This year, we organized two pilgrimages to India with 15 people each, and they have been wonderful experiences.
In this summary, we are sharing some of the insights and stories we have experienced, especially on the second trip, which we have fully co-organized between GreenYoguiAdventure and EspacioUbuntu.
We have presented the journeys as pilgrimages. Instead of just being a tourism trip, this experience was an opportunity for personal and social explorations and development. As you will see, they were transformative journeys, which invited us to delve deeper into ourselves as we discovered the astounishing beauty of India.
THE ROOTS OF THE JOURNEY
Almost a decade ago we began to organize the Reloveution gatherings in Spain, inspired by the MovedbyLove gatherings in India. Within them, we explore cultural transitions, our own inner transformation, and the potentials of different paradigms of social change, supported by the idea of a comprehensive r-evolution of the mind (head), heart (heart) and hands (hands).
At one of these retreats we met Joseba, a yoga teacher and travel facilitator to India among many other things. This year, Joseba and Alba, his life partner, contacted us to co-facilitate a journey to India! At EspacioUbuntu we had not facilitated these journeys since the pandemic, and it was a gift to receive this offer of collaboration that fit perfectly with the personal moment of Joserra and Neida, who also decided to join the trip.
At the union of both worlds, we mixed the types of yoga such as meditation, devotion, the most physical yoga, integrating as well aspects of karma yoga (the yoga of social action and altruism), and integral yoga, that which includes concepts and practices of systemic and social change.
And the mixture has turned out to be wonderful! It is difficult to summarize the experience in a few words, but we try to put together here some of the insights we took away from the trip.
THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS
In the NGOs and ecosystems that we collaborate with in India, we always talk about the power of relationships: ‘relationships first, projects emerge naturally’, is heard.
Despite not having returned to India for four years, it is the power of relationships that has allowed us to live the wonderful experience we have had, connecting with the local reality in a profound way, favoring real exchange experiences that have facilitated the important learnings and transformative moments of the trip.
We are very grateful for the open hearts of many people, like Nishanti, Vimal and Nofal in Coonoor, Nisha and Ragu in Coimbatore, Deven, Shaalini and Vipul in Auroville, Nimo, Jayeshbhai, Diken, Anarben, Neetaben, Vinay, Priya in Ahmedabad… It is because of heart connections, and their tremendous kindness and openness that we have been able to experience India the way we did. Thank you!
And we do not take it for granted. Keeping the doors of the heart open to others, especially to foreigners (or diversity), is not something we see so abundantly today. In a world where there is increasing concern about diversity, these people teach us to look at our differences with the lenses of love and wealth. And in our case, it is not just that our hosts in India opened the door for us, they actually gave us the keys to their house. Countless times I have heard: ‘You don’t even have to ask, this is your home.’ And it is not a saying, as you will see in these stories.
How different the world would be with more hearts so open, full of compassion and love!
THE POWER OF SERVICE AND ALTRUISTIC COLLABORATION
Relationships are the basis of social ecosystems like the one in Ahmedabad, also rooted in the value of service to others, Karma Yoga, altruism in action. In the ecosystem, since Gandhi, there are already several generations inspired and eager to leave a better world, through different manifestations of that intention of service.
Moved by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and the situation of casteless people, Ishwardada decided to dedicate himself to social service, focusing his efforts in the area of WASH, hygiene and sanitation, closely related at that time to the social problems of caste. In India, until two decades ago, the main causes of mortality and disease were poor hygiene and sanitation habits, and the lack of appropriate infrastructure, such as latrines, drains, sewage treatment plants, etc.
But Ishwardada’s work went far beyond his immense and necessary work in the field of sanitation or the construction of infrastructure, and included the practice of karma yoga, community building, and it was guided towards his own personal evolution. ‘I do all the work for my own personal purification, my own evolution,’ Gandhi said. And Ishwardada developed his work in the same spirit. His work touched thousands of people around the world, and inspired a whole new generation of changemakers.
We were lucky enough to be in Ahmedabad on his birthday, which the community still celebrates with all the love in the world!
Ishwar Patel
Some of those people were his son, Jayeshbhai, Jayeshbhai’s wife, Anar and another pilgrimage companion, Virenbhai. Several decades after Ishwardada began his work, they also decided to start serving the children of the slums of Ahmedabad.
What started for them as a weekly volunteer time, in which they played with the children and cleaned their hands, little by little became a way of life, and later a space so that others could also experience that way of life. From those experiences emerged Manav Sadhana, one of the wonderful NGOs we visited. It serves thousands of slum children every day, with more than 40 projects and 6 community centers that have become safe spaces where communities meet and transform.
Manav Sadhna (MS) is, in itself, a great ecosystem of people and projects, in which altruistic collaboration and the intention of service shine. Every year, local beneficiaries become project coordinators and hundreds of international volunteers serve, taking with them invaluable seeds with the potential of transforming their whole lives.
Manav Setu, Manav Sadhna’s new community center, literally under a bridge, where they develop education, health and community projects.
From Ishwardada’s work also emerged the ESI retreat center, the center where we stayed the week we were in Ahmedabad. A place of love, beauty and transformation through which thousands of people pass each year, a modern ashram in which to experience Gandhian values and the power of community.
