Pilgrimage of Life

Traditionally for centuries, human life has been compared to a pilgrimage, a journey in solitude! It was a spiritual journey, on the way to the inner self, as it were. During the Middle Ages, such a journey was undertaken with great care and diligence; it was not a matter people could play with. John Bunyan, who wrote the classic The Pilgrim’s Progress had presented such a noble picture of the journey to the center of one’s own self, and many a holy men and women had traced his path in order to attain self-fulfillment, or to put in a Christian terminology, their own salvation. The word pilgrimage carries the spiritual tone implied in the act of journeying in spirit. If life is a pilgrimage, then we should know where we are heading to, our point of arrival.

It has been said several times by holy people that what is most important in the pilgrimage is not so much the arrival at the point of destination, but the journey itself. There might be only a handful of men and women, who might reach the destination, but “salvation” is in undertaking the journey and committing oneself to walk towards the destination with all sincerity. Life would present several sub-ways and glamorous pathways as we proceed on the journey, and there might be people whom we would meet on the way, and they might request our company. But if we keep obliging all the people we meet on the way, it could be possible that we might ‘miss the bus’, and land up in some other place. Saying no to what comes on the way is important in any journey.

It is not that all that we come across during the course of this journey is bad or evil; there are a lot of people who reach out to us with all sincerity and honesty, with the genuine sense of helping us out when we struggle, and we cannot afford to suspect their intentions. But anything which may distance us from the path that we have chosen voluntarily should be avoided, if we want to be faithful to our journey. Learning to say “no” with a smile is an art that we all need to learn early in life, in order to find fulfillment and satisfaction. If there are people who are easily pulled and pushed by the different pressures on life’s journey, might land up desolate and alone, and there might be no one at times to give them the solace and comfort that they might have been frantically seeking.

This is a pilgrimage with no point of return; we cannot change our mind midway. It is a deliberate decision that we take that we would walk all the way, without turning back. And probably that is what Jesus said to his disciple that anyone who puts his hand on the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of Heaven. Unfortunately it is not as easy as said; fragile and vulnerable as we are, trials and tribulations are sure to come our way and we might be tempted to turn back and run towards the familiar grounds; who wants to face the unfamiliar and harsh realities of life. But considering a return to the point from where we had begun our journey is equal to accepting defeat, and in life one can hardly walk backwards; one can either walk forward or lie down eternally on the path. It is for us to decide if we want to forge ahead or accept defeat and lie on the ground.

The eyes of the pilgrim are fixed on the destination, and there is nothing which can distract his eyes from the point, and as he takes every step, he is happy that he had walked such a long distance, and therefore the distance ahead does not come as a threat to him. When one of the great men who had reached the peaks of an enormously high mountain with just one foot, the would could not believe its eyes. They rushed to him and asked him how he managed with just a single foot to scale the entire altitude of the mountain, and his simple answer was, “I hopped just one step at a time!” What a wonderful answer; we need not worry about the hundreds of kilometers that we need to travel before reaching a point of rest, all that we need to do is to take just one step at a time, and sooner or later we might discover that we are not far from the destination!