By Narottama Dasa
This journey started with an intense eagerness to bring back enthusiasm, life and energy to our brahmacari ashram. So, my friend Mukharavinda Dasa and I decided to walk 654kilometers from the city of Johannesburg to the city of Durban in South Africa. We had never done anything like this before and we were not athletes, but the idea to raise funds to buy a sankirtana bus became the driving force behind our bravery. As part of our preparation to walk the 654kilometers, we practiced walking 47kilometers from Johannesburg to the city of Pretoria on weekends. We quickly realised during our practice walks that it would be unrealistic to walk 47 kilometres each day. So, we decreased the number of kilometres we would walk to 30 to 35 kilometres a day which brought the number of days we would be on the road to 18 days. We knew that the walk would be very challenging, but once we started, turning back would not be an option. Also, the prospects of being assisted to purchase a mini bus for our preaching and travelling sankirtana party was so encouraging and enlivening that little attention was paid to the fatigue and tiredness of the body and mind.