Singh, Rana P.B. 1995. Deeper understanding, Sacredscape and Faithscape. Nat. Geo. Jl. In., 41 (1): 89-111. 89 [108-95]. Singh, Rana P.B. 1995 d. Towards deeper understanding, Sacredscape and Faithscape: an exploration in Pilgrimage studies. National Geographical Journal of India, vol. 41 (1), March: 89-111. ISSN: 0027-9374 / 1995/ 0958. National Geographical Society of India, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005, INDIA. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Towards Deeper Understanding, Sacredscape and Faithscape: An Exploration in Pilgrimage Studies Rana P.B. Singh “Seeing is believing, Vision is revealing, Feeling is understanding. Belief is a search. Revelation is a march and Understanding is the achievement.” Abstract The sense of understanding divine messages and meanings in pilgrimage journey is the basic moral and ethical domain. The core of pilgrimage studies moves around the study of sacred places (sacredscapes), the pilgrimage as sacred journey, and the faith involved therein. The spatial-religious view, cosmic-movement context and human psyche together develop there a theosphere, to be called faithscape – which is more concerned with experiences and emotional bondage than mere speculations, observations and participation. The manifestive power of sacralisation regulated by the ritualisation, ultimately promotes cosmicising the harmonic relation between human being and the divine nature. In pilgrimage feeling and meaning both together and at one stage become the one. The expression of this stage is not an easy task. Of course, phenomenology and qualitative approaches help in clear exposition, however the basic ideology of “Openness in research” is advocated as an approach where no biasness to be retained. Above all understanding is more important than expressing objective reality through empiricism. Keywords. Cosmicised frame, faithscape, meaning and message, Openness, power of place, sacredscape, Self-realization, sacroecology, theological purview, understanding. 1. Theological Purview and Perspective Pilgrimage is a source of inspiration for understanding a deeply rooted and lasting relationship with Spirit which bears the life substance of the Mother Earth. The starting point in the study of pilgrimage is the understanding of the spiritualization of matter which one can experience if he has the faith and inner quest to receive revelation through the messages of the spirit of place. If one believes that the spiritual world does exist, and man has the ability to perceive images in the spiritual world, to be called as clairvoyance or ‘Clear Seeing’, through pilgrimage one can get experience of its deeper meaning and messages. Among all the living creatures only man has the fourth organization, Self or Soul, including the rest three, viz. physical, ethereal, and astral. All organism, except man, have either one or all of the < end of p. 89 > three, while man has all the four. Hazrat Inayat Khan (1948) describes this beautifully: “God slept in the realm of minerals. He dreamed in the realm of plants. He awakes in the animal kingdom, and became aware of himself in man.” If “Man will have to start acting as a creator himself, instead of merely being an image of the Creator” (Zoeteman 1991: 37), pilgrimage to a sacred place would help to rediscover the way to the spiritual world step by step and at the same stage by a path of learning based on critical Self-realization. Soul, or Self serves as the intermediary between the body and the spirit.