Invitation of healing in disguise

Last week, while we were walking one afternoon, I noticed a red car passing by and felt it might stop to talk to us. While I took a break under the shade of a tree, Swara came to me and handed me a packet of biscuits and roasted chickpeas. She said two monks stopped by in a red car and gave it to her. She added that they saw me and felt that I wasn’t okay, so they went a few kilometers just to bring some food for us to eat. 

It’s interesting how we connect. Like, there were many cars on the road, but somehow I noticed the red car and connected with the people sitting inside. One of the monks said that we would be passing by his ashram in a few days, and if we wished, we could stop by.    

The monk spotted us again after three days while we were having a fruit break. We shared smiles, bananas, and gratitude for their kind gesture on that sunny afternoon. He warmly invited us to stay with him for a day, and his sister, who had just finished her third parikrama. And for the first few minutes, we kept convincing him that we had to walk 25 km that day, even though we had just begun. Finally, we set a deal to have tea together after which we would leave. He partially agreed and took our bags in his car so we could walk without the weight for a few kilometers.

His ashram was next to the Narmada River at Sahastradhara. Green, clean, and silent. Lalita di welcomed us with her warmest smile, and she exchanged her experiences from her recent parikrama over tea. And they now convince us with more love to stay with them, to which we couldn’t deny. Our minds took time to accept the “change” in the plan,n and that’s what pilgrimages are about. One has to let go and surrender to emergence, which is difficult at times. 

Interestingly,y when my body knew that today we were no longer walking,g it went into a repair mode. I started running a fever and had some body aches, and I knew it was time to just rest. For the rest of the day, while partly observing the sensations, I realized how amazing our bodies are. Till the time I was on the road, my body was all set to walk. As soon as I had a space to rest, it started to repair itself just so that I could continue my journey in a wholesome way. 

In the evening,, while sitting with our host famil,y, tears of gratitude flowed for their invitation, spa,ce, and uninterrupted presence that gave our bodies aminds the time to rest and heal.