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Pavan Varma, head of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, has worked as a diplomat for many years and authored over a dozen books.

What does spirituality mean to you?
It is about a fulfilling search at a very personal level.
As Hindus, we grow up as harmonious schizophrenics. We live both with a great deal of rituals, and with a great deal of spirituality which is sans rituals, which is metaphysics. And we seem to live both worlds without feeling the strain.

For instance, even the definition of divinity is neti neti, because any other definition would circumscribe it. On the other hand, we extravagantly humanize our gods. We celebrate their marriages, their wars, their love affairs. We make a God out of almost everything --- a tree, a river, a stone; while at another level we say that divinity cannot be defined in any category which would be part of the world we live in.
Metaphysics have been my focal point rather than rituals, though the latter have at times helped focus my spiritual quest. For instance, if I am on the ghats on the Ganga in Varanasi, sitting in a small temple where a puja to Shiva is being performed. The priest is following certain rituals, but it elevates the mind given the settings, to a totally different level of spiritual experience. In the end, my overall focus is on the spiritual experience, the search for knowing who you are, and trying to understand WHY. It also means a search for peace and serenity within oneself.

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