"In Hinduism, the pilgrim ritual connects with the deity in a somewhat different way. Hindus normally do not say they go to a temple to 'worship, but for darsan' -- to see and be seen by the deity. In Hindu understanding, the deity is present in the image; this seeing itself is charged with religious meaning. 'Beholding the image is an act of worship, and through the eyes one gains the blessings of the divine.' For the millions of Hindus who travel each month in India, the darsan, or seeing, is the significant connection. Their sacred travel is for the darsan of the famous sacred places like Banaras and to small local goddesses, and also for what they consider natural epiphanies of the divine -- the Himalayas, the River Ganges. They follow after holy persons such as Mahatma Gandhi for his darsan. This seeing is why eyes have such a conspicuous part in Hindu divine images. Seeing, in the Indian context, is a kind of touching."