What Are Great Cities In India To Travel To To Do Solo Spiritual Work?

[Joseph Maynor]

I know about Varanasi, city of Shiva if I'm not mistaken.  Let's say I wanted to do like a 2 week spiritual vacation in India.  What cities would you recommend I visit.  Remember, I'm a semi-spoiled tourist who does like to stay in a hotel that is not too far below Western Standards.  I don't want to be living like a Sadhu in an Ashram for 2 weeks lol.  But at the same time I want to get off the Tourist Trail, if you know what I mean.  North or south?  East or west?  India is so large.  And assume I'll be going by myself for 2 weeks.  I know it's trendy for people to do the Golden Triangle.  

Edited June 30, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Prabhaker]

 OSHO International Meditation Resort, Pune (India)

STAYING IN PUNE AND THE MEDITATION RESORT

http://www.osho.com/visit/stay-in-pune-and-oimr

CURRENT RATES

http://www.osho.com/visit/rates-offers/seasonal-rates

 

 

[Prabhaker]

18 minutes ago, Outer said:

Twice the cost for International residents, everyone wearing the same clothes, no apparent meditation done in the video.

OSHO International Meditation Resort offers a variety of meditations for every type of person including Vipassana . 

http://www.osho.com/visit/facilities-services/daily-meditations

Yes , it is costlier , but it is one the most beautiful , luxurious, happiest meditation resort in India , it attracts large number of visitors all over the world,  everybody wears same kind of cloths for a reason.

There are many less costlier Vipassana centers in India and rest of the world. 

https://www.dhamma.org/en/locations/contacts

http://www.thali.dhamma.org/

http://www.dhamma.net.in/

[Toby]

Tirivuannamalai at Arunachala. Haridwar/Rishikesh. Make sure to visit Ashrams of Ramana Maharshi and Anandamayi Ma.

[Prabhaker]

Established by Sadhguru , in the foothills of the Velliangiri mountains, forty kilometers from the city of Coimbatore in South India, serve as home for the Isha Yoga Center.

http://isha.sadhguru.org/isha-global-centers/isha-yoga-center/

[Prabhaker]

The Most Important Lesson From India

 

 

[Prabhaker]

On 6/30/2017 at 7:07 AM, Joseph Maynor said:

I know about Varanasi, city of Shiva if I'm not mistaken.

A tirtha, a sacred place of pilgrimage, is a unique invention, very deep and symbolic, made by an ancient civilization. But our present civilization has lost all knowledge about the significance of such places. Today visiting a place of pilgrimage is just a dead ritual for us. We just tolerate them, without knowing why places of pilgrimage were established, what their use was and who made them.

Whatever can be seen from the surface is not everything. There are some hidden meanings which are not visible from the outside. We should understand first that our civilization has lost the purpose and meaning of the sacred place of pilgrimage and so today people who go on a pilgrimage waste their time. Those who oppose the idea are also wasting their time, however right they seem to be, because they know nothing about such places. Neither the people who visit the places of pilgrimage, nor those who oppose the idea know the purpose of them, so let us understand a few things about them....

The only reason for creating the places for pilgrimage was to experiment with creating powerfully charged fields of conscious energies, so that anyone could easily begin his inner journey.

There are two methods of making a boat move. One method is to open the sails at the right time in the direction of the wind and not use the oars; the other method is not to open the sails, but to help the boat move with the use of the oars. The places of pilgrimage are places where a stream of consciousness is flowing automatically: you just have to stand in the middle of the stream where the sails of your consciousness open up and you begin your journey onwards. You will be able to travel far more easily and faster in such places than anywhere else, and alone. Elsewhere, you may unknowingly reach some negative place and open up your sails in the wrong direction: you may move further away from your destination and become lost.

In meditation you become very receptive, open and vulnerable, so whatever is happening around you at that time enters you. So when you meditate it is always necessary to choose a place which will not take you in a wrong direction. Whenever, during meditation, you have disturbing thoughts or find it difficult to be silent, move from such a place.

You can sit in meditation in a jail too, but that requires a very strong individuality. There are different methods to help you meditate in a jail: you create a line of demarcation over which negative forces cannot enter.

But in a tirtha, a holy pilgrimage place, such a line is not necessary. In such a place you drop all resistance and open all your doors and windows. There, positive energy is flowing in abundance.

