The sage Pulastya explains to Bhishma:
One whose hands, feet, and the mind,
Knowledge, ascetic endeavor, andreputation
Are well trained, controlled, andmastered,
It is such a one who obtains the fruition of hispilgrimage.
Turned away from possessing, owning,grabbing,
Contented with whatever [comes one'sway]
Having ceased the [indulgence of]ego,
It is such a one who obtains the fruition of hispilgrimage.
O lord of kings,
One not given to anger, by naturetruthful,
Firm in the undertakings of his vows,
Seeing in compassion all beings like one's ownself,
It is such a one who obtains the fruition of hispilgrimage.
Mahabharata, Vana-parvan Ch.82, vv.9-12.
This gift of thoughts is being presented for theoccasion of the kumbha mela at Allahabad (Prayag) in January 2001,but its content is applicable to all times that we, world pilgrims,experience in our course of being.
Kumbha is Sanskrit for the Aquarius sign of thezodiac, the sign of a full round jar filled with the godsíelixir of immortality. It is multi-layered, multi-lateral,multi-temporal, like all symbols presented to us as reminder of whatthe wise philosopher lady of the Upanishads, named Maitreyi,said:
"What shall I do with that which will not lead meto the realization of Immortality?"
The Festival of Aquarius, kumbha mela, has beenthe largest pilgrim destination in the world for thousands of years.It is a pilgrim destination and not a tourism attraction.
But what is a pilgrimage and who is apilgrim?
In the mystic traditions of the world, life isregarded as a journey. Its rites of passage are the wayside inns. Inthe traditions of India, the concept of an inn, however, was notknown. The word used was dharma-shala, the house of dharma. Thecountry was dotted with these dharma-houses, endowed by the wealthyor built and managed by village, ethnic, trade guild, and suchlikegroupings. These were places for the pilgrims to stay, somewhat likethe hospices of the Middle Ages in Europe. According to a count Ireceived from the City Council of Haridwar ñ twin to Rishikesh- in 1968, there were at that time 76 such establishments, large andsmall, operating in that city alone. Alas, the tradition has beengiving way to the tourist hotel because today's traveler to sacredplaces wants to call himself a pilgrim but seeks to enjoy thecomforts of tourism.
Before we learn what is a pilgrim, let usunderstand what is a sacred place. For uncountable millennia certainplaces have been dedicated only to prayer, to worship, to meditation.More such places also come into being with each new divineincarnation, each sage, each person who becomes a Master. These areplaces where there is a particular concentration, a vortex, of anunnamed spiritual energy.
A holy place of pilgrimage may be one where anIncarnation of God (see this author's book titled God), amanifestation of divinity, took a form, or battled with forces ofevil, or saved a fallen soul, or conferred grace upon an ascetic, orrevealed the divine word, or played any other uplifted cosmic games.It may be a place where an ascetic, a sage, a realized philosopherpracticed austerities or performed long sacraments, or sat still inmeditation for a century at a time (this is no exaggeration), orgranted initiations and direct experience of God, or taught thedivine silence or a mundane science, or promulgated a philosophicalsystem. In the epic Mahabharata, the five Pandavas undertake apilgrimage which is described in 76 chapters (Vana-parvan chapters80-156), in 2,683 verses, from which we have quoted at the beginningof this presentation. These chapters give the legends and storiesassociated with each of the places of pilgrimage they visited and theholy ones they met at many of them. So, also, a text called SkandaPurana covers all possible places of pilgrimage in six or sevenvolumes. It is the Skanda-purana that is considered the mostcomprehensive text with regard to the holy places of India,describing in nearly eighty-one thousand verses the history,geography, and spiritual import of each.
A holy place may be a stupa (as in Sanchi,Sarnath, Borobudur), an ornate, cathedral-sized, built-up moundcontaining holy relics. It may be what is known as a samadhi amongthe Hindus and as a dargah among the Muslims, the grave of a saintwhere thousands gather, irrespective of religion, and scatterflowers, offer worship, offer charity, receive healing, have theirwishes fulfilled. In these spots the rituals of several religions maybe going on at the same time and people drift from one religiousritual to another. There may be fixed days in a year holy toparticular places where people come to offer their devotion at thattime. There is one such spot on the border between India andPakistan, for example. A war may be going on between the twocountries in another area, but at this place in the Punjab state, themela (festive and religious fair) takes place every year at the holyplace sacred to both. The people gather across the border, may not beable to cross because of visa restrictions, and exchange the holyofferings en masse to lay one on behalf of the other.
