Ben 'baba' Viatte

Benjamin Viatte, haphazardly nicknamed Ben Baba by the Indian media, was born in a cozy Switzerland setting and lovingly tended by a loving family. It seemed he had everything… yet something was also missing. Something about the deeper questions that nothing from the outside world could hope to answer: birth, old age, love, loss of loved ones, ego, impermanence, happiness, death... At his 24th year a dream shook his being, in which these questions were dramatically brought to the surface. After lying in the dark on a stone floor, the troubling void was put to an end by a barefoot monk walking calmly, peace in every step, headed eastwards... Ben assumed the message was clear enough, and the next morning he started packing his things to attempt a journey on foot to the Indian Himalayas. He ended up crossing 18 countries and reached his destination Dharamshala 5 years later, after a 14'000 kilometer walk of which he relished every moment and recorded every day in tiny handwritten journals, which he is now turning into books. But does any outer accomplishment really matter? Don't we all know the real journey is inwards? And India's the motherland of such a marking spiritual culture that Ben's inner journey has only begun.