Travel Musings & Learnings from Bhagwad Geeta

Way back when I was a bachelor, I did have some opportunities for solo travelling, which I still ponder about. Be it walking through Inverness, sojourning in London, navigating Edinburgh, exploring Kovalam or touring magnificent Phuket; I always felt unerringly happy and charmingly energized at the end of it. 

A base sense of security, a detailed directional plan, some new cuisines to try and beautiful places to explore are just the only things I absolutely needed! I realised, when I travel alone or in a reasonably small group, I retain absolutely no judgmental bindings and certainly no subconscious forces marking my behavior. I remain free to try any new experiences that I desire or revel in whatever information, titbits, facts or details I possess. I could avoid feeling drained and overwhelmed with extraneous energy at a dynamically self-aligned pace.

Of course it is not always optimum travelling or exploring alone or with your loved ones, but the heartwarming benefits around easing mental stress, being unadulteratedly happy and detoxing is priceless! Travelling in large company usually tends towards a feeling of helplessness in expectation management and inevitably leads to a very deep sense of anguish towards your mates for causes true and imagined. 

I tried to understand this feeling taking a cue from my favourite Bhagwad Geeta shlokas in Chapter 2: 

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंस: सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते |

सङ्गात्सञ्जायते काम: कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते || 62||

क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोह: सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रम: |

स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति || 63||

(While contemplating on the objects of the senses, one develops attachment to them. Attachment leads to desire, and from desire arises anger. Anger leads to clouding of judgment, which results in bewilderment of the memory. When the memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and when the intellect is destroyed, one is ruined.)

In a large group, everyone has a set of expectations and behavioral patterns defined by their personality traits which lead to a deep sense of personal engagement with their ideas. They lustfully try to stick to their own notional engagements and their non-fulfillment causes emergence of anger and deep seated anguish and frustration. People can then very easily get illusioned with a derived sense of right and wrong attributing acerbic alterations to memory leading to a violated wisdom, affecting friendships & relationships in both short & long terms. This is all a play of contexts, capabilities and expectations, quite synonymously like ID, Self & Ego.

Even today, I duly try sometimes to travel alone or with wife whenever the opportunity arises in between work, play and conferences, and re-discover the soothing calm of the inner self.