Notwithstanding the heat of the day and the cold of the night, 50 men from Goa, attired in their saffron kurtas, walked for 54 days covering 2,100 km, and finally arrived in Ayodhya on February 25, 2024, after leaving Goa on January 3, 2024, on a journey they billed as their spiritual fulfillment.
From singing hymns, to reciting prayers to visiting temples and sleeping on the floor, these 50 men from Goa decided to walk to Ayodhya on a foot pilgrimage, guided by grace and a sense of adventure to seek the divine blessings of Lord Ram.
“The 54-day pilgrimage was not easy, yet it was not bad too,” says a satisfied Mithil Parab, who was one of the 50 to walk to Ayodhya. “It was a great experience and the feeling of joy after reaching Ayodhya was unexplainable,” he said.
Talking about his journey, he described, “We would walk around 35 kilometres a day. Sometimes if the weather was good, we would stretch upto 40 kilometres. It would depend on everyone and their speed. But by the end of it, we knew how each one was and the pilgrimage ended on an amazing note,” said Mithil who works with Goa Police and plans to resume work next week.
The 50 men, who ranged from businessen, to corporate and government employees, most applied for leave from work to undertake the pilgrimage walk.
Everyone was excited on reaching Ayodhya and the moment they arrived there, Mithil and his friends clicked photos and videos for reels about their safe arrival at the Ram Mandir.
We would walk around 35 kilometres a day. Sometimes if the weather was good, we would walk around 40 kilometres.Mithil Parab, pilgrim
But it was not as simple as it seems and there was a lot of planning involved. Since it was a pilgrimage, they stayed in temples but ensured that they ate home-cooked meals. “We would walk the whole day, in between halting for meals. These were cooked by a chef who was travelling with us in a vehicle,” said Prashant Verelekar, who is the driving force of this pilgrimage.
He said, “We would leave at 5 am and stop for lunch by 1 pm at temples where we would eat meals cooked by the chef and rest till 4 pm and resume our walk till we completed 35 kilometres.”
The pilgrims were of different age groups which made the trip exciting and fun too. “When we started off, we went from Goa to Sai Baba of Shirdi while 50 of them proceeded to Ayodhya. There are another few people who will go to Mathura Vrindavan temple. People from 18 to the age of 70 were a part of the group and luckily we didn’t have any medical issues,” said Prashant.
The group was fortunate to visit over 40 temples, three rivers – Narmada, Yamuna and Ganga – recite prayers and have an equal amount of fun.
The men walked in unison, as one community, and felt the pilgrimage empowering them with one true message of Lord Ram – build bridges of faith through this journey.