‘Journeys to Nirvana: Travel Opens the Path to Liberation’ by Vivek Bammi: Travel as true education

Travel does not always mean movement over a surface. For the truly accomplished wanderer, a journey is a deeper immersion into the primordial stillness that preceded — and made possible — the entire creation. Travel, if it has to be understood as movement at all, must be seen as an act of expansion of the individual towards the collective, a melding of personal experiences with global history, and native sympathies embracing unfamiliar cultures and traditions. The fascinating book under review does all that with a panache rarely seen or heard today.

The author is an international educator and an inveterate traveller, and brings his lifelong forays into the realms of learning as well as distant locales.

“A traveller navigates every sensation, enters deeply into each episode, reaching towards a state of full awakening,” he says in his opening remarks. In the six chapters that follow the introduction, the author names and unfolds the broader import of these sensations and episodes.

The first chapter bears witness to the grandeur of nature as found in the fjords of Norway to the overwhelming Chinese landscapes, while presenting the reader with more than sufficient glimpses of Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, France, Kashmir, Bengal and Japan. The artistry of nature leads organically as it were to the deeper insights captured by the arts. The human recreation of the wonder that nature offers accentuates the sense of curiosity and leads to emotional release.

The second chapter treats readers to the rock paintings and dolmen in Karnataka as it ushers them into the gallery of world art, showcasing artefacts from Taiwan, ancient Greece, Khajuraho, Venice, Copenhagen, Samarkand, Beijing, Chicago, Agra, Paris, Laos and Bali. The note on culinary arts at the end of the chapter signifies the importance of breaking bread with friends and even strangers in bringing healing to our broken human connections. The three ensuing chapters, titled ‘Exchange’, ‘Separation and Loss’ and ‘Impermanence’, are as much philosophical and poetical as they are informative. The imprints that distant cultures have had on each other come afresh in these chapters, and it is awe-inspiring to merely lend it a moment of thought.

The book is not merely a recollection of travel memories but a work of poetry in the true Wordsworthian sense of the word. These are emotions and experiences emanating from a perceptive soul that brings together long-running reflections on art, culture, psychology, anthropology, poetry, music, paintings and, of course, nature in one delicate yet robust whole.

More than 130 pictures with accompanying remarks and insightful reflections make this book a rare aesthetic and educational journey by itself. Occasional haikus and references to works of great composers, painters and writers lend an unusual palpable quality to the work. The publisher has invested well in the production of the book, though the print quality of some of the images could have been enhanced.

Finally, this is one book the reader would certainly like to add to their collection.

— The reviewer teaches in Prayagraj