And in the same ecosystem of Ahmedabad we were also able to meet Anar ben and visit the new center of Gramshree, an NGO dedicated to the empowerment of women, which works to care for crafts and textiles at risk of extinction. It focuses on generating safe spaces in which women can self empower and be themselves, while developing a right livelihood in a friendly environment.
In each of these initiatives, love for humanity shines, with the focus on one’s own personal transformation, from which a deeper and more transformative social action emerges.
We were also deeply inspired by the collaboration and openness between all of them; de egosystem a ecosystem, a space of spaces to collaborate, take care of each other and multiply opportunities for personal and collective transformation. How much we can also learn from this way of collaborating between organizations!
From all these interactions in the Ahmedabad ecosystem, we learned many things, some of which we summarize in these phrases, which we heard from people who have been doing this for decades, and which can be useful for our projects and organizations:
THE POWER OF KINDNESS
In a beautiful synchronicity, just before the trip, my friend John Sweeney contacted us. He is one of the main promoters of the Suspended Coffees movement at a global level (Suspended Coffees, a solidarity tradition born in Italy). John has followed our work through ServiceSpace and Espacio Ubuntu, and offered us to participate in an experiment in unconditional kindness! He offered us $500, through the DropDeadGenerous program, to use toward one or more gestures of transformative kindness, so we could plant seeds of generosity in the world. It was incredible that this collaboration came when it did, and the team (Neida, Joseba and Joserra) decided to propose using that money to do small gestures of generosity during the trip. The idea that emerged was to use the 21 days of the trip to create a habit, and also practice it collectively.
This perspective of contribution allowed us to live several very transformative experiences, which we still carry with us:
Buying tea for two whole buses at a travel stop, on the way to Coonoor. At one of our bus stops we decided to buy tea for two entire buses! People really enjoyed it, and it generated beautiful moments of gratitude and connection.
The first day we bought books of wisdom and postcards with beautiful messages that we left in dozens of places throughout the trip.
We also printed smile cards with which we could do small gestures of anonymous kindness, and we paid for a few lunches and dinners :).
We left some paid gifts in different shops. We left, for example, a paid sculpture, and the sculptor was very touched by our gesture, and he shared with us how he also carried out generous practices such as feeding the monkeys in his neighborhood every week, spending a significant amount of money in it.
We bought transformative material from Manav Sadhna, promoter of the Earn and Learn project, which supports children who would otherwise work on the streets. Material that we are still giving away today in our spaces and projects, also in Spain.
One day we went out to the street to connect with the Sadhus (people who dedicate themselves to contemplation and spiritual search in India), offering them food and a time to interact.
We were greatly impacted by their stories, and also by their generosity and kindness. One of them gave us a book, and another brought us incense to protect us from mosquitoes while we gathered in a circle on the street. We went out into the street thinking about giving, but we didn’t stop receiving.
And so many more stories!
All these gestures generated a lot of cohesion in the group, as they say in India: ‘noble friendships, those based on service to society, are the deepest and most lasting.’ Each gesture brought us together a little more, and favored a more solid relational field.
On the trip, the practice of kindness, this perspective, helped us connect even more with the spirit of contribution. At the beginning of the trip we talked about how you can travel as a tourist or as a pilgrim. The tourist tends to consume, the pilgrim tries to leave the place better than how he/she found it, tries to contribute. And this perspective of looking for opportunities to contribute allowed us to experience the journey in a totally different way. With the right look, the practice of these small acts ends up dissolving the roles of giver and receiver, and generates a dance of shared joy and transformation, with unpredictable consequences, both in our internal and external worlds.
THE KINDNESS WE RECEIVED
In that dance of give and receive that unfolds so naturally in India, we often found ourselves in the role of recipients of kindness. The intention of sustaining the 21-day experiment also helped us transcend the materialistic perspective that only tangible things can be given. After several days we reflected on how the intention of kindness became an opportunity to interact in another way, beyond the possible material exchange, beyond $500. As we experimented, we connected with more subtle possibilities such as smiles, moments of deep listening, kind presence, or the idea of ’holding space’.
Kindness may seem insubstantial or even frivolous in the circumstances of today’s world, but in essence it involves a radical change in attitude with profound consequences.
One can ask: What would happen if Netanyahu or Biden or the Ayatollahs were more rooted in kindness towards others, in non-violence?
Perhaps one day we will choose those types of leaders to represent us, those with an ethical and moral clarity that will allow us to finally transcend ancient forms and practices that we should have transcended as humanity a long time ago (EJ: war, systemic violence, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, separation for cultural or religious reasons…)
Kindness is a human quality that we encountered at almost every step of the journey.
When we arrived in Coonoor, Vimal and Nishanti hosted us in their house (on the first trip), and on the second trip Vimal guided us through the tea fields to meet indigenous communities far from the commercial circuit. We were able to make a donation so that Vimal was able to collaborate with these communities once we were not there, and he recently sent us some photos :).
