THE MESSAGE AND MEANING OF HAJJ

God, everything else pales into complete insignificance. The greatness of everything else is only so that it can be drowned or surrendered in this greatest of all glory—the glory of God. This is the real secret of social consciousness. You cannot have unity and harmonious collective living where everyone thinks that they are greater than the others. On the other hand, when everyone surrenders their sense of individual greatness, you will find unity and harmony. People can live harmoniously together only when everyone surrenders their sense of greatness before a single being. When people from different parts of the world arrive close to the place of pilgrimage, they remove their distinctive dress and don the same sort of simple, unstitched white clothes—a uniform known as ihram. This symbolizes that they have now entered a new world. By removing their national costume or personal dress, it is as if they are shedding the lifestyles that they had been conditioned into. They are now stirred by a powerful God-consciousness, being dyed in the hue of God. Putting simple clothes on their bodies, the pilgrims begin to utter divine words: Labbaik! Allahuma Labbaik! It means: ‘Here I am at Your service! Here I am at Your service!’ They cry out, as if God had called them and they are rushing towards Him. The cries of Labbaik! Labbaik! ‘Here I am at Your service! Here I am at Your service!’ resound continuously from the pilgrims all around. When the pilgrim cries, Labbaik! ‘Here I am!’ he doesn’t mean to say that he has come to settle in Makkah. It isn’t a declaration of his having left his homeland and arriving in Makkah. Rather, it is a declaration of having left his previous conduct or behaviour. It is an announcement to say that ‘I am here with a complete willingness to obey You (God) and do whatever You (God) command. To submit my life and soul to Your command.’ Although the pilgrim declares, Labbaik, ‘Here I am at Your service!’ at the place of Hajj; he must stand by this declaration in practice in his personal life on his return from Hajj too. On reaching Makkah, the first thing that the pilgrim does is to circumambulate the Kabah. This is an important ritual of Hajj known as tawaf. The Kabah is a historical structure originally built by the Prophet Abraham in the centre of a large courtyard. Kabah is also called the House of God. In the courtyard, the pilgrims go around the Kabah seven times, symbolizing their willingness to have God as the centre of their lives. They affirm that they will consider God as the focus around which their lives will revolve. It is as if scattered bits of iron are being pulled towards a divine magnet.