Such melas are common to all the holy places. Onereason that our Gurudeva Swami Rama expressed the specific wish notto have his remains be buried, but rather be cremated, withoutestablishing a shrine, was so that it would not become such a placeof popular worship.
The holiness may reside in a pond, a lake, ariver, a confluence, an icon, a hill, a mountain, a cave, a tree, animage, a piece of cloth worn by an ascetic, or an ice formation. Whocan command the Divinity as to where to manifest Herself? It could bea yantra, or a particular edifice, such as a temple or a stupa builtto the design of a yantra, making it a vortex of energy. It is imbuedwith a special force that is still palpable, and one sitting there inworship or in silent meditation may even be granted a dream, avision, a promise, or even a higher initiatory experience. I havefeltthis touch of a vortex of an actual electric current when taking adip with my Gurudeva in the Ganga at the kumbha mela in Haridwar;while circumambulating the Rameshwaram temple at the landísend in South India; at the samadhi (holy mausoleum) of St. Francis ofAssisi; in the chapel in Avila, Spain, where St. Teresa was born;while doing special practices in a meditation cave in Gangotri; atBorobudur in Java; in the sage Agastyaís cave in Bali; at avery little known cave in Delhi (yes, a cave in Delhi) where, in the13th century, a Sufi saint lived for his ascetic practices and fromthere performed his chilla, the forty days intensive prayer whilehanging upside down in a water well.
If an adhikarin, a worthy one, fulfills thequalifications, s/he may receive the rarest privilege of the darshanaof a sage, of Shiva gender or of Shakti gender, who left his physicalbody thousands of years ago but still dwells there as a being oflight. This is reality. This is true.
You feel the energy to the degree that your mindis attuned. If you blanket your mind with the elements of theunsettled, the non-sacred, and the mundane, carry your anger and yourimpatience with you, then the energy plays hide and seek and you comeback non-recharged, just as you went, thinking that there is nothingto these places.
Each of thousands of such places has its ownprotocol, form of worship, ambiance, special power, and traditionsbuilt around that.
Many spiritual seekers who have listened to thesongs of the mystics ask a question: "Is it not said that all thesanctity is within one's person; that it is not by much walking, ortaking dips in sacred pools that one will be liberated, but byinternal surrender, purification, diving deep within?" 'If taking adip in a river would grant me liberation, the fish would have beenliberated long ago' says Kabir. Why, then, all this talk ofpilgrimage?
Indeed, that is the correct perspective for thosewho have truly learnt to dive within. On the other hand, in the caseof the large majority, if they were not going on a pilgrimage theywould only be indulging themselves in false amusements, sittingwatching TV, overeating, worrying, visiting Coney Island, onlypouring more confusion into the mind's empty vessel. Better to fillit with clean pure waters, with the memories, impressions, samskarasof the scriptural recitations and the sacred song, with theremembrances of a million others in prayer alongside. Yes, better tocome away charged with the sacred energy that the saints, sages,mystics and masters have stored in these locations, and the pilgrimsof the past thousands of years have further intensified with theirdevotion and self-dedication.
A pilgrimage may be undertaken with many differentspiritual goals in mind. It may be an act of paschat-tapa,acknowledging to oneself one's failures, misdeeds, acts of hurt,dishonesty or violence. One then wants to be freed of the burden byundertaking a prayash-chitta, an act of atonement and purification.These acts of atonement can take the forms of renouncing somepleasure or addiction, or an item from the diet, or ahabit.
One day I was awaiting to host at the RishikeshAshram some eminent leaders in knowledge. I prepared a special fruitsalad in their honor. As the fruit salad was served, one of thehonored guests inquired if it had mangoes in it. I enthusiasticallyanswered in the positive. Sorry. He could not have the salad. Mangoeshad been his favorite fruit and at one time he used to over-indulgein them. During one of his pilgrimages, then, he renounced mangoesand would no longer accept them.
On door-darshan (the Indian TV) I watched aprogram about addiction. One of the persons who had freed himself ofa serious drug addiction was being interviewed. How did he manage toovercome the sinister habit ? His reply was: " I am the eldest son ofthe family and therefore carry a number of ritual roles andresponsibilities. When my father died, I had to take his ashes forimmersion to the holy waters where our family ashes have beenimmersed for centuries. All eyes were on me. I was so totallyimmersed in my duty that during the journey, when the withdrawalsymptoms came and wherever they went, I simply had to ignore them andcarry on. Upon returning from that pilgrimage there was a nine-dayseries of ceremonies and there was no way I could indulge the habit.By the time the ceremonials were over I no longer needed the drug andhave been free ever since."
