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Why seekers of enlightenment head for India.
为什么寻求心灵开悟的人都前往印度。
The Nirvana Express. By Mick Brown.
《涅槃号快车》，米克·布朗著。
For decades India has mostly run a current-account deficit, unable to export as much as the country imports to meet its needs.
几十年来，印度的经常账户大多处于赤字状态，印度为满足国内需求而进口货物，但出口无法达到与进口相同的水平。
But in the accounting books of the heavens, India is a net exporter, on par with the Levant as a font of great religions.
但在天堂的账簿上，印度是一个净出口国，与中东的黎凡特不相上下，都是伟大宗教的发源地。
Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism sprang from its sacred geography.
印度教、佛教、锡克教和斋戒教都起源于这个圣地。
God has repeatedly lured spiritual seekers to the subcontinent—from Xuanzang (a seventh-century Chinese monk who journeyed to India in search of Buddhist texts) to Timothy Leary (an American champion of LSD).
神明一再引领问道者来到印度次大陆：从玄奘(公元7世纪的中国僧人，前往印度求取佛经)到蒂莫西·利里(美国的迷幻药拥护者)。
Leary memorably described Varanasi, Hinduism’s most sacred place, as the “the site of a non-stop hippie festival for the last 5,000 years”.
利里将印度教最神圣的地方瓦拉纳西描述为“举办了一场持续5000年的嬉皮狂欢节的地方”，这个说法让人至今难忘。
Those seeking to join the piety party first ventured from Asia, then from Europe (and especially Britain) during the colonial era and later, after India’s independence in 1947, from America.
那些朝圣者最开始来自亚洲，然后在殖民时期从欧洲(尤其是英国)而来，后来在1947年印度独立后又从美国而来。
Indian swamis and gurus energetically promoted their teachings to new converts.
印度的斯瓦米和古鲁（指宗教教师）积极地向新皈依者宣扬他们的教义。
It is these Western enthusiasts and their Indian idols who are the subject of “The Nirvana Express”, an enlightening new book by Mick Brown, a British music journalist with a sideline writing about Asian religion.
这些来自西方的宗教狂热人士和他们的印度偶像正是《涅槃号快车》一书的主角，这本新书很有启发性，作者是英国音乐记者米克·布朗，布朗在工作之余也撰写有关亚洲宗教的文章。
The first notable Western figures to take an interest in Indian religions were not exactly long-haired, pot-smoking hippies.
第一批对印度宗教感兴趣的著名西方人物并不是留着长发、抽着大麻的嬉皮士。
Sir Edwin Arnold was an Oxford-educated editor of the Daily Telegraph who spoke 19 languages and wrote memoirs, poetry and history in his spare time.
埃德温·阿诺德爵士是牛津大学毕业的《每日电讯报》编辑，他精通19种语言，在业余时间写回忆录、诗歌和历史文章。
In 1879 he published “The Light of Asia”, a 5,300-line narrative poem about the teachings and life of Buddha.
1879年，他出版了一首5300行的叙事诗《亚洲之光》，讲述了佛陀的教义和生平。
The book went on to sell over 1m copies and ignited the first sparks of popular interest in India’s religions in the West.
这本书的销量超过了100万册，并首次点燃了西方大众对印度宗教的兴趣。
In 1885 Arnold published “The Song Celestial”, a translation of the Bhagavad Gita; Mahatma Gandhi credited it with introducing him to his own religion’s most sacred text.
1885年，阿诺德出版了《天乐》，这是《博伽梵歌》的译本，圣雄甘地认为这本书向他介绍了印度教中最神圣的经文。
The two men would go on to become friends.
这两个人后来成为了朋友。
Arnold’s Indian analogue was Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu philosopher who electrified the first gathering of the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893 with his speeches preaching Hinduism’s message of universal acceptance.
与阿诺德类似的印度人是印度教哲学家维韦卡南达导师，在1893年的首届世界宗教议会上，他宣扬了印度教接受天地万物的思想，其演讲使与会者如痴如狂。
Arguing that “we Hindus must believe that we are the teachers of the world,” he founded spiritual centres in the West and acquired a devoted female following.
