Let's See
Mayapur, West Bengal
Hobbling out of a public bus were youthful pilgrims from the day's parikram. I overheard one of them say, "We just walked 14 kilometers." She looked exhausted but elated. Each day, hundreds of pilgrims set out at 5:30 AM from Mayapur to some destination- a sight connected to the pastimes of Chaitanya or anything where there had been spiritual enactment, a miracle, an auspicious event, or a great revelation.
The weary travellers who are escorted on bus and then left to roam in massive numbers do come back having experienced a purging for the day.
Only drama rehearsals restrict me from participating in what I like to do although these walkers encounter something different than myself. I'm accustomed to going on marathon levels alone or with an occasional comrade. Plus I will start my trekking early to beat the heat. Whatever the approach, the result is the same. These pilgrimage walks have their purpose and that is to cleanse the participant. It is notably a way to learn detachment; a way to see the spirit behind all that passes by you.
Pilgrimage is the aspect of life that is virtually unknown to modern man who is bound up in his greed. He will go great lengths to fly to Vegas or some other place of self-aggrandizement. What would such a man know of such luminaries as Balaram, Vidura, Narada who traveled from sacred ground to sacred ground? Will that time come when the general populace will know this missing link-this most wholesome fortune of life? Perhaps such a craving for the soul to journey on foot will come sooner than later.
Let's see what happens to the social change of our modern world. I would like to see Barack Obama on such walks of enlightenment.
7 KM
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