Journeys to Nirvana: Travel Opens the Path to Liberation is a compelling exploration of the world, spanning countries as diverse and far-flung as Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, India, China, Japan, Laos, Spain, the US, Italy, Taiwan, France, Denmark, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and Cambodia. In lyrical prose coupled with evocative photographs, traveller and educator Vivek Bammi expounds on the impact of travel on the human soul. The book takes us through the six stages of being facilitated by travel: awe and humility, wonder and catharsis, endurance and efflorescence, solitude and resilience, fluidity and transience, and finally, emptiness and release.

Bammi’s photographs range from the quiet majesty of Norway’s fjords and the complex architecture of Uzbekistan’s mosques, to the vibrant streets of Italy and the myriad people of Indonesia. Moody shots of the autumnal trees of Japan, raindrops on leaves, nazunias, and violets provoke introspection. The journey to nirvana ends at the ghats of Varanasi in India, in the silence of completion.

Journeys to Nirvana is a visual delight as well as a poetic guide to self-transformation.