Why is it good to move out of your usual environment and step out of your comfort zone?
Everyone has their own answer to this.
Some people say thank you but don't want to. And that's okay.
I do it out of an inner urge. I think it would be difficult or almost impossible without it.
This is what led me to India: the curiosity to learn and explore. The fact that it is a very different world than the one I live in. A different culture, system of customs, behavior, and traditions.
My spiritual journey led me to this, an inner voice. But now I am not writing about that, but about a seemingly much more mundane experience.
This is nothing more than the first shock that a stranger arriving from afar experiences as soon as he leaves the airport and gets into a car or bus.
That is, Indian traffic, which at first seems chaotic and life-threatening. For someone from the West, it is nerve-wracking.
It starts with me looking in vain for my seatbelt in the car: there isn't one. The driver reassures me that it's just a source of stress, because you feel trapped and strapped in. And there's some truth to that. We've accepted at home that despite a little discomfort, it can save a life. But let's leave that for now, it's better if I let go of this thought. I'd rather listen, listen to this cacophonous music, the chaotic dance that they're playing and doing on the road.
Besides the cars, there are a lot of motorbikes. Two, three, four people sit on the motorbikes. They try to maneuver between the trucks and cars.
There are practically no lanes, their width and direction change flexibly according to the given moment. Sometimes a vendor pushing his cart or a horse-drawn carriage appears at the commercial points. In the countryside, cows rest in the middle of the main roads, or dogs, which the cars patiently avoid. There are no speeders, there is no urge for anyone to step on the gas.
The main means of communication is the horn. This is used to signal their intention to move forward, to make those moving slower move forward. No one gets offended or upset when they honk. They give each other space, and if they are in a hurry, let them go. There are always those who are not in such a hurry.
There are no turning lanes on the highway: they cut perpendicularly through the 3-4 oncoming „lanes” where traffic is continuous, trusting in God. And they always succeed.
I've been to the country several times and haven't seen an accident, even though there are a lot of people driving. Not even an animal run over.
This incredible amount of vehicles, according to our concepts, rushes back and forth on the roads, without any regularity. If I follow them carefully, I still notice something that is invisible: that everyone is connected to everyone and feels everyone, so that not a single movement is missed. In fact, it is a beautiful harmonious dance: what is supposed to happen always happens, in a relaxed state, without tension.
Indian transportation is a spiritual experience in many ways: after the initial fright, you experience that there is Providence and perhaps you surrender to it. You observe the operation of supersensory perception in space, which is already a transpersonal mode of operation, you get an external insight into this. The mind and emotions do not take the participants away, they are constantly in the present moment, so they navigate, flow in this great folk dance and music. It is wonderful.