India is a magical place. Anything is possible. All of creation is in a synchronistic dance: a temple bell echoes your thoughts; you see a friend’s photograph in a shop window; a plate made from a leaf, discarded on the street, is eaten by a cow.

Incense mingles with the stench, obstacles provide provocative counterpoint and challenge our assumptions. The careening blind cow or the asshole speeding on a motorbike are simply part and parcel of the soup. Things flow around one another with an intuitive sympathy. The ocean parts, with less than an inch to spare. There is always just enough.

In a country with no indignation, affronts are met with a smile. The question is not "who do they think they are", but "who do we think we are". Besides, they already know who they are. If you look into their eyes you’ll see Vishnu looking back. Eyes sparkling with an impish glee. He just wanted to see what you would do. Gods get bored too.

There is a give and take, a live and let live. A faith in the inherent wisdom of life and its ability to self organize without moral regulation. This leaves the world or imagination open to most Hindus. Who can say what is possible? It is generally accepted that Gurus astral project, walk through walls and converse with the deities. Society honors Sadhus as young as 12 who wander homeless. There are so many walks of life, sects and esoteric practices. Who can define the limits of reality?

Physically life is conservative in India. Most comply with the caste system, arranged marriages and following the professions of their parents. With so much teeming just outside their door step, children an held tightly in the fold. But there is an unparalleled liberty and poetry of mind. It is here that the Hindus indulge themselves. They are philosophically hedonistic.

In general, the opposite is true in the West, at least in the United States. We have material freedom in the ability to marry who we want or to consume what we please, but we live in philosophical poverty and fear. Aberration is treated with "zero tolerance" and vapid corporate slogans like "socialism is evil" underpin our worldview.

Let’s Dance!