"pilgrim-kabir" Archive
Onwards to Kabirwad
As soon as the Dalai Lama went there, he decided to sit in silence for four hours straight. When Peace Mother visited, she said she hadn't seen a place like that in India. It was from the same place, the "prayer ground" at the Gandhi Ashram, that we departed.
Thirty-forty friends gathered at 7AM to pray together and to share in each other's merits. For having just showed up to India, without a rhyme or a reason, it felt like an incredible blessing. As twenty of us walked out, others split up on two sides to chant "Vaishnav Jan" to bid us goodbye.
Our plan was to take a bus to Jadeshwar, and walk to Kabirwad. Why Kabirwad?
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Mar 14 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
Sweet Sugar Cane Juice
"Hey, hey, hey," he yelled. Viral, Ish and Ami turn around and see a man coming at them with sugar cane juice. "Here, have some fresh juice," he declares.
It was an act of business that is welcome on any hot summer day. Except that this was an act of kindness. They tried to pay for it, but he wouldn't listen. So they eventually parted ways, with big smiles.
Next time Viral saw him, he treated him to tea. Not to be outdone, the "juice man" takes the next opportunity to bring a dozen glasses of sugar cane juice for a whole bunch of us, sitting under the Kabir banyan tree.
Viral gives me a look. Such kindness from a guy who made $2 today?!? It was time for us to step it up.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Mar 15 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
Conversations With God
"God, why are you doing this to me?" she screams as the doctor applies
some scary looking, purple antiseptic to her intense wounds. "God,
why do I have to go through suffering?"
It's almost as if Rinku is having a conversation with God. Quite literally.
And she is two years old. Jayeshbhai bursts into tears himself.
When we walked into Batha, a village near Kabirwad, we didn't know anyone
nor did we know where we would stay. As we entered the town, the first
person we met was Rinku's mom; within minutes, we investigated the screams
from the back and found Rinku with a serious skin infection on her legs.
The next day, we stuff twenty village folks, including Rinku, into
one Tata Sumo car and made a trip to a nearby hospital. It turns out that
another kid was put in ICU, a kid who would've died had we not been at the
hospital that day.
I have seen many buildings known as temples, but today I saw a true temple inside the heart of a 2 year old.
by Nipun Mehta on Mar 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
Garland of Awareness
A group of four chanters sit down with us, under a Neem tree outside a temple. We start chanting. An radiant old man, a travelling monk, sits on a ledge at a distance.
Seeing him, I go sit next to him and say hello. He walks with one bag of belongings; in it is a picture of his teacher, that he found while walking. He never ask for anything; he eats whatever he gets. Like us, he plans to cross the river to go to Kabirwad on the other end. I offer to pay for his 10 Rupee boat fare, but he says, "Tomorrow, not today."
As he joined us for chanting, he said, "Mathura, Vrundavan are inside you. If you don't find it here, you won't find it there. It's all there in each breath. Every breath is garland of awareness."
Then he left, never to be seen again. I never got the chance to pay his boat fare.
by Nipun Mehta on Mar 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
Give Me All Your Money!
Almost out of nowhere, he says: "How much money do you have on you?" I don't know if it was serious question or not. But the chief saint of this ashram repeats the question: "How much money do you have on you?"
"Some," I say somewhat timidly. "Well, you can't find God if you have money in your pocket," he declares emphatically. "Come, put all the money on this bench."
"Are you serious?" I ask with a comical smile on my face. No one has asked me such a ridiculous question before.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Mar 17 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
Temple Without an Idol
It is 1AM. After a big dinner at sugarcane juiceman's village, we need to cross a section of the Narmada river that is controlled by a few people. Interestingly enough, I had struck up a friendship with that boat driver, so I jump onto Jeeta's new scooter-like motorcycle to find him. Perhaps he'll hook us up big time.
After some effort, we find Mukesh engaged in a 24 hour chant at a local temple. He's been very inspired by our trip and never charges us for any boat rides (about Rs. 200 every time); and as I anticipated, he's game to take us across even at 1AM.
Mukesh grabs a couple buddies, and with Jeeta, they all leave to make some arrangements. I am told to stay "right here", which incidentally, is in front of a temple.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Mar 19 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'
The Village Life
We spent four days in Batha, a village that you can't get to by car and a village that had never seen any visitors. Like all our plans, this wasn't by our design. We just walked from Kabirwad and after a kilometer through the fields, we run into Batha.
We didn't know anyone, we didn't have any plans. Perhaps because of that, we experienced pure village life.
As we walk into Batha, in a single file line of 20 people, we greet people along the way and immediately keep an eye out for serving others -- like Rinku. Some villagers offer us a small hut, as a natural part of playing host. Then they see us picking up plastic and and cleaning the temple area, with all the brooms and hoes we carried with us, and another drunk villager gives us an "upgrade" to a larger hut (which is about the size of most kitchens in the US).
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Mar 23 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-kabir'