http://www.planetbabaji.com/omline/Blog/Eintrage/2011/10/14_applement.html
India visit gave a vision to Steve Jobs
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-visit-gave-a-vision-to-steve-jobs/1/154785.html
What was your impression of
India?
We were very young and had no preconceptions... we wore khadi kurtas and lungis, trying to blend in, but of course it was obvious enough we were foreigners and the swarms of beggars at first was a shock (for example, when getting off the bus in remote villages). But we did learn to appreciate the deep spiritual culture of India and how that enables so many to live richly fulfilling lives in the midst of material poverty.
We were very young and had no preconceptions... we wore khadi kurtas and lungis, trying to blend in, but of course it was obvious enough we were foreigners and the swarms of beggars at first was a shock (for example, when getting off the bus in remote villages). But we did learn to appreciate the deep spiritual culture of India and how that enables so many to live richly fulfilling lives in the midst of material poverty.
We both were big fans of Indian food, thanks to the
Hare Krishna Temple in Portland, so that was a daily pleasure. We stayed in the
Hotel Vikas in Paharganj and particularly enjoyed the chapatti wallah next door
and the dahi wallah on the corner and the burfi at the sweet shop down the
block. Our main diet was mangos with dahi and chapatti. We were not much
interested in cannabis much less any other drugs. I was naïve about hard drugs
and when some sketchy character asked to borrow my enamel mug for 'fixing' I
loaned it to him... then when Steve found out, he immediately went and retrieved
it for me.
When we were in Kainchi near Neem Karoli's ashram
there was hemp growing everywhere, so I dried some and would take a puff from
time to time. But really it was the books that had the most interest for us. I
remember carrying around the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, The Book and
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, the Diamond Sutra, and the Dharma Bums by (Jack)
Kerouac.
What was Steve like when he was
in India?
I think we were both pretty low key about expectations... it was a bit of a disappointment that when we got to the Neem Karoli ashram it was basically deserted - after Neem Karoli had passed earlier in the year, the crowds of western hippies and seekers were encouraged to disperse and they did! Then we made a long trek up a huge dry riverbed to an ashram of Hariakhan Baba, a reincarnating avatar as the story went. It was a long difficult trek then we had to climb a hundred-plus steps up a cliff to get to the ashram. The Hariakhan Baba we encountered was surprisingly young, and accessible enough, but he didn't strike either of us as being particularly profound. He did give us both 'secret' spiritual names... I regret now that I wasn't keeping a travel journal and can't remember mine!
I think we were both pretty low key about expectations... it was a bit of a disappointment that when we got to the Neem Karoli ashram it was basically deserted - after Neem Karoli had passed earlier in the year, the crowds of western hippies and seekers were encouraged to disperse and they did! Then we made a long trek up a huge dry riverbed to an ashram of Hariakhan Baba, a reincarnating avatar as the story went. It was a long difficult trek then we had to climb a hundred-plus steps up a cliff to get to the ashram. The Hariakhan Baba we encountered was surprisingly young, and accessible enough, but he didn't strike either of us as being particularly profound. He did give us both 'secret' spiritual names... I regret now that I wasn't keeping a travel journal and can't remember mine!
What did you and Steve take back
from India that stayed with you?
It seems in retrospect that we spent a lot of time on endless long hot crowded bus rides from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh and back, then up to Himachal Pradesh and back. We enjoyed our trip to the hill town of Manali, which was burdened with many Tibetan refugees at the time due to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. We visited many temples, especially in Delhi where during the later part of the summer it was too hot to go out during the day but we'd go for long walks at night. I think what stayed with both of us was an appreciation for the rich culture of India and the huge contrast between opulence and poverty to be found there. The most memorable incident was probably when we were making the day-long hike back from the Hariakhan Baba ashram and a violent thunderstorm caught us out in the open with no place to take shelter. We were huddling under our loincloths from the pelting rain, afraid we'd get hit by lightning... happy when we got back to the nearest village that evening.
It seems in retrospect that we spent a lot of time on endless long hot crowded bus rides from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh and back, then up to Himachal Pradesh and back. We enjoyed our trip to the hill town of Manali, which was burdened with many Tibetan refugees at the time due to the Chinese occupation of Tibet. We visited many temples, especially in Delhi where during the later part of the summer it was too hot to go out during the day but we'd go for long walks at night. I think what stayed with both of us was an appreciation for the rich culture of India and the huge contrast between opulence and poverty to be found there. The most memorable incident was probably when we were making the day-long hike back from the Hariakhan Baba ashram and a violent thunderstorm caught us out in the open with no place to take shelter. We were huddling under our loincloths from the pelting rain, afraid we'd get hit by lightning... happy when we got back to the nearest village that evening.
How was Steve influenced, if at all, by the
experience?
I think the trip influenced us both in a general
sense of broadening our experience of life on earth and putting our lives in the
US in a wider perspective. Neither of us found a 'guru' or had a 'miracle story'
or an encounter with someone with advanced yogic powers but I would say that
wasn't particularly a disappointment. Steve's return date was several weeks
before mine so I went up to Dalhousie and took back-to-back 10-day Vipassana
retreats with Goenka, which was a great experience and has served me well
throughout my life. Steve was mostly drawn to Zen meditation and he went to the
zendo in Los Altos regularly after his return from India ...
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