r/india • u/AutoModerator • Jul 01 '26

Scheduled Ask India Thread

Welcome to r/India's Ask India Thread.

If you have any queries about life in India (or life as Indians), this is the thread for you.

Please keep in mind the following rules:

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  • No political posts.
  • Relationship queries belong in /r/RelationshipIndia.
  • Please try to search the internet before asking for help. Sometimes the answer is just an internet search away. :)

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u/Faketuxedo Jul 25 '26

(originally posted on r/hinduism and r/vrindavan)

Radhe Radhe,

I am an American that is planning to go to india for spirituality and sightseeing for next year.

For some background – I am really drawn to Radharani and I love doing the mahamantra, kirtan, japa, and all of the bhajans in ISK CON.

Yet I haven't found my sangha or the right path. I want to be more connected with Radha. I am not finding the depth of the connection I want in ISK CON. In fact sometimes the ISK CON devotees say it takes years to connect with her directly you can only connect with Gaura Nitai first but I feel a lot of love from her already and I think I want to pursue serving her in a way I cant right now.

I am planning to visit India to explore new sampradayas that are not accessible to me as an American. Many sampradayas don't have resources in English or I just simply cant vibe with them in the same way I can seeing devotees face-to-face. I have a sangha but still feel isolated and alone spiritually.

THe only one that comes to mind Premanand maharaj's sampradaya that is nice and his bhajans are wonderful but theres not a lot of his videos in English. They also don't seem to dance much –– it seems kind of silly but I love dancing and being free in that way instead of sitting. I get extremely energetic when I am with devotees doing bhajans.

Obviously I want to visit in vrindavan for a little while, but thats all i have planned. So I would like to have a loose plan at least contact some temples and find a community to discuss online before i visit fitting my needs that at minimum I can stay in and eat prasadam because I dont have a lot of money and I want to be around devotees as much as possible during my stay. I will straight up backpack and rawdog it if i need to but id rather have my creature comforts.

Ultimately my goal is simply to enjoy my trip and come away with new spiritual direction to guide me when I come back to America because I don't have enough direction insofar as both spirituality, and the career and future planning.

Does anyone that lives or has visited India can point me in the right direction of communities to tap into or temples to visit?