HINDU TOURISTS AS PILGRIMS IN QUEST OF SPIRITUAL PEACE

Abstract

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered to be the father of English poetry and the book that popularized him as a poet was A Prologue to Canterbury Tales. The tales narrated in the book are nothing but accounts of pilgrims who visited pilgrimage site of Canterbury. One thing is obvious that regardless of the country and the religion, tourism is very much concerned with pilgrimage. In the modern age tourism for pleasure and tourism for pilgrims in quest of spiritual peace are commonly interrelated for some people. However, the relationship between tourism for pleasure and pilgrimage in quest of spiritual peace has been neglected. One of the key distinguishing factors for tourism for pleasure and pilgrimage in quest of spiritual peace is that the former is purely for pleasure but the latter aims at attaining spiritual peace. However, at the same time pleasure may be derived but not at the cost of main objective. Spiritually, tourism occupies a different position. At its simplest, tourism is viewed as ‘sightseeing’. Tourism for pilgrimage in quest of spiritual peace can appear to be explicitly religious, while simple tourism can appear to be explicitly secular. Therefore, tourism for spiritual peace and tourism for pleasure, despite operating on different planes of meaning, can have some important areas with common similarities. There may be tourists having similar experiences to pilgrimages, and pilgrims who really may be indistinguishable from tourists. Spiritual tourists are for the most part regular tourists. However, what distinguishes them is their seeking out of inner spiritual peace. Tourists differ from pilgrims in that they are not necessarily affiliated with one religion  at the locations they visit as tourists, and that they are not necessarily there for the same reasons as pilgrims.