Visiting India for mind and body

By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 09/08/02

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India is "a totally unique and different culture. It's an intense place to be," said Karen Schwartz. That was only the half of it. When she signed up for a program called Inward Bound, its setting in India was the primary draw, but Schwartz returned home with an experience richer than she could have imagined, one she is still processing.

Schwartz, 30, of Westwood, who teaches high school English and world literature, and her husband, Andrew Wellnitz, 32, who works for a software company, joined eight other participants and six facilitators for the July debut of Inward Bound, an "experiential learning" program that combines Eastern philosophy and Western psychology to challenge travelers physically, culturally, and spiritually. Founded by Ashish Rajpal, Inward Bound (www.inwardbound2002.com) is an outgrowth of iDiscoveri, a youth outdoor education program he cofounded in 1996 that is along the lines of Outward Bound.

Last year, Rajpal and Schwartz were classmates at the Harvard School of Education and shared a class on experiential education, or "learning by doing." "Ashish spent a lot of time talking about Inward Bound and India, and I have a lot of respect for him," she said.

Schwartz and her husband signed up for the 2-week course, which cost $1,500 each plus about the same in air fare. There were six Americans on the trip, along with travelers from Canada, Colombia, and India. Facilitators included Rajpal and his mother, Renu, who is a psychologist and a Buddhist; Shankar Narayan, an Indian philosophy scholar; and outdoors specialists.

The trip was "about extremes," Schwartz said. "We started in New Delhi, with throngs of people and the heat of summer. And we ended up in Chandratal, a lake at 14,500 feet in the Himalayas. Blue crystal lakes surrounded by snow-covered peaks. We camped there for three nights."

In between, the group rock-climbed, rappelled, crossed rivers, and hiked. Schwartz had never before been so physically challenged but said she always felt safe. Members also had group team-building exercises, individual meditation sessions and yogic breathing with Narayan, and talks with Renu Rajpal, including the use of such Western tools as the Myers-Briggs test to help define personality and career choice.

"Everything was tied together really nicely. For example, every time we did a physical challenge such as rock climbing, we'd have time to reflect. That ties into experiential learning. And it ties into the physical doing and the intellectual thinking, which then ties into the spiritual," Schwartz said. "It was definitely about getting out of your comfort zone on every level, and really reflecting on how those things link together, and how they link back to living consciously and knowingly."

The hike to Chandratal "was not major. It was about a six-mile hike. But what made it challenging was that it was at 14,000 feet. That made it a struggle, though they did a good job at acclimating us. The way Ashish talks about it is 'a challenge by choice.'"

The group's final stops were Rishikesh and Haridwar, "places of great meaning for many people," Schwartz said. Rishikesh, surrounded by hills and bisected by the Ganges River, became famous in the 1960s when the Beatles came to stay with their guru. Haridwar, the spot where the Ganges leaves the mountains and enters the plains, is among the holiest places of pilgrimage in India, and millions visit each year. They participated in the daily Ganga Aarti, or river worship, "where we sent flowers down the river."

Schwartz is thinking about how to incorporate what she learned into her life and her classroom work. "I want to give it its due. I went to see India, and experiential education. But I think I was not expecting the personal journey."

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