Return From The Holy Mountain

I'm Back In London After A Month in India. So What Am I Taking Away?

I have finally returned to my London home after a blissful month in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. I was ready to return - once you get into March the heat there can become unbearable. But this lengthy sojourn has revealed the stark contrast between my home city and this part of Southern India.

Many of these contrasts are very obvious. London is much richer - and more expensive. It is far more multicultural. And it is wetter. And colder. And, I suppose, more ‘sophisticated’ if you measure sophistication by the number of art galleries, theatres and concert halls.

But for me the most striking difference between the cultures was one that was plain to see in some ways, but hard to express. This part of India, like many of its spiritual centres, is a reverent culture. Prayer and worship and devotion penetrate each and every family. Go to any ashram or temple, and it will be bursting with ordinary Indians of all ages paying tribute to a god or a holy man ( in. Tiru it is the great sage Ramana Maharshi).