Disciple: Sir, the Shastras tell us of various special influences attaching to places of pilgrimage. How far is this claim true?
Swamiji: When the whole world is the Form Universal of the Eternal Atman, the Ishvara (God), what is there to wonder at in special influences attaching to particular places?
There are places where He manifests Himself specially, either spontaneously or through the earnest longing of pure souls, and the ordinary man, if he visits those places with eagerness, attains his end quite easily.
Therefore it may lead to the development of the Self in time to have recourse to holy places.
But know it for certain that there is no greater Tirtha (holy spot) than the body of man. Nowhere else is the Atman so manifest as here.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
Swamiji: When the whole world is the Form Universal of the Eternal Atman, the Ishvara (God), what is there to wonder at in special influences attaching to particular places?
There are places where He manifests Himself specially, either spontaneously or through the earnest longing of pure souls, and the ordinary man, if he visits those places with eagerness, attains his end quite easily.
Therefore it may lead to the development of the Self in time to have recourse to holy places.
But know it for certain that there is no greater Tirtha (holy spot) than the body of man. Nowhere else is the Atman so manifest as here.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Conversations and Dialogues,
recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty
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