Let me just assume here that you have once in your life felt the need to discover yourself, to delve into a spiritual journey or to travel the world, it may seem rebellious in some cultures and a norm in some but in the end we are explorers by nature.
The Parvati valley offers us a choice to either celebrate our existence, to be gentler human beings, expand our consciousness and become one within ourselves and with all others OR experience the drug addled streets of Kasol or other villages like Pulga, Tulga and so on in search of hashish which ironically is in abundance and get ripped off on scoring contaminated drugs which seem to do more harm than good recreationally and spiritually.
I fear that there are just a few of us who may have experienced this valley to its righteous meaning. What i now feel is that the message of the hills and the message of the psychedelics and of Lord Shiva is lost somewhere between the avid Indian tourist looking for a weekend excursion desiring a quick escape from reality with or without the help or substances or lost travellers who get confused with all the unwanted hostility the more touristy villages in the valley offer.
ORIGINS – We are ignorant towards the influence of eastern teachings being deeply rooted in all ‘psytrance’ music and has helped evolve this counter culture, the psychedelic culture, a part of it has its origins from this divine valley where you can feel 140 bpm just listening to the flow of the Parvati river. After the Boom and Ozora festivals my perspective towards the psychedelic community had changed, ours being the oldest religion, people all around the globe embrace its values in their own unique way, be it in Ozora where i saw thousands of people raving on highlight tribe’s song“Gayatri” from the album The temple of light which has this mantra repeated a number of times to going vegan, or inculcating yoga and meditation in their daily lives.
Being a leather lunged hashish smoker solves no mysteries in life. To enrich our lives with good people, conversations and memories progressing towards our own ideal self is what we should strive towards, whilst in this journey if we find a bunch of substances helpful in enhancing these experiences, understand them first and do them responsibly learn from them and grow. I write this because i was disheartened by the profusion of enthusiasm together with an acute paucity of information on recreational drugs, psychedelic intellect and compassion among Indian travellers.
We would all agree that all human beings have this inherent need to love and to be loved, travelling is one of the manifestations of this primal human urge, the Parvati valley offers more than love, it offers celebration of oneness and existence, it reminds us of how young we are as a civilisation and the eternal presence of Lord shiva glorified by its hot springs situated all around or by its cannabis plants growing in abundance. We need to appreciate and respect this divine Parvati experience perpetuating its sanctitude with good vibrations, thoughts and love.