What is the Wari? (Warkari Pilgrimage of Maharashtra)
You were taught about the European Renaissance, but not our own Indian spiritual revolution, called the Bhakti movement, and one of it’s biggest chapters was carried by the Warkari sect of Maharashtra.
So here's the tea!
Every year, for nearly three weeks leading up to Ashadi Ekadashi, when Vishnu goes into his 4-month cat nap, millions of devotees from every background and class walk to the holy city of Pandharpur, near Solapur, on the banks of the Bhima (called Chandrabhaga here).
They sing and dance all the way. This is the Wari: the periodic, vow-bound visit to greet the pookiest deity ever, who is Vitthal, Vithoba, Pandharinath, Vithu Mauli.
In the 13th century, our sacred Vedic and Puranic knowledge was locked away in Sanskrit, and social evils like casteism and untouchability were at an all-time high.
In response, a new movement bloomed. Sant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Namdev, Sant Eknath, Sant Tukaram, Bahinabai and Janabai, all coming from difficult backgrounds, not only translated scriptural wisdom into local Prakrit or early Marathi for the common reader, but also united & brought the masses together for daily spiritual practice.
They combined the sharp logic of non-dual Advaita Vedanta with the joy and community of devotion to a physical form.
Warkaris walk, mostly barefoot, from across the Deccan plateau in Dindis: small organised sub-groups with planned routes, halts, and the music of mridangas, veenas, chiplas and jhanjhas.
The tradition is centuries old and was systematised by Haibatrao Arphalkar in the early 1830s. All the Dindis converge at Pandharpur with the two big palkhis, Sant Dnyaneshwar's from Alandi and Sant Tukaram's from Dehu.
There, Vitthal stands on his brick, waiting to embrace every devotee, a place where only devotion matters & not your social identity.
Chanting "Ram Krishna Hari" and singing in circles, they create an electric, other-worldly aura that takes you into life-changing state of trance and bliss. So eeryone should experience it once in their life, it’s starting next in late June of 2027 so keep your cal free!
I'm introducing you to the underrated groups of Dharma,
"पुंडलिक वरदे हरि विठ्ठल!
श्री ज्ञानदेव तुकाराम!
पंढरीनाथ महाराज की जय!"