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namalai in southern India. From the 
temple’s rear walls a path climbs up 
Arunachala, a holy mountain said to 
be more ancient than the Himalayas. 
Elsewhere, temples were built because 
the site was sanctified by some sacred 
event. These monuments offer some- 
thing subtly different from the natural 
shrines. There is a feeling of being 
a part of a vast congregation of be- 
lievers — a member of a faith, of a 
corporate, rather than individual, body 
that is both physical and spiritual. It 
is a feeling that satisfies another kind 
of need. 
The pilgrimage to people, rather 
than places, is different again. Sacred 
people, like sacred places, are asso- 
ciated with miracles, and while per- 
haps all pilgrims hope for some gen- 
eral kind of miracle — their transfor- 
mation into something bigger, more 
powerful, more significant — there are 
some who hope for a specific miracle: 
the cure for an illness or the resolution 
of a problem. Both sacred places and 
sacred people may acquire reputations 
in this respect, but most people seek- 
ing some kind of specific assurance 
make the pilgrimage to one or another 
of India’s great teachers, or gurus. 
Some pilgrims may seek even more 
from a sacred person. They seek their 
divinity — the ultimate transformation 
of their secular selves into sacred be- 
ings. Such pilgrims, once they find 
their teacher, devote themselves ex- 
clusively to the spiritual quest for the 
divine. There the parallel with tourism 
ends. 
Pilgrims can be met on almost any 
train or bus or mountain trail in India, 
yet we might not recognize them as 
pilgrims; in most cases we would mis- 
take them for travelers bent on per- 
sonal pleasure. After all, most of their 
time is spent traveling to and from 
the shrine that is their sacred goal, 
and on the way they enjoy the ex- 
citement of travel just as we all do. 
They are seeing new places and meet- 
ing new people. New worlds are being 
opened up to them at each stage of 
the journey. This is true even for those 
who regard every step of the journey 
itself as a sacred act. The Indian pil- 
grim route is dotted with staging posts 
that become bustling commercial cen- 
ters catering to the pilgrim’s every 
need. For those who cannot get into 
the endowed dharmashala, there are 
hotels and restaurants. Small stores 
and roadside stalls overflow with trin- 
kets and souvenirs, and the streets are 
filled with beggars selling the peculiar 
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