Let me preface this by saying that I can't stand it when someone writes in my guestbook and leaves no indication of who it is. My annoyance is compounded when that person says something directly related to an entry. For example, I recently mentioned the fact that I like to make fun of people who go to India for spiritual enlightenment. Someone wrote in my guestbook, "i dare you to go to india." I perceive the writer of that comment to be someone who did go to India to find spiritual enlightenment.

I don't have much interest in going to India. I like Indian history and historical architecture but I get easily overwhelmed by large crowds of people for which India is famous. I wonder why someone would feel the need to dare me to do that. Maybe it is because that person saw his/her trip to India as a big adventure, or maybe a big risk, or meeting a challenge to him/herself. Maybe it is a person who is also overwhelmed by large crowds. Maybe it is a white person who decided to expand his/her horizons by going to a country where he/she would be out of his/her "comfort zone." I guess those are all valid reasons to do something. But I also get the feeling that this person feels some sort of superiority for accomplishing this task. If that is the case, then I think the trip was a waste. I especially think that the trip was a waste if it was undertaken for the stated purpose of attaining spiritual enlightenment. Why India? Is it because of the country's history as a religious center? Is it because it is the birthplace of Hinduism? Buddhism? Maybe because of Gandhi and his struggle to free his homeland from the rule of the British Empire. I doubt it. I bet it is because of "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse or, better yet, the Beatles. Assuming the reason to undertake a spiritual pilgrimage to India isn't inspired by a book or by popular culture, then why go all the way to India? What about if the inspiration is the non-violent struggle led by a magnetic leader to free a people from tyrrany? Wouldn't Alabama be a good place to seek enlightenment? Why not a place where Martin Luther King Jr. employed Gandhi's philosophies? I suspect the reason is that Alabama isn't exotic.

What if the reason is to commune with the underclasses and thus find enlightenment? There are hordes of underclasses in America, or whatever Western country the writer comes from. I ride the bus past a soup kitchen every day where there is a line full of the downtrodden of our society. Why are the downtrodden of India the source of enlightenment? Assuming this is the case, I wonder if the person hanging out with the "untouchable" caste ever had any feelings that he/she was taking advantage of someone else's suffering to make some sort of point about how in touch with suffering he/she is. You may get to go home after your little pilgrimage, back to your warm house and three meals a day while the people who you communed with are still in the streets of Delhi begging for their livelihood.

Wow, aren't you a great and enlightened soul.

I'm sure there could be other reasons for someone to go to India. But I don't think that the writer of that comment undertook his or her trip for any reason than the following: self importance.