At some point I had thought to walk by myself. Not sure if it was out of arrogance or with the thought of being self sufficient. It was much later that I realised that the “ease” with which I could walk, sleep or simply be was because someone was looking out for me unconditionally. In the initial weeks of our pilgrimage I could feel a hand coming to me every mid-night just to check if I was safe after a tiresome day of walking.
There is a joke that my sister shares. She says. "for you taking up this parikrama is like love marriage whereas for me it is an arranged one". For me it was the love for the river and it's sacredness whereas for her it was her unconditional love for me. She said yes to purely support my calling and discover her love while being a part of it. When I asked her what made you say a 'yes' to something like this which wasn’t on your bucket list ever and especially when it wasn’t just about walking for a day or two. It was a long term commitment for which I personally took almost 3 years to prepare. With a smile she says, "I have tried taking a few initiatives where mostly I have failed to get support. I understood that if we put our ego aside what matters at the end is saying a yes to anything that is good. It doesn’t matter who is leading it. All of us can be co-creators for the greater good."
In my 30 years this is the first time when we are doing almost everything together be it washing clothes, preparing food, praying, attending nature’s call, and most importantly walking together for almost 9 hours a day. She says the joy is in doing “ordinary” things “together” which makes the whole experience “extraordinary”
Many a times I overlooked the strength of two. I would tell her why do you need two people if the same task can be done by one person. She gave me the analogy of the ant colony where for doing one task there will be number of ants. The system is if one fails the second will move forward and if the second fails the third will take over. Here the efficiency might be less but there is high resilience.
When I see someone so selfless in front of me it helps me see the selfish corners in me. Apart from
having someone to listen, to share, to give a fresh perspective, to share jokes and laugh aloud, to massage my feet when in pain, to find strength in the last leg of our day...she holds my edges in a gentle way giving one more chance to change which definitely requires lot of strength and love.
I could have never soaked in the beauty of this pilgrimage if I was by myself. To briefly share about her sense of being/ philosophy/ practice I am reminded of the African proverb which says- “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Deep deep gratitude to have her as my co-pilgrim for life
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