As acts of atonement or purification one mayundertake a period of fasting or silence. A number of leadingpolitical figures in countries of Buddhist East Asia, convicted ofcorruption, chose to exile themselves into a monastery for a periodof expiation. One may give to oneself a certain sacred task such as athousand or a million japas of a given mantra, or a fire offering(see the booklet Special Mantras by the same writer). Some prefer toundertake a pilgrimage in which all of these components may becombined in different permutations as advised by one's spiritualguide or by one's own conscience. After completing the pilgrimage oneforgives oneself, feels lightened, unburdened, ready to make a freshstart with a clearer heart and a cleaner mind. It becomes atransition from past burdens, fixations, obsessions andself-repeating habits towards shaping for oneself a new personalityand a fresh plan for sculpting one's thoughts andsentiments.
A pilgrimage may be a prayer for someone. Or onemay go to one's favorite or ancestral deity in the sacred place andask for a favor for a beloved one. Or one may make a promise torepeat the pilgrimage if the deity would grant the favor of one'spetition. Or it may have been the wish of a dying relative toundertake the pilgrimage that s/he was unable to fulfill and one mayundertake the pilgrimage to honor the wish as a loving filial duty.Or one may simply be bringing the ashes of the loved one to immerseat the sacred spot, as we have shown above. In 1987 the Master tookme on a pilgrimage to make special offerings to the soul of my fatherwho had departed from the world twenty-seven years earlier, becausemany of my karmic debts to him had remained unpaid.
These are all lesser goals of pilgrimages, notabsolutely spiritual, but better than frequenting a night club. Theeffect of the sanctity experienced during the pilgrimage rubs off onone's very soul. Many a seeker has found his guru during a pilgrimagewhich was originally undertaken for some such exterior purpose. Or,it may be seen this way: the karmic debt has been paid off in thecoinage of the pilgrimage and now the soul is ready to receive theguru's grace and truly benefit from it.
Sometimes accidents, intense illness, or greatfinancial loss may serve just such a purpose, i.e. paying off karmicdebts, and thereafter, or even during the very illness etc., thegrace begins to flow. Often a pilgrimage may be prescribed by one'sastrologer, village priest or current spiritual guide when such anillness, accident or loss is apprehended. The principle involved is:do a voluntary atonement so that one may no longer have to suffer aninvoluntary karmic effect.
There are holy spots where mothers go to ask theDeity to grant their daughter a good marriage. Or would-be parents gobegging for an offspring. For the fulfillment of each wish there is aspecial ritual protocol, a special offering, a special prayer, aspecial act of penitence to subdue the karmic forces.
Some rare couples may wish to invite a speciallyholy soul into their womb, and may undertake a pilgrimage to an'energy field' where they may choose to conceive after performingspecial offerings and acts of worship.
It is also a common practice that when one has anincurable or terminal illness one embarks on a pilgrimage. Sometimesit is undertaken in the hope of a cure, as there are special placesof pilgrimage in all religions that are sacred and healing to certainparts of the body. When one reaches the sacred place s/he undertakesthe immersions, penitent acts, japa of a mantra or a prayerappropriate for the particular problem. If the force of karma is notstronger than the sacred act being undertaken, one may come backfully or partially cured, or may even have warded off one's own or abeloved one's death.
During such a pilgrimage, an inspiration may arisein one's mind that one has been freed not only from death but fromfear of death (which is the true cause of all death principle) andnow one feels ready to enter the life of a renunciate. We know ofkings and princes and bankers as well as common folk who came to asacred place for a pilgrimage and never went back home.
It is a common practice that during the pilgrimageone takes an immersion in a holy body of water, be it a river or apond. Those in the West would be reminded of the baptism in Jordan,or of a healing immersion at Lourdes. One takes a dip facing thecourse of the river while reciting sacred verses glorifying theholiness, and touching all one's limbs absorbs the sacred. At thistime one may remember many of his/her relations, neighbors, friends,and take a dip for each of them. It is common that those biddingfarewell to a pilgrim say "Do make an immersion for me too". Duringone of the kumbha melas at Haridwar, my Master took his dip and cameout of the river. He stood at the shore while I took my immersion,taking a dip for each person I could remember, the last dip for myMaster, even though he stood right there. At that point he yelled "Donot forget your grand-guru!" And I took a dip for my master's masterwho had actually left his body many years earlier. It was at thattime I felt an electric current rise up from the river into me, thatwhirled around me three times and then subsided. The immersion hadbeen not in mere waters but in a holy river of light, flowing fromthe feet of Vishnu, from the hair-locks of Shiva, through countlessgenerations of Himalayan Masters.
