VALUE OF PILGRIMAGES

The Milk of the cow in reality pervades the whole body of the animal through its blood, but you cannot milk it by squeezing the ears or the horns; you can get the milk only from the teats. Similarly, God pervades the universe everywhere, but you cannot see Him everywhere. He manifests Himself more feaclily in sacred temples which are full of the spirit of devotion diffused by the life and spiritual practices of the devotees of former times.

Know that there must be manifestation of God in places where countless people have for long practiced austerity, Japa, meditation, prayer and worship with a view to realise Him. Through their devotion, spiritual ideas are present in these places in a solidified form, as it were. Hence there man easily feels the awakening of spirituality and realises Him. From time immemorial, numberless Sadhus, devotees and men of realisation have come to these holy places to have a vision of God, and have prayed to Him with an outpouring of their hearts, setting aside all worldly desires. Therefore, though equally present everywhere, God manifests Himself specially in these places. Water can be had anywhere by digging into the earth. When, however, there is a well or a tank or a lake, one has not to dig for water, but can get it whenever one likes.

As cows, after eating their fill, lie down quietly at a place and chew the cud, so after visiting a sacred spot or a place of pilgrimage, you must take hold of the holy thoughts that rose in the mind while there, sit down in a solitary corner and think of them till you are immersed in them. You must not devote yourself to the pursuit of the senses and drive away such higher ideas from your mind immediately after you leave those places.

Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, you will find nothing (no true religion) anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here {i.e. in one s own heart).

When the Master was alive, many of his dis« ciples used to express to him their desire to visit holy places, and to them he used to reply: " Well, he who has got it (spirituality) here (i.e. in the company of the Master or within himself) has got it there (i.e. in holy places) also. Whereas he who has not got it here, has not got it there either , or, "He who has got the spirit of devotion already within his heart, will find it more intensified in holy places. But of what profit will it be to him who has no devotion at all ? We often hear that the son of so-and-so has run away from home and has gone to Benares or some such place. But later on we hear again that with great effort he has managed to secure a job there, and has sent money and news about himself to his family. People go to live in some sacred place, but many there are who open shops there and take to business. Going to the western provinces in the company of Mathuranath, I found the environment there just the same as here. The mango trees, the tamarind trees or the bamboo groves-they were exactly similar to those of these parts. Hence I told Hriday, Well what have we come to see here ? Things are just the same here as well as there, with this one point of difference, that the inhabitants of these places seem to have better digestion.