Hallowed Sanctuary
nooshin November 20th, 2009
Twenty-one days to go! I am on the countdown to my Baha’i Pilgrimage and I can hardly wait. This won’t be the first time that I will go, but knowing what’s coming just adds to the excitement. Of course, I have gotten a few funny looks from friends when I tell them I am going on “pilgrimage”, but I guess it does sound a bit like a Chaucer play, so I can’t really blame them.
But if you think about it, all religions have some version of a pilgrimage: a visit to a holy site which is usually linked to its Central Figure/s. Aside from Baha’i holy sites, I have also visited Muslim, Christian and Jewish ones, and there is no question of the fervour and devotion of the devotees who have come (mostly from far distances) to pay their respects and to pray.
The main Baha’i Pilgrimage takes place in the Holy Land, spans nine days and consists of guided visits to the resting places (or Shrines) of the Central Figures of the Faith, various other sites in the Holy Land associated with them, and the Terraces and gardens on Mount Carmel.
But what is the purpose? For me, pilgrimage is similar to fasting, a time during which you focus your thoughts and energies on your spiritual life, a time to reflect and meditate. Just the physical act of leaving your home and travelling to the Holy Land helps to divorce you from everyday concerns, the distance helping you to achieve a perspective which will allow you to properly evaluate your inner life. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has explained that:
Holy places are undoubtedly centres of the outpouring of Divine grace, because on entering the illumined sites associated with martyrs and holy souls, and by observing reverence, both physical and spiritual, one’s heart is moved with great tenderness.
Another aspect of the spiritual experience of pilgrimage is that you are one of a group of Baha’is from around the world. Your pilgrim group (of a few hundred people per nine-day cycle) will have dozens of races, ethnicities and nationalities. And for me, there are few things more uplifting than being part of a diverse but unified group of people. Especially in the Holy Land, the nexus of almost all the world’s religions. As explained so eloquently in God Passes By:
…the Holy Land—the Land promised by God to Abraham, sanctified by the Revelation of Moses, honored by the lives and labors of the Hebrew patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets, revered as the cradle of Christianity, and as the place where Zoroaster, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s testimony, had “held converse with some of the Prophets of Israel,” and associated by Islám with the Apostle’s night-journey, through the seven heavens, to the throne of the Almighty. Within the confines of this holy and enviable country, “the nest of all the Prophets of God,” “the Vale of God’s unsearchable Decree, the snow-white Spot, the Land of unfading splendor” …
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- Baha'i Concepts , Inspiration
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Unfortunately, my family and I have never been on Pilgrimage.
But one of the things that I often wondered was why people who went on Pilgrimage didn’t seem to be that changed by their experience. Not that it wasn’t a moving event, but that it didn’t seem to have the type of transformative effect that I would expect from visiting such holy ground… And, sometimes, it just seemed to be a type of bragging rights for people. Another thing on a checklist of what Baha’is ought to do.
My beautiful son, the one who now “consort[s] with [His] chosen ones, [His] saints and [His] Messengers in heavenly places that the pen cannot tell nor the tongue recount”, voted not to go as he wrote that he was not spiritually ready to do so; that he did not deserve to go yet. He said that he believed that people seeking to go on Pilgrimage needed to have a certain attitude, a certain longing, to go to that most holy spot on earth. [You wrote about him in January '08 - which was so much appreciated.]
Given the expense of the Pilgrimage and its seeming lack of effect, I wondered how much the Fund would benefit if people only went on Pilgrimage “when they were ready” and how much easier it might be for those who were ready to actually get there in a reasonable amount of time.
In any case, it would be great to have you discuss how you were transformed – or for others to post about their transformation as they went to and returned from such a holy experience.