Taking a dip with one's guru is often a form ofinitiation. For many thousands of years all monks have been ordainedwith a 'baptismal' dip (see the booklet Vows of a Swami).
The flowing river represents the continuity of theLineage and the Tradition. This became manifest to me during theHaridwar kumbh mela in 1974. The Master directed that I should takethe holy dip with him and that I should bring one of my most favoritestudents with me.
There were two such candidates present. They madea compromise between themselves and one of them came along. At theexact astrological hour for the holiest immersion we were at theriver. The Master stood a little upstream, I was a little downstreamfrom him, my favored student stood a little downstream to me, and wetook a dip together. Gurudeva explained to me that this representedthe continuity and the passing on of the continuity of the Traditionof the Lineage.
Thus have the Traditions been passed on at thekumbha mela, and at other occasions during pilgrimages in the holyplaces for countless generations.
During these pilgrimages one also undertakes actsof charity. The reason places like Haridwar are seen as filled withbeggars is because the tradition enjoins the pilgrims to give charityand to feed the hungry. One contracts with local food merchants todistribute food to so many on a, certain evening, and so on. Theoffering of food and gifts such as clothing and money can be out of(a) compassion, or out of (b) reverence. In the latter case one mayinvite just one or a thousand sadhus, holy men, to be honored with afeast: each one may be given some vestments and a money offering. Weoften do this at our Ashram on sacred occasions such as anniversariesof our Master, or when someone takes the vows of renunciation. At thekumbh mela it is the duty of the mandaleshwaras and such others tofeast maybe five thousand sadhus at a time. The organizationalsystems to bring that about successfully and in a disciplined wayhave been in place for millennia.
Needless to say that all this is done as part ofworship. The pilgrims often ask their family priests to officiate inthese sacraments. These may be family priests from one's own villagewho may accompany a group of pilgrims or they may be the priestsresident in the holy places. This last is an amazing socialphenomenon. India has thousands of groups of ethnic or trade origin,all living side by side for thousands of years, each practicing itsown customs and traditions, and marrying according to complex rulesof endogamy and exogamy. A large number of these endowed pilgrims'houses primarily for the use of their kin and the clan undertaking apilgrimage. For thousands of years the priests have been in residencein these establishments in the various holy cities. They are priests,pilgrim guides and family record keepers, called the Pandas. It istheir duty to keep track of any pilgrims from their ancestral villageor kinship group coming; to officiate in the ceremonial required, toguide the pilgrims, and often house them ñ if the pilgrims bynow have not become so comfort-loving that they must have starredaccommodation. It is common to see at the railway stations of placeslike Varanasi or Haridwar groups of Pandas inquiring of the arrivingtravelers as to where they are from, so that they would not beneglected, would be properly guided, and housed.
I recall : I returned to India after a sixteenyear absence in 1968, and naturally went to the holy city which hasbeen the ancestral place to visit for a pilgrimage for the people ofour brahmin sub-caste. I went to Har ki pauri, the sacred area ofHaridwar, and got the attention of the first Panda-looking person Isaw, and inquired : I am of the Kaliya clan of the Saraswat sub-casteBrahmana (brahmin) from the Noormahal village, District (County) ofJalandhar in the Punjab State. Where would I find my family Pandas ?The gentleman immediately directed me to the street, the house, andsection of the haveli (mansion-like house) where the priests of ourparticular ìclanî reside. Now, imagine, I am asking thefirst person I meet, and out of a country of (now) one billion peoplehe can give me the right directions - such is the system still inplace. I went to the house, and was received like one's own relative,was guided to take my holy bath, and made an offering. The Panda tookout the family's genealogy register, going back three hundred years(because paper cannot last much longer), in which I saw thesignatures of the great-grandfather of my great-grandfather. Ientered the present state of the family, the marriages that havetaken place since the last pilgrimage of a family member, how manychildren had been born, and so forth, made an appropriatemoney-offering (the amount depends on your capacity and the degree ofreverence), and came away feeling fulfilled.
