Arriving in India

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Welcome to the Eastwesticism podcast where our host Todd Perelmuter shares the lessons he's learned spending eight years living with gurus, monks, lamas, and shamans across 35 countries and five continents. Join in the journey as he brings the best scientifically proven methods for living your best life from the east and the west, straight to you. The path to peace, love, health and happiness starts here.

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Hello, and welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host Todd Perelmuter. And today, I'm going to talk about when I first arrived in India, I had just sold or gave away all my possessions and bought a one way ticket to India, after quitting my job in New York City, got rid of my apartment. 

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And I just flew to Mumbai, where I knew one guy from work. And he said I could stay with him and his parents. I landed in Mumbai and felt an aliveness that I've never felt before the city is bustling. It makes New York look sleepy. It appears chaotic. You know, everyone's honking and people are screaming. But it's this organized chaos, everything is really moving smoothly. 

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Traffic somehow finds a way, even though there are clearly no traffic laws, and no one would obey them anyway, if there are and everyone is just jumping in front of another end swerving around people. No one's paying attention to their lanes, or stop signs or stoplights. But there's a fluidity of motion, this organized chaos. This beautiful, elegant chaos. 

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And I get fleeced almost immediately, I found out from my friend's parents that I paid probably $40 more than I should have for my taxi from the airport. So if you go to India, make sure you go to the taxi stand and pre pay for your cab so you don't get fleeced. And I'm walking around India, and I get fleeced again, I'm in Mumbai again. 

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And I I'm just walking around, probably looking too naive and happy. And this guy starts walking with me. And he's like, Hey, what are you doing? And then I'm like, you know, just seeing seeing the city? And he's like, do you know about the festival going on the big festival? And I'm like, No, but really, I'm fine. He's like, No, I'm just headed there. Now why don't you come with me, and I'll show you this, where this parade is happening? And I'm like, Well, if you're going there, I guess I'll follow you. 

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And long story short, he ends up showing me around the whole city, demanding a large sum of money, and not really taking no for an answer. And at this time, I really didn't know with these scammers are they going to, you know, mug me if I don't pay what they want. And so I just gave this guy you know, I don't know, 50 or 100 bucks. And my friend's parents yelled at me again. You shouldn't have done that. Don't  give them anything. And my friend told me he's like, people will either scam you, or they'll mug you. 

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They you know, the scammers won't mug you. So I was like, okay, so I know I can say no to people next time. They're telling me. I owe them $50 For believing that they were just out of the goodness of their heart wanting me wanting to show me around. But another thing I learned about India is that spirituality is intertwined with every aspect of their lives. 

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Every single car has a statue of a God inside of it. Every building has religious symbolism all over it. Prayers all day and all night are booming out of loudspeakers. You just hear the singing and praying and the chanting, everywhere you go. You can't miss it. And even when you're just taking the subway, people will just start talking to me about religion, spirituality, the meaning of life.

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I was riding on the train. And a stranger just said to me Hey, What's the purpose of life? I said, I don't know, be good to everybody. He said, No, no, no first work hard, then get married, then raise kids, then you can have fun. I said, Okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. It's very interesting. And then, you know, we went on our separate ways, but everybody you meet is just so eager to share with you their religious beliefs, their spiritual views. 

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Everybody wants you to meet their guru, they say, Oh, you got to meet my guru. He's the only real one he's the best you got to meet him. Which is fantastic. Because I showed up with really no idea where I was going to be going, no idea what I was going to be doing. And just hoping that once I got there, the path would present itself. 

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After I saw a bit of the city, I came home to my friend's house and his father sat me down, and he really wanted to tell me about his spirituality. And he said, you know, you are not a human being. Having a spiritual experience, you are a spiritual being, having a human experience. You have an eternal soul inside you. And this is just a temporary physical body you possess. To know God is our purpose through meditation. Just like with a cabdriver, we trust them to take us from point A to point B. And in this same way, we must trust a guru or a priest. And they may take different paths. But we trust them to take us to the same place. Like a child who gets an electronic toy and throws away his old wooden blocks. 

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When you know God, you detach from the physical world, and become more enamored and attached with the spiritual world. This is our purpose. Just as we trust doctors with our lives, we must find a guide, we can trust with our soul. Yes, you can learn to be a lawyer on your own from reading books. But it's much more difficult and far fewer people will achieve that. 

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And it's best to have a teacher who can show you the way. This is the path of learning. This is the path of understanding. It is a great advantage to have someone show you and teach you. You know, there may be a Jesus or a Buddha, every few millennia who can achieve this on their own. 

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But for most of us, a teacher, Guru, Priest, Rabbi, Imam, can help us get to that place quicker, easier. And then of course, he told me, I've got to come with him and his family to the ashram they belong to and meet their guru. He's the one best, truest guru, he's the perfect Master. And you need a perfect Master. You can't just have any master you have to have a perfect Master. 

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And I said, How many perfect masters are there in the world? And he said, Oh, there's there's many, but at the current moment, there's only one just this guy. I said, Okay. Well, I'll I'll definitely come that sounds great. He told me about their beautiful house on this big ashram. He's they said it's the biggest ashram in India. And it is massive. I went later and I'll, I'll talk about that in our upcoming podcast. But it was just so incredible to be in a place where spirituality is on the tip of everyone's tongue. I mean, this is just what I was looking for. 

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I saw a young guy, maybe 22 Just normal looking guy wearing a t shirt. That said, pain is mandatory suffering is optional. And I was just blown away by how profound that statement is. Because yes, everyone will get sick everyone will get old. Everyone will have physical pain. But the suffering is not necessary. 

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You know pain is a message that our nerve endings send to the brain to move your hand away from the flame or maybe you need to eat better or stretch more but The suffering that we create after the pain is not necessary. And in fact, only exists in our mind. Because we identify with that pain, because we incorrectly think we shouldn't feel pain

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because we are attached to pleasure, and we have a resistance to pain because we don't see reality as it truly is, we expect pain lessness which is insanity.

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And so, I just knew in my heart that this was the place I was supposed to be, the culture of India is just so beautiful, I mean, the most hospitable people on the planet, where they believe strongly that guest is God. 

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And they that is how they treated me. And it was such a shift from coming from the US where the motto is more I got mine Jack. Look out for number one. Even poor and homeless people looked happier than the wealthiest people I know and in the States because of that inner spiritual wealth that reflects on the smiles of so many people there.

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So after spending about a week in Mumbai with my friend and his parents, I headed off to travel around India. Find some ashrams find some Buddhist monasteries. Learn as much as I could about spirituality and meditation.

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And that's exactly what I did. In the next podcast. I'll talk about the ashram that I went to next where my friend and his parents belong. And I'll share about the experience meeting their guru. And the spiritual teachings I learned there. Thank you so much for listening. Please like and subscribe and give a five star review. And I'm talking to you there who's thinking I'll do it next time maybe. Yes, you do it now. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, this has been path to peace with Todd Perelmuter

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you were listening to the Eastwesticism podcast. Be sure to visit us at eastwesticism.org to join the conversation and receive enlightening emails. Until next time