and explore this the land of contrasts. India is the very definition of what Spirituality is: This dance of paradoxes between harmony and chaos, poverty and wealth etc…

Oh and that first picture is one of my favorite from my trip in India where I found my biggest fan club in the city of love and beauty: Agra, where lies the magnificent Taj Mahal. I was so honored and grateful to share a moment with those ladies. All of them carried so much strenght, beauty and depth within their eyes ✨❤️.

In this new travel diary, I want to share a very significant story that is worth sharing it with you. It happened right after my yoga retreat in the beautiful valley of Rishikesh, the world capital of yoga. The quote that resumes perfectly this day would be:

« Expect the Unexpected. » And the title of this story would be:

“The Monastery, a journey towards Self."

I hope you will enjoy reading this special part of my story. Are you ready to travel with me to India Rishikesh?

Hang on your belts, we’re ready for take off 🛫👇🏻!

A week Yoga retreat in the valley of Rishikesh, India May 2023

The Monastery, a journey towards Self

Let’s the story begin shall we? 😁👇🏻

It all started with a little solo walk, where I was searching for a coffee shop (yes, I am a big coffee fan!). This little walk turned out to become one of the funniest, magical, unpredictable and insightful day of this whole trip.

It’s on an unknown path in the valley of Rishikesh that I met with Rateb, an Italian and Jordanian wise stranger who was looking for a monastery he once visited 12 years ago up in the Indian Himalayas.

He suddenly came out of a bush right in front of me and said : «What are you doing young lady? Are you as well going to that famous monastery? » I looked at this tall man and answered, « No, I am looking for Om Café, we can walk together until I find it.»

After listening to his story and the one of this mysterious monastery, I decided to cancel my plans of the day and to follow him on his hike. It was suppose to be a 40mn walk that ended up into more then 2h, but ended up never finding it. 😟

By getting lost, we didn’t have the choice but to hitch hike. Finally, a small bus filled with warm-hearted Nepali people gently gave us some space in their fully packed vehicle. I had to stand next to an exit door with no door, behind the bus driver on a road close to the cliff. How scary and exciting was that! The YOLO time was ON! 😁🌼

This ride was one of the most wonderful one in an unknown land. ✨

We spent a long time chatting with them. They were so curious of our journey and background and so were we. They were all so lovely people with the warmest heart. All of them were all on a 24h bus ride journey from to reach one of the highest temple. They thought we wanted to join them but unfortunately we couldn’t as I had a flight to take on the next day.

The bus was getting further away from Rishikesh, so they kindly stopped us close to a bus station to go back to the city. When we asked when would be the next bus, the man at the bus stop told us «WAITo’clock! » I loved his answer. We had no choice but to be patience and to let the flow guide us… 

Once we were in the public bus, we ended up our trip back down to the famous Parmarth Niketan Ashram next to the sacred Gange River. It wasn’t plan but we assisted to a very powerful and magical ceremony. We got very lucky because the Spiritual leader Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj was there. 

Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj during Parmarth Niketan Ashram Ceremony.

Does his face looks familiar? Normal, this guy is a world renowned spiritual leader. You probably saw his face in many Tea boxes, YouTube Chanels, library… 😅

An Offering like no other…

Like many Indians, I decided to get an offering, set my intentions and give it to the mother Gange river. It also turned out that this special day was Vedak day, which is the birthday of the enlighten one : the Buddha.

At night, the bright magnificent Full Moon in Scorpio appeared as well. Any spiritual person would tell me, “what a perfect timing to set your intentions! You’d better have the best wished of your life hey!” …

After taking sometime setting my wishes and surrendering it to the river, guess what…

C

ome on, guess a funny story…

…..

Well, my offering got stepped by a lady that did not even care at all! What daaaa Helllll…. 😤

I got very upset and ran to the water to save it and decided to guide it once again safely to the river. Rateb told me that this event was like a metaphor of life and that my wishes might have some obstacles along the way. Was it really the message behind this story? I decided to use this moment from this road less traveled into 3 powerful life lessons:

Thanks Rateb for taking a capture of this pretty dramatic moment!

The 3 Golden Teachings from this journey

After a time of reflection the next day, I believe that this whole magical day ending up with someone stepping on my  offering taught me three important lessons: 

1. Don’t seek ‘God’ outside yourself.
   You don’t have to go to somewhere Holy and Sacred on a special day to set special intentions because you are already holy yourself. When you remain present, you can manifest any intentions anywhere at any time. Those special days are just reminders that magic can happen at any moment, just be open to what life has to offer. 

2. Do not get attach to your ideal visions.
   Life brought that woman to step on my offerings to teach me not to get attached to any ideal vision because the Universe knows better than Us what is best for Us. And that leads to the third and last lessons which is:

3. Life always gives you what you need and not what you want.

It is important in difficult situation to surrender and trust that no matter what, everything is going to be fine. My yoga teacher Dhyan said, « the world we live in is already perfectly well balanced so why bother? It is from our mind and expectations that we create madness and chaos to our life. Only the pristine present moment can save us from our karma and mental prison. It’s very simple yet we are addicted to complexity. Let go Sister… » I thought that was very true… 

Which brings us back to the first part and title of the story:

By not reaching Rateb’s unknown monastery as we wished for, we embarked on this incredible and unpredictable journey far beyond our expectation.

We thought that Rateb’s monastery was our destination when, in fact, the path towards it was our true destination. That is when magic can really happen.

The real monastery is always lying inside ourselves and the path towards it walks within us at every single moment. We are just often too blind into our own thoughts to perceive it.

I’ll end up this article with Rateb’s beautiful words of wisdom he chants when we got lost in the Himalayan mountains : «We don’t know where we are going but we are on our way, sometimes alone and sometimes with company » followed with the powerful and popular Sanskrit mantra:

« Hari Om»

Which is believed to erase all suffering and connect us with the universal consciousness. On that special day, I felt that the Universe spoke through Rateb to teach me how to move with the flow.

Where else in the world is better to do it than in the magical land of India…

I hope that my story will inspire you. Take some time to meditate and reflect on your own journey and if you have any unpredictable and magical stories to share, please do. Telling stories helps to keep us and our memories alive.

I wish for all of us not to be afraid to reach unknown territories as it is from the unexpected that life can truly reveal itself to us.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this new travel diary! I wish you a beautiful journey. Feel free to reach out here if you have any questions, or if you just wanna chat, I am always happy to listen to your journey 😘.

Much love,

Laurene ❤️