ANNAPURNA SARADA, Friday, August 21, 2015 9:01 am

India Pilgrimage 2012-13 – Part 1

Three Days at Belur Math

Dear Friends ~

I am traveling with my Guru, Babaji Bob Kindler, Spiritual Director of SRV Associations, and 13 sangha members from all three SRV centers.  Four of us from Hawaii arrived first and received permission to stay at one of the guest houses of Belur Math, the global headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order.  Now, forty-eight hours, 5 planes, 2 buses, a van, and a taxi later, the temple grounds are a welcome sight, and the initial darshan of the Divine Presence here worth all the austerities of travel.  Well, we are spoiled modern people.  This blessing of pilgrimage in Mother India would have taken months of traveling less than 100 years ago.

Arriving after the temple gates had closed for the early afternoon, we used the wait time to settle in and prepare ourselves for the next three days.  Going on pilgrimage is not like sight-seeing.  If the mind is preoccupied with worldly concerns it cannot avail itself of the higher vibration or atmosphere of a sacred place.  While enroute I was reading again Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master, the authoritative biography by Swami Saradananda, and came across the following statements:

“[Sri Ramakrishna] taught us to “chew the cud” after we visit those places endowed with a special manifestation of God.  He said, ‘Just as cows, having eaten their fill, become free from anxiety, and then resting in one place, chew the cud, so after one has visited temples and pilgrim centers, one should sit in a secluded place and ruminate over and get absorbed in those holy thoughts that occurred to one in these sacred places.  One should not apply one’s mind to sights, tastes, and other worldly objects, immediately after visiting them.  For, in that case, the godly impression gathered will not produce permanent results on the mind.'”

“Again, the Master said to us on many occasions that one could not derive much benefit from visiting  places of pilgrimage and other holy sites unless one devoutly cherished from beforehand holy thoughts in the mind. He said further, ‘The devotional “moods” one is naturally endowed with or is practicing, get augmented through holy associations in places of pilgrimage; but what special benefit will one derive there, if one’s mind is a stranger to such “moods”?'”  (pp.644-5)

We shared these teachings regarding pilgrimage and, taking them seriously, applied ourselves to study and mindful conversation, while waiting for the gates to open.

It was Sunday, and therefore a stream of pilgrims and visitors flowed into the temple grounds immediately.  We made our way to the stunning temple of Sri Ramakrishna, designed architecturally to express the harmony of religions; for the visual elements of Hindu temple, church, and mosque have been blended in a striking manner.  Combined with the subtle, spiritual imprint of so many illumined beings – from Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, to those who followed them, and countless sincere, earnest devotees – the atmosphere carries an immediate feeling of holiness.  For western devotees, attending one’s first arati in the temple with over a thousand of our Indian spiritual family is breathtaking and a transmission of India’s spiritual wealth of philosophy and religion in its own way.  As Vedantists we have the profound blessing of both.

One of the highlights was meeting with a senior swami retired from long years of service abroad and now simply engaged in spiritual practice as his sole preoccupation.  After arati he makes himself available to the devotees for 30 minutes of satsang, which he jokingly refers to as “holy gossip.”  One could feel a sweet joy bubbling from within him and words of mantra escaped now and then as he conversed.  Speaking Hindi with one devotee, he then reflected on Tulsidas and the Ramayana, and switched to English for our benefit.  He discoursed on a couplet written by the epic poet stating that without holy company (satsanga) and the study of sacred books, the desires of the mind for external distractions would prevent the rising of anurag, one-pointed desire for God.  The swami emphasized repeatedly the need to “flush out” old associations and thoughts with the spiritually uplifting thoughts of God, the teachings of sacred texts, and the lives illumined beings.

Each morning we attended the 4:30am mangala arati at Sri Ramakrishna’s temple, and then spent our days meditating there and at the smaller temples dedicated to Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Brahmananda – all situated along the west bank of the Hoogly branch of the Ganga.  Not far from the main temple grounds is a building that served as the first residence of the monks and later where Holy Mother would stay when visiting.  Her room looks out on the sacred river and the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, upriver, can also be seen from there.  It was here that she performed the panchatapa, the austerity of the five fires, and also where Swami Vivekananda wrote the arati hymns to Sri Ramakrishna that are sung at centers around the world.

One day, we took a country boat upriver to the Kali Temple at Dakshineswar and attended arati in Sri Ramakrishna’s room where he taught the devotees – householders as well as the young boys who would later form the Ramakrishna Order of monks.  Those familiar with his life and the exacting details that “M” (Mahendranath Gupta), the chronicler of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (aka Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita) provides, and the reminiscences by the direct disciples and other devotees, can wander the temple grounds feeling and remembering these events as if one has entered another realm entirely, catching their profound fragrance despite the modern day crowds.  In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Sri Krishna about the sthita-prajnasya, the one of steady wisdom.  How does such a person talk, sit, walk?  By asking this question he wishes to recognize and emulate these beings.  The accounts of the lives of saints, sages and incarnations provide just such illuminating details that we can reflect on when we visit the places associated with their lives.  Thinking on these with faith and devotion, we receive their imprint.  It is something like learning how to draw a particular image by first tracing it on translucent paper.

My first visit to Belur Math and the Kali Temple, now 20 years ago, remains fresh in my mind.  I remember at that time thinking that each place we went was so new, and the experience so full, that I could not take them in deeply in those moments.  So I observed them very carefully and relived them afterwards, supplying the historical elements I knew and augmenting and deepening the experiences that way.  It is just as Sri Ramakrishna advises in the statements above about “chewing the cud” – the experiences become permanent by doing so.   Certain of these have been a steady source of inspiration all these years.

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