In 1986 ( I am not sure of the year) I was helpinglead the Himalayan Institute tour group in Kashmir. There is a placea called Matand (Sanskrit, martand, meaning the Sun). It used to be aSun Temple, and, as all Sun temples were at one time, a seat ofancient astronomical observations. It is on the pilgrim route toAmarnath, a cave shrine to Shiva at the height of 13,400 feet in themountains, where the medium of worship is the usual oval Shivasymbolic form that takes shape out of ice dripping from the roof ofthe cave; it is fully formed every full moon night, though thepilgrimage is in July-August.
Well, here I was by the holy pool at Matand - onthe pilgrim route.
The priests saw me as one lone Indian among somany in an American tour group, and inquired of my origins. Iunderstood their purport; if I was from a kinship group known to themit would be their dharma-duty to take care of me. I told them thatthis is not the pilgrim route our family normally takes and they werenot likely to have any of our family records there. But they insistedon knowing. I told them of my origins. Within five minutes theybrought out the genealogy register and told me that one year before,on such and such date, my three times removed cousin, together withsuch and such family members, had passed that way.
I, too, then signed in the register giving thepresent condition of my branch of the family.
I was still a householder. Mother Arya was awayvisiting a daughter in England. I took two smaller ones and decidedto go for a pilgrimage in the mountains, or, rather, to escape thesummer heat of the plains. There is a place called Gaur-kunda beyondwhich cars cannot go. The pilgrims take a bath in the hot mountainstream that forms a pool, to both cleanse and to purify themselves.Then the fourteen kilometer climb on foot begins to the holy shrineof Kedarnath.
As I came out of the car, I was approached by apriestly looking gentleman who, as usual, asked about my origins, andI told him. He pointed to another person in the distance, and saidthat was the person I would need. The other person was called over towhere I stood and I introduced my family background. The gentlemansaid for me and the children to please go,ahead (now, at that timethere were hardly any telephones in the region), that his brotherwould be standing outside the Government Tourist Hotel before youreach the town of Kedar Nath and would greet you and escortyou.
I rented the ponies (that's a bit of cheatingeverybody indulges in for difficult climbs), arrived at the rightplace, and before I could open my mouth the gentleman greeted me, andsaid that he had a message from his brother to receive us. He took usto his pilgrim house, prepared the meals and we all huddled underthick quilts for the cold night just under the glacier.
Before leaving the house in Dehradun I hadmiscalculated the expenses and had not counted on paying so much forthe ponies. Upon arrival I spoke to my car driver: "I am in trouble,I am running short of money." He said "You have forgotten thetraditions of India; you are in no trouble. You are in the house ofyour Panda. There is no problem." Next morning, before I could wakeup, the priest came up through the trap-door to where we weresleeping, and said if hear you are running a bit short on money; haveno worry." He handed me a bundle of two thousand rupees. No creditcards, no bank references. He arranged for the worship to beperformed and everything else we needed done.
Upon returning home I sent him the money, ofcourse, together with an appropriate offering.
Thus, a pilgrimage is not just an individualisticundertaking but a whole social attitude, the realization of specialrelationships with God as well with His lesser beings.
During the pilgrim season it is common to seetraffic diversions by police orders on the main roads, say, betweenDelhi and Haridwar-Rishikesh because of several million pilgrimswalking on the road. Someone from among the pilgrims begins a chantor song, a kirtana, and others follow along. The vehicular traffichas to give right of the way to the pilgrim. The pilgrims make stopsat other holy places along the way. Another common phenomenonobserved is that, while some prefer to go on a pilgrimage, otherschoose to feed and shelter the pilgrims and thereby gain theirëpunyaí. All the way from the plains near Delhi to thesource of the holy Ganga, little or large tent encampments spring up,endowed by the merchants, where the pilgrims may stop at any hour ofday or night to have a cup of tea, some prasadam for nutrition, alittle rest for the weary feet, and then go on.
One may intensify the ëgaining ofpunyaí by adding to what might appear to others the hardshipsof a pilgrimage. For example, some will not lie down along the waybut will keep walking day and night until their goal has been reachedñ occasionally resting against a tree. There are many who areseen not just walking on a pilgrimage but prostrating at each stepalong the way ñ right there on the sidewalk, with heavilyladen trucks exuding fumes. Each prostration may be accompanied witha mental chant of the glorification of the deity one is so eager tosee upon arrival. Or one may do a mental repetition of one's personalmantra with each prostration. The pilgrim may do the entire journeywith prostrations or just a part thereof. There are even moreintensive forms prescribed for special places, special occasions, orspecial purposes and intents. The most difficult is the pilgrimage toMount Kailasha, the abode of Shiva, at the altitude of 18,000 feet,equally sacred to the Tibetan Buddhists, of which many circumambulatewith prostration at every step.
