On a cool and mildly damp tarmac, in the wee hours of the morning, our plane landed at Madras International Airport, a rather grandiose caption for the unassuming, two-gate affair that greeted us.  Despite warnings from the Federal Government on terrorism and all the hype on aviation disasters likely from Y2K non-compliant computers, eighteen brave souls took off from Los Angeles.  We were not tourists off on a millennium bash.  We were pilgrims in search of the other half of our souls and willing to journey half way around the world.  Perhaps this made all the difference.

The soul, for those of us who believe in it, is undeniably the most intimate part of our being. Why then should we need to travel 15,000 miles to find one half of it? The answer lies in the clearly apparent dichotomy between body and soul prevalent in the infrastructures of our business and administrative systems, and blatantly advertised in all forms of media.   Workshops and seminars with this title draw large numbers today.  It is obvious that the social, economic, and technological structures of modern life do not support wholeness, and it may be not surprising if soon we need to travel to moon and back, to recover harmony, depth, and balance in our lives.  

What is it about life in the West that places so much pressure upon us?  "It is the insanity of psychological time", claims brilliant spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle in his book The Power of Now.  He explains, "In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the `Now' are completely obscured by psychological time.  Your life then loses its vibrancy, its freshness, its sense of wonder."  

There are of course a number of powerful and sophisticated opportunities available in the West through food and entertainment that can conjure up a temporary sense of fulfillment for this lack of vibrancy.  The mind is easily deluded into believing that it has found effective ways of dealing with its own inadequacy and can complacently maintain its illusion of separateness.  Yet, we are all aware of the complete lack of depth or a lasting state of fulfillment that comes from entertainment today.  Most of all we have absolutely no idea of the cost paid by our natural environment for these multi-million dollar extravaganzas.  As a consequence we have no knowledge of the long reaching effects of our indulgences to the poor living in other countries. It is therefore vitally important for us to occasionally extract ourselves from this artificial, dream world encapsulated in technology and experience the naturalness of other cultures.

Experiencing the differences and embracing the contrasts that result from being in another cultural setting can help us move towards a more mature perspective.  Such a vision will influence our spiritual growth and deepen our sense of inner and outer reality.  As a matter of fact, it will dissolve the boundaries of the inner and outer, giving us a taste of the Gnostic gospel which says, " When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer, and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female…, then you shall enter the Kingdom." This was exactly what the Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths meant when he claimed that he went to India to seek "the other half of his soul".

India has always maintained a sense of time that is cyclic rather than linear, a philosophical approach which is `both and' rather than `either or', a spiritual vision that is inclusive rather than exclusive.  The freedom from psychological time, the ability to respect many paths simultaneously, and a sense of rooted-ness in `being' rather than in `doing', has drawn spiritual seekers to her from all over the world in quest of an inner, more permanent reality.  

India is still the spiritual capital of the world despite its dark shadow side.  Together with its complete unpredictability and overwhelming sensory detail, India forces us to remain constantly in the Now.  In the West there are many spiritual programs geared toward helping people discard their projected identities and enter more deeply into the present moment in order to discover their true selves.   In India, there is no need for techniques.  One simply has to show up, to be there, and everything just `happens' around you.

There are constant reminders everywhere that we are in a sacred world, that everything is animated by a living spirit.  As you drive down a highway you see trees and stones consecrated with spiritual markings, sometimes with pieces of votive cloth tied around them, perhaps an oil lamp burning on the side.   Little temples and shrines dedicated to innumerable deities garnish the sacred landscape and ever so often, larger temples with many walled precincts dominate the setting.

In the cities it is much the same.  Despite the frenetic mishmash of traffic and the cacophony of multiple layers of discordant sound, you constantly see people engaged in devotional activities around shrines and temples that are on practically every street and street corner.  A man and his son holding their ear lobes, bob up and down in front of a shrine to Ganesh, the elephant headed god, while careening three wheelers almost broadside them.  They are asking atonement for their wrong doings, intending to receive the grace of God for a fresh start.   Women and their daughters come out of temples, flowers adorning their hair, their foreheads colored with sacred markings. They have just attended worship and received the `darshan" of a deity.

The Sufis believe that, "God sees us through the same eye through which we see God". Everyday millions of Hindus partake of darshan.  It is the grace `of being able to see and simultaneously be seen' by the Divine and it is done by visiting a holy person, worshiping the family deity enshrined in the puja room of their home, or going to the temple or shrine on the street.  But ever so often a special journey is undertaken: a pilgrimage.  

A pilgrimage involves foresight and preparation.  Intentions are scrutinized and clarified and a special time is set apart for the purpose so that worldly affairs will not be a concern during that period.  One detaches oneself from loved ones, from ones occupation, ones living quarters, from everything that is routine and familiar.  A pilgrimage is undertaken.  It is not planned with details.  One is totally open to the mystery of life, totally present in the moment with no remorse for the past or anxiety for the future.  One is established in Brahman, in Reality.

In the Hindu way of life, Brahmacharya is an important stage during which abstinence from sexual activity is observed for purpose of studying sacred texts and purifying the senses.  The same is done during pilgrimage.  It is a time devoted to rediscovering our relationship with Spirit and realigning the ego to a deeper wisdom that is not merely occupied with personal gain and survival.  The result is a gradual build up toward a sacred encounter with Spirit: darshan.  It can happen at any moment during the pilgrimage or it can happen after the pilgrimage.   The effects of spiritual renewal are deep and continue to unfold layer by layer even long after the pilgrimage is over. Pilgrimage is a return to the radical awareness of Being, the freedom from psychological time and the conscious

Russill Paul

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