The Warkaris

Ganoba was clearly in distress. Even a layman like me could see that his breathing was laboured, his eyes showed pain, his feet were swollen and he was so tired, that he could barely walk. The junior Doctor who had just got his degree in general medicine, pulled him out of the long line and made him sit before checking his BP & pulse. He then called the senior, who did the same. With the limited equipment available at our open air medical camp on the highway, there was there was not much else the Doctors could do to diagnose what was wrong with Ganoba. They gave him some medicine and with a worried look (Its rare to see a worried looking Doctor around his patient!) told Ganoba to stop walking and take a lift from the next available vehicle. And I saw that there were many who would be more than willing to give a lift.  I asked the Doctors what worried them. They both said he was showing all signs of an imminent heart attack. While he was taking the medicines I asked Ganoba a few questions. It turned out he had walked 150 kilometers, yes you got that right, 150 kms and had still about 100 kms to go to reach his destination. He was a farmhand and this was his annual time off from work. I didn't have to ask him what his destination was. Like the million plus other men, women and children, he was on his annual pilgrimage called “Wāri”, to the over 800 year old[1] deity in Western India known as “Vithoba” or “Viththal” or “Vithumai” in a small vilage called Pandharpur. There were many such Ganobas in the Wāri. One told us he walks every year from his village which is 600 kms from Pandharpur. (Yes I did check on Google Maps and found the figure to be correct).

The main Wāri takes 19 days to reach a distance of 250 kms from Alandi near Pune to Pandharpur with 3 days of stopovers. This means a trek of about 15kms per day for 16 days! Olympians will train for this kind of arduous trek and all I could see were malnourished but hardy villagers doing it with a smile on their faces. They not only walked but danced, sang and rejoiced their love for their own Vithoba. They are the followers of Wārkāri sect of Hinduism, who are vegetarian by choice, non violent and don't believe in caste system! All castes were walking shoulder to shoulder, eating from same pot and drinking the same water. For a 400 year old sect, this is quite a social revolution.

Warkaris walking to Pandharpur

But this gathering which can beat any staged Hollywood spectacle, got me thinking in another direction. I saw, no, experienced the energy, the enthusiasm, devotion and the sole purpose of over a million people who had nothing else in common. What brought them together? What makes them do this painful exercise year after year? Just Faith. Faith in Someone they believe in, faith that He can bring them salvation, faith that all their worldly worries and pain could be taken care of by Him. I personally do not believe in many aspects of religion such as violence for the sake of religion, blind worship, meaningless rituals, bad traditions etc but I do believe in the power of faith. I have seen faith cure mental depression, addictions and even terminal deceases. And to be honest, in many cases the faith was placed in the wrong kind of person!

All the major problems in India are due to our loss of faith in anything and everything. We don’t or rather can’t believe in people, systems or rule of law. Why don’t we have a single leader we can trust to do the right thing? Why do we victimize every honest man? How do we create a group of leaders in whom we can repose our faith? The present system of governance only encourages nepotism, casteism, dishonesty and populism. It only creates false demi-gods. 

Devotion to Viththal is not painless. It takes consistent effort of years of trekking to get to his image. But millions do it. Removing the problems and creating a country with happy citizens will also take a lot of pain. Where do we make a start?

I have no simple solution but I do believe that each one of us has a part to play. Each one of us has to sacrifice, each one of us has to strive to be the person in whom others can have trust. Each one of us must strive to reach our own Viththal if not be one ourself.

To complete my story of Ganoba, he took the pain relief medicines, Dispirin and the advise we gave him, got up from the chair and with his walking stick, walked. He walked one step at a time not knowing if he will reach Vithoba in this life or in his afterlife. But he walked with a firm resolve not looking back even once.

What was I doing there? Well every year for the last 15 years, our Innerwheel Club of Thane, which is a club of spouses of Rotarians, conducts a 2 day medical camp along the route taken by the pilgrims. From the last two years, we Rotarians of Rotary Club of Thane have also joined them in this noble venture.

And today after this experience I am not only humbled by their simplicity, commitment and drive but I am also emotionally a much richer person.

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[1] Wikipaedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vithoba_Temple,_Pandharpur & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vithoba#cite_ref-karve_23-1