Pilgrimage begins long before you set foot out of the door to go on one. It is best for pilgrimage to originate as a calling, a deep inner prompting that goes beyond a yearning to travel and see new places. That is because pilgrimage is a journey of the soul that takes on the guise of traveling to holy sites and meeting spiritual personalities.
A pilgrim is defined as one who travels to a shrine or holy place as a devotee[1] and the term pilgrimage is the journey of a pilgrim, which has been in use since the 1300s. Mother Hamilton recommended the book, “The Way of the Pilgrim,” which chronicles a Russian itinerate traveler who is inspired by St. Paul’s admonition to pray without ceasing. In the forward by Father Thomas Hopko he writes:
“…life is communion with God: personal, direct, immediate, real, painful, peaceful, and joyful. It tells us that ceaseless prayer in pursuit of God and communion with Him is not simply life’s meaning or goal, the one thing worth living for, but it is life itself. It tells us that Jesus Christ is this life, and that constant, continual, ceaseless prayer in His name opens the door to Divine reality and puts us in immediate contact with the One who is the source, substance, and goal of our life, and our very life itself.”
It is living in this “Divine reality” that guides and directs me in all my ways, and now it takes me back to the land Yoganandaji so beautifully described and were the last words he uttered in his divine incarnation as he entered Mahasamadhi:
“The borderland of my India expanding into the world.
Hail, mother of religions, lotus, scenic beauty, and sages!
Thy wide doors are open,
Welcoming God’s true sons through all the ages,
Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves and men dream God.
I am hallowed; my body touched that sod!” [2]
When Swami Ramdas began his pilgrimage he was told inwardly that God, his Ram, was taking him all over India:
“If it was for sadhana, why should he go elsewhere? He could have practiced at home. Still God wanted him to go. Ramdas did not ask Him why he was being taken away, but He Himself whispered in Ramdas’s ear: ‘Ramdas, I am taking you from place to place not because you have to renounce everything, but because you have to see that everything is My form. You have to go to householders and tell them that they need not renounce worldly life in order to realize Me.”’[3]
To begin with the right attitude and maintain it throughout the pilgrimage yields the greatest, the highest results; even as Papa so lovingly and dedicatedly followed to the letter his Ram’s every command.
This is the fifth time that I have been directed to India; a spiritual homeland for me. Besides the tremendous ideals of Yoga, such as articulated in the Bhagavad Gita, that have so deeply inspired me, there are also the holy sites and saints whose darshan I have been blessed with.
When I left Anandashram last, Swami Satchidananda, my second spiritual mother, said it was unlikely that we would meet again in the body. True to his word, he left the body since that last meeting. It was heart wrenching to leave him at that time, but I felt the inner direction to return to all of you, and I left with his kind permission.
Now, nearly seven years later, I am directed to return to India. Carla and I will spend some time up north for Lahiri Mahasaya’s Mahasamadhi and birthday anniversaries, September 26th & 30th, at Swami Keshabananda’s Ashram in Haridwar. We previously made friends with wonderful devotees there many years ago, and now we shall return. We will be staying at accommodations connected with Anandamayi Ma’s Mahasamadhi Temple not far away in Kankhal. After a northern tour we shall have the darshan of Swami Vishwananda in Bangalore and then arrive at the abode of bliss, Anandashram, in time for Swami Satchidananda’s birthday. There we plan to remain for the balance of our time in India, unless Ram directs otherwise, for we are forever at His whim.
As Papa said so truly, you do not need to leave hearth and home to practice God-remembrance. To make your life a sacred journey, regard each and every aspect of it as steps to your full realization, the attainment of your life’s greatest aim.
I will take you in my heart, as I know I shall remain in yours. In the constant thought of the One may you be forever blessed in your pilgrimage back to your complete God-realization.