维韦卡南达导师声称“我们印度教教徒必须坚信我们是世界的老师”，并在西方建立了精神中心，获得了一批忠实的女性追随者。
Fantastic stories—packed with unlikely figures, strange twists of fate and even the occasional act of mind-reading—bring readers of “Nirvana Express” on an enjoyable journey.
各种奇妙的故事--充满出人意料的人物、奇异的命运转折，甚至偶尔还有读心术--让《涅槃号快车》的读者踏上了一段引人入胜的旅程。
Some of the colourful characters include Paul Brunton, whose bestselling “A Search in Secret India”, a travelogue-cum-spiritual-handbook published in 1934 (and still in print), would establish his reputation as a sort-of guru figure himself and Meher Baba, an actual guru obsessed with movies in general and Greta Garbo in particular.
其中一些有趣的人物包括保罗·布伦顿，他的畅销书《印度寻秘之旅》是1934年出版的一本游记兼灵修手册(目前仍在印行)，这本书让他本人有了类似灵性导师的声誉，还有梅赫·巴巴，这是一位真正的灵性导师，也是一位电影迷，尤其喜欢葛丽泰·嘉宝。
All are worthy of their own books.
书中的所有人都值得单独为他们成书作传。
It is to Mr Brown’s credit that he never stoops to mockery or even gentle irony, despite what must have been considerable temptation.
值得称赞的是，布朗从未流露出嘲笑的语气，甚至连温和的讽刺也没有，尽管进行嘲讽肯定对作者来说极具诱惑力。
“Nirvana Express” also tracks renewed Western interest in Indian spiritualism, which started with the beatniks in the 1950s, peaked with the Beatles arriving in the Himalayas to meditate with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and ended with the dissolution of the Rajneesh Ashram in Oregon.
《涅槃号快车》还记录了西方对印度灵性论重新产生的兴趣，这种兴趣始于20世纪50年代“垮掉的一代”，随着披头士乐队来到喜马拉雅山、与玛哈礼希·玛赫西·优济一起冥想而达到顶峰，并以俄勒冈州拉杰尼希隐修场的解散而告终。
(This was the subject of “Wild Wild Country” on Netflix, which dramatises the short-lived but tumultuous commune better known for violence, group sex and attempts to poison the local population than for spirituality.)
（这个隐修场是网飞纪录片《异狂国度》的主题，戏剧化地展示了这个短暂但狂乱的公社，该公社更多的是以暴力、群体性行为和毒害当地民众而闻名，而不是以灵性修炼闻名。）
The collapse of Rajneesh Ashram, writes Mr Brown, “marked the final pangs of the Western dream of India as the repository of esoteric wisdom and the promise of enlightenment”.
布朗写道，“西方将印度视作存有奥秘智慧和灵魂开悟的宝库”，而拉杰尼希隐修场的崩溃“标志着这一幻梦最终的破灭之痛”。
It is true that the image of India in the West has changed in recent years, and a country once associated with poverty and naked babas is now better known as an economic giant, a rising geopolitical power and an originator of modern technology.
诚然，近年来印度在西方的形象发生了变化，这个曾经让人联想到贫困和裸体苦修者的国家，现在更为人所知的形象是经济大国、崛起的地缘政治大国、现代技术的开创者。
Yet India’s own conception of itself as an ancient land with spiritual riches to offer humanity has never faded.
然而，印度自认为在其古老土地上蕴含着可贡献给全人类的丰富精神宝藏，这一点从未改变。
For evidence, look only to the title that Narendra Modi, the prime minister, bestows on his country, and by extension, himself: vishwaguru, or world teacher.
如果想要证据，只需看看印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪为他的国家（也连带为他自己）授予了什么头衔：vishwaguru，即“世界导师”。
India has never been short of men who believe themselves chosen by God to lead the world.
印度从来不缺少相信自己就是天命领袖的人。
