Mar 3, 2010, 12.00am IST
Homayun Taba.
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Princess Diana and more recently, Michael Jackson, were cult figures when alive. After their demise their absence became localised, assuming a 'presence'. Long lines form outside their homes or memorials of fans waiting to pay homage to their 'gods'. In these secular spots, people do not look for blessings; they are emotionally driven by nostalgia for a certain connection.
At another level, people visit the tombs or samadhis of seers and saints. Here the focus of the pilgrims is on being energised, healed, or perhaps even accruing credit in the world to come, rather than understanding the place as linking more transparently to a higher reality.
Where a pilgrimage is made not for true spiritual purposes, our definitions and understanding of that concept get further blurred. The intention of the pilgrimage is not so much horizontal - ending with a personage, religious or otherwise - but it is vertical, with a deep intention of connecting one's soul with the ultimate Source.
Over the years what were once exclusively spiritual pilgrimages in certain places seem to have turned to a vacation, becoming one more talking point in our conversations with friends, adding to our photo and video collection. Today, many sacred sites double as tourist attractions. Will tourism pose a threat by neutralising the ambience of spirituality?
What is the purpose of pilgrimage? Mystics are unanimous in saying it is a progressive awakening of the soul from the slumber of heedlessness. It is about parallel exterior and interior movement towards the deep self. "And in the earth are 'signs' to those of real faith, And in yourselves. What! Do ye not see?" asks the Quran (51.20-21). Hence the hidden meanings flash upon a person's inward eye. This is what the Sufis call istinbaat, an intuitive deduction; the mysterious inflow of divinely revealed knowledge into hearts made pure and filled with love, and with thoughts of the Divine.
The Persian mystic 'Attar has a tale to illustrate this. He tells of the legendary and elusive king of birds, the Simorgh. The story unfolds with a sizeable number of birds undertaking to find this great one. The journey is torturous, many give up half way, several perish and a determined few make it to the mountain abode of the Simorgh. Soon they realise that only 30, or si, of the morgh or birds, remain. In a clever interplay of the words, si-morgh or 30 birds became Simorgh, and an idea similar to the relationship between the atma and Paramatma, is established.
The Sufis had reflected on this and came to the understanding that if the final aim is to connect with the Supreme, there is a site right within each one, the sacred heart. Almost all traditions speak of it.
Rumi talks about journeying to various religious places of different traditions in search of the Source, but all proved to be ineffective; when he turned to his heart, he found it there. A similar indication appears in the Sikh tradition where the seeker need not visit sacred shrines or bathe in sacred rivers, because the guru has revealed 68 places of pilgrimage within the heart, where the pilgrim takes a cleansing bath.
What lies at the heart of pilgrimage or for that matter a spiritual journeying? Ultimately each of us has to come out of exile. With all the blessings from gurus and visiting sacred sites, the work, our journey to our true home, is ours and ours alone. A geographical journey is symbolic of a deep and meaningful inner journey.
(e-mail: orientationsquest@gmail.com )
No comments:
Post a Comment