Cultural Diversity is the Key to Better Understand Life

by Borja Manuel Gonzalez Morgado (Spain)

A leap into the unknown India

I started my trip to India on August 15, 2012. I arrived at the airport three hours before my flight, without any sleep, completely freaking out, and with a backpack, a camera, a pen, and a notebook. That’s all I packed for 30 days, without any idea of all that I would bring back with me. My trip started in New Delhi, the capital of India. An overpopulated city that made me find out how exciting everything was going to be during my time there. Day by day, I was getting more used to some cultural differences that were making my trip more challenging and adventurous. I remember that before the trip, I was intrigued by how people would dress, how people would eat, and how people would talk. However, even if it was never a primary focus in my life, religion was the aspect that mainly caught my attention. It was in the city of Varanasi where I first gained interest in the religion of Hinduism. One day, I remember I was eating in the street and talking with some locals when I saw a big line of people carrying a dead body on their shoulders. I just couldn’t believe that those people were carrying that dead man on their shoulders in the middle of the street, while the others were living their daily routine. I started asking local people more about it, when I found out that the man was about to be burned in a very holy place for Hinduist, and thrown to a river: the Ganga River. I started to picture my hometown, Madrid, and asking myself: “Borja, can you imagine if people did that in Madrid?” I couldn’t even imagine it. That was completely new for me and I was about to find out what it all meant. I started reading some books to learn more about this ritual. The way religion and nature are connected fascinated me. I learned what the ashes represent in Hinduism once they reach the Ganga River, and all I lived took me to one term that would change my vision to face death in life: Samsara. Essentially, Samsara is the continuous cycle of life, death, and reincarnation. The man I had seen in Varanasi was to be burnt and thrown into the Ganga River, for his ashes could return to nature and be able to complete the cycle of life through reincarnation. This might sound very creepy, the same for me at the time. Thankfully, I could read more and learn more about it until I concluded that life is a path, the same way we are born, we will die, and the only place we belong to is nature. These experiences in Varanasi would change the course of my entire trip. Soon after leaving Varanasi, I received a call from my father. All I remembered hearing is: ‘Your grandmother has died’. I was in a small, isolated village in India, and I couldn’t accept that my beloved grandmother had passed away and I was thousands of kilometers far away from her. My first reaction was to cry and look for a way to take a flight back home. A trip full of color suddenly turned black. However, as my trip was ending, I started to remember my days in Varanasi. The lessons that I had learned were the ones that got me through. Even today, after almost 10 years, I realize how valuable my days in Varanasi were. It was crucial for me to start reading and getting into Hinduism. With this, I am not saying I am Hinduist. What I am saying is that because I was open to hear and learn from other cultures, I was able to accept my grandmother’s death as a natural part of the cycle of life. Hinduism taught me many powerful values that I now apply in my life, ones that Christianity, the religion I was most familiar with, had never taught me before. Diversity makes us stronger, and this is what I want to share today. Be open and curious because everything we can learn today from each other will be meaningful for the rest of our lives.