All World
Gayatri Pariwar

The Pilgrimage - 1

A PILGRIM IS A WANDERER WITH A PURPOSE. A pilgrimage can be to a place — that’s the best known kind — but it can also be for a thing. Mine is for peace, and that is why I am a Peace Pilgrim. My pilgrimage covers the entire peace picture: peace among nations, peace among groups, peace within our environment, peace among individuals, and the very, very important inner peace—which I talk about most often because that is where peace begins. The situation in the world around us is just a reflection of the collective situation. In the final analysis, only as we become more peaceful people will we be finding ourselves living in a more peaceful world.

In the Middle Ages the pilgrims went out as the disciples were sent out — without money, without food, without adequate clothing — and I know that tradition. I have no money. I do not accept any money on my pilgrimage. I belong to no organization. There is no organization backing me. I own only what I wear and carry. There is nothing to tie me down. I am as free as a bird soaring in the sky. I walk until given shelter, fast until given food. I don’t ask—it’s given without asking. Aren’t people good! There is a spark of good in everybody, no matter how deeply it may be buried, it is there. It’s waiting to govern your life gloriously. I call it the God- centered nature or the divine nature. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God within.

Now, a pilgrim walks prayerfully, and a pilgrim walks as an opportunity to come in contact with many people and perhaps inspire them to do something for peace in their own way. For that purpose I wear my short tunic with PEACE PILGRIM on the front and 25,000 Miles On Foot for Peace on the back. It makes my contacts for me in the kindest way...and I like to be kind.

You’re in a much better position to talk with people when they approach you than when you approach them. Those individuals who are attracted to me are either genuinely interested in some phase of peace or just have a good lively curiosity. Both kinds are very worthwhile people. Then I have time to share with people my peace message which says in one sentence:

This is the way of peace—overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.

The Golden Rule would do equally well. There is nothing new about that except the practice of it. But I consider it the lesson for today and so it becomes the message of the peace pilgrimage. Please don’t say lightly that these are just religious concepts and not practical. These are laws governing human conduct, which apply as rigidly as the law of gravity. When we disregard these laws in any walk of life, chaos results. Through obedience to these laws this world of ours will enter a period of peace and richness of life beyond our fondest dreams. The key word for our time is practice. We have all the light we need; we just need to put it into practice.

What I walk on is not the energy of youth, it is a better energy. I walk on the endless energy of inner peace that never runs out! When you become a channel through which God works there are no more limitations, because God does the work through you: you are merely the instrument —and what God can do is unlimited. When you are working for God you do not find yourself striving and straining. You find yourself calm, serene and unhurried.

My pilgrimage is not a crusade, which connotes violence. There is no attempt to force something on people. A pilgrimage is a gentle journey of prayer and example. My walking is first of all a prayer for peace. If you give your life as a prayer you intensify the prayer beyond all measure. In undertaking this pilgrimage I do not think of myself as an individual but rather as an embodiment of the heart of the world which is pleading for peace. Humanity, with fearful, faltering steps walks a knife-edge between abysmal chaos and a new renaissance, while strong forces push toward chaos. Yet there is hope. I see hope in the tireless work of a few devoted souls. I see hope in the real desire for peace in the heart of humanity, even though the human family gropes toward peace blindly, not knowing the way.

My pilgrimage is an opportunity to talk with my fellow human beings about the way of peace. It is also a penance for whatever I may have contributed by commission or omission to the tragic situation in the world today. It is a prayer that this war-weary world of ours will somehow find the way to peace before a holocaust descends. My mission is to help promote peace by helping others to find inner peace. If I can find it, you can too. Peace is an idea whose time has come.

I began my pilgrimage on the first of January in 1953. It is my spiritual birthday of sorts. It was a period in which I was merged with the whole. No longer was I a seed buried under the ground, but I felt as a flower reaching out effortlessly toward the sun. On that day I became a wanderer relying upon the goodness of others. It would be a pilgrim’s journey undertaken in the traditional manner: on foot and on faith. I left behind all claims to a name, personal history, possessions and affiliations.

It would be a glorious journey. The birthplace of the pilgrimage was at the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California. I walked ahead along the line of march, talking to people and handing out peace messages, and noticing that the holiday spirit did not lessen the genuine interest in peace. When I had gone about half way a policeman put his hand on my shoulder and I thought he was going to tell me to get off the line of march. Instead he said, “What we need is thousands like you.”

