According to Indian mystic traditions the physical life is regarded as a journey. A pilgrimage is mere an outward journey based on the imaginary divinity. A pilgrim is one who blindly accepted his physical existence as reality by accepting the inherited dogmas without verifying the validity of his belief.
People who think the place of pilgrimage is one where a manifestation of divinity appeared for a particular purpose, where a sage performed austerities or meditated for a long period, or where someone claim they got direct experience of God.
A pilgrimage is undertaken with many religious propagated goals. It may be an act of acknowledging to oneself one’s failures and misdeeds. One may aspire for freedom from this burden of misdeeds through confession, an act of atonement and purification. It could be in the form of renouncing a habit, addiction or worldly pleasure after the pilgrimage is complete.
Many think that if a pilgrim is one who fulfils all the requirements, he may be granted the rare appearance of a sage or saint who left the physical body hundreds of years ago, but still dwells there as a light being. Such ideas are based on imagination based on the physical self within the false experience. Thus it has no value on the base of the true self, which is the spirit.
Pilgrimage is a religious endeavour; it is holiday based on imagination. Rather than attending a lecture on finding the truth, it is better to indulge in pursuit of truth. Seeker has to go on a mental journey rather than a physical one.
If inquiry, analysis and reasoning done earnestly the true base, one becomes receptive and confident in his capacity to explore the nondual truth. One then renounce the ignorance he is addicted to and come to realise that he has the spiritual strength to live within the duality, fully aware of the fact that duality mere illusion.
Seeker of truth Begin a inner pilgrimage with an inner resolve, by rejecting mentally the unreality or illusion as a whole.
If taking a dip in a river would grant me liberation then the fish would have been liberated long ago.” Hence the mental journey is far more important than the physical one.
Let a pilgrimage be a point of crossing over, a transition to a ultimate truth. Seeker of truth has to go with the resolve: “After the mental pilgrimage, he shall be the true self/soul, which his true eternal identity.
After the mental pilgrimage, one is fully aware of the fact that the true self is not physical but it is the spirit. Thus he identifies his-self with the spirit and overcomes the burden and bondage of the physicality or duality.
Until that final realisation happens, one will continue to remain a pilgrim. Thereafter, he becomes a guide to other pilgrims who might follow him, seeking to grasp the essence of non-duality.
