Jvala curates travel that allows you to immersive in Indian culture to feel sublime. Why sublime? Well…, sublime experiences are comfort for the soul; and hence it will rekindle our passions, giving rise to contentment.
Actually in ancient India, yatra-s: meaning journey or travel were always considered important. It was undertaken to alleviate grief, boredom, dullness, depression, pain, frustrations, weariness, monotony and even remove ignorance. Even today this practice is followed. Historian and scholar, Diana Eck has written a beautiful book – India, a Sacred Geography where she explains significance behind many destinations.
In fact, I made performing arts my career choice only to beat the monotony of daily chores. Performances allowed me to travel and savour India and its culture at grass root levels. To my surprise, not only did it keep me passionate and refreshed, but it also refined my taste and ignited in me sparks that took me closer to simplicity. As da Vinci would say, after all… simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!
While the quest to experience sublime beauty was part and parcel of me being an artist, my existential search, the desire to spiritual tour and experience the sacred spaces of India: the land, its knowledge systems and traditions has been influenced by an important person. And, that karana kartha: who seeded desires and shaped my mind when I was only a little girl has been my grandmother.
My grandmother was a very tiny, petite woman. Although she had no striking features that made her an arresting beauty, she was still beautiful. Her beauty lied in the mental toughness, inner strength, leadership qualities; besides her grounding, and her voracious reading habit. I wouldn’t call her to be entirely orthodox, but she did follow some rituals and was highly spiritual. Her spirituality pushed her to travel through the length and breadth of India. She has been to many of the Shakti peethas (Divine seat of Goddess), jyotirlingam-s (Mystical path of Light), padal petra sthalam-s (Pilgrimages praised by Saint poets) and divya desam-s (Sacred geographies). For an orthodox Brahmin woman, who never spoke Hindi or English to have travelled so extensively at a time when travel was not so convenient, baffles me even today.
If there was any article printed in the weekly magazine on a temple in the suburbs of Madras (Chennai today); she would immediately summon her girl gang, gather them and draw out plans to visit it. If the temple visit involved getting out of town, then she will usually travel with her husband, my grandfather. On her return from travel, she used to tell me loads of stories- which included snippets of the people she met during her travels, the regional folklore related to the temples and her struggles while reaching the destination. She used to be so good in her narratives that, for a imaginative person like me, I never had trouble creating mental visuals. One particular story and her descriptions which stuck with me for a long time is that of Udupi and saint Kanaka Dasa. At Udupi, Lord Krishna left Dwarka, his residential abode, only to give darshan: divine sight, for her beloved devotee, Dasa. In my grandmother’s words, the idol of Udupi Krishna is a small boy holding a ball of butter in his hand, wearing “nothing” but the waist bells around the hips and ankles.
As I grew up, I also came across many descriptions of Udupi Krishna in many of the Carnatic songs. To share one: it is described how the waist bells around the little Lord’s hips would slip down to his feet due to the pangs of hunger especially when the neivedhyam (food offering) got delayed. Over the years, her descriptions, along with the various musicals of the saint poets, had captured my imagination, which developed a desire to catch the sight of little Krishna at Udupi. And when I was in my 30-s, I finally got an opportunity to travel and stay at Udupi for one week.
Excited to catch the darshan of Udupi Krishna, I went to the temple. But the first day’s darshan fell short of my expectations. Second day was no different. However, on the third day, either it was some temple occasion, or since I went very early in the morning that I caught the Lord with minimal ornamentation. Now, that was a sight to catch!
Here…, If I had made merely a one day trip to Udupi, then… would I have known contentment; and, would my childhood desire that was aptly supported by my imagination gotten fulfilled? Chances are less.
The descriptions of my grandmother and all the saint poets created a sublime spiritual experience even before I had visited. And no words can describe a sublime; but I still desired and longed to travel to the destination. Subconsciously, I was seeking an experience that would give me a closure to my imagination. Such a closure can come only from a sublime experience. It is therefore considered the highest type of anubhava: experience as it can give rise to unexplainable ananda (bliss), or contentment (santosha). All of India’s sacred geographies and temple cities were designed and built for connoisseurs who were also seekers of ananda or santosha. Speaking from point of view of beauty, since medieval Indic art was not restricted to a niche segment of society; it was created in large open spaces for an experience that could also give rise to anubhuti: meaningful realised truths. In this way, the purpose of yatra thus gets fulfilled when a spark of knowledge of beauty as a result of anubhuti subsequently grows the wisdom in us, leading us from Darkness to Light.
Also since I stayed put in Udupi for over 5 days, I could also catch the Choornotsavam, the annual temple’s cart festival with all the regional flavours, amusements, and cultural events, creating memories for my daughter, just as my grandmother created memories for me, when I was her age.
To continue the act of goodness of creating pleasurable memories and for promoting India’s soft power: the intangible cultural heritage, paths of Jvala has been carefully created with a lot of care. For example, the paths: Stillness of Lake, Movement of River, Restraint of Mountain, Mystique of Forest and Mirroring the Sky are curated for an advanced level yoga practitioners and spiritual seekers, and hence Yoga darshana and its practice traditions are the underlying currents, among other things. Similarly, if you are an art buff, then each path under the category of connoisseurs has a small knowledge capsule from Indian aesthetics as a theme that will adequately accentuate the experience of the travel destination chosen. For this reason, Jvala’s travels are unhurriedly designed.
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