Viraja
Jaya Jagannatha!
Speaking of walking as means to convey one's devotion to his chosen deity (around holy hills, temple, etc), I am reminded of the parikrama or devotional practice of walking around Govardhan mountain that Krishna devotees perform.
It is extremely hard to do this parikrama, yet thousands are performing it every single day!
The entire Govardhan mountain is extremely huge/large. Devotees take a sack that is their height, lay it on the ground, lie down on it, stretch their arms above while lying down, and mark the spot their fingertips touch. Then they lay down the sack at this point for their next step and prostrate again and continue like this through out the entire stretch!
Yes, as you can imagine, one cannot accomplish this task in 1 day! To many, it is a year-long adventure. They just cover several miles like 5 or so in one day, then continue from the next week onward from the spot they left off the previous week. And they do it in the hot sun, throughout the day until the entire parikrama gets over!
It is extremely hard to do this parikrama, yet thousands are performing it every single day!
The entire Govardhan mountain is extremely huge/large. Devotees take a sack that is their height, lay it on the ground, lie down on it, stretch their arms above while lying down, and mark the spot their fingertips touch. Then they lay down the sack at this point for their next step and prostrate again and continue like this through out the entire stretch!
Yes, as you can imagine, one cannot accomplish this task in 1 day! To many, it is a year-long adventure. They just cover several miles like 5 or so in one day, then continue from the next week onward from the spot they left off the previous week. And they do it in the hot sun, throughout the day until the entire parikrama gets over!