Pico Iyer
speaker
117 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 17 Jul
Pico Iyer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So it's a confounding place that really overturns all your simple ideas about the world.
Yes, that's perfect.
And I can't speak for a devout Hindu who would probably put it differently, but I felt just as you.
There aren't many places on the planet that have this kind of mythic intensity where you feel that one's walking along next to the river of life and on the far side of the river is whatever unknown awaits us all.
And just as you said perfectly, the fact that the Holy River, according to the WHO, contains 3,000 times more
the amount of bacteria deemed safe for consumption and that people are bathing in it and even drinking in it.
For me, it was a very tonic and liberating idea that the holiest place doesn't have to be the purest place.
That at some level, most of us can probably never find an immaculate place, a place that's absolutely pure because we're human beings.
I think one of the memorable moments that comes to mind as we talk about it is that there was this whole cacophony.
And even though I'm Indian, I was really freaked out by it.
And I suddenly heard two people call my name.
And I turned around and were two Tibetan Buddhists I know from New York City.
Huh.
And my friend came up to me and he surveyed the scene of absolute chaos and intensity.
And he said, isn't this glorious?
This is the whole human pageant.
This is life and death and everything in between.
Basically, I think he was saying this is the only paradise we can ever hope to find and to make our lives in.
The paradises that our minds create are never going to come to fruition in real life.
But here is real life to the hilt.
Showing 81–100 of 117 · page 5 of 6
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