How to find your spirit in India?

Before I visited India, I tried to find out what to expect. The common answers of the people who had been to India were: you either love or hate it. Even though I had a lot of travel experience, I was a little hesitant to go. I was into couchsurfing, and in retrospect, I didn't regret it. Unknown friends of couchsurf contacts, picked me up from the airport and helped me. What I liked in India (after a stay of 3 months from South to North) was especially the conversations about spirituality. 

Spirituality refers to the human experience of connecting with something greater than oneself, seeking meaning and purpose in life, and exploring questions about the nature of existence, consciousness, and ultimate truth. It involves cultivating a sense of awe, reverence, and inner peace, often through practices like meditation, prayer, contemplation of nature, or other pathways of self-reflection and personal growth.

In search of different spiritual topics: I got curious about Auroville. Auroville wants to realise human unity, where men and women of all countries in the world are represented and live in peace and harmony. The community has to be a reflection of the population in the world, in smaller amounts of course. There is no currency used in Auroville, they barter. I stayed a little outside of Auroville with a couchsurfer, up to today Bunty and I are still friends. He gave me insight in a lot of challenges and issues in Auroville. An advantage of Auroville is that it is near Pondicherry, a former French town, which means baguettes and cheese. I stayed a little longer than expected, and had the opportunity to visit the Matrimandir (the soul of the city) viewing point and the Inner chamber. I don't want to spoil your own experience, but try to reserve a visit to the Inner chamber.

In the three months in India, I have been to multiple retreats and spiritual centers: Sivananda yoga retreat near Trivandrum, Bodhi zen center retreat in Madurai, Astrology in Udaipur, Hanging out near the Ganges in Varanassi, trying to meet the Mother (Amma), Baghwan Osho retreat in Pune (almost reached it, but got scared about the HIV tests and orgies).

I can recommend everyone to search in India for your spirit, through yoga, through meditation, through astrology, through interactions with all sides of India. It is definitely a vibe I love and makes you think.