Padh Yatra Reflections: Greatest Possiblity of the Journey

Contributor: Shashank Kalra

Dearest Dost,

Woo! What an experience it was. As I spent this day absorbing and making sense of what happened past 3 days - I can't help but feel extremely grateful, extremely overwhelmed. This I can easily say is the most of these things I have felt ever before in my life. The feedback on less challenge, more caution and the essence of Padh-yatra is received and this sharing is no way to reduce the significance of learning from mistakes we might have made -but this reflection and a bunch of them to come are to celebrate who we were and what we did given what happened :)

 

Didn't the wilderness come in us?​

I don't know how to begin this one, let me share a few moments out of numerous, that stood out to me as our greatest possibility of the journey: 

The moment when I saw Reema in the morning, all smiling - breathing effortlessly. Even when her nose was red with cold and she went through some of the toughest times the previous day. And all through yesterday how she couldn't stop smiling and waving!

The moment when we witnessed the front liners - Suraj, Arnav, Shivam - become the back-liners. Our guide (Tez Ji) told me that he was so surprised with Shivam that he led right from the front despite being a bit over-weight. I would say he not only learnt to lead from the front but also from the back, all in three days :)

The moment of fear and extreme awareness that I had as we sat under the rock just when the sun was setting down and cold breeze had affected us. I can clearly picture the snapshot in my mind as Neharika and me went to look for the way ahead and came back to the group struggling to be warm - hugging each other, wrapping shawls, blankets, towels and what not.

The moment when Priyanshi sat in Guruji's room after 10.30 pm having an effortless conversation with him, while holding Reema with such care. I was moved deeply to witness her highest potential showing up in the moment of extreme pain for the group.

The moment I stepped into the back room at about 8.45 pm - the chaos moved my center, my eyes welled up and I thought to myself - what's the whole point of doing this, when everybody has been challenged way way outside their comfort zone. Isn't this insane on my part? - I thought to myself - dropping a tear or two. It took me a few hours to witness the care embedded in that chaos.

Oh ghosh! Care manifested for me in the highest divinely form it can be. The culture of care we experienced in the last 3 days for me, is the biggest the grandest thing I am receiving. The culture of care, that did not leave any body behind, the culture of care that drew out the best in each, the culture of care that let each one be happy even as we went through the most dangerous time together.

The culture of care!

The heart breaking open into new possibilities! 

If I read back the email that was sent - I would say the idea was to dance on the edge of the circle of objectives of Padh-Yatra, of the bond that would hold everybody together. But this was a blow up - we were way outside the edge of that circle such that the edge was visible, no more. We went through several heart-breaks. When Neharika lost her calm with our guide as Shubhi struggled, when I reacted on Suraj, Suraj, Arnav and Shivam on our way up, when Divya Didi broke down saying she can't do it, or when Reebha and Nancy panicked looking at the rocks, or when Hardeep Bhaiya witnessed Reema's breathlessness. And many such moments were moments of heart-break. But the heart didn't break into pieces, rather it broke open to new possibilities. Wasn't Pad-Yatra'17 the greatest possibility of what we can be together? What does it take to regenerate the collective spirit and force that we were, into our other spaces? ​