Friday, May 24, 2019

Sometimes it is like this, Sometimes it is like that

Today morning while walking on the highway I saw trees on both the side of the road making a canopy above us. My mind said, oh! I don’t need trees now. This patch should have come in the afternoon when the temperature is at its peak. 

Likewise there are days when we are offered meals more then once while on some days we would just have a packet of biscuit. It was interesting how during our afternoon breaks we would be invited by extremely warm host families who would even request us to stay for the day. Its tempting to accept the request as evenings would be a difficult time for us to find secure and safe space to stay the night. I hear my tired mind say where do these warm hosts vanish after sun set. 

This mindset was taking me away from being in the present moment, from embracing the gifts that I had in the now. 

And it was latter that I realised that this pilgrimage was all about being in the present. As soon as I was finding comfort or attachment with a person, place or thing, it was time to move on. Attachment with the past was bringing suffering for the future.  

So the next time when the cloud came in front of the Sun to give us a little shade, or a child came running giving us a smile, or we took a little longer route we remembered Kanti dada and with gratitude started singing

"Game game game life is a game. 
We came crying crying 
We shall go laughing laughing 
Sometimes it is like this, sometimes it is like that 
Game game game life is a game"


Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Share some change :)

We hear a voice calling us from the other side of the road and when we pause we see this old grandfather waving his hand. We cross the road and greeted him. Narmade har!!

He started searching for something in his pocket. We asked him what was he looking for? He replied by in return asking us if we had three rupees change. We checked our pockets and found a ten rupee note which we gave him. He returned us the note and kept checking all his pockets. In the meanwhile Swara dropped a fifty rupee note in his upper pocket not sure if it was to tag him or so that he can give that to us.  

He kept looking for about five minutes. Swara asked him to check his upper pocket that’s when the neighbor said that he can’t listen because of old age. Finally he nods saying he can’t find it. He wanted to give us some money because we were pilgrims.

We tell him to just bless us and he smiles and shares his blessings. In a local dialect he shared that he has also done the pilgrimage. When I showed him his picture on my phone he laughed out loudly and waived us goodbye. 

We remembered our grandfather who would give us not more then five rupees during Diwali. Jokingly I told Swara that even if he would have found the fifty rupee note he would have asked for forty eight rupees change:) 

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Endless Love of Sakhi's


Few days ago we met these extraordinary grannies in a village. After crossing a little stream, trekking a rocky hill and walking through few farms we reached Bel Gau. As we were walking through the village we found a little space (otlo) to sit. We sat there for some rest, water and snacks.

There were friendly nods and greetings with people passing by. We shared snacks with kids. They suggested that we can go to the nearby temple where they serve food in sometime. There wasn’t any laziness or resistance but we didn’t get up. We kept sitting. In the middle of all this a granny invited us to her home for a cup of black tea. And both of us just started walking with her. She was coughing badly as she was leading the way.

She said I will call my friends to meet you. All of us did parikrama few years back and they will be very happy to meet you. One by one the grannies started coming and they referred each other as “Sakhi” which means friend. There was joy and deep respect they had for each other which was so subtle.

At one point while we were sharing, I looked at one of them who was listening with her complete presence. I could feel that. The stillness and her presence made me feel so alive and quiet as if you are in a forest or in front of a mountain. We rested there for sometime and when I woke up, I felt I was in the company of these extraordinary angels.

One of the grannies sat with us for sometime and then she gently asked us if she could go to her farm for sometime. She promised she will come back soon. We hugged her and waived good bye. Later in the afternoon she brought us fresh carrots from her farm :)

Some of the distinct qualities that they shared was respect for each other, deep listening and sharing of good things that anyone encountered. All of them were farmers which means hard work each day round the year.

In just s few hours we got to see a little glimpse to their way of life, the quality of their presence and the universal love from a mothers heart. A gang of eight women came with us for half a kilometre just to say good bye. When we were walking with them we could sense courage, strength and oneness beaming from each soul. We kept telling them to return as few of them were not wearing their chappals (shoes) but they continued walking. While we hugged and asked for blessings they kept holding back their tears and shared words and blessings giving us courage and strength for our journey ahead. It was an immense gift to receive these subtle gifts in multiple forms.

Nishkam Seva (Selfless Service)

As we were getting closer to Amarkanthak a bunch of us got an invitation for black tea. It was an unexpected yet a pleasant invitation as the man who was serving us tea had his shelter almost in the middle of a forest with hardly any people living around.

He asked us to follow the orange sign boards as we walk further into the forest. He showed us a sample sign board we were meant to follow. We got curious as we had seen these boards in some of the remotest places.

We had all these questions -Was it a group of people? Or the nearby villagers? Who puts up these little markers?

We asked him if he knew who made them. He said for eight months I serve all the pilgrims here with tea, food and shelter and the other four months when they are not walking due to rains I paint these boards, take some nails, select an area, cycle and put them up. He has been doing this for 12 years. What an invisible act of kindness!!! We bowed to him to share our gratitude and even shared how every time we would see the board part of us said thank you and part of us thought that whoever has done this must be crazy:) It was such a joyous moment for us to finally meet one of the faces of the one who has put so much effort just so that thousands of pilgrims who are walking do not loose their way. He has placed sign boards in the forests, hills, near river beds and few roads.

Like wise we spotted this earthen pot filled with water under a shady tree. The water must be quenching thirst of so many like us. When I looked around there were only farms which meant someone had put an effort to bring water from a distance. Yet there was no one whom we could thank in person. We just closed our eyes, shared our gratitude and walked with the seed thought of Nishkam Seva (Selfless Service.

The heart is the true kabba:)

Before we started our walk we went to  Brahma Vidhya mandir , Pavnar to seek blessings from the elders some of whom have walked thousands o...