Thursday, October 27, 2022 

We had stayed at a roadside ashram. Maharaj Kapilesh Maniyar brought tea and Kala Chana for breakfast at 6:00am. He gave us names of few people to meet as we walk. We started at 7:30 am this morning. We were stopped by a person at a roadside stall to be fed Poha and tea. We have been giving dakshina in most of the places we stop during the day and for the night stay. But this roadside stall person did not take anything. Many people believe that their Seva (service) will be negated if they take any money from the Parikramavasis. We walked for some more time. We have been walking through Town of Anjad. It is a big town. The highway is the main road of the town.  Most of the shops are still closed at this time of the day. After we passed the town, there was a man on a bicycle who said Narmade Har. We responded and continued walking. He was going in the opposite direction so we didn’t think of anything more after the greeting. Within  a minute I heard someone calling after me “Maiyaji”. I turned around to find the same man coming towards me. I stopped. He gave me Rs. 10 for me and Rs. 10 for Baiju. I accepted and turned around and started walking.  I was so touched, tears came to my eyes. He looked like a simple man with meager earrings. Those two ten rupee notes are very precious to me. We continued walking on the highway. We had not seen the four Sadhus since this morning. There is not much change in the scenery.  We kept walking and walking. Finally at Borlai town we saw the Sadhus resting at the Ganesha temple on the roadside. We rested for few minutes and continued. Baiju has been asking for Sugarcane juice for last 2-3 days ever since we walked past many Sugarcane farms. Jayprakashji, one of the Sadhus walking along, said that we will not find any juice since the season is over. We stopped at one shop to have some Sprite. Three of us drank and we got three for the other three Sadhus. They were waiting little further up the road. They drank the cold drink and we continued. We were not sure how far was the lunch place. We kept walking. After sometime Baiju and I stopped for few minutes. We saw a store across the street. I went to buy some cold water. He came out with ice cold water bottle.  As I went to pay he said no no just take it.  Another example of how people on the Parikrama route are ready to serve. While we were enjoying the cold water, Pandayji called. He and the other Sadhus were ahead of us. He said come quick we are waiting at a Sugarcane juice srall.  We were all excited. Narmada Maiya has arranged for us to have the Sugarcane juice even out of season.  We had two small glasses each and were completely satisfied.  We didn’t know we were only five minutes walk from our lunch place. We had lunch and found out that our next stop is only two kilometers away where we would stay for the night. Well when we started walking we thought 2km. can be reached in one hour or so.  With a few stops (picked up flip flops and some Guava) and a lot more than 2km we reached the ashram for the night.  There are a lot more people here tonight. About 20.  All from different backgrounds. Some insist that we have to carry a kamandalu and not a plastic bottle. Some are lost in there own world. There is one Sadhu who has a following of three or four people who are helping him with things. He has an elaborate mobile altar that he has set up and is doing evening prayers.  Anyway. Dinner was very spicy today. Baiju had meetings at dinner time so his dinner was delayed. We went to sleep later than usual. Today We walked 21 kms. 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.