Pilgrimage to India

2012-11-28 22:47阅读：

http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/u/2196641360

Author: David Blanco
For Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day vacations, I took a group of 32 students for a pilgrimage to India. I am a founder and teacher of Yididaai. All the students took some personal growth courses with me before, so I knew them well. This time, I wanted to introduce them to India, the motherland of spirituality. As Mark Twain wrote 'India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition.” My Chinese students are aware that since ancient times, Chinese scholars, like Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang (602-664), have travelled and stay in India to study Indian philosophy and to bring back spiritual scriptures.

A pilgrimage is a journey with spiritual significance. Yididaai, the training organization I cofounded with my wife, Bai Wei is non-religious and open to the wisdom embedded in the genuine mystical traditions such as Taoism, Chan, Vedanta, Advaita and Sufism. Our approach is open, universal and non-dogmatic. We believe that understanding and practicing spirituality, rather than religion, is a necessity if one wants to discover deeply oneself. We adopt the motto: “Truth is One and universal, paths are many...” This journey is the first of a series of journeys I plan to lead. I chose to show them this time some of the most authentic spiritual places in Northwest India. Those places are caves, mountains, monasteries, shrines and temples where highly enlightened masters live at present or in the past. Those sages have embodied the ancient wisdom of India.

When a person reaches the summit of his spiritual realization, he becomes a lighthouse that spreads powerful vibrations of compassion, peace and bliss. Many people feel an enormous attraction to be in the presence of such realized masters, because within their strong magnetic spiritual field, one feels blessed, uplifted and insights into our deeper nature are easier to happen. This is true when we come across a living perfected master, but it also happens where a perfected master was buried. Their shrines become places of pilgrimage. They are gates to the subtle and invisible dimensions, thresholds to the deep inner silence. Through those spiritual gates, the pilgrim is invited to enter the Unity that underlies all the diverse manifestations of life. In these heavenly places on Earth, the pilgrim does not only receive blessings and insights, but gives his love, admiration and prayers to the master.

Throughout human history, India has had the largest density of enlightened masters. Its culture has beyond compare, fostered the quest for the realization of the spiritual heights. Gautama the Buddha is not the only prince in Indian history, who renounced his kingdom and riches to discover the ultimate meaning of life. All these numerous lofty endeavours and spiritual attainments reached by the spiritual elite over centuries have charged the lands of India with a very conducive atmosphere for spiritual growth. The German Sufi Sheikh Burhanuddin has said that one day in India equals the effects of forty days of spiritual study in other countries.
The jewel of our journey was visiting the respected enlightened master Chandra Swami. He lives with his disciples in a monastery on the bank of the holy river Yamuna and surrounded by the beautiful lush scenery of the Himalayan foothills. Chandra Swami is an authentic contemporary saint, who radiates peace and inner happiness. He did seclusions in caves and huts for decades. For the last 28 years, he has maintained silence. His silence is more eloquent than words. In his silent presence, one feels showered by love and peace. He also offers some time daily to write the wise answers to the questions of his students. He is very humble and humorous. His eyes are penetrating and pure. He has conquered his ego. He embodies the ultimate wisdom of India. He welcomed our Chinese group with so much kindness. He wrote to me that he was counting the days, before we arrived. He gave us sweets and gifts. He showed us the monastery room by room. He played and danced with us. In him we could see that the highest wisdom goes side to side with childlike purity.

Chandra Swami has founded by his monastery a free hospital and a free school for the poor and needy of the neighbouring villages. Some of his disciples showed us thoughtfully their charitable facilities and activities. We were pleased to see how they are providing a high quality education-academic as well as moral- to those beautiful children. The children prepared a touching performance to welcome our Chinese group. They showed us traditional ethnic dances from the area as well as acrobatic yoga performances.

Another highlight of our journey was a day trip we did to one of the sacred caves of the Himalayas. The cave we visited is reputed to be the place where many great saints and sages have done meditation over many centuries. Many of the ancient and current spiritual masters of India lived in the caves of Himalayas and did rigorous practices there. Caves are very cooling in the summer. The heat of scorching summer cannot penetrate inside. And in the winter they stay quite mild.

All external sounds are shut out in a cave. You can have very beautiful, uninterrupted meditation. When we sat in meditation inside the cave, we felt the spiritual currents left by many sages there. The silence was so deep, that thoughts seemed to pause and we seemed to enter a dimension beyond time. We accessed the real inner cave within our hearts, what the ancient texts of India called the Hridaya-Guha. There lies the source of inner bliss.

The scenery by the cave is breathtaking. The mighty river Ganges flows through the lush valleys. Its waters run clean and fresh from melt waters of glaciers, springs and lakes of the Himalayas. There are beaches along the banks with white sand and rocks where monks sit to meditate.
In our pilgrimage, we also visited the house of the saint Swami Chidananda Saraswati in Rishikesh. He was one of the prominent and most revered sages of India and of modern times. Yet, despite being an outstanding world-famous spiritual teacher, Swami Chidananda always remained simple and humble. Indeed, what struck one most were his gracious humility and ascetic way of life with a rather frugal

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