Literature is replete with the stories of seekers, individuals who embark on journeys to find fulfillment.
In “Wild,” Cheryl Strayed takes to the Pacific Crest Trail hoping to find a way to cope with her mother’s death, her use of heroin and her divorce. Paulo Coelho’s “The Pilgrimage” tells of the author’s 700-kilometer走Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port之间France and Santiago de Compostela in Spain to gain insight into the simplicity of life.
In “Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer tells the story of Christopher McCandless’ odyssey to theStampede TrailinAlaskawith only 10 pounds of rice, a.22-caliber rifle, a camera and a small selection of reading material. It didn’t end well. McCandless survived for 113 days.
India, however, is the light to which the spirituality-seeking moths are most often drawn. While there are many books that inspire journeys to India, one of the most popular is Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi,” first published in 1946. Regarded as one of the great spiritual figures of our time, Yogananda introduced millions throughout the world to the spiritual principles of yoga, meditation and the universal truths he says underlie all world religions.
Steve Jobs reportedly first read “Autobiography of a Yogi” as a teenager and reread it once a year for the rest of his life. It was the only book he ever downloaded on his iPad. At his funeral, for which he specified the guest list, each attendee received a brown box containing a copy of the book.
In 1968, the Beatles traveled tonorthern India to take part in aTranscendental Meditationtraining course at theashramofMaharishi Mahesh Yogi. The visit attracted widespread media attention and precipitated a new boomin spiritual travel to the subcontinent.
The most recent entry of note in the field of spiritual voyage to India accounts is “Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas,” by Harley Rustad.It tells the story of Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival who was one such seeker.
In his early 30s, Shetler quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global quest, inspired by many other adventurers and writers, including Joseph Campbell, theprofessor ofcomparative mythologyand religion whose best-known work is “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of thearchetypalhero.
In 2016, Shetler vanished while on a trip through India’s remote Parvati Valley, a place renowned for its natural beauty but also for dangerous terrain where dozens have disappeared. There, he had spent weeks studying under the guidance of an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave.
Rustad广泛的研究,包括几百of interviews with those who knew Shetler, and undertakes his own journey to India, where he finds the cave in which Shetler spent his last days. The tale he tells is both a portrait of this complex, driven seeker, but also a cautionary story about the potential dangers visitors to India face on the path to spiritual enlightenment.
Unlike his earlier counterparts who wrote of their Indian pilgrimages, Shetler made prodigious use of social media and had thousands of followers around the world, inspired by his survivalist skills and pursuit of self-realization. It’s both heartbreaking and eerie to see the images of his journey still there on Instagram at @adventuresofjustin.
Rustad wonders repeatedly in the book whether Shetler documented his journey so compulsively in order to inspire other seekers or whether the public image he so carefully curated was an essential motivation for him.
It’s a fascinating question, especially in the light of his quest for solitude. I have no doubt after reading Rustad’s book that Shetler’s desire for transformation was genuine and hard-fought. But I wonder how important the existence of an audience was to his quest.