Our journey to India, in Sanskrit, is called a yātrā, meaning the spiritual practice of sacred pilgrimage. Unlike tourism, where the purpose of a trip is pleasure or entertainment, people go on yātrā for the sake of spiritual goals. The yātrika, or pilgrim, journeys to a sacred place to practice in a particular energy field, or to have the darśana, or sacred viewing, of a holy place or deity or holy person. Yātrā is an important practice for the faithful of nearly every religion.
In the Indian mystical tradition of yātrā, comfort is not the main concern. Sometimes, there are deliberate austerities included. A yātrika might observe vows during the yātrā such as fasting, celibacy, or silence. They might choose particularly austere forms of travel such as walking without shoes or even crawling on hands and knees to the sacred destination. These added austerities often times help to prepare the yātrika's mind and body to receive the blessing or insight or transformation they are seeking through the yātrā.
We don't observe any of these kinds of intense austerities on our yātrā. We do observe a pure vegetarian diet, abstain from drugs and alcohol, stay off our phones, and practice periods of silence, but otherwise we travel in relative comfort. But there is an element of austerity. We have a great deal of comfort by Indian standards, but comfort is not our main concern. We are challenged. We're challenged physically, mentally, culturally and spiritually. And we embrace the challenge as tapasyā, sacred austerity.
As a group of westerners, we also avoid a great deal of unwanted attention by traveling as yātrikas. We wear Indian clothing and generally conduct ourselves as pilgrims as we move around. The contrast with typical western travelers is stark, and this way we avoid locals trying to constantly sell us knick-knacks, or camel rides, or take selfies with us.
