Early in the month of April, Sheetal Vaidya decided to set off on a journey of love across India - or what she called the Bhav Jatra. We're blessed to be sharing updates from her journey across communities!

Bhav Jatra updates from Baroda onwards

Baroda offered a cozy stay with love that recharged the inner batteries to go ahead. At Arun dada’s home, a couple 60+ got super inspired and expressed their wish to become sahyaatri’s. So next day I proceed with 3 senior citizens as my co-travelers. The mind started throwing doubts about whether it was a great idea to allow all seniors to come; will they adjust with any condition? Well, we proceeded towards “kabirvad’ a place that houses a single banyan tree that covers the entire area of almost 3kms wide and 7 kms long with its branches, it is difficult to find out the original tree.


We stopped by at yet another gurudwara for lunch and heard that Guru Govindsinghji had stayed there during his Narmada pilgrimage. When we reached the banks of river Narmada we found out that we will have to take a boat to reach Kabirvad which was on the other side and we were almost near to the last boat departing. I was just thinking of next course of action when my cell phone rang, it was the person whom we were to visit next day. He was inquiring about our whereabouts. I shared the story of our reaching kabirvad and he suddenly puts me on hold and asks me to wait there for 5 min. Before those 5 min. were over we got a call from a person named Raju, who is friend of the first guy and he arranges our boat, stay and everything in under 10 minutes. We were all in deep gratitude to how universe operates and sends people your way. We did not know any of these guys at all and in 10 minutes we became good friends. All this while when the external magic was unfolding an internal magic was taking place – our old couple was starting to believe in flow and universal connect. Uncle, who was silent since we left Baroda started sharing. We had a circle of sharing at Kabirvad under the starry sky.

Next day we drove to another religious place known as Nareshwar that houses the Samadhi of saint Sri Rang Avadhoot. We had a good meditation sit. Then we proceeded to a small village that houses totally about 30 families known as Somaj. We were to stay in Somaj for the evening but the village people would just not allow us to leave and we stayed on for 2 days. What happened in those two days was like a dream, every moment was circle of sharing. We found that the whole village follows “swadhyaya” –inculcating teachings of Gita in practice as propounded by Rev. Pandurang Shastriji. They have daily prayers thrice a day; no one in the village has any vices of smoking, drinking or even family fights. They all have decided to lead life the Bhagvat Gita way. Every evening they have a prayer circle where they sing hymns and even kids participate. What a way to spread values among them. A question popped up-how many of us pray with our families every day? We talk about experiential value education in the cities and here I was witnessing it in a small village where not many were educated!



It is customary to visit every home in the village and have tea with them. So that day I had around 20 cups of black tea served with love and joy. At one such home they had bought a new tractor for farming and so the family made me inaugurate it with the belief that when pilgrim blesses it the farm will be blessed and abundance will flow. It was a very touching moment and I was thinking that we would look for some celebrity to inaugurate our new endeavor and here this person was honoring the pilgrim within me.



As we were strolling in the fields we came across this gentleman who was standing with a large tray in his hand and waiting. Upon inquiring we found that he was waiting for wind the moment there is some breeze he will move the tray to clear the husk off the grain. He was engaged in the work since noon as the wind starts blowing after that. Also he will change direction to suit the wind direction. His love and patience for nature was exemplary in that moment.



As we were absorbing learnings from nature around us soaking ourselves in the waters of Narmada river we met 3 pilgrims who were walking barefoot around Narmada. The oldest among the three was an 80 year old woman supported by two 70 year olds. I asked them “why would you take upon such a difficult pilgrimage at an old age”? Smilingly, all the three of them said “ we have finished all our karmic duties so we have informed our families that you be happy and lead life your way, even if we don’t come back (if we die), do not shed tears, be grateful to Ma Narmada (river Narmada is known as mother Narmada) for embracing us forever”. All we could do was bow down to their “renunciation”.

That night we had a gathering at the village temple where another old man summed up the day with a piece of wisdom. He said life is like a box of jaggery and we are all ants, we are so tied up in the box and its sweetness that even when the jaggery melts and the ant dies within, it does not realize that the end is near. Similarly, we are so attached to everything that we die within without realizing the time to renounce it all.

 

Posted by Sheetal Vaidya on May 11, 2014 | permalink