What happened to me in the Los Angeles area in the beginning was almost miraculous. All channels of communication were opened to me and my little peace message. I spent hours being interviewed by newspaper reporters and being photographed by newspaper photographers. The story of the pilgrimage and even my picture went out over all the wire services. Besides doing two live television programs, I spent hours recording for radio and the television newscasts. Newspapers all along the line from Los Angeles to San Diego were interested. In San Diego I did one television program and four radio shows. The head of the San Diego Council of Churches approved of my message and my three petitions, and they were widely circulated in the churches.

When I was not on the road I was speaking and gathering signatures for the three peace petitions which I carried. The first was a short plea for immediate peace in Korea. It read: “Let the killing in Korea cease! Then deal with this conflict situation according to the only principles which can solve it — overcome evil with good and falsehood with truth and hatred with love.” The second petition was directed to the President and congressional leaders requesting the installation of a Peace Department. It read: “This is the way of peace, overcome evil with good and falsehood with truth and hatred with love. We plead for the establishment of a Peace Department, with a Secretary of Peace who accepts these principles—and with all conflicts at home and abroad to be referred to this Peace Department.” The third petition was a plea to the United Nations and the world leaders for world disarmament and reconstruction: “If you would find the way of peace you must overcome evil with good and falsehood with truth and hatred with love. We plead with you to free us all from the crushing burden of armaments, to free us from hatred and fear, so that we may feed our hungry ones, mend our broken cities, and experience a richness of life which can only come in a world that is unarmed and fed.”

I accumulated signed petitions from individuals, peace groups, churches and organizations along my pilgrimage route, storing them in a satchel which was carried for the occasion. I presented them to officials at both the White House and the United Nations at the conclusion of my first walk across the country. And I am thankful that my first petition, “Let the killing in Korea cease...” was at least partially granted before the first year was over.

At Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego, I was received by the mayor, and he gave me a message to carry to the mayor of New York City. I also carried a message from the California Indians to the Arizona Indians. While passing through San Diego that first year I was introduced into public speaking. A high school teacher approached me on the street and inquired if I would speak to her class. I told her in all fairness that as Peace Pilgrim I had never spoken to a group before. She assured me that it would be fine and asked only that I would answer the students’ questions. I agreed. If you have something worthwhile to say, you can say it. Otherwise, why in the world would you want to be speaking?

I have no problem speaking before a group. When you have completely surrendered to God’s will, the way seems easy and joyous. It is only before you have completely surrendered that the way seems difficult. When I speak, energy flows through me like electricity flows through a wire. In the beginning, my speaking engagements were often arranged on the spur of the moment. As I was walking past a school, the principal came out and said, “My students are looking at you from the windows. If you would come in and talk to them we’ll gather them in the gymnasium.” So I did.

Then at noon, a man from one of the civic clubs approached me and said, “My speaker disappointed us. Will you come and speak at our luncheon?” And of course I did. The same afternoon a college professor on the way to his class stopped me and asked, “Could I take you to my students?” So I spoke to his class. Then at night a minister and his wife going to a church supper stopped me and said, “Would you consider coming and eating with us, and speaking to us?” And I did. They also gave me a bed for the night. And all this happened as I was walking along one day without any prior engagements.

I now keep very busy speaking for peace at colleges, high schools, churches, and so forth— but always I am happily busy. My slogan of first things first has enabled me to take care of my speaking engagements, keep my mail up to date and also do some walking. Once in Cincinnati I gave seven sermons at seven different places of worship in one day. On that particular Sunday I gave local ministers the day off! No collections are permitted at meetings that are held for me. I never accept a penny for the work I do. Any money sent to me through the mail is used to publish my literature which is sent free of charge to anyone who requests it.

Truth is the pearl without price. One cannot obtain truth by buying it — all you can do is to strive for spiritual truth and when one is ready, it will be given freely. Nor should spiritual truth be sold, lest the seller be injured spiritually. You lose any spiritual contact the moment you commercialize it. Those who have the truth would not be packaging it and selling it, so anyone who is selling it, really does not possess it.

[Reproduced with glad consent of the publishers – Friends of Peace Pilgrim]