Hundreds of people have traveled into the unknown from there and have created a path. It is as if they have made a path by cutting down trees and removing the bushes blocking the path, so that those walking behind them find it easier to travel. On the religious path, efforts are made by the higher, stronger consciousnesses to help weaker people, in every way. The place of pilgrimage was one such experiment.

A place of pilgrimage is where the currents are flowing from the body towards the soul, where the whole atmosphere is charged; from where people have achieved samadhi, from where people realized their enlightenment. Such places have become specially charged. In such a place, if you just open your sails, without doing nothing else, your journey will begin.

So all religions have established their places of pilgrimage. Even those religions which were against temples have done it. It is surprising that religions that were against idol worship and temples established places of pilgrimage. It was easy to remove idols, but places of pilgrimage could not be removed because such places have a value which no religions could oppose or deny.

Jainas are not basically idol worshipers, nor are Mohammedans nor Sikhs nor Buddhists; in the beginning Buddhists were not idol worshipers at all. But all of them have established their sacred places of pilgrimage. They had to. Without such places there is no meaning for a religion. If there were no such places, everything would have to be done by the individual, and in that case there would be no meaning or purpose in a religious commune.

There are a few tirthas (place of pilgrimage) that are eternal - Kashi(Varanasi) is one such. There has never been a time on earth when Kashi - Varanasi - was not a tirtha. It is man's oldest place of pilgrimage, so it has a greater value. So many people have been liberated, experienced peace and sacredness there, the sins of so many have been washed away there - a long, long continuity, and so the suggestion that one can be freed of sin has gone deeper and deeper. That suggestion becomes faith to a simple mind, and if such trust is there, the holy place will become valuable; otherwise it is useless. Without your cooperation, a tirtha cannot help you. And you will be able to give your cooperation only if the holy place is very ancient and historical.

Hindus say that Kashi is not a part of this earth, but a place apart; the city of Shiva is separate and indestructible. Many towns will be built and will be destroyed, but Kashi will remain forever. Buddha went to Kashi, all the Jaina tirthankaras were born in Kashi, Shankaracharya also went to Kashi, Kabir went to Kashi: Kashi has seen tirthankaras, incarnations and saints, but all are no more. Not one of them remains, but Kashi does. The holiness of all these people, the benefit of their good work, all the achievements of their lives, their collective fragrance is absorbed by Kashi and it has acquired their life streams. This makes Kashi separate from the earth, at least metaphysically.

On this city's roads Buddha has walked, and in its lanes Kabir has given religious discourses. Now it has all become a story, a dream, but Kashi has assimilated everything within itself. If someone with absolute trust and faith enters this city, he can again see Buddha walking on its roads, he can see Tulsidas and Kabir.... If you approach Kashi like this then it is not just an ordinary city like Bombay or London, it will take on a unique spiritual form. Its consciousness is ancient and eternal. History may be lost, civilizations may be born and destroyed, may come and go, but Kashi keeps its inner life-flow continuous.

Walking on its roads, bathing near the banks of its river, the Ganges, and sitting in meditation in Kashi, you also become a part of its inner flow. To think that "I alone can do everything," is dangerous. The divine in many forms can help. In temples and holy places that help can be sought; their whole arrangement is to provide help.

I have told you some things to explain the tirtha to you - but that is not enough. There are many things connected with such places which can't be understood - but they do happen. Such things cannot be intellectually clarified or made into mathematical formulas, but they do happen.

I will tell you of two or three things that happen.... If you sit somewhere alone in meditation, you are unlikely to feel aware of the presence of the few souls who may be around you. But in a tirtha, such an experience can be very powerful. It may become so deep sometimes that you feel your own presence less than that of the others.

When you get down from a train at the Kashi station, you see the gross form of Kashi, made of mud and stone: any tourist can go there and return. But there is a spiritual form of Kashi which only those who are introspective will be able to reach - those who can go deep into meditation. For them Kashi will be different, very beautiful, beyond the imagination, whereas the earthly Kashi is dirtier and more foul-smelling than any other city. That is only the visible Kashi. Some would say that the other Kashi, the beautiful one, exists only in the imagination of the poet - but that Kashi is also there.

The real Kashi (Varanasi) is a great contact field for meditators. One who reaches through meditation, reaches the spiritual Kashi: on its remote banks he might come across people he could never have imagined meeting.

  Osho ~ Hidden Mysteries