Spiritual India, part two

Bathing in the Ganges
Originally uploaded by Amberly & David.

While in Varanasi, I've asked a few folks - why is India spiritual? The answers sort of fit in with some observations I've made on my own. So here's a crack at it.

Sacred Spaces
Certainly, India is the cradle for several religions, Hinduism and Buddhism the most prominent of them. Hinduism (from which Buddhism spawned) has come to being over thousands of years, amalgamating bits from different ethnic groups along the way. The history I'll once again leave for you to research.

There is something to be said for the religion having grown up next to its cradle. As we've discovered in our travels, there are places (like Varanasi, arguably the oldest living city in the world) that have been holy for longer than most religions have existed! Sacred places everywhere take on more spiritual energy the longer they are so. It's no accident that churches get built on top of Druid sacred ground or that temples are razed in favor of mosques. Places have meaning. It's no small wonder, then, that India has become charged in ways few other places have, after generations and generations of people went to the same places to worship.

Is it the water or is it in the blood?
The reverse angle was posited by a zealous young man yesterday evening: People in India had a religious ancestry that has been passed down. It's genetic! I have noticed (and have been told) that Indians are a very emotional people. To whit, Hindi is a very emotionally expressive language. I don't think it's too big of a leap to say that people who are in touch with their emotions tend to also be more attuned to spirit (saying this without judgment one way or another). It begs the question a bit to say emotionality is the reason rather than place, since the former could easily influence the latter, but it's an interesting observation all the same.

Accident of History
Another evocative theory came from the gentleman I spoke of in the last post. He seemed to be saying (among many other things) that India's (and Hinduism's) continued deep spirituality was quite accidental. Where other major politically dominant world religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam) had their theology corrupted somewhere along the line to serve the ends of the powerful, Hinduism has stayed true (truer?) to some essential spiritual truths, and always kept an eye on individual enlightenment.

This sentiment has no shortage of controversy contained in it, not to mention holes riddling it. Nonetheless, if it accounts for a bit of the explanation, it is worth examining.

The Last Word
As spirituality goes, neither Hinduism or India have the last word, of course. There are many movements within the world's religions (Renewal Judaism among them, in my humblest opinion :) that have it right, as well as sacred places (Jerusalem, anyone?) that yield no ground in the sacred places arena.

Perhaps India's cachet is its foreign-ness. I recently heard of a western woman who married an Indian man and has been living here for the last 20 years. Even though she's fluent enough in Hindi, she purports to understand only 60% of what is happening culturally, even in her day-to-day context. The mythology is so dense and alluring, and the history so long, that is continues to attract western seekers to its shores.

Perhaps the mainstream west has gotten so caught up in a world of secular materialism and turned off by right-wing religious ideology that it would rather bathe in these waters than shower near its own cradle. But that's a topic for another time.

This short essay doesn't do the topic justice. Consider it a thought process, and I'd love to hear your feedback.