The very idea behind a pilgrimage is fundamentally to subdue the sense of who you are. It is to become nothing in the process of just walking and climbing and subjecting yourself to various arduous processes of nature. In the ancient past, to get to such places, a person had to go through a certain amount of physical, mental, and every kind of hardship, so that he becomes less than who he thinks he is right now. Today things have been made much comfortable. We are flying up, driving down and just walking a little bit.
Physically, we are much weaker human beings than what they used to be a 1,000 years ago because somewhere we do not know how to make use of the comforts and conveniences for our wellbeing. We have used them to make ourselves weaker, more difficult with ourselves and with the surroundings in which we exist. So the fundamental idea of pilgrimage becomes all the more relevant to modern societies than it was to the ancient ones. In terms of the destination, the Kailash and Manasarovar pilgrimage is probably the greatest that one can make.
For thousands of years, realised beings always traveled to Kailash and deposited their knowledge in a certain way, in a certain energy form. Hindus say Shiva lives there, and South Indian mysticism always says their greatest yogi, one of the seven direct disciples of Shiva who are known as the Sapta Rishis, Agastya Muni, who is the basis of South Indian mysticism, lives there too, in the southern face of Kailash. What it means is not that they are actually living there, but they deposited all their work there because they could not transmit it into the people. So it is a treasure house of knowledge.
Before going to Kailash, we passed through Manasarovar. Sarovar means lake; Manas means mind or consciousness. So Manasarovar is a “Lake of Consciousness”.
Energy-wise, I see a very deep connection between Manasarovar and Kailash. It is the same phenomenon — one is a lake, another is a mountain — but energy-wise, it is the same phenomenon. Kailash is a mountain of knowledge and knowing in grace — there is nothing like that in Manasarovar. But at the same time, there is a similarity, a sameness, as to how your own energy system responds to this.
This is a space you must see. It is not a question of belief, it is not a question of faith, and it is not a question of religion.
It is definitely a very enhanced space compared to what you normally live in. It is a true fortune for any human being to be in the presence of what is there.
