India is not just another country, with over a billion people, 35 states, twice that many languages and an exotic transportation system, traveling in India can be challenging, but it can also be the journey of a life time.
This is what YN suggest, there are of course many more place we have not been...
Himachal Pradesh / Dharamshala:
- Attend a teaching by the Dalai Lama
- Volunteer at the Tushita meditation center
- Be silent for 10 days at the Dhammapadha center
Uttar Pradesh / Varanasi
- Talk a city tour with Varanasi Walk
- Hang out in Asi Ghat, reading Banaras, City of Light by Diana L. Eck
- Get your breakfast at Om Cafe and learn the latest about the city with Sivani
Uttar Pradesh / Other
- Of course Agra and the Taj Mahal
- We have not been but would recommend some time in Vrindavan the City of lord Krishna
Bihar / Bodh Gaya
- Walk with the pilgrim at 4am listening "sangham saranam gachami"
- Learn Tibetan Buddhism at the Root Institute
- Visit the vulture cave, home of the famous "Heart Sutra"
Bihar / Munger
- Offer some karma time to Bihar School Ashram
- Attend the World Yoga convention (Fall 2013)
Tamil Nadu
- Visit Auroville and Aurobindo Ashram in Pondichery
- Spent a week in Tiruvanamalai and Ramana Maharshi's ashram
- Ascend or circumanbulate the Arunachala (Thursday is the good day for a teacher)
Kerala
- Learn Ayurveda
- or do a full Panchakarma
- Enjoy the beach!
Rishikesh (that if you really must go)
- Sleep at the Parnarth Niketan Ashram (next to RamJula)
- Pay a visit at Swami Shivananda Ashram
- Dive in the Himalaya and visit Gomukh, Badrinath, Kedarnath
From Nepal, you could follow the Buddhist trail
- Lumbini, Buddha's birth place
- Kushinagar, Buddha's Maha Samadhi
- Sarnat, Buddha first teaching after enlightenemnt
- Bodh Gaya (see above)
Read (do not go for guide book, real real books!)
- Are you experienced by William Sutcliffe
- A Search In Secret India, by Paul Brunton
- Banaras, City of Light by Diana L. Eck
- Seeing Spiritual India, A guide to temples, Holy Sites and Tradition by Stephen Knapp
And many more to come... we will complete as we go, this is just a start to wet your appetite.