Millions of pilgrims travel on foot to Haridwarand Rishikesh, carrying specially adorned water vessels (kumbha) toreceive holy water and bring it back to make an offering to theirvillage temple or to add to the sanctity of their home. The pilgrimswill not put down the holy water vessel on the ground. There is atradition among some sadhus that at the onset of winter they filltheir vessels from the northernmost source of Ganga, at the Gomukhglacier, and walk the entire length of India to make the Ganga-jala(holy Ganges water) offering at the southernmost temple atRameshvaram and then start their northward journey again, to be backin the Himalayas at the end of the winter.
One of the most common forms of the sacred is aHoly Book. This is especially so among Sikhs, which meansëdisciplesí. Sikhs are disciples of ten gurus who foundedthe faith. The tenth guru decreed that there would be no morepersonal gurus - only the holy book Guru Granth Sahib. It is so veryuplifting to walk into a Sikh Gurudwara and observe the calmness andfervor, the purity, devotion, and service to all living beingswithout a trace of inequality. Do please read H.H. Swami Rama'stranslation of the first part of this holiest work in the spokenlanguage of the people.
The founders of the Sikh faith were both saintsand warriors. Many are now scholars and saints. The holy placesassociated with them are places of miracle, power, beauty, strength,and total self-sacrifice. For example, I often pass Paunta Sahib onmy journey to the Punjab; this Gurudwara at the banks of the placidYamuna river (the twin of Ganga) is less than two hours drive fromour Ashram in Rishikesh. Here, three hundred years ago, Shri GuruGobind Singhji, the last Guru, sat writing his copious poetic-saintlyworks. The river used to rise and flood the surroundings whichgreatly disturbed the Saint's writing work. He finally commandedYamuna never again to rise beyond a certain spot which he marked. Itdoesn't ñ even though it may be in flood in the rest of thecountryside.
The holy book is never just picked up and carriedabout; it is wrapped in ornate cloth and carried over one's head.This is common to all traditions in India. In Bali island, Indonesia,the ritual of carrying a holy book to do a reading is even morecomplex; you have to visit the country to see it.
Another manifestation of sanctity is shri-pada,the mark of an Incarnation's or a saint's feet. It may be a real markof the footprint, or a idealized symbolic version. The mind enters astate of calm to see the flowers scattered upon it by the devotees.It is especially common in the Jaina and Buddhist traditions but theVishnu-pada is also worshipped in certain holy places. On the otherhand, it is common to see the devotees place a paduka, wooden sandalsof an ascetic after his departure from the body, and that serves asthe icon of the shrine.
One of the impressive features about all places ofspiritual devotion is that the sacred spot may have belonged to thefollowers of one religion, then, with conquest or conversion, thepeople's religion changes, or the spot comes within the rule of thefollowers of a new religion. Now the spot is sacred to the followersof this new religion who jealously guard it from the 'infidels' towhom it was sacred before. The fact of sanctity does not change. Isthat not the problem with the most sacred place in Jerusalem that ishonored by the people of three religions? No matter who rules overit, its sanctity remains indubitable, unchallengeable.
I recall visiting the holy bamboo grove, near thetown of Rajagriha in Bihar State in India. The Buddha had his hutthere, on a little hill, from where he walked down to the small lakebelow for his daily ablutions. I retraced his steps from the kutiya(cottage) spot down to the lake. It was from there I sent a blessingto my students: "Walking in a bamboo grove, may your foot step intothe Buddha's footprint."
I felt deeply hurt that now there was no sign ofthe Buddha's hut, but there were dargahs, graves of Muslim holy menthere. The spot is held sacred, nevertheless.
This goes to show that the power of sanctity doesnot abide in one particular religion; it is independent of religionand followers of every religion experience it at the same place. Oncesacred, always sacred.
The sanctity does not have to begin with a humanevent. There are identical stories about many places.
A certain cowherd, or maybe it was a villagehouseholder, or an ascetic, used to send his cow to roam and graze inthe morning. As is the common custom in India, the cows graze thewhole day unattended and come back home with full udders in theevening. So did this cow come home, but came with emptyudders.
The owner was puzzled as to who might be milkinghis cow stealthily ñ a very rare happening. So he decided tofollow the cow and saw that every evening, before coming home, thecow was going to a certain spot and simply pouring the milk from herudders onto a particular spot. Next day it was the same, and thefollowing day, too.
