To Seek… To Travel…

I was watching a commercial of a new car some days back, where the tag line says, “it’s a human thing.” It made me reflect upon, what’s exactly makes us human. How would we differentiate ourselves with other beings on this planet? In my opinion, since the early millennia, we have a constant gratification of something particular… “To Seek” …

Imagine a world without the greatest seekers like Buddha, Confucius, or Socrates; who laid the foundation of modern philosophy; the world would be sadly different without them. There was one more thing common in these seekers, the way they acquired the knowledge. Unfortunately, they didn’t have books; internet or social media, so the only source of gaining knowledge was by traveling…

“Walking 10 thousand miles of the world is better than reading 10 thousand scrolls of books.” — Chinese Proverb

So I dug deep to understand better, is this the reason why we all love traveling…

And then I got another ahhaa moment… while intellectual curiosity is one of the reasons we love it, there has been one more thing which has wired in our Source Code... Since a pre-historic era, we have been the nomads... the constant wanderers… and we have been following the nature for our well being... it's only in recent past when we have built cities and started to “settle down.”

If I define a “recent past” (from my last statement), modern humans have been around for 200,000 years, and the first set of cities have been found b/w BC 5000- BC 3000, which is a very recent past compared to the nomadic life of 200,000 years. In technical terms, only 2.5% of the dimensional time, we have been settled.

"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled." - Mohammed

So if travel is the source code of our well-being and intellectual curiosity quotient, we can learn a lot from the ones who have been the greatest travelers of history. Hence I picked the three of my favorite travelers and tried to seek what they seek. :)

 Ibn Battuta (1304-1369):

Ibn Battuta was from a small town of Tangier in Morocco. Started his journey more as a pilgrimage to Mecca. By the end of his voyage, he would have covered 40 countries (spread across Europe, Africa & Asia), traveled around 70,000 miles across, and would come back home after 30 years to write all about it. The three things one can learn from Ibn Battuta & his voyage is:

• Today’s threshold is tomorrows average- He started his journey with one goal of reaching Mecca but didn’t stop when he achieved it. He kept on pushing himself with a new vision of reaching far land and get new learning.
• Always have a teacher- During his first visit to Mecca, he found his first teacher, with whom he formed a vision for his next journey, which would be to India. And once he reached India, he stayed here for good six years (and served as a local judge before getting appointed as an ambassador of Md bin Tughlaq to China). He had a Hindu guru in Delhi who helped him to realize what he really wanted and help him carved his next plan.
• Comfort zone is the only discomfort: In his lifetime, Ibn Battuta has got a lot of options and opportunities to get settled well. He had a chance to settle himself when he visited Constantinople. He had a huge opportunity to get settled in Delhi where he was working in the court of Sultanate, but he always left his comport and moved for the next challenge.

 Marco Polo (1254- 1324):

Marco Polo has been one of the most celebrated travelers of all time. He started his epic journey at the age of 17 and ended it 24 years later when he came back to Venice, his home. The 24 years of the expedition took him to the far end of the earth, Cathay (China in today's world) and made him serve to one of the richest and most difficult men on earth, Kublai Khan. And post-reading his book, I would summarise learnings…

• Perspective- One this which stood out for Marco Polo in Kublai Khan’s court was his perspective. The way he uses to see a problem or a situation was very different from the other masters in the court. This one thing made him stand out in the crowd.
• Broadmindedness- Stay Open to diverse thoughts. Bruce Lee took this learning through him & quoted- “Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.”
• Adaptability- Form being an uneducated kid of Venice to an influential aide & an ambassador to the richest man on earth (Kublai Khan), adaptability was the only way Marco’s sustained the change.

 Xuanzang (602 – 664)

Xuanzang was a Chinese scholar, monk, and an avid traveler of the seventh century. He started his voyage across South Asia to discover the origins of Buddhism. As per Michael Palin- "He left a priceless legacy in the record of his journeys and translations of Buddhist writings that might otherwise have been lost." If asked a question on his learning, he would have put the three points

• Curiosity- It was the curiosity to know more, what made Xuanzang leave his home and search the real meaning of Buddhism. And this curiosity of his had answered some genuine questions for future generations. Steve jobs have also summed it well- Stay Curious, Stay foolish.  
• Courage- this is one of a DNA than anything else. It is required to take the first step in doing what you love, and it's needed to be consistent and to keep faith in yourself.
• Humility- for Xuanzang, Humility had come as a by-product of practicing his faith, and to all of us, St Augustine has said it all- “It was pride that changed angels into devils; its humility that makes men as angels.”

So to all of us… Keep Seeking & Keep Traveling…