In Coimbatore we met Raghu and Nisha on both trips, with whom we had very inspiring circles on topics such as permaculture, community building or naturopathy. They invited us to eat several times, and even invited us on a minibus so that we could experience the day we spent there more smoothly! ‘You’re in our home now, so we’ll take care of it!’ It was a gesture that touched us all a lot.
In Auroville, we also lived a beautiful experience of mindfulness in nature that our friend Vipul Saha unconditionally offered us, and a circle with Deven to learn more about such an incredible project.
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All of these moments and activities were offered unconditionally, without price, without transactional expectations… This is precisely one of the cultural transitions that we talk about in our reloveution retreats, and something that is very much alive in India; a way of understanding life that deeply inspired us and whose impact can be summarized in one of the stories of a fellow (she) traveler:
“…when a beautiful woman at Gandhi Ashram gives me her bag that I complimented on and asked where she bought it, it completely disarmed me. Instantly an impulse came that made me wonder how to pay her for what she was giving me. I put my hand in my bag looking for something to give her. It was in vain. I immediately realized that it wasn’t going that way, but my western mind didn’t understand selfless gifts from the heart. It has been a super learning experience that has touched me deeply. I can never be grateful enough for the double gift: the precious backpack that I have not taken off since then, and a life lesson that I hope to be able to sow too.”
THE POWER OF INDIAN VILLAGES
An experience that brought together many of the facets of the pilgrimage in India was the visit to Bhanpur, a small village in Gujarat.
As Jayeshbhai told us, the villages of India are the divine reality, places where natural, community, and social wealth shine… With their challenges and limitations, the villages of India still have a lot to share and inspire, and this is what we experience in our two-day visit to Bhanpur.
In Bhanpur we experienced the Indian saying: Aditi Devo Bhava, ‘the guest is god’, in all its splendor. The town had prepared a reception for us with music, performances by the town’s children, a night party with community dancing included… incredible. In addition, 8 families had organized themselves so that we could stay two by two in different houses, so we could get to know better how they live and what their day-to-day life is like. They also showed us their milk cooperative, their drinking water source, and other social mechanisms and places in the town.
Vinay tells us in detail in this article. A wonderful experience in which many of us felt overwhelmed by the beauty and generosity of these unknown friends, who taught us the unconditional hospitality of the Indian people, and the abundance of their hearts. A seed for life, also reflected in this video-gift, which ESI offered us after the trip:
THE POWER OF SYSTEMS THINKING
The reality of the indian villages has that divine potential, of a life more connected to nature, with more community, more mutual care, more time, more self-care, more spirituality… those valuable and intangible types of wealth.
Something that is also experienced in a place like Auroville.
Auroville is an experimental city that emerged more than 60 years ago in southern India, rooted in spirituality and the transformation of social systems towards a greater common good. https://joserrag.com/2018/03/23/a-visit-to-auroville/
A place to connect the spiritual and the material, investigate our purpose, and deploy collective possibilities that go beyond the modern paradigms that we accept as laws.
What would you think if we told you that there is a place on earth where…?
…Energy is clean and free for everyone.
… Education is also free, with the most innovative models, alternative pedagogies based on the comprehensive development of children.
… Healthcare is also free and universal.
…The housing is also free for the local inhabitants and you cannot speculate with it since the property is municipal!
… Culture is also a gift, and it is one of the places in the world with the most events and workshops per inhabitant.
… A place focused on inner and social evolution, where work is: ‘a way to express your gifts in connection with the common good’, and where jobs are designed based on the joy of giving, free time to grow internally, and beauty.
… A place where 2 million trees have been planted in 60 years, going from being a wasteland to a forest city.
…with more than 3,500 people living, more than 100 housing communities, hundreds of gift economy projects, and a wonderful projection for the coming decades.
The world is governed today by principles such as individualism, consumerism and competition, a further step in human evolution are systems based on mutual care, collaborative altruism and internal transformation. And luckily there are places where these paradigms are already taking off, with respect for diversity of forms and without centralized coercion.
Auroville in a night celebration
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
The trip has been a gift of love for everyone.
The people we have met,
The wonderful spaces and projects,
The hope of a better world,
The reality of seeing it possible,
The dream come true,
Divine life, on Earth,
The bridge in the heart,
And feet on the ground,
The wings spread,
The veil disappears.
Anonymous
From personal transformation, through organizational spaces and systemic change projects, we have been able to learn about other realities, realities that give us hope and inspiration. We hope to continue cultivating the inner garden, and inspire each other to implement ideas, tools, projects, connections through which we can replicate the learnings we have experienced in India.
We hope that the seeds of this world that already exists can fly, as Vinoba said, ‘let the birds carry them, the waters transmit them, the wind transport them’, because in our hearts we know that a better world is possible. And in our heart resides also the key to that world.
More photos of the journey:
Blessing a gift
Train journeys
Adiyogui
Devotional and spanish music
Deven sharing about Auroville
After the mindfulness walk with Vipul
Heart circle at the heart of the Gandhi Ashram
Seva Café night
Visit to PTC/Ashramsala
Closing circle with Jayeshbhai
Visiting Kabir Ashram with Kishan
Through tea fields with Vimal
Kindness in Thailand after the journey
Soon more pilgrimages and adventures in India!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
