那么，为什么要朝圣呢？
关于冈仁波齐（Kailash），我们会一步步去体会，它并不是能够用语言填满的东西。那么，为什么要朝圣？为什么不能在家完成呢？
当我十三、十四岁的时候，我赚零花钱的方式之一是养鸽子。我养鸽子出售，也捕捉野鸽子来卖。靠这个维持生活，也资助了我所有的骑行探险。
在养鸽子的过程中，我发现，只要把它们喂得很好，它们就会很开心。即便笼子门开着，它们也不会飞走。这，其实就是家的意义。
因为你被好好地供养着，一切都很舒适，所以即使再大的机会来临，你也不会飞，除非灾难降临。这就是“家”对大多数人的作用。它像流沙一样，把人慢慢吞没。
他们既无法带着家好好活着，也无法没有家活着。实际上，他们肯定无法没有家，否则就会死去。我所说的是，我们建构一个结构，是为了站在其上，去触碰更广阔的可能。
因为我们有身体的需要、心理的需要、情感的需要、经济的需要、社会的需要。所以我们建造了一个结构，站在上面去追求更大的事物。
但是慢慢地，这个结构在生命中变得比生命本身更重要，结果反而把生命困住，使你离不开它。
我曾经在……（如果我说出那个城市的名字，你们可能会奇怪我怎么会去那儿。）那是在美国的一个传奇人物——橄榄球传奇汤姆·布雷迪（Tom Brady）的名人堂在拉斯维加斯揭幕，我受邀参加，所以就去了。只待了一天，从早到晚。
在那儿有人过来见我，他听别人介绍我的行程：今天在这里，明天在那里，接着要去伦敦，再去做这个做那个。他就问我：“你是不是不喜欢待在家？看你到处跑，你不喜欢你的家吗？”
我说：“我把每一个地方都当成了我的家，无论我在哪里。”
所以我们创造“家”，是为了每天不必为最基本的生存去挣扎。因为作为人类，我们都有这些需求。如果这些需求没有被妥善安排，就会在街头变得肮脏和丑陋。人类最简单的需求都会变得丑恶。这正是我们在社会中建造“家”的原因——不是为了困住自己。
我所说的，是朝圣的意义：去有意识地、在一段时间里，过一种“无家”的生活。
朝圣是一个过程，不是损失。
你只要愿意投入这个过程。如果你愿意，我甚至可以把冈仁波齐带到你家。
这听起来像是世界上最大的吹嘘。但我告诉你，我以前为别人做到过，我也能为你做到。
只是你可能不愿意让冈仁波齐进入你的家，因为你家里有太多条件、太多限制。对吗？要进入你的家，有很多条件，对吧？
所以，如果你能把这些条件带回到你自己之内，冈仁波齐就是一个鲜活的现实。
朝圣就是为了这个——让你在自己之内创造出那些条件，让这种品质在你内在绽放。在你真正去到冈仁波齐之前，冈仁波齐已经在你心中。
你完全可以做到。这就是朝圣的意义。
数千年来，几乎在所有文化中，尤其是在这片文明里，朝圣一直是最重要的事之一。
但在古代，朝圣是这样的：想象一下，从印度南部赤脚走到冈仁波齐，只裹着一条厚重的毛毯。而当毛毯在雨里打湿时，它会变得五倍沉重，扛在肩上。想象一下，要走三千多公里，只是为了看一座遥远的山。途中你会遇到许多更高大的山，但你仍然只是奔赴那个特定的地方。
想象一下，当人抵达那里时，他的家、他的自我、他的所有一切都已经被卸下了。你在头脑中建构的各种结构，必须放下。
在世上建造的结构，你无需摧毁，它们是需要的，对吧？无论是家庭的结构，还是社会的结构，都是必要的，你不能毁掉它们。
但你在头脑里建造的那些结构，如果你能把它们放下，冈仁波齐就是一个鲜活的现实。
Experiencing Kailash at Home
So, why a pilgrimage? Well, about Kailash, we will see what it is and it’s not something that we can fill with words. We will go step-by-step towards Kailash. But why a pilgrimage? Why can’t it be done at home?
When I was thirteen, fourteen years of age, one of the ways I made my pocket money was I had a pigeon farm. I breed pigeons and sell and trap wild pigeons and sell. This kept me going. This kept me funding all my cycling expeditions. So when I was breeding these pigeons, I found you just have to feed them really nicely. And they are so happy, even if you leave the cage door open, they don’t fly. That’s what a home is, really.
Because you’re nicely fed, everything is comfortable and this, even if the greatest opportunity comes, you will not fly unless disasters strike you. This is what home has done to most people. It’s a quicksand that they have sunk into.
They can’t live with it, they can’t live without it. They definitely cannot live without it, they will die. All I’m saying is, we build a structure to stand upon it and reach for something bigger.
Because we have physical needs, psychological needs, emotional needs, financial needs, social needs. So we build a structure to stand upon it and do something bigger. But the structure becomes more important in the life, and its structure traps the life and can’t live without it.
I was in… if I mention the city, you will think what am I up to. This was a legend in America, a footballing legend, Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame was being opened in Vegas and I was invited, so I went to Vegas. Just for a day, that is morning to evening we are there.
And someone there comes and meets me and he was telling me… and someone is telling my schedule to him, no, he’s here, tomorrow he’s there, then he’s going to London, he’s doing this, he’s doing that. He asked me, you don’t like your home? The way you’re traveling, you don’t like your home? I said, I made a home out of every damn place, wherever I am. So we create a home, so that every day you don’t have to fight for basic things.
Hello? Because there are needs as a human being. All these needs are organized in a dignified manner, otherwise simple needs become ugly on the street, isn’t it? Very simple needs that human being has will turn ugly. This is the reason why we built these structures in a society that we call as a home, not to entrap ourselves.
What I’m saying is, the idea of a pilgrimage, to consciously live homeless for some time. So pilgrimage is a process. Don’t think I lost.
You commit to the process. If you are willing, I can bring Kailash to your home. This looks like the biggest brag of the world.
But I’m telling you, I’ve done it for people before and I can do it. It’s just that you will not be willing to have Kailash in your home. There are so many conditions in your home.
Hello? Lots of conditions, isn’t it, to enter your home? So, if you can bring those… these conditions within you, Kailash is a living reality. So a pilgrimage is about that, that you create that… those conditions, so that this quality will blossom within you. Before you go to Kailash, Kailash is already there with you.
You can do that. That is the idea of a pilgrimage. For ages, almost in every culture, particularly in this civilization, pilgrimage has been one of the most important things.
But pilgrimage in those days, tch, just imagine, from southern India, you wanted to walk to Kailash barefoot with just one heavy rug. And the damn rug when it rains get… gets wet and becomes five times over on your shoulder, all right? Just imagine, over 3000 kilometers, walking barefoot, wanting to see some vague mountain and as you’re coming, there are many bigger mountains on the way. But you’re still going for one particular place.
Just imagine what the human being… by the time he goes there, his home, himself, everything is gone. So, all the structures that you built in your head, you must keep it down. Structures that you built in the world, you don’t have to destroy them, they are needed, hello? Whether it’s a structure of family or society or whatever, we need them, you can’t destroy them, all right? But the structures you built in your mind, if you can keep it down, Kailash is a living reality.
– Sadhguru