Joy of Unknown

This morning, we started from Garudeshwar. After walking for about 150 km, it feels as if I am entering an unknown territory. Unknown in terms of the geography because these are places I haven’t been to, as opposed to all the other villages we crossed before. From here on, we will be walking through the tribal belt, hills, sparse, scattered mud houses, local tribal dialects, little to no traffic, and small patches of farms. With that kind of silence unknown in the cities, we can hear children giggling from half a kilometer away. 

While walking in the known spaces, I knew people, places, kilometers, which way to go, where not to go, almost everything. Today was the first day when I knew nothing, not even the name of our next destinations. But there was joy in not knowing, in the uncertainty. 

A few kilometers of walking into the unknown,n and the gifts of the day start to unfold. Jagdish bhai stopped his cycle after greeting us, Narmade Har, and invited us for tea at his place. While we were walking to his house, he had done the pilgrimage thrice. 

He took our phone number and told us to stop at his sister's place in Undava village for lunch. He said her name is Amba and she stays next to the Hanuman temple, just go there, I will tell her to prepare lunch. Not only did he fix our lunch for the day, but he also fixed our lunch for the day after, too. 5 minutes of interaction and our two meals got fixed into homes we have never been to. When we ask the question why, the answer that comes to us is that we were walking on this path. This path is known as the path of Vairagya (renunciation). People here give with no strings attached; we feel that all the time. 

Jagdish bhai made sure that we took the right turns with the GPS of his heart; we reached Jeevanpura (Nani Ambaji), our shelter for tonight. 

Signing off from Nani Ambaji