The woman knelt down at the entrance to the temple. At exactly the point where the concrete pattern changed, she took to her knees in her beautiful green silk sari.
She pressed her palms together in front of her chest and closed her eyes in a moment of intense inward focus and then she began shuffling forward. One knee at a time she moved herself toward the goddess temple on a hill.
Our group walked past her as we approached the temple upright and I leaned over to one of the Indian girls in our group to ask what was going on.
“Do you know what that woman is doing?” Priyanka asked the group, looking over towards the woman in green.
No, our confused expressions relayed.
Namrata explained that in the Hindu tradition if you ask for something from God you may promise to do something in return if he fulfills your request. She said this woman had her wish granted and probably told God she would walk to the top of the temple on her knees.
I glanced back at her, moving slowly next to a man standing beside her holding a baby wrapped in cloth. His role seemed to be mostly morally supportive as he didn’t offer her any physical assistance.
Up the first thirty stairs or so our group stepped underneath a small awning where one by one we bowed to a seated man who put pieces of puffed rice and sugar into our hands. As we circumambulated the rest of the small room clockwise, we popped the sweet treats into our mouths.
“It’s to give you the strength to climb up the rest of the stairs,” Sheetal said, smiling.
Up another forty or fifty steps, my mind was back with the woman in the green sari. I turned on the stairs and saw her now holding the baby as she tried to tackle the first few steps with it in hand. After only five steps she handed the baby back to the man, but with no less determination to continue onward.
Now out of view, we stepped inside the temple of the goddess of Pune and immediately smelled incense in the air. Past the entry room, we stood in a line for the shrine of the goddess where we were handed an information card about her and the same puffed rice, sugar combination as before.
Sweets in hand, we were ushered out a door and up a couple more steps to an overlook where we could see all of Pune while smelling the sweet scent of incense.
We breathed the fresh air for a few moments before descending back down where we passed the woman in green again.
Sheetal interrupted her shuffling for a moment to ask a question in Maranthi before turning to us.
“She’s climbing all the way to the top of the temple on her knees,” she confirmed.
ll hundred or so steps.
“I bet what she wished for was that baby boy in her arms,” someone mused.
Never before have I encountered such devotion. Sure, most religions and cultures include some sort of prayer or way of asking for things, but rarely do we go so far to convey our gratefulness when things turn out as we hope.
I hope the woman in green made it to the temple that day.
Home&Away 
Wow, what an incredible story. Visiting from YW
I wish I could have asked her in more detail what her story actually was. All we could do was speculate, but I think she really is an incredible woman for doing something like that.
This brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing.
So happy to share. It’s not something you often see in America so I was blown away by her devotion. It certainly does move you.
Amazing! I hope she made it too.
I wish we could have hung around a little longer to make sure she did!
If I could pray for faith I’d ask for faith like hers.
I love that sentiment and I absolutely agree.
I’ve lived in lots of areas of South America where it’s common for people to “pay back a promise”, as they say in Spanish, by walking on their knees to a temple or small church. Sometimes that temple is at the top of a mountain, and people arrive with bloody knees. That kind of devotion is certainly not common in North America.
Wow, thanks for sharing. I’ve never heard of this kind of thing before, but I’m excited to hear about it in other parts of the world too.
I wonder what it is about American history that keeps that kind of action out of religion for us.
Latin Americans (as well as Indians) have a lot of passion in just about everthing they do. Maybe that’s part of it.
powerful.
That is pretty amazing, and also interesting how it is amazing to us and probably ordinary to others. Very cool to experience such different perspectives in culture and religion – it can be a great lesson or reminder!
You’re right. It didn’t really take the Indian students with us off guard at all. Sometimes I try to see my own country as if I was visiting it from somewhere else–you are in awe of so much more that way!
Wow, that is inspiring. We take our blessings for granted here, and this is a great reminder to show our thanks. Wonderfully told.
Thanks, it was too beautiful a moment to just witness. I was truly inspired by her devotion. I know I’ll think of her each time I find myself taking something for granted.
What an incredible story. It makes me impatient to get to India someday…
Some of the cultural practices here are just mindblowing. I’ve only been here a few weeks so far, but I would definitely recommend making the trek out here =)
What an awesome scene to witness. Thank you for sharing!
Happy to! She is such an impressive woman.
That is an amazing story and well written. I agree that we need to be more appreciative of our blessings and this woman is a great example of gratitude.
It’s good to have a reminder sometimes and she certainly did the trick for me =)
So beautiful, and well-written. Thank you for sharing this story.
Thanks, I’m glad to see others are as moved by her practice as I was.
Hi. I happened to come across your blog and I find your experiences really fun to read especially because I am from Pune and now living in Boston.
Here is a link to an Indian commercial that will show you more about the extent to which India people can go to make something happen. You might find it bizarre but it is fairly common to us.
Yeah, I definitely got that impression by the end of my trip. Thanks so much for posting this video, it’s a perfect representation of what you’re talking about!
Glad to hear you find the articles interesting since you have experiences from both Pune and Boston as well.