JOURNAL OF A WALK FOR PEACE AND UNIVERSAL GANDHI SWARAJ
by Jeff Knaebel, Sojourner Free on the 145th day of his man-without-a-country statelessness
11 NOV 2009
Kilometer 1,169, moving down from the cold of Sarahan on 11 NOV 2009. My first target for this phase is 1000 statute miles or approximately 1,610 kilometers. The goalposts of this work keep on moving ahead of me.
The village elder who has given me shelter for this night sits cross-legged on the floor, next to the wood-fired chula in his kitchen. Facing him sits a neighbor lady who has come to discuss arrangements for her daughter’s wedding.
A small spider appears, walking across the floor between the two people. The village elder coaxes the spider onto a piece of paper. The lady wordlessly extends her hand and the elder passes the paper and spider to her. She arrises, walks to the window, opens it, and gently casts the spider into the garden. returning, she hands the paper to the elder and resumes her sitting position on the floor. Their conversation carries on.
After finishing his thali at supper, the elder pours a cup of water into it and scrubs it clean with his right hand. he then drinks the water-gravy, remarking to me that this practice ensures not a morsel of food goes waste, and the vessel is made easier to clean.
The chula pit is immaculate. Every sliver and chip of wood and every bit of floor sweepings is picked up with tongs and cast into the fire box. Not a single scrap goes wasted or unused.
These actions - one a devout reverence for life, the others a deep practice of frugality and self-restraint - exhibit the village wisdom of India. As Sri Ratanchand Roje told me at the Sarahan conference, if we do not recover these ancient practices, and stop the destruction, “We are doomed.” We must elevate our consciousness.
Life is inconceivably precious. Those who would destroy, should realize that once destroyed, never recovered.
Love is now much more than a Virtue - love is a Necessity. Without love, we all perish. We must love the Earth and all her creatures as we would love ourselves.
This padyatra is showing me that I learn by what I do with my body, and not by the words that come out of my mouth. Mind matters most, yet body and mind are so inextricably connected that they cannot be separated in any practical sense. By their actions do the village elders of India teach what I came to learn.
One strives - stumbling and arising and dying ever incomplete - for the ethical perfection of the Realized human. The horizon keeps on receding in front of one’s walking the path that is made by walking only. Life after life, one strives for the deathless.
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