Keep Walking

It's a mere slogan for an alcoholic brew but it holds a world of meaning for the human race. Among all the things that have made us humans the most successful species, this one is the most under rated. Our ability to keep walking.

According to evolutionary biologists, we humans on two legs could not outrun almost all our prey but we could chase them at our walking speed until they tire. Like the proverbial tortoise, we walked our way to become the top predator.

Before we invented ships and rockets, we walked our way across continents. And when the first human landed on the moon, it was the small step that Armstrong took, that captured the imagination of the world.

Among religions, the Jains take walking very seriously. Their ascetics and nuns believe that walking is a form of meditation. It's when they walk that they think. Our master idea man Mahatma Gandhi also walked a lot. He called it a March, but his walk to Dandi with the people following him changed the history of our nation.

Even though we have invented wheels, look around us and we will see that walking still holds a very important place in society. It's probably embedded in our genes... the need to walk.

That's the reason, why thousands of people who walk every week to the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Central Mumbai. That's the reason there are groups of Sai Baba Devotees who walk from Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra to Shirdi. The Kavadi bearers who walk to Haridwar. The Ayyappa devotees who walk to Shabarimala.

So the next time you have a worry, or you need to think, walk and see difference. The destination is only an excuse.

Sai Baba devotees from Mumbai walking to Shirdi.