Temple Bells & Yoga Studios: Spirituality on Two Coasts
In Rishikesh, I once watched the Ganga shimmer under a line of aarti lamps while priests chanted into microphones that squealed every few minutes. Months later in Portland, I lay on a cork yoga mat while a teacher in expensive athleisure asked us to “set an intention” under soft hanging lights. Both rooms used the word “spiritual.” They were describing very different experiences.
💡 QUICK INTEL
India Landscape: Temples, mosques, gurdwaras, churches, roadside shrines
West Coast Landscape: Yoga studios, meditation apps, churches, small spiritual circles
Shared Desire: Meaning, calm, connection and relief
Key Difference: Inherited frameworks vs custom-built paths
Religion woven into India’s daily fabric
In India, you do not need to seek out religion. It sits on your way to work, in your bus route, on your television. You pass temples every few blocks. Calls to prayer echo from mosques. Small shrines appear under trees and in shop corners. Taxi dashboards carry mini-altars. Festivals spill into streets. Even people who call themselves non-religious often participate in rituals because saying no would hurt someone they love or complicate life.
Belief and practice are messy and mixed. A Hindu might light candles at a church, a Sikh might visit a Sufi shrine, an atheist might still touch their grandmother’s feet. Spiritual life is communal and loud, full of bargaining, gratitude and contradiction.
West Coast spirituality: curated, quiet, pick-and-mix
On the West Coast, spiritual seeking often happens in designed spaces. Yoga studios, meditation centers, therapy rooms, progressive churches. Many people identify as “spiritual but not religious,” building personal routines from breathwork, hikes, podcasts and borrowed rituals.
Silence and aesthetics matter. Shoes come off. Mats unroll. People breathe together to carefully chosen playlists. Sanskrit words appear in classes taught by people who have never been to India. For some Indians, this is affirming and feels like global recognition. For others, it is uncomfortable to watch grandparents’ vocabulary drift so far from its original context.
West Coast Indians standing in both rooms
Indians on the West Coast often live in a constant split screen. A Sunday might involve a gurdwara visit with parents, followed by a yoga class with friends. Meditation apps share space with livestreams from temples in India. They answer questions about “real yoga” from American classmates while also trying to understand their own traditions more deeply.
Done well, this in-between space can be rich. Some teachers in diaspora communities connect physical practice back to philosophy and history instead of selling yoga purely as fitness. Some temples offer English-language study groups on ethics and scripture. The best spaces on both coasts allow room for doubt and do not punish questions.
“India taught me that faith can feel like a crowded street full of competing speakers. The West Coast taught me that doubt can be a daily practice too.”
— Maya
The Verdict: It is too simple to label India as “ancient wisdom” and the West Coast as “appropriation.” Both are full of people honestly fumbling toward meaning. If you can sit through a chaotic temple aarti and a perfectly sequenced yoga class with the same curiosity, you will start to see both the connections and the gaps.