The importance of going on a pilgrimage.

 A pilgrimage  to sacred Mt. Kailash and Mansarovar in the  impressive Himalayas was a journey of a life time. It was a wonderful journey and will always be treasured and remembered with fondness and sweet memories.  From today, we begin our holy journey once again. As I move along with you  recounting my trip, I will share some of my experiences and realizations along with a few visual memories through photographs. In case there is no appropriate photo for the topic that is being dealt with, I will attach just a photo or two of the beautiful panaroma of the landscapes of Tibet, China or Nepal for that matter. Tibet has one of the most scenic views of mountains and sky that one can encounter. When I saw these eye catchy vistas, I very seriously regretted not being a painter!! It was all a play of rain clouds, white fluffy clouds, clear blue sky and mountains of myriad shapes and colours. The landscape out there is an inspiration for poets, painters and philosophers alike.

Instead of a photo gallery, I have decided to attach  one  photo in the beginning and one in the end  in every post. If I am too tempted, then there can be three pictures also as it has become very difficult to select and choose. Every frame has something to offer, each one speaks a story of its own.

I warmly invite everyone to participate in viewing the photo album with me.  Those of you who cannot go there due to acclimatization problems on those high altitudes, kindly see the photos and worship God in abstract a well as visual form!! The photos will also provide a vivid description of the scenic beauty of the Mother earth not explored yet.

And those of you who are interested in making this pilgrimage a reality in near future, I would like to suggest you Anil’s blog . It is a  travelogue which is a must read for you. The blog is a very well written, informative and encouraging one. I had taken this blog’s help as my preparation tool. Anil Mavinkurve’s encouraging words were a great help to me when I required some FAQ’s answers.  

Let’s begin –My dear friends, we all take a trip and travel once in a while with our friends and family members. We travel for education, adventure or just for the sake of  fun.

 To accelerate their development,  the seekers perform deeds  like worshipping, charity, fasting, chanting, reading, meditating, maintaining silence, contemplation and so on.  These  activities help the seekers to take leaps on their passageway. There should be one more reason to travel and that is necessary for the earnest spiritual seekers. They must travel some times to develop themselves further in Spirit and to further expand their minds to have a wider horizon. Going on a pilgrimage is a combination of all these kriyas or karmas. Pilgrimage provides us  a chance to do all these activities. It is a great opportunity to get away from mundane activities of daily life and focus  entirely on one’s inner self during the time of the pilgrimage.

We live in a noisy, chaotic &  agitated world where we lose so much energy. The holy places are dynamically charged with divine vibrations. So we must travel to holy places where we can also recharge and rejuvenate our mind, body and soul.The pilgrim gets an impetus by travelling far and wide by visiting places which are spiritually charged.

Endurance is a great quality of a sadhak. To increase endurance of  both physical and mental capacities, one must leave their homes and go on pilgrimages. To complete the journey, one must have endurance. On my trip, we were exposed to harsh climate, lack of healthy food, lack of sleep, lack of basic amenities and many other  discomforts. But I soon got used to it, and realized that a man’s basic needs are very few. The rest is only for mental comfort more than physical comfort. So we must practice spartan living during the pilgrimage tenure to break the habit of compulsive comfortable living. It was a great experience for me to live in those frugal and basic accommodation and food, to overpower the mind’s compulsive habits and to practice austerity.

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