I am drawn to India for its food, its history and its culture, but even more so for its mystics. On my first trip to the subcontinent, in 2004, I spent four days in Mumbai attending a jewelry conference. On my final day, I set aside a few hours for sightseeing and shopping. My guidebook mentioned something about a group of psychics and palm readers who hung around Victoria Terminus, an icon of Raj architecture in the colonial heart of the city. I couldn\u2019t resist paying them a visit.<\/p>\n
When I arrived at the designated spot, all I found was a disheveled, pot-bellied man in an alcoholic stupor. He grabbed my palm and proclaimed that I would have perfect health until I reached the ripe old age of 70. Unfortunately, he wasn\u2019t able to foresee a much more imminent threat to my physical self: The spicy food I\u2019d eaten for four days straight had finally reached a boiling point in my stomach. Before the drunken lout could finish my reading, I slid down from the concrete tree well where I was perched, staggered to the curb and, in front of the 20 Indian men who had gathered to watch my palm reading, unceremoniously retched into the gutter.<\/p>\n
On my next visit to India, in 2006, I was determined to improve upon my previous psychic encounter. This trip found me in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, a dry, desert state in northwest India known for its rich Mughal past.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I stopped in at the office of a famous local astrologer named Dr. Shastri. I\u2019d had my chart read before but never by the likes of a diminutive Indian doctor dressed in black-rimmed spectacles and a grey Nehru jacket. Dr. Shastri sat behind a desk and recited many nice things about my long and abundant life. I found the session more amusing than meaningful but it was certainly worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n
Still seeking a taste of true Indian mysticism, however, I tried again a year later. At the suggestion of a friend, I went to see Ramesh S. Balsekar, an aging guru who lived a few minutes from Mumbai\u2019s famous Mahalaxmi Temple. He welcomed an audience of mostly graying American and European hippies into his apartment every morning for a satsang, or a devotional speech, during which he answered questions about everything from anger management to career crises to broken hearts. To his visitors\u2019s myriad requests, Ramesh had but one simple message: \u201cTo be enlightened is to be able to accept with equanimity anything in life at any moment as God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n
That message of acceptance has guided me ever since, proving that in a search for wisdom, as in many of life\u2019s pursuits, the third time\u2019s the charm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Learning acceptance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1651,1840,4657,4658,1692],"cp_author":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-body-spirit","tag-health","tag-india","tag-indian-culture","tag-palm-readers","tag-religion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n