अडसठ तीरथ निंदक न्हाई, देह पलोसे मैल न जाई I छप्पन कोटि धरति फिरि आवै, तो भी निंदक नरकहि जावै II
Circumambulation (Pradakshina) is a symbol of prayer. Just like we cannot draw a circle without a centre point, keeping God as the centre and recognizing Him as the focal point of our lives, we go on doing our daily chores. Also just like every point on the circumference is equidistant from the centre, wherever we may be we are close to God bound by the thread of His remembrance.
There is a popular legend about the significance of Pradakshina. Once Lord Shiva wanted his two sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya, to get “worldly experience” and asked them to take a “tour of the universe”. While Kartikeya spent decades traveling the world on his peacock, Lord Ganesha just walked a full circle around his mother and father and is believed to have explained “since the world is contained within you, I have already encircled the world”!
"Kabir says, there is no greater sin than speaking ill of others behind their back, for there is no respite to such a sinner even if he bathes at sixty eight pilgrimages or does clockwise circumambulation (Pradakshina) of whole earth fifty six crore times. All pilgrimages are within only if we were to understand it. The bathing at places of pilgrimage does not remove inner filth. If the mind is filthy, everything is filthy. By washing the body, the mind is not cleaned."
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