The spot was dug and an icon was found there,buried centuries ago, and the cow was simply making the consecrationby pouring a stream of milk ñ the common ritual way in Indiato consecrate any sacred form.
Sometimes the Deity gives a dream, or a meditativevision: "I am manifesting at such and such place. Come dig me out."Such icons are called svayam-bhu, the self-manifested ones.Thereafter a temple may be constructed at the holy place.
One can go on without end regarding the millionways of the mystery of sanctity. I know of a cloak passed down in thefamily of the priests of a certain temple in Vrindavan. I have beenfortunate to have the darshan of this cloak. Shri ChaitanyaMahaprabhu had given this cloak to the family more than five hundredyears ago as he placed under their care the temple which they stillserve with devotion.
We can conclude that sanctity is not dependent onany form. It is an independent force that gets imbued with anintensity, suffuses a form, and thereafter becomes an object ofveneration.
These kinds of traditions are not particular toIndia alone. They are well known to the Zarathushtra tradition, toJudaism (the visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is a pilgrimage),as well as to Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. There is an enormousamount of literature available on each tradition. It is common in acountry like Thailand where the pilgrims wear white and lead anespecially sacred life (such as periods of vegetarian diet). Outsidethe Thai temples one sees the bird catchers holding birds in theircages, and the Thai tourist (oops!) literature informs us about'merit-making' (gaining punya) by giving some money to thesebird-catchers to release a bird or two to fly away in freedom. InIndia the same sentiment may take the form of feeding monkeys or thesacred elephants of the South Indian temples. In Japan there is amystical map of the country in which the spots sacred to the Buddhain India are superimposed upon Japan and in lieu of making thepilgrimage to these spots in India one pays homage to the incidentsin the Buddha's life right within one's own country.
Here to confuse, and then 'unconfuse' the reader alittle:
The angel Gabriel reported to Allah that amillion-strong throng had gathered for the hajj at Mecca (or was it aChristian pilgrimage to Jerusalem?), and won't Allah (or maybe it wasthe French Dieu?) just glance at the pilgrims from above and sendthem a grace and a blessing. Allah looked down, and said, 'Whymisreport to me thus? Where is the million-strong throng?'. The angelinsisted that his report was correct and asked why Allah was testinghim. 'I am not testing you, but I see no millions around Mecca, I seebut one pilgrim.' The angel failed to understand. Gott (for it wasprobably the God of Germany) granted to his angel the sight to see avillage in Lebanon and told him to go there and he would understandwhat Allah (Oh, Theos, rather) meant. The angel descended to theearth right at the given village and found the house of a very poorman who had saved his money for his entire life with the desire to goon the pilgrimage. But, as he was about to leave, his even poorerneighbor came begging for help for his only child who was very ill.The would-be pilgrim gave him all of his savings and stayed homethanking God for having granted him such an opportunity. It was hewho was the true pilgrim in God's eyes and not the millions whomGabriel had seen around the holy city.
In India there is a particular genre of sacredliterature known as mahatmya, meaning glorification. Differentmahatmya texts glorify special sacred spots, or other sacred texts.For example, the epic called Padma-purana contains eighteen mahatmyasfor the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad-gita. There is, similarly,prayaga-mahatmya, the text glorifying the sacred city of Prayaga, thereal name of Allahabad. Prayaga is the place known for yagas, that isyajnas, the fire offerings performed there by the ancient rishis forthousands of years. (There are half a dozen other prayagas deep inthe mountains, each one at a place where a tributary meets the maincourse of the Ganga River, each renowned for an ancient ashram wheresuch purificatory sacraments were performed). Here is a story fromthe prayaga-mahatmya :
Shiva and Parvati were traveling by the sky-path,and Parvati espied a huge throng below in the vicinity of where thethree rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, meet at Prayaga. She wasexcited to see so many pilgrims gathered in one place and wanted tojoin the excitement. She asks Her Lord of the Universe:
'Please, may we land down there below?'
'For what ?' asks the Lord.
'Well, to be part of all that excitement ofpilgrimage being undertaken by these millions' shepleaded.
'What millions?' he asks, with an eyebrowraised.
'Do you not see, down there below, all thosepilgrims?' she implored again.
'I see only one couple walking there as pilgrims;none else. What is the matter with your vision, O Lady of theUniverse ?'
After some argument, Lord Shiva agreed to go downwith her to let her prove her point, or to show her how her cosmicvision was failing. The divine couple disguised themselves as twolepers, a destitute man accompanied by a begging woman. The lepers,the Divine couple, sat down by the roadside, begging. No one stopped,but one kindly human couple who saw in them the presence of thedivine, prostrated to them and served their feigned humanneeds.
