I am addicted to India, it's magical, says Sting

"In a sense, I am more a Hindu; I like Hindu religion more than anything else at this moment," says the bottle-blonde pop star who has carved a niche for himself as a ''thinking rocker'' and bequeathed the word ''synchronicity'' to teen talk.
"For me as an artist, it was important to be brought up in the Christian tradition; it is very rich in imagery.And of course I still use that, there is a great deal of awareness with that. But I would not consider myself a Christian any longer. My beliefs are much wider than that. I don''t believe God is necessarily a Catholic or Islamic or anything else...it''s a much larger concept than that..." he asserts.
As is to be expected, there is a lot of feel-good about India. "I visit India very often. I spent the last New Year here. I was in the desert near Jaisalmer. I think my favourite city is probably Benares. There''s something very magical about it. There''s a Shiva temple there that''s fallen halfway into the Ganges and I find that such a wonderful, powerful image... it will stay with me for a long time. There are many places in India that I haven''t been too. And I will spend the rest of my life discovering your wonderful country. I''ve become addicted to it."
Sting — aka Gordon Sumner — who will perform for tsunami relief on February 4 in Bangalore and February 6 in New Delhi, admires Indian musicians. "I know Ravishankar very well and his wonderful daughter. I know a great deal about Indian music and have tried to understand its intricacies. I am aware how complex ragas are and how specific the rhythm is."
A highlight of his performance is the presence of a female dancer behind the singer who is viewed on a screen as he performs. "She''s like the female deity in this world...I think we need more of the goddess in our lives," he says.