How about rising up at 5 in the morning and walking for the entire day. Yes! sure there are halts amid. There are four halts; breakfast at nine, lunch at one, tea at four and dinner at eight. During these breaks you can slacken your muscles, eat, drink and prepare for the kilometers ahead. Whoever is ready please raise their hands. Oh! Forgot to mention; you have to continue this process for eight days continuously. I feel now there are no hands in the air.
Guess what though; my mom and the other pilgrims have done this incredible stuff year after year. It is the giant devotion for Lord Shri Vitthal that millions of pilgrims (warkaris) from all parts of India walk their way to Pandharpur, Maharashtra. A group of Warkaris from Goa starts from Mulgao, Bicholim. My mother is one warkari in the group that walks 350km in eight days to reach Lord Vithal’s temple in Pandharpur. It will be less to say that these pilgrims have a devotional quotient as huge as the universe at large. I salute these moms and dads, brothers and sisters who walk their way not for money, not for golden treasure but for pure blessings and serenity. And being an Indian; I can proudly say this happens only in INDIA.