'See? I told you there was only one pilgrimhereabouts' said Shiva triumphantly and the Divine couple ascended totheir sky path to continue to survey the universe.
Having read all of this, the seeker on themeditative path needs to know that a pilgrimage is thus not thehighest endeavor. But at the same time s/he is to be reminded thatbetter than ëgoing on touristic holiday' a pilgrimage is farmore conducive to the meditative enrichment of the self. Rather thanattending a lecture about silence, it is better to practice silence;better than not practicing silence is to attend a lecture on silence.Better than going on an external pilgrimage is to undertake theinward journey; better than indulging in outward chatter whilestaying home is to go on a purificatory pilgrimage. If you did not goon a pilgrimage, would you be going on a touristic holiday,sight-seeing, but not insight-seeing ? Then goinsight-seeing.
The pilgrimage grants one a brighter karma thanthe ones accumulated walking in a shopping mall. If done properly itcleanses the mind, unburdens the heart, and gives to oneself theconfidence in oneself that one can do it.
Can do what?
One may abandon for a time the physical comfortsone is used to ñ so that one may realize how little is reallyneeded. Upon return, one sees that all one's comforts can be reduced,drawing less from nature, ending one's dependence on them foridleness and for greed.
One renounces the pleasures one is addicted to andrealizes that one has the spiritual strength to live without them.Thus does one return from a pilgrimage ever more confident of one'sspiritual capacity.
One starts the pilgrimage with the declaration ofa resolve to oneself, a sankalpa (see a paraphrase summary ofsankalpa at the end of the booklet Special Mantras): This is thepurpose of my pilgrimage; thus shall I conduct myself during thepilgrimage, in proverbial sackcloth and ashes,
Abandoning comforts,
renouncing pleasures,
giving of myself,
undertaking unselfish charity,
conquering sleep,
maintaining silence, celibacy,stillness,
restraint in matters of food,
accepting whatever the stations in the journeyhave to offer,
control of speech and of all thesenses,
withdrawing from desires and from memoriesthereof.
(See the booklet Five Pillars ofSadhana).
One makes the resolve to thank the Divinity forthe opportunity of being at a place where some Incarnation of theDivine Mother or the Lord of the Universe at one time made Her/Hisplayground and wrought miracles and uplifted and liberated the soulsfrom misery, or granted Grace to an ascetic, or revealed the DivineWord.
'May I succeed in these acts of renunciation andself-purification'- prays the pilgrim before leaving his/heraccustomed place for shores and conditions unknown.
A pilgrim is one who walks barefoot on the stonyand thorny ground when he can use comfortable footwear; a touristputs on footwear even where it is not needed.
A pilgrim sleeps on hard ground or on a woodenboard, having a brick for a pillow; a tourist seeks a bed ever-softereven though it would damage his spine.
A pilgrim fasts where he can eat; a tourist eatswhen not hungry.
A pilgrim sleeps not when he can enter meditation;a tourist sleeps even after he is rested.
A pilgrim walks in silence even in the midst ofnoise,
restrains the senses;
withdraws from any disturbing sensations beingpoured into him from the
surroundings;
remains celibate even when accompanied by adesirable spouse;
responds with kindness when provoked toanger;
remains patient when disappointed;
remembers at all times that s/he is on apilgrimage for self-purification
and not on a tour for entertainment.
A holy place of pilgrimage is called tirtha, aford, a point of crossing over. This word is also used for one's ownpreceptor, acharya, or guru. The alumni of the same guru-kula (theguru-family, that is the place of learning), are called sa-tirthya,they who have lived together as classmates in one ford, one and thesame crossing point, that is under the same preceptor. Let apilgrimage be a point of crossing over, a transit, a transition to ahigher level of thought, act, and very existence. After thepilgrimage, be not what you were before. Go with the resolve, 'Afterthe pilgrimage, I shall be a higher self, purer, brighter, morestilled, more akin to my own interior divinity'.
Through all of these resolves being renewed everymoment with an unprecedented spiritual alertness the pilgrimreaffirms that his life henceforth shall not be a mere journey but apilgrimage to the interior holiness. Until that final realization,s/he is a pilgrim. Thereafter one becomes a guide to other pilgrimswho follow behind, seeking to grasp the vessel of the godsíelixir of immortality, the Aquarian fullness, the essence ofenlightenment.