Self-realization
or God-realization is the right of every human being. It is told in the
scriptures that places of pilgrimage are distributed all over the world to give
facility to all concerned to try to attain that right. Bhagavata tells that the
pilgrim places are always being purified by the continuous presence of pious
people, sages, and great devotees. These places are also purified by the
continuous recitation of the Vedic hymns, chanting of the glories of the God
Almighty by people. The water of the Rivers, lakes, etc available in the
pilgrim places also have great purifying power. Lord Krishna himself declared
that he lives everywhere, but it is easier to find him in the places that attain
holiness due to the spiritual activities performed by the great sages, holy
personalities and devotees. So, pilgrimage does not mean merely going to a
pilgrim place, taking a bath in the holy water and performance of worship of
the deities. A pilgrim should meet the great souls available at the pilgrim
places and interact with them to gain a share of their knowledge. A pilgrim
should engage himself in the service of God and also for the welfare of other
pilgrims, poor people and people in distress, according to his capacity. Pilgrimage to
a pilgrim place includes all these duties. Guru Harideva was full of scriptural
knowledge. So he was aware of these facts and was a strict follower of all
those scriptural guidance. Moreover, he was highly qualified as per the norms
of the Vedic system of education in the practice of his time. So he was
fully competent to interact with the people of higher knowledge he met in the
pilgrim places. As a result of those interactions, his spiritual knowledge was
enriched further. We told earlier that, Guru Harideva tried to impart spiritual
education to some common people while he was at Narayanpur. It was considered
as an offense by the Ruler of that area and he had to escape from his
birthplace. This incident happened due to his lack of experience of imparting education to common people not having any idea about spiritualism. Keeping that incident in
mind, Guru Harideva observed that so many common people not having even the
primary knowledge about spirituality used to come to the pilgrim places. The
great scholars and people of higher knowledge present there used to educate
those people without facing any problem due to their vast experience in this
kind of work. From them, Guru Harideva learnt the technique of educating such ignorant
people during his pilgrimage at different places. In later life, when he started his mission of
spreading spiritual education among common people, those experiences he earned helped
him a lot. These things we will discuss at a proper place. (to be continued)
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