A walk to Divine......Vaari...!!!

 

Vaari… I am hearing this word from my childhood..Vaari is traditional walk since past many centuries. Its not only walk, a path to divine, a way to understand you, yourself,surroundings and giving insite to you. What you are, who you are and much more....

This is the traditional aspect of Maharashtra running successfully since last 400 years…
The driving force behind this is led by Saint Dnyaneshwar and Saint Tukaram…Every year all these Varkari’s going to Pandharpur without fault… There is some spirituality and life philosophy behind this…although I participated in this 3 years before, At present I am at onsite. Everyday I am going through news papers about this..and just thought to update my experience through blog…

I look forward to getting comments from you….
Since last 3.5 years I am thinking to go for a patch of Vaari. This year it happened. I went for Vaari from Gondavale to Mhaswad.. A distance of 24 kms by walk. This is only 1/10th of the entire journey. 
I started my journey from Pune to Satara on 27th of June. The day was ashadha panchami. Vaari from Gondavale starts from Ashadha Shashthi (6th day of Marathi calendar). It covers the distance of 110 kilometers in 4 days on an average of 25 kms every day.

The road from satara to gondavale is green till Nidhal. From Nidhal, its drought prone area..rain shadow area. The color of soil changes from Black to white as we proceed towards Gondavale. Rain was my partner till Nidhal

The area was green with seeds just sowed for the rainy season. This is start of new journey with full of enthusiasm. This was the first time for me to walk continuously for hours. I reached gondavale at 6.00 pm. Vaari is going to start from tomorrow… Sunday 28 June 2009 at 7.00 am. There were so many vaarkari’s gathered together for the same. There are strict instructions for self management. I went to sleep after Gondavalekar Maharaj Darshan and Prasad.

 

Day 1 – Sunday 28 June 2009 Morning 7.00 am
The day started with darshan of Gondavalekar Maharaj. After completing the bath and break fast we started to walk along with Palkhi. Palkhi covered entire Gondavale with Pooja and Arati at main temple. Band is at the beginning of Vaari. Then there is Flag Squad. In marathi we call it as “Bhagwat Dharmachi Pataka”. Then there is Bhajani Mandal with Taal, Mrudang and Chiplya. Then there is turn of Veenakari and women with Tulsi.


They cover this entire journey bare foot from start to end. This is tradition of some families. For this vaari , the person is more than 65 years old. Godly smile with Nirvikar or Nirvana face. This smile comes with faith and simplicity. Same is the case with women carrying tulsi on their head.
Bhajani Mandal ‐ Decides the speed of walk.rythmic, preaching walk.enjoying experience

The speed of Vaari is controlled by rhythm of Taal and Mrudang. Bhajani Mandal is associated with vaari. There is continuous preaching of God with Abhang and Gyanaba-Tukaram. There is specific method of walking when you carry flag. I have preached god’s name of entire life on first day itself.

 

 I really enjoyed with flag dancing and Gyanaba-tukaram. These are the names of famous saints of Maharashtra who started this tradition from last hundreds of years. Gyanaba means saint Dyaneshwar. He transformed life of marathi people by translating Sanskrit Geeta to marathi. This is the major resolution in lifestyle of people. Every year without any invitation, the crowd of more than 10 lacs starts its journey towards Pandharpur. This is really an incredible tradition of maharashtra. Tukaram – the another saint has the similar kind of Karishma. This duo has so far accomplished the most incredible share to marathi literature.

The age group of these vaarkaris is from 5 years to 90 years. I can see the commitment of life from the old guns. Some are continuing this from last so many years. Many of them have tradition from generations.Some are continuing with the next generation. I saw one family with grandfather,father, son and grandson continuing this at the same time with other family members. Fantastic way to transform genes from one generation to other generation. Some photos are the evidence of the same

Things I learnt from Vaari is simplicity in living. The concept of ” I belong to all “, comes in my mind when I
see the faith, trust and love as a human being irrespective of your tradition, religion, financial and corporate status and age. No one is big or small. We all are kids of god. We have similarity of being human being. I have equal trust and faith as you. We all are going to achieve same destination. I observed the stress free life of Vaarkaris. Smile is the sign of your soul. For the first time in my life, I was observing the silence and peace of my mind.

Vaari – for the food lovers, it is joy.
You will get some amazing village food. Normally it contains raw food like
Roasted Peanuts, Roasted jawar, Pohe, Upma, Naachni, Milk,banana. Everybody on the way contributes some part of whatever they have. They normally have the faith in giving. ” Give more than you get “, this term I am experiencing with live example.They are living with the simplicity. Full faith on god...






As new invention has come with plastics, the roads are polluted by throwing empty plastic glasses.
We can improve on this to reduce the pollution.” GO GREEN ”

11.00 am – We were about to reach Gondavale Khurd..
6 kms away from Gondavale Bk. It is the first resting point of the day. The people of this village were gathered on road to receive with pleasure. They all were
greeting us without any formal introduction. This is really amazing. Even we are not giving that much of importance to our well known guests and relatives. Palkhi rested for 15 mins. We took rest along the farms and trees at road side.
 

 

11.30 am – Restart for next stretch. We continued our journey. There were enough strength of ladies. They were going along with some games like ” Fugadi” and different types of Jumps. Some group of them were walking with ” Ovi ” of saint Janabai. Evolution of women power is going on from so many generations. We are fighting for equal rights till today. But this is the time when we are watching such a large numbers,
definitely it has worth. Faith behind the mind is more powerful.

Vaari is very good example for Project Management and Human management. The Bhaldar and Choapdar are the controllers of entire journey. They walk along with gold and silver plated sticks in their hands. When they shows the stick in air with up..that symbolises the start and stop for walk. The crowd of about 2000 to 3000 stops walking. It is kind of discipline with uneducated people is simply amazing.

 

Vaari Horse is the mascot of the event. It always stays ahead of Palkhi. One person is always beyond this horse. It really adds value when “Ringan” take place

The management for Water and medicines is all along vaari. Normally the water truck and medicines vehicle is placed about 100 meters from any of the location. People can get water with ease.

There is a mobile Dispensary accompany with every Vaari. It is equipped with Doctor, Medicines and immediate first aid kits. Normally people complain about Leg pains, body pains, some times cough, fever as they have different kinds of Food, water and climate conditions. This is mandatory and very useful van for every vaari.

It was about 4.00 pm. We were just reached to Mhaswad. I have completed a walk of 24 kms successfully. I sat down for a while, then I come to know how much pains are there behind effort. I have office tomorrow at Pune. I left Vaari on this note. Next year definitely I will be there for the same with lot of energy and enthusiasm.


पुंडलिक वरदा हरी विठ्ठल….श्री ज्ञानदेव तुकाराम ….पंढरीनाथ महाराज की जय..!!!