Krishna has never been a God I could easily relate to. Out of all the Indian Gods and Goddesses, he was the one I never paid much attention to. Partially, this had to do with over-exposure through the Krishna movement in the UK. Taking it down to the most basic (and biased) level, I always thought that the Hare Krishna movement, and in particular the 'Hare Krishna' chant you'd hear on a Sunday in towns across this country, was a bit ‘naff’. Quite irrationally, my sense of irritation towards Krishna-related places, and resistance to Krishna the God, accompanied me throughout my [View Full Entry]

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It’s Samhain morning. Tonight is the most important night in the Pagan calendar, when the veils between the worlds are extra-ordinarily thin. The Celts celebrated ‘All Hallowtide’, known as Halloween in the modern world, as the ‘Feast of the Dead’, when the dead revisited the mortal world. The festival marks the end of summer and the start of the winter months, and the Celtic New Year traditionally begins on 1st November. It’s a time to let go of the old and invite in new energies, as well as an opportunity to connect with our ancestors. This time last ye [View Full Entry]

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After a week of celebration, dance and catharsis in Dorset, I am ready for a somewhat more serene time and make my way across the picturesque Devon countryside to the market town of Totnes. Totnes, so I am told, is something of a spiritual hotbed, not unlike Glastonbury, and I look forward to exploring the place. My friend Hana collects me at the train station. I have not actually seen Hana for about five years, and in fact, I’ve probably only met her once or twice in my life, but this doesn’t matter. On a human level, we may be virtual [View Full Entry]

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The morning after the AUM meditation, I can’t speak. I have lost my voice. Completely. I can’t even croak. ‘This happens to everyone here sooner or later’, says community member Mala sympathetically. I am fated to converse in sign language or through eye contact and writing notes. It’s an interesting place to be in, this enforced silence, asking me to communicate and relate to others in an entirely different way. I become aware of just how much I rely on words to connect. My new muteness is especially inconvenient because tomorrow Osho Leela have planned a Plea [View Full Entry]

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Osho Leela is a friendly, open and welcoming place. The large house consists of beautiful rooms with wooden floors and massive bay windows, many of them converted into dorms for the visitors, two kitchens, a dining room, reception rooms, and large gardens, where some of the residents live in caravans and pine lodges. A lot of the people, an eclectic mix of men and women, who live here are sannyasins, ‘renunciates’. However, sannyas, traditionally the Hindu asceticism adopted by those who renounce the material world in favour of spiritual pursuit, carries a different m [View Full Entry]

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I’m back on the road. Or rather, on the rail tracks. After my three-month stint in rural Wales, I’ve come to the conclusion that settled life just doesn’t work for me at this point in time. In particular the solitary or semi-solitary way of living we’re so accustomed to in the West. Before I went travelling, my friend Rob said that I might find it difficult to settle again after such a big trip. True - although I would like to settle again at some point in my life, it will have to be in a different way. Many of my [View Full Entry]

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I‘m not made for hermit life - at least not for extended periods of time. With a personality like mine, I don’t stay solitary for long, despite the best of intentions. After one or two months of immersion in near-solitude and spiritual practice, I am starting to itch and want to get out there again. The explorer in me is far too curious about life, land and people. When I told my good friend Sheilagh Holmes that I was moving to a remote village in the Brecon Beacons, she laughingly prophecised that before long, I would organise a ritual in the [View Full Entry]

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I am still travelling. But this is a different journey altogether. I am on a path that, at times, feels more perilous and treacherous to me than dodging bombs in Pakistan. It is called the Inner Journey. During my five day sadhana practice at Anand Prakash Ashram in Rishikesh, I had a very strong intuition that I ought to go to Wales to do some work with a yogi and energy healer I had met under serendipitous circumstances in Devon about three years earlier. This seemed bizarre to me: here I was, in India, planning to go on to Nepal or [View Full Entry]

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There is a familiar saying that goes ‘Life is what happens when you have other plans’. I’ve found this to be particular true in India, a country in which the main lesson seems to be surrender. Things have a life and pace of their own here. You can make all the plans in the world, but if Mother India isn’t ready to let you go, something will happen to keep you just a little bit longer. And sometimes, a lifetime of experiences can occur within a week or two. This is exactly what has been going on for me recently. I [View Full Entry]

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After six days of sadhana in the ashram, I take a walk to Ganga with my Canadian friend MJ on Beltane Eve. It’s a warm night, and glowworms lead our way as dusk sets in. When we get to my favourite Ganga beach, I notice a fire in the bushes on the hill behind us. It basks everything in a golden glow, and it feels as though this is our own personal Beltane fire. This is especially beautiful because it’s MJ’s first proper visit to Ma Ganga, and I watch her offer some incense, water, fruit and a prayer in the